Thanks to everyone for the many emails, notes, and phone calls about the ALAN workshop. You are very kind, and I appreciate all of the compliments. The truth is, I didn’t do it alone. The workshop is the cumulative effect of dozens of people working together: The ALAN Board, a group of consultants, presenters, authors, panel chairs, publishers, NCTE staff, the local San Antonio host committee, and the Marriott staff. Include also, the almost 500 people who paid for the workshop and gave us a reason to have it.
The tragedy of being ALAN president is that once you’ve made all the contacts, created the program, arraigned all of the books, the speakers, the AV, the chairs, the awards, the committee, the breakfasts, etc. and analyzed what you could have done better, your job is finished. It’s time to pass the gavel to the next president in line. It has been a good year for me, and I am thankful for it.
As Laurie Halse Anderson whispered to me after she received the ALAN Award, Isn’t this a wonderful life we get to live?
Yes, ma’am, it is.
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