The Public Library Section of KLA is pleased to announce that Clare Vanderpool, winner of the 2011 Newbery Medal for her book Moon over Manifest, is speaking at the Kansas Library Conference in Wichita.  Vanderpool has also been declared the Distinguished Kansan for literary arts!

A bit about Clare from her Web site:

If you ask anyone who knows me, they will tell you that I have a very strong connection to place. I live in Wichita, Kansas, about four blocks from where I grew up, in an old neighborhood called College Hill. From my house I can walk to my parents’ house, my sister’s house, the school I went to and where my kids go now, the pool, the sledding hill, and two bookstores!