Community Literacy Café

Resources

Program Description

Community Literacy Café is a literacy presentation for all age groups. In this program, DeStefano collaborates with site leaders to design a single program or mix of presentations tailored to support libraries, writers’ groups, parent organizations, residential facilities, clubs and more! With Community Literacy Café, community groups and organizations include topics such as: using figurative language in fiction, using magnetic letters to clarify word work concepts, and presenting on a variety of poetry and fiction projects. DeStefano teaches poetry, flash fiction, and memory preservation workshops for community groups and enjoys creating engaging learning opportunities for requested literary topics.

Presenter Bio

Heidi DeStefano is the author of two middle grade novels: Chickie Jurin’s Zamboozie Stew and Chickie Jurin’s Toad Rodeo. Winner of the 2022 and 2024 Children’s Literature Wyoming Writers Award, and a frequent winner of Wyoming Writers flash fiction prompts, she writes and illustrates novels, poems, and flash fictions that celebrate life and the natural world. Her early reader series, Meet the Applemans, features a ranching family in Montana. She has two research projects published in Young Children by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. A former elementary school teacher, DeStefano believes readers should have opportunities to see their culture authentically represented in literature.