We are just 4 months away from the 2023 OELMA Conference: Diverse Libraries Paint Bright Futures. We are thrilled to announce one of our keynote speakers, Jasmine Warga. Jasmine will be the keynote speaker on Thursday October 5. In addition, Jasmine will have a regular session where she will be on a panel with an Ohio author.

-Conference Committee Chair, Kate Darnell

Well-known for her middle-grade novels Other Words for Home, The Shape of Thunder, and A Rover’s Story, Jasmine also authored a YA gem, My Heart and Other Black Holes.My Heart and Other Black Holes takes a heartbreaking look at suicide and the hope that can come with just one other human connection. Teens in my library who read books like Girl in Pieces  by Kathleen Glasgow and The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith were drawn to Warga’s book. 

-Director of Communications, Amanda Brasfield 

OELMA welcomes Jasmine Warga as a keynote presenter to our 2023 OELMA Conference! 

Jasmine Warga’s provided bio:

Jasmine Warga is the New York Times-bestselling author of middle grade novels Other Words For Home, The Shape of Thunder, and A Rover’s Story. Other Words For Home earned multiple awards, including a John Newbery Honor, a Walter Honor for Young Readers, and a Charlotte Huck Honor. The Shape of Thunder was a School Library Journal and Bank Street best book of the year, a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Children's and YA Book Award, and has been named to several state award reading lists. A Rover’s Story, her latest novel, was an instant New York Times bestseller, a Indie Next List and a Junior Library Guild selection, and was named a best book of the year by Publishers Weekly  and The Washington Post. She is also the author of young adult novel, My Heart and Other Black Holes, which has been translated into over twenty different languages. Jasmine currently teaches in the MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Originally from Cincinnati, she now lives in the Chicago-area with her family in a house filled with books.

More information about Jasmine can be found at her website: http://jasminewarga.com/

Click below to watch a special video from Jasmine Warga to OELMA! 

Warga.MOV