Small Press Expo Programming Announced

The Small Press Expo is in two weeks! This comic festival is focused on creators and publishers of independent comics. It’s the largest such show in the US, and it’s always a high point of the convention year. It will be held in Bethesda, Maryland (a suburb of Washington, D.C.) on Saturday, September 16, and Sunday, September 17.

Here’s the list of special guests, and here’s the programming schedule. High points include

• a celebration of Koyama Press’ 10th anniversary
• a discussion on “the role and responsibility of being a political cartoonist in a time when the freedom of the press is under attack”
• appearances by Gilbert Hernandez
• panels on creating comic biography, autobiography with humor, and motherhood memoirs
• a couple of panels on science fiction as a way to explore unusual ideas

As usual, I will be there, and this year, I will be honored to moderate “Reading Without Walls”, a conversation with Gene Luen Yang about him being named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and his initiative to encourage students and teachers to “explore books of diverse voices, genres, and formats”. It’s Sunday at 3 PM and I hope to see you there!