Introducing the Congress 2026 Keynote Speakers

We are honoured and delighted to introduce to you our six exciting keynote speakers: Evelyn Arizpe, Hasmig Chahinian, Khodi Dill, Fikile Nxumalo, David A. Robertson, and Sydney Smith.

We look forward to welcoming the world of children’s books to Canada with over 350 national and international IBBY friends and colleagues visiting Ottawa, Canada’s national capital, for four days of connection, culture, celebration—and exploration of the Congress theme of “Listening to Each Other’s Voices.”

Keynote Speaker: Evelyn Arizpe

‘Las voces de les otres’: Listening through Words and Pictures in Latin American Critical Contexts of Displacement

With Latin America facing the challenges of the large, forced mobilisations, in 2024, The Centre for the Promotion of Books in Latin America and Caribbean (CERLALC), an intergovernmental organization sponsored by UNESCO, launched a regional strategy focused on reading, writing, and orality. Rutas de la palabra y la vida is intended to support migrant populations through public library systems in Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Colombia. This keynote talk will discuss the aspects of the project that involve mediators working with children’s literature and arts-based methods and especially the potential of picturebooks for relationality, inclusion, and listening to each other’s voices.

Evelyn Arizpe is Professor of Children’s Literature at the School of Education, University of Glasgow and the Programme Lead for the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s programme, “Children’s Literature, Media and Cultural Entrepreneurship.” She has taught and published widely on topics related to children’s literature, especially picturebooks and young readers, and has co-authored, among other publications, Children Reading Picturebooks: Interpreting Visual Texts (2003/2016/2023). Her research examines the role of books for children alongside themes of displacement, conflict, and peacebuilding. Evelyn was President of the International Research Society on Children’s Literature (IRSCL) (2019-2023) and was on the jury for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2022 and 2024. 

Keynote Speaker: Hasmig Chahinian

Children’s Literature as a Welcoming Space for World Languages

Whether as windows onto the world or reflections of intimate experiences, children’s books help shape readers’ identities and structure their vision of the world. Children’s literature can offer a space for interaction with the various languages and cultures of the world, where children would also find their own languages and cultures. But is this vision of a unifying, respectful, and egalitarian children’s literature realistic? In a globalized book industry, what are the issues surrounding the place of languages and cultures from abroad? And how can we offer alternative perspectives to today’s readers, the future citizens of tomorrow’s world? 

Hasmig Chahinian is in charge of IBBY France at the National Centre for Children’s Literature at the French National Library. She has been a member of IBBY’s executive committee for many years, taking on various roles, and is currently serving as treasurer. With her Armenian, Lebanese, and French heritage, Hasmig has a strong interest in multicultural identity and languages; she runs training courses and publishes articles on the subject. Her doctoral thesis focused on the relationship between Armenian children’s reading and the formation of their identity. Hasmig founded the “Kotot” publishing house to offer quality books in Armenian for children.

Photo Credit: François Khandzian

Keynote Speaker: Khodi Dill

Black Ink: Exploring the Power and Potential of Lit-Hop

Canadian author, educator, emcee, and spoken-word artist Khodi Dill will focus this presentation on the immense potential that lies within spoken word and hip-hop as underrepresented and untapped literary forms for young people. These powerful and historically Black genres have the power to change lives, inspire movements, and overcome injustice, for the benefit of people of all identities. The late great Nikki Giovanni spoke about the “Black ink” of rap music and other genres as a part of the canon of world literature. In her words, “Black Lives Matter. Black Ink reminds us of why.”

Khodi Dill is an author, anti-racism educator, spoken-word artist, and emcee from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. His work focuses on themes of social justice, Black identity, hip-hop, and joy. Well known for his picture books Welcome to the Cypher and Little Black Lives Matter, his latest publication is a non-fiction book for young adults titled stay up: racism, resistance, and reclaiming Black freedom (Annick Press). For more on Khodi, visit thegreygriot.com or follow @KhodiDill on social media.

Photo credit: Carly Brown Photography

Keynote Speaker: Fikile Nxumalo

(Re)storying Intergenerational Encounters with Climate Action

This presentation engages with narrative and visual stories that emerged from climate justice research with lands, children, families, elders, and teachers in a rural Eswatini community. The stories brought forward emerged from children’s land-based and classroom encounters with the effects of climate change in their community, from intergenerational dialogues on revitalizing Indigenous foods, and as children, families, and community members worked with the land to build an Indigenous food garden.This storytelling is anchored in situated understandings of relationality that interconnect the stories I share whilst thinking carefully about how stories can be shared, inviting opacity as a generative way to research with Indigenous and traditional communities, knowledges, and lands. 

Dr. Fikile Nxumalo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching & Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, where she directs the Childhood Place Pedagogy Lab and is also affiliated faculty in the School of the Environment and the School of Cities. Fikile is the author of over sixty scholarly publications, including her book Decolonizing Place in Early Childhood Education (Routledge, 2019). Her work seeks to make conceptual, methodological, curricular, and pedagogical contributions in disrupting colonial erasures, anti-Blackness, and anthropocentrism in education, particularly within current conditions of socio-ecological precarity.

Keynote Speaker: David A. Robertson

Representation Matters

Representation is an element of reconciliation – the path Indigenous and non-Indigenous are walking towards to heal a broken relationship caused by the impacts of colonialism. Representation in young people’s literature, art, and popular culture is about how we see ourselves and how we see each other. It is about how, in the ways we have been conditioned to perceive, the impacts can be positive or negative, with profound impacts in either outcome. But representation does not stop at how people of colour and marginalized groups are depicted and the ramifications of those depictions; it extends to other areas, including the life-saving normalization of mental health rather than mental illness for youth and the presence of diverse voices in real life that shatters stereotypes and writes a new story of empowerment, hope, healing, and stronger communities. 

 David A. Robertson is a two-time winner of Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award and has won the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and the Writer’s Union of Canada Freedom to Read award. He has been named the Globe and Mail Children’s Storyteller of the Year and was honoured with a Doctor of Letters by the University of Manitoba in 2023 for outstanding contributions to the arts and distinguished achievements. He is IBBY Canada’s nominee for the 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writer. He has received several other accolades for his work as a writer for children and adults, podcaster, public speaker, and social advocate. He is a member of Norway House Cree Nation and lives in Winnipeg.

Photo credit: Amber Green

Keynote Speaker: Sydney Smith

Sharing Stories: The Power of Picture Books to Transcend

Author and illustrator, Sydney Smith discusses the power and potential of books to connect readers, engage empathy, and explore complicated emotions. The seemingly simple medium involving the aggregation of text and image is greater than its parts. It has the ability to address the human experience, peer into the sublime and, through awe, inspire generosity and an empathetic perspective on the world we share. Picture books, at their core, speak both to a wide audience and to the individual. It is an intrinsic element of the parent/child bond and reflects the human experience that connects all readers from young to old regardless of potential demographic and cultural divides.

Sydney Smith is the award-winning author and illustrator of Small in the City and Do you Remember? as well as the illustrator of I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott, Town Is by the Sea by Joanne Schwartz, and Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson, among others. Sydney has received multiple awards, including New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books Awards, two Carnegie Illustration Awards, and the 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustrator, internationally recognizing his contribution to books for children. Sydney currently lives by the sea in Nova Scotia, Canada with his wife and children.

Photo credit: Steve Farmer

We hope you are inspired to join us at the 40th IBBY World Congress! Registration is open!