The 2026 Zena Sutherland Lecture

Friday, 1 May 2026; 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Registration for the Zoom based leture is now open.

The University of Chicago’s Lab School’s website honors Zena Sutherland by reminding readers that “Professor Zena Sutherland was among the world’s most influential and prolific scholars of young people’s literature. She wrote nineteen books and reviewed more than 30,000 children’s books over the course of more than forty years as a critic.”

University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and Chicago Public Library also celebrate her legacy with the annual Zena Sutherland Lecture. Past lecturers for have included Zetta Elliott, Yuyi Morales, John Green, Meg Medina, Rita Williams Garcia, and Linda Sue Park.

The 43rd annual lecture will be presented by best-selling and award-winning author and illustrator Jerry Craft.

Jerry Craft is the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of the graphic novels New Kid, Class Act, and School Trip.  New Kid was the first graphic novel awarded the John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature (2020). It also earned the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature (2019), and the Coretta Scott King Author Award for the most outstanding work by an African American writer (2020).

Jerry was born in Harlem and grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City. He now travels the world telling young people and their families about the importance of reading.

Craft is a cofounder of the Schomburg Center’s Annual Black Comic Book Festival.

Next year’s lecturer will be announced at the end of Craft’s talk.

If you have questions or comments about Sutherland lectures, email CPLkids@chipublib.org.

Filed under: Awards