2022 Keynote Speakers

Jeff Zentner is the author of NewYorkTimes Notable Book The Serpent King, Goodbye Days, Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee, and In the Wild Light. Among other honors, he has won the ALA’s William C. Morris Award, the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award, the International Literacy Association Award, and the Westchester Fiction Award. He’s a three-time Carnegie Medal nominee, a two-time Southern Book Prize finalist, and was a finalist for the Indies Choice Award. He was selected as a Publishers Weekly Flying Start and an Indies Introduce pick. His books have been translated into fifteen languages. Before becoming a writer, he was a musician who recorded with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, and Debbie Harry. He lives in Nashville.

Tabatha Rosproy is the 2020 National Teacher of the Year and a preschool teacher with the Winfield Early Learning Center, where children learn alongside volunteer grandparents from a local retirement community and nursing home. Tabatha holds a Bachelor of Arts in unified early childhood education, including special education and typically developing students, from Southwestern College and is near completion of her Master of Science in education (English as a Secondary or Other Language) at Fort Hays State University. She enjoys reading, dancing, gardening, and spending time with loved ones. She lives in Winfield, Kansas, with her husband, Tim, and their cats, Mr. Darcy, Beak, Beezus, and Frankenstein.