Author, librarian, and UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) alum M.K. England (MSLS ’13) will give the Susan Steinfirst Community Lecture in Children’s Literature on Sunday, March 27, at 7 p.m. at the Morehead Planetarium on the UNC – Chapel Hill campus. The lecture, hosted by the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), will be free and open to the public. England’s lecture is titled “Magic, Spaceships, and Beauty Pageants: Pushing Through Fear and Anxiety to Save the World.”

M.K. England is an author and librarian who grew up on the Space Coast of Florida and now calls small town rural Virginia home. England is queer in both orientation and gender, uses she/her or they/them pronouns, and is a fierce defender of fandom, fanworks, and fan culture. England is also a strong advocate for space exploration, planetary science, and science literacy in general. They write frequently about the intersections of mental health, creative work, and the writing community.

When England is not writing or librarianing, they can be found rolling dice at the Dungeons & Dragons table, digging in the garden, feeding their video game addiction, or improvising truly terrible songs about their dogs. England loves Star Wars with a desperate, heedless passion. England is also a three-time Pitch Wars mentor and a class of 2015 mentee, a TeenPit mentor, and has served as a NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison.

England can be found on Twitter, Instagram, and occasionally Tumblr. England’s debut YA space opera, The Disasters, is available at bookstores and can be added to goodreads list. Their second book, a YA fantasy/sci-fi mashup called Spellhacker, came out on January 21, 2020. It’s now available at bookstores and can be added to goodreads. England’s most recent novel, The One True Me and You: A Novel, is hot off the press and became available in bookstores and online on March 1, 2022 under the name Remi K. England and can be added to goodreads.

About the Steinfirst Lecture
The Steinfirst Lecture honors the memory of Susan Steinfirst, a professor of children’s and young adult literature at SILS from 1976 to 1996. Steinfirst dedicated her life to the promotion of children’s literature by teaching future librarians and by publishing scholarly works in the field. The lecture is made possible by the Steinfirst Memorial Fund, which was established through gifts from Professor Steinfirst’s husband, Gene Story, as well as other family members and friends, in 1997.

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