The Secondary Section is pleased to welcome you to NCTE's Annual Convention. This year's Secondary Section program is diverse and exciting. Conventiongoers will enjoy the full spectrum of bold new work in poetry, literature, drama, composition, non-fiction and technology.  With over 200 interactive sessions and activities, your greatest challenge will be to decide which secondary sessions to attend!

~Diane Waff, Chair, Secondary Section Steering Committee

The Annual Convention will be held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and the Marriott River Center Hotel.  Sessions will be held in both places. 

2008 Annual Convention Program - Search the online version-available soon

Secondary Section Speakers  

Jimmy Santiago Baca 
Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 12:30pm
Secondary Section Luncheon

Jimmy Santiago Baca was born in New Mexico of Indio-Mexican descent.  He was raised first by his grandmother but later sent to an orphanage that he ran away from at age 13. It was after Baca was sentenced to five years in a maximum security prison that he began to turn his life around: he learned to read and write and unearthed a voracious passion for poetry.  He was released from prison in 1979 and earned his GED later that same year. He is the winner of the Pushcart Prize, the American Book Award, the International Hispanic Heritage Award, and for his memoir A Place to Stand, the prestigious International Award. In 2006 he won the Cornelius P. Turner Award. The national award recognizes one GED graduate a year who has made outstanding contributions to society in education, justice, health, public service and social welfare.

His books include: The Importance of a Piece of Paper, Winter Poems Along the Rio Grande (New Directions), A Place to Stand, Healing Earthquakes, C-Train & Thirteen Mexicans, Black Mesa Poems, Martin & Meditations on the South Valley, and Immigrants in Our Own Land.

His works have appeared in Illustrated, Latina, House & Garden, and Good Housekeeping as well as in newspapers such as The New York Times, The Boston Globe and El Nuevo Día.

To purchase tickets for this event, see the convention registration form.

Francine Prose
Thursday, November 20, 2008 - 5:00pm
Secondary Section Get-Together
Francine Prose is the author of fifteen books of fiction, including A Changed Man and Blue Angel, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and the nonfiction New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer.  Her latest novel for young adults is Goldengrove. 

A distinguished critic and essayist, she has taught literature and writing for more than twenty years at major universities. A film of her novel, Household Saints, was released in 1993. Prose is a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine, for which she has written such controversial essays as “Scent of a Woman’s Ink” and “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read.” She is the president of PEN American Center.

NCTE Annual Convention Preview will be available online soon!

High School Matters Speakers

Secondary Section/TYCA Joint Session will be available soon!

Register today to attend the 2008 NCTE Annual Convention!

Housing Information

Or click here to download the PDF housing form and map to mail to the Housing Bureau:

The 2008 Annual Convention will be held November 20-25, 2008 in San Antonio, Texas.

Registration Rates

HOTEL INFORMATION

Online Housing Form              Print the Housing Form (PDF Version)