The IBBY UK 2026 Conference

Defending Freedom: LGBTQ+ Lives and Children’s and YA Literature

The theme for this year’s IBBY UK conference is LGBTQ+ lives and children’s and YA literature.

We will be celebrating the diverse ways that LGBTQ+ lives are positively represented in children’s and YA books nowadays as well as exploring the issues around censorship and book banning past and present.

Participants include David Roberts, Dylan Calder, Emily Corbett, Eric Huang, Fen Coles, Gayathiri Kamalakanthan, Holden (formerly Cynthia) So, Kristina Rahim, Penny Thomas, Sarah Hagger-Holt