Join us as we kick off the 2026 Annual Conference with our opening keynote speaker, Kelly Jensen! Kelly is a Senior Editor at Book Riot, the largest independent book website in North America. She covers all things young adult literature and has written about censorship for over 10 years. She is the author of three critically-acclaimed and award-winning anthologies for young adults, including (Don't) Call Me Crazy, which won a Schneider Family Book Award honor and Body Talk, which has been banned in several school districts across the country. In 2024, she was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker for her anti-censorship work. She earned similar recognition for her work in 2022, when she was named a person of the year from Publishers Weekly and a Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune. She has twice earned commendation from the American Association of School Librarians for her anti-censorship work. Prior to her work at Book Riot, Kelly was a public librarian for children, teens, and adults in several libraries in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin.
