NEWBURGH – Registration is now open for the 31^st Annual Conference on Literacy at Mount Saint Mary College, “Exploring Literacy and the Arts in Pursuit of a Socially Just World” on Saturday, April 5 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

Presented by the college’s Collaborative for Equity in Literacy Learning (CELL), the conference will be held in Hudson Hall at the Mount Saint Mary College campus, 330 Powell Ave., Newburgh.

Tickets purchased on or before April 1 are $45, or $30 for local reading council members. Attendance is free for full-time Mount students. Late registration is available. The registration form can be found at www.msmc.edu/literacy

The conference will begin at 8:30 a.m., with registration and a continental breakfast. There will be workshop sessions throughout the day. The event will culminate with a presentation by keynote speaker Bryan Collier.

Workshops will include “Reading is Eating: Feed Your Mind, One Word at a Time” by Sandy Bastien, founder of the Reading is Eating initiative; “Building a House Called Tomorrow: Sharing Our Medicine with the World” by Mount alumna Rebecca Quackenbush, a teacher in the Chester School District; “Peer Mentorship to Support All Readers” by Mitch Peterson, a Library Media Specialist at Ridgefield High School; and seven others.

Keynote speaker Bryan Collier is a beloved illustrator and author, known for his thought-provoking style combining watercolor and detailed collage. He’s a four-time Caldecott Honor recipient for his books Trombone Shorty, Dave the Potter, Martin’s Big Words, and Rosa. His books have won many other awards as well, including nine Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards, and recognition from others such as El día de los niños / El día de los libros, Notable Books for a Global Society, and the Cooperative Children’s Book Center. His recent books include Ode to Grapefruit: How James Earl JonesFound His Voice, Love is Loud, and We Are Here.

Established in 2012, CELL provides tutoring and out-of-school literacy activities for children preschool to grade 12 with a focus on reading, conversation, and activities. It explores multicultural books, offers family literacy programs, and more. Each semester dozens of Mount teacher candidates, graduate and undergraduate, help instill a love of reading in local youth as part of their community fieldwork requirement.

For more information about CELL and this event, visit msmc.edu