Webinar Series

Tuesday, September 15, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. (CT)

Rob Macaisa Colgate is the author of the poetry collection Hardly Creatures (2025), winner of the Chicago Review of Books Award and longlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, and the verse drama My Love is Water (2025). Currently based in Chicago, he serves as managing poetry editor of Foglifter Journal and was the inaugural poet-in-residence at Tangled Art + Disability. A graduate of the New Writers Project at University of Texas at Austin, he is a recipient of fellowships from Creative Capital, the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, and Fulbright.

Join professionals from across Macmillan for a session that offers an inside look at the publishing industry and the many career paths it offers. Representatives from a variety of departments—including editorial, marketing, publicity, sales, design, production, and more—will share insights about their work, discuss what employers look for in candidates, and offer practical advice on breaking into the industry. The session will also highlight Macmillan’s internship program as a valuable pathway into publishing. Following the presentation, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions during a live Q&A.

Tuesday, October 13, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. (CT)

Dashka Slater is a New York Times-bestselling author whose work spans journalism, adult fiction, and children’s literature. Her books have been translated into more than fifteen languages and have sold over a million copies worldwide. Among her many honors are the 2024 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for Accountable and the Stonewall Book Award for The 57 Bus, which was also named one of Time’s 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, she teaches in the MFA in Writing for Young Readers program at University of San Francisco.

In English Majors at Work: Career and Life Pathways, Helene Meyers challenges assumptions about the value of an English degree by highlighting the professional “superpowers” developed through the study of literature, creative writing, film, and popular culture. This webinar combines practical guidance on internships, networking, and graduate school. Meyers is an accomplished scholar whose work explores feminism, antisemitism, queer studies, literature, and film. A widely published author and commentator, she brings both academic expertise and real-world insight to this webinar.

Tuesday, November 17, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. (CT)

Maulik Pancholy is an American actor and author best known for roles including Jonathan on 30 Rock, Baljeet in Phineas and Ferb, and Sanjay Patel in both Weeds and Sanjay and Craig. He is also the author of the award-winning middle grade novels The Best at It, a 2020 Stonewall Honor Book, and Nikhil Out Loud, which won the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for Middle Grade Literature.

Tuesday, December 15, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. (CT)

Kristin Hannah is the bestselling author of more than twenty novels, including The Nightingale, winner of the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction and the People’s Choice Award for Best Fiction, as well as The Great Alone and The Four Winds, both major New York Times bestsellers. Several of her works have been adapted for screen, including Firefly Lane, starring Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke, while film adaptations of The Nightingale and The Great Alone are in development.

Tuesday, January 26, 2027, at 6:00 p.m. (CT)

Devoney Looser is Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University, a Guggenheim Fellow, and an NEH Public Scholar. She is the author or editor of twelve books, including Wild for Austen, Sister Novelists, and The Making of Jane Austen. Her essays have appeared in publications including The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, and she has discussed Jane Austen on CNN. She lives and works in Arizona, where she teaches women’s writing and the history of the novel, and skates in roller derby under the name “Stone Cold Jane Austen.”

Tuesday, February 23, 2027, at 6:00 p.m. (CT)

Donika Kelly is the author of the poetry collections The Natural Order of Things, The Renunciations, winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and Bestiary, which won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Her work has been finalists for the National Book Critics Circle, Lambda Literary, and Publishing Triangle awards and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The Paris Review. A Cave Canem graduate fellow, NEA fellow, and Pushcart Prize winner, she teaches in the English Department at University of Iowa.

Tuesday, April 13, 2027, at 6:00 p.m. (CT)

Judith Butler is a feminist and queer theorist whose work has profoundly influenced philosophy, literary theory, feminist studies, and queer theory. Best known for Who’s Afraid of Gender?, Gender Trouble, and Bodies That Matter, Butler developed the influential theory of gender performativity, reshaping contemporary understandings of gender and identity. They are the Maxine Elliot Professor in the Departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature at University of California, Berkeley, where they also hold the Hannah Arendt Chair at the European Graduate School. Butler has written and spoken extensively on ethics, nonviolence, democracy, and LGBTQIA+ rights.

