GPLF 2026
Now into our second year, we are thrilled to announce the 2026 Great Plains Literacy Festival will be held on April 22 & 23, 2026.
GPLF will feature five incredible authors and illustrators: Deborah Hopkinson, Melissa Iwai, Oge Mora, David Ezra Stein, and Lindsey Stoddard.
A native of Lowell, Massachusetts, Deborah Hopkinson is the award-winning author of seventy books for young readers including picture books, middle grade historical fiction, Little Golden Book biographies, and long form nonfiction.
Her titles have won the Oregon Book Award, the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, and the Green Earth Environmental Award. Other awards include a Sibert honor, a Carter G. Woodson honor, NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor, and Boston Globe/Horn Book honor.
Deborah’s new and forthcoming books include Only One, The Deadliest Fires Then and Now, Race Against Death: The Greatest POW Rescue of WWWII, Cinderella and a Mouse Called Fred, and Happy Earth Day! Deborah received a B.A. and a master’s degree from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and worked in academic advancement prior to writing full time. She lives in Oregon.
Deborah Hopkinson
She is an author and illustrator of children’s books, based in Brooklyn, NY. She has illustrated over 30 books and has even written and illustrated many of her own!
From the time she was a little kid, she wanted to write and illustrate children’s books. She used to staple paper together and make tiny books for her dolls.
She lives with her husband, Denis Markell (also a children’s book author), and teenage son in a teeny, tiny apartment. Her painting area and computer space do double duty.
You can learn more about her by following her on IG or head over to her website: www.melissaiwai.com
Melissa Iwai
Oge Mora is a collage artist and storyteller. Her picture book, Thank You, Omu!, was a Caldecott Honor, Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award winner, and Ezra Jack Keats Book Award recipient.
Her second book, Saturday won the 2020 Boston Globe—Horn Book Picture Book Award. Oge’s artwork has been applauded by The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe. She is also a 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Lister in Arts & Style.
Oge grew up in Columbus, Ohio but resides in Providence, RI. She is a fan of all things colorful, patterned, or collaged, and enjoys creating warm stories that celebrate people coming together.
You can learn more about Oge by following her on IG or visiting her website: www.ogemora.com
Oge Mora
Award winning author and illustrator David Ezra Stein was born in Brooklyn, NY. By the time he was three, he was asking adults, “Wanna come to my room? Read books?” This love of reading grew into a love of telling stories, and then, writing.
David Ezra Stein’s Interrupting Chicken was awarded a 2011 Caldecott Honor, as well as many state awards. His picture book Leaves won the Ezra Jack Keats award and was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, a Kirkus Reviews Editor’s Choice, and a School Library Journal Best Book. Booklist called his book Monster Hug! “a cousin to Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.” Pouch! (Putnam), was a 2010 Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book. His books have been translated into Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Catalan, Dutch, French, and Finnish.
David lives in Kew Gardens, NY with his wife and two children, and a rabbit named Bun Bun.
David Ezra Stein
Lindsey Stoddard is a Vermont-born and raised author of beloved middle-grade novels including Just Like Jackie, Right as Rain, Brave Like That, Bea Is for Blended, and The Real Deal.
Growing up amidst snowy mountains and sugarhouses, Lindsey discovered her lifelong love of reading and storytelling early on. After college she moved to New York City, where she spent a decade teaching middle school English in Washington Heights — an experience that deepened her passion for stories about young people finding courage and belonging.
She holds an MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Today she lives back in Vermont with her husband and two children, where she continues to write heartfelt stories that celebrate family, resilience, and the joys (and challenges) of growing up.