PYI 2025 SESSIONS & SPEAKERS  

OPENING KEYNOTE
With Child-Like Wonder: Curiosity as a Key to Creativity – JEAN E. PENDZIWOL

• Breaking in Panel – MATTEO L. CERILLI, EDDIE KAWOOYA, CALYSSA ERB, JANE BLONDIE (moderator)
• Settings that Transform Character – PAUL COCCIA
• From Concept to Composition: The Power of Graphic Design in Illustration – JULIEN CHUNG
• Working Apart, Creating Together: How Authors and Illustrators Can Collaborate Effectively – KELLY COLLIER & NASEEM HRAB 
• No Risk, No Story: Pushing the Boundaries in Your Writing Practice – HEATHER SMITH
• Asking the Right Questions: Developing Your Non-Fiction Manuscript – MARY BETH LEATHERDALE
• If You Go Down to the Woods Today: Breathing Life into Setting – JEAN E. PENDZIWOL
• Dialogue and Beyond: Creating Compelling Voice – CAROLINE PIGNAT
• How to Make Friends with an Art Director – JOHN MARTZ         
• Publishing Panel – KAREN BOERSMA, JORDAN RYDER, GAYNA THEOPHILUS, HADLEY DYER (moderator)
• Writing Action! – LORNA SCHULTZ-NICHOLSON
• Look, and Look Again – CHARLENE CHUA

CLOSING KEYNOTE

Writing from the Shadows – MARSHA SKRYPUCH  (The Claire Mackay Memorial Lecture is sponsored annually by the Peter and Eleanor Daniels Charitable Foundation)

ONE-TO-ONE EVALUATIONS @ PYI 2026

MORE INFO TO COME WHEN REGISTRATION OPENS IN JULY!

For an additional $85, you can add a One-to-One to your PYI IN PERSON 2026 registration or to your PYI LIVESTREAM 2026 registration.  A One-to-One is a 15-minute  meeting with a publishing professional who has evaluated 1,000 words of your manuscript, or 10 images in your online illustration portfolio.  One-to-Ones are verbal evaluations without written notes.

Attendees of PYI IN PERSON 2026 participate in their One-to-One meetings at the PYI conference venue at the end of the PYI day on Saturday October 24.  The meeting times are scheduled between 5:00 and 8:30pm ET.  

Attendees of the new PYI LIVESTREAM 2026 participate in their One-to-One meetings via Zoom. The meetings are held two weeks after the conference date, on Saturday November 7, with times scheduled between 2:00 and 5:00pm ET.  

PYI 2025 ONE-TO-ONE EVALUATORS

WRITING EVALUATIONS:

Margot Blankier (Tundra Book Group)

Hadley Dyer (Annick Press)

Erin Haggett (Scholastic Canada)

Khary Mathurin (Annick Press)

Peter Phillips, Tundra Book Group

Jordan Ryder (Second Story Press)

Emma Sakamoto (Groundwood Books)

Jennifer Stokes (OwlKids Books)

Gayna Theophilus (Annick Press)

Yasemin Uçar (Kids Can Press)

ILLUSTRATION EVALUATIONS:

Yvonne Lam (Scholastic Canada)

Sophie Paas-Lang (Tundra Book Group)