Katherine Applegate, winner of the 2013 Newbery Award for children's literature, is a featured speaker at the 10th annual Children's Literature Conference next month at Western Washington University.

Applegate's "The One and Only Ivan" is about the gorilla that was kept for years at a Tacoma mall. She also is the author of "Home of the Brave," the "Roscoe Riley Rules" series, and the "Animorphs" series - co-written with her husband Michael Grant, who is also a speaker. The award was announced Monday, Jan. 28, by the American Library Association at its midwinter meeting in Seattle.

Registration is $99 for the conference, which is 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, at the WWU Performing Arts Center Concert Hall.

For more information, or to register, go online to wwuclc.com.

Other conference speakers are:

-- Susan Campbell Bartoletti, a prolific nonfiction author who won a Newbery Honor, a Siebert Honor and an Orbus Pictus Honor for "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow."

-- Brian Pinkney, award-winning illustrator of "The Faithful Friend" and "Sukey and the Mermaid," who has two Cadelcott Honors and several Coretta Scott King Honors.

-- Michael Grant, bestselling author of the Gone series, including the 2009 novel "Hunger."