Join Jamaican American author Nicola Yoon as she discusses her life and career as the San Francisco Public Library's 26th Annual Effie Lee Morris Lecturer. Yoon is the author of the magical young adult love story The Sun Is Also a Star, made into a popular 2019 film. She has also written the acclaimed Everything, Everything, which was filmed in 2017. In 2021, she published her newest title, Instructions for Dancing. She is a National Book Award finalist, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book recipient, and a Coretta Scott King New Talent Award winner. She is also the first Black female author to reach #1 on The New York Times Young Adult bestseller list. Yoon joins us virtually from her home in Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband, David Yoon, who is also a young adult author, and their daughter. She believes in love. Really, truly. 

Born in Jamaica, Nicola Yoon immigrated to New York City at age 11. Her talk will focus on the rich diversity, and the challenges, of the immigrant experience, as seen through her own and her characters’ lenses. She will appear in conversation with Bay Area author Maggie Tokuda-Hall and SFPL teen librarian Connie Lin.

This event is sponsored by the Main Children's Center and the African American Center, in partnership with the Friends of the SF Public Library and the Women's National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter. 

The Effie Lee Morris Lecture Series honors the values embodied by Effie Lee Morris (1921 – 2009), the first SFPL coordinator of children’s services, the first Black president of the Public Library Association and the founder in 1968 of the San Francisco chapter of the Women’s National Book Association. Morris was a tireless champion of diversity, inclusivity and the rights of all young people to read, learn and create. The WNBA partnered with the Library to establish this lecture series, and continues to support women and marginalized voices in the literary world.

This year, the WNBA offers a free signed copy of one of Nicola Yoon’s novels to the first 25 Bay Area middle or high school students to submit an original work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry of at least 250 words by July 1, 2022. Selected submissions will be published on the WNBA’s website.

This virtual program is offered as a one-time event only by agreement with the presenter(s). For other outstanding programs in this series, visit the Library's YouTube channel. 

Connect 

Nicola Yoon - Website | Nicola Yoon - Instagram | Nicola Yoon - Twitter