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
1981 Arnold Lobel
1982 Natalie Babbitt
1983 Tomie dePaola
1984 Jean Fritz
1985 Ashley Bryan
1986 Jean Craighead George
1987 Trina Schart Hyman
1988 Sid Fleischman
1989 Myra Cohn Livingston
1990 Donald Crews
1991 Nancy Larrick
1992 Katherine Paterson
1993 Mary Stolz
1994 Paul Fleischman
1995 Patricia MacLachlan
1996 Lois Ehlert
1997 Lois Lowry
1998 James Ransome
1999 James Cross Giblin
2000 Lee Bennett Hopkins
2001 Janet Stevens
2002 Karla Kuskin
2003 Lisa Westberg Peters and Lauren Stringer
2004 Avi
2005 Richard Peck
2006 Barry Moser
2007 Emily Arnold McCully
2008 Paul B. Janeczko
2009 Chris Raschka
2010 Gary Schmidt
2011 Jerry Pinkney
2012 Sy Montomery
2013 Marilyn Nelson
2014 Jane Yolen
2015 Jon Scieszka
2016 Peter Brown
2017 Melissa Sweet
