22nd Longwood University Summer Literacy Institute: July 23-24, 2026
Sponsored by the Department of Education and Counseling, Educational Leadership, Elementary Education, Reading Literacy and Learning, and School Librarianship.
Summer Literacy Institute
Barbara Stripling | Thursday Workshop Speaker
Barbara Stripling, Professor Emerita at Syracuse University, has held positions as a school librarian and 
district library director in Fayetteville, Arkansas; Library Power director in Chattanooga, Tennessee; and director of school libraries for New York City.
Past-president of the American Library Association, the American Association of School Librarians, the New York Library Association, and the Freedom to Read Foundation, Stripling created the Stripling Model of Inquiry and developed and published a re-imagined Empire State Information Fluency Continuum.
She has recently co-authored a book with Darryl Toerien on inquiry-based teaching and learning entitled Teaching Inquiry as Conversation: Bringing Wonder to Life. Her workshop will explore how literacy and inquiry go together.
Laurie Halse Anderson | Friday Author Speaker
Laurie Halse Anderson is the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award-winning and New York Times-bestselling
author whose writing spans young readers to adults. Her books have sold more than eight million copies. Two of her novels, Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists. Two more of her books, The Impossible Knife of Memory and Shout, were long-listed for the National Book Awards.
The American Library Association awarded her the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her significant contribution to young adult literature. She has been honored for her battles for intellectual freedom by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the National Council of Teachers of English.
Her newest book, published in 2025 by Simon & Schuster, is Rebellion 1776.
Wendy Wan-Lon Shang | Author Banquet Speaker
Wendy Wan-Long Shang is the author of numerous books featuring Chinese-American characters,
including The Great Wall of Lucy Wu, winner of the Asian Pacific-American Librarian Association award; The Secret Battle of Evan Pao, an ALA Notable Book and 2025-26 Virginia Readers Choice selection; and most recently, The Best Worst Summer of Esme Sun.
Wendy was the author of the 2022 American Girl books featuring the first Chinese-American Girl of the Year, Corinne. Her work has led to collaborations with Netflix, Disney, and American Girl.
Wendy lives in Falls Church, Virginia, with her husband, children, a cat, and a dog, and she has over a two-year streak on Duolingo.
Contacts
Information
SummerLiteracy@longwood.edu
Conference Chair
Dr. Carl A. Harvey II
harveyca@longwood.edu
Registration
Kandace McCabe
mccabeka@longwood.edu
Committee Members
Dr. Audrey Church
churchap@longwood.edu
Dr. Sarah Tanner-Anderson
tannerandersonsl@longwood.edu
Dr. Alecia Blackwood
blackwoodan@longwood.edu
Dr. Tammy Parlier
parliertm@longwood.edu
esbergersk@longwood.edu
