2017 Chase Lecture
Melissa Sweet has illustrated many award-winning books, including two Caldecott Honor books: A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams and The Right Word: Peter Mark Roget and His Thesaurus, both by Jen Bryant. She wrote and illustrated Carmine: A Little More Red, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book, and Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade, which garnered a Sibert Medal.
Melissa’s first chapter book biography, Some Writer!: The Story of E. B. White, came out in 2016. She lives in Maine.
Previous Chase Lecture Speakers:
| 1980 Marguerite Henry | 1992 Katherine Paterson | 2004 Avi | 2016 Peter Brown |
| 1981 Arnold Lobel | 1993 Mary Stolz | 2005 Richard Peck | 2017 Melissa Sweet |
| 1982 Natalie Babbitt | 1994 Paul Fleischman | 2006 Barry Moser | |
| 1983 Tomie De Paola | 1995 Patricia MacLachlan | 2007 Emily Arnold McCully | |
| 1984 Jean Fritz | 1996 Lois Ehlert | 2008 Paul B. Janeczko | |
| 1985 Ashley Bryan | 1997 Lois Lowry | 2009 Chris Raschka | |
| 1986 Jean Craighead George | 1998 James Ransome | 2010 Gary Schmidt | |
| 1987 Trina Schart Hyman | 1999 James Cross Giblin | 2011 Jerry Pinkney | |
| 1988 Sid Fleischman | 2000 Lee Bennett Hopkins | 2012 Sy Montgomery | |
| 1989 Myra Cohn Livingston | 2001 Janet Stevens | 2013 Marilyn Nelson | |
| 1990 Donald Crews | 2002 Karla Kuskin | 2014 Jane Yolen | |
| 1991 Nancy Larrick | 2003 Lisa Westberg Peters and Lauren Stringer | 2015 Jon Scieszka |
