Dr. Annette Y. Goldsmith is an international youth literature specialist who has taught graduate classes in children’s and young adult literature and storytelling, most recently for the University of Washington Information School. Annette is the lead editor, along with Theo Heras and Susan Corapi, of Reading the World’s Stories: An Annotated Bibliography of International Youth Literature (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). She is thrilled to be on the GLLI Advisory Board and serve as Chair of the 2020 GLLI Translated YA Book Prize committee.

Gene Hayworth is the director of Social Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, a translator and author, and publisher of Owl Canyon Press. His translations, published by Haus Publishing and distributed by the University of Chicago Press, include  Black Earth by Jens Mühling (forthcoming), Turkey Rediscovered: A Land Between Tradition And Modernity by Klaus Reichert (2016), and A Journey into Russia by Jens Mühling (2015).

Dr. Kim Rostan, originally from Valdese, NC, is Associate Professor of English at Wofford College. Her research areas include world literature, African literature, and representations of truth commissions and collective atrocity.

 

Former school librarian Laura Simeon is the Young Adult Editor at Kirkus Reviews. She did research in Sweden on diverse picture books and co-chairs the U.S. Selection Committee for the UWCs, international secondary schools dedicated to cross-cultural understanding and promoting a peaceful and sustainable future. Laura will serve on the jury for the 2020-2021 Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Awards for Lifetime Achievement

Elaine Tai is an Adult Services Librarian at Burlingame Public Library, with a personal love of youth literature and a strong interest in the subjects of lifelong learning and equity in libraries. She was a business major at UC Berkeley and has an MLIS from San Jose State University and has a varied work history in retail, independent bookstores, academic libraries, and public libraries. The need for further representation of voices in publishing, schools, and libraries is of great concern, and she is honored to be part of this committee and jury.