In a little more than a week, the Youth Media Awards will be announced in Chicago. It’s sad that there won’t be a Midwinter conference through the American Library Association to go along with it, but as the organization continues to shift, it was a necessary change that does damper (just a little) the swagger of the awards announcements that range from the Caldecott to Sibert, Odyssey to Excellence in Nonfiction.

This past Thursday, I was honored to moderate for the third year in a row, the School Library Journal webcast highlighting the five finalists for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award which includes Ann Bausum, Nicholas Day, Candace Fleming, Gail Jarrow, and Barb Rosenstock.

Anyone can view the recorded webcast by signing up here. I took notes while I was moderating because there were plenty of morsels from each of them regarding their curiosity, their research, and their process that could help any would-be writer or educators wanting to share the love of nonfiction. And after watching the webcast, make sure you’ve read all five of these gems talking about topics like presidential medical coverups, the Fox sisters (known as the creators of the modern seance), Southern reconstruction, Mount Tambora’s explosion, and Jim Jones’s The People’s Temple.

We’ll all be watching on Monday, January 26th!