Award-winning author Lesa Cline-Ransome will speak about challenges and obstacles she has faced as a writer, her process in choosing the topics and people for her books, and how the past informs the present. Cline-Ransome is the acclaimed author of numerous award-winning picture books and middle grade novels as well as titles that uncover hidden stories from American history. Her debut middle grade novel, Finding Langston, was the 2019 winner of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction and received the Coretta Scott King Award Author Honor.

Words Take Wing, an annual event presented by the UC Davis School of Education, honors diversity in children’s literature, and brings an author to local audiences, including an author in residence program for education students and a matinee for local students, and culminates with an evening presentation for the general public.