Tuesday, May 18, 2027, at 6:00 p.m. (CT)

Trung Le Nguyen is a Vietnamese American cartoonist, artist, and writer from Minnesota. His debut graphic novel, The Magic Fish, was published in 2020 by Random House Graphic and received widespread critical acclaim. In addition to his original work, he has contributed as both an author and artist for publishers including DC Comics, Marvel, Image Comics, Oni Press, and Boom! Studios. His work has earned nominations for the Eisner, Angoulême, and GLAAD awards, along with two Harvey Awards and a Romics award.

Ruta Sepetys‘ session illuminates her research process and human stories behind the hidden history included in Salt to the Sea and The Bletchley Riddle.

A global bestseller, Bonnie Garmus’ novel, Lessons in Chemistry, features an unforgettable protagonist defying 1950s norms. Bonnie’s conversation on feminism, science, and subverting expectations.

TJ Klune brings heart and humor to a tender tale of grief, found family, and the afterlife in Under the Whispering Door. His webinar with student members and Chapter Advisors centers on hope, queer joy, and writing with compassion.

Samira Ahmed offers a discussion of, Internment, a searing YA novel about resistance in dystopian America. Her session addresses activism in fiction, historical echoes, and empowering youth through literature.

Pulitzer Prize winner James Ijames reimagines Hamlet with Southern flair and bold queerness in Fat Ham. This unique opportunity allows members to explore drama, adaptation, and writing for the stage with an expert in his field.

Gabrielle Zevin, author of the New York Times bestseller, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, talks about collaboration, ambition, and identity and discuss her text in terms of friendship, creativity, and video games as art.

Angie Cruz, joins us to discuss her acclaimed novel, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, a timely meditation on resilience and reinvention. Her discussion explores voice, structure, and the power of storytelling as social witness.

Marguerite Sheffer, whose short story collection, The Man in the Banana Trees, was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection, explores identity and belonging through richly layered narratives.

Jessica Lander is a teacher, author, and advocate who teaches history and civics to recent immigrant students in a Massachusetts public high school. She is the author of Making Americans: Stories of Historic Struggles, New Ideas, and Inspiration in Immigrant Education. Her webinar takes a deep look at immigrant education and telling stories of American identity.

Bradley Sides is the author of two short story collections, Those Fantastic Lives and Crocodile Tears Didn’t Cause the Flood. He talks about weird fiction, writing reviews, and why he was selected to participate in Lit Hub’s “Secrets of the Book Critics.”

Paullett Golden writes Historical Romances, including A Spark of Romance, that give voice to the outliers and survivors, the wallflowers and overshadowed. Her webinar focuses on research techniques, Georgian life, and the pros and cons of self-publishing.

Aneesa Marufu lives in Manchester, UK, and was the winner of the Kimberley Chambers Kickstart Prize for underrepresented writers in 2019. The Balloon Thief and An Emerald Sky are a fantasy duology inspired by her South Asian heritage and her obsession with hot air balloons. She talks about her inspiration, her work writing video games, and what it’s like to break through as a writer.

Jesmyn Ward has received the MacArthur Genius Grant, a Stegner Fellowship, a John and Renee Grisham Writers Residency, the Strauss Living Prize, and the 2022 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. She is the historic winner—first woman and first Black American—of two National Book Awards for Fiction for Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) and Salvage the Bones (2011).

Check out the Book Club Kit that accompanies this webinar.

E. P. Tuazon is a Filipino American writer from Los Angeles. They have work included in several publications such as The Rumpus, Lunch Ticket, Peatsmoke, and Five South. A Professional Lola was chosen by ZZ Packer as the winner of the 2022 AWP Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction.

Ada Limón is the author of six books of poetry, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Her most recent book of poetry, The Hurting Kind, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. She is the 24th Poet Laureate of The United States, the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, and a TIME magazine woman of the year.

Kayte Nunn is a former book and magazine editor, and the author of six previous novels, including the international bestselling The Botanist’s Daughter, The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant, The Silk House and The Last Reunion. The Botanist’s Daughter was the 2020 winner of the Winston Graham Historical Fiction Prize.

The National Day on Writing, sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), takes place on October 20 each year and is a wonderful opportunity for Chapter Advisors and student members to share their knowledge about writing, organize events in their schools and communities, and transform the public’s understanding of writing and the important role it plays in society today.