speaking

I am now booking school visits, presentations, and workshops for 2024-2025, for audiences of all ages. If you’re interested in an in-person visit or an hour-long online visit (a slideshow presentation or creative writing workshop), please email me at LauraResau@gmail.com with the subject heading “Author Visit.” Please scroll down this page to read more about my author visits. Thanks!

Free Virtual Q&A

I offer a limited number of free online author chats with book clubs, classes, or other groups who have read one of my books. If your group would like to do a free 20-minute Q&A session by video-chat with me, please complete and submit the form below. Please put LauraResau@gmail.com in your contacts to make sure my response gets to your inbox. I will do my best to respond within a week to confirm the date, time, and platform of the virtual visit. If you don’t hear from me within a week, please email me directly at LauraResau@gmail.com.

HOW TO RESERVE A TIME SLOT FOR A VIRTUAL Q&A: Please note that I have a limited number of time slots available, so I recommend you reserve a spot as soon as you can. My general availability is 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm MST, and I can usually extend those hours up until 8:00 pm MST if needed. (Please be sure to specify time zone in your request!) Thanks!

Laura’s In-Person Author Visits (for 2024)

I love doing school and library visits! Since 2006, I've visited well over a hundred libraries and schools, including upper elementary, middle, high school, and college level. I'm grateful for the rave reviews I've received and for return invitations to many of the same schools and libraries year after year.

My presentations and workshops are available in Spanish or English, and fit beautifully with Reading, Language Arts, Spanish, and Social Studies curricula.

I also love chatting with book clubs and speaking at Community Reads programs and festivals! And I always enjoy giving presentations and workshops at conferences for educators, librarians, and writers of all ages. I've consistently received great feedback, and attendees who enjoyed my session often invite me to speak at other engagements. My presentations, talks, and workshops can be geared toward an audience of any age, in Spanish or English. Each session usually lasts about 45-60 minutes unless otherwise noted.

Laura’s Author Visit Packet (updated 2024) includes a timeline, checklist, fees, author visit request form, ideas for preparing your community for the visit, and other useful information. Please be sure to read through this packet if you are interested in a full-day author visit with me! If you'd like to invite me to visit your school, library, or other organization, please email me and use the subject heading "Author Visit." You can also email me at LauraResau@gmail.com to get rates and availability for a single presentation/workshop. Thank you!

Basic Presentation

For Laura’s Novels:

Behind the Book with Laura Resau: In this fun and interactive presentation, acclaimed author Laura Resau shares her journey as a writer— from a kid who loved story-telling all the way to a published author. She talks about the experiences abroad that inspired her books and explains the process of writing and publishing a novel, offering tips for aspiring writers. Q&A at the end.

(Approximately 45 minutes total length. Laura can highlight whichever book her audience has focused on, and can gear this presentation toward the age group and background of the audience, from mid-elementary to adult.)

For Laura’s Picture Book (co-written with Patricia Gualinga):

Award-winning author Laura Resau gives a behind-the scenes peek at how she worked with her co-author, Patricia Gualinga, and illustrator, Vanessa Jaramillo, to create Stand as Tall as the Trees. In this fun and interactive presentation, Laura shows slides of her trip to an Indigenous community in the Amazon rain forest of Ecuador and shares the eye-opening experiences that inspired her to reach out to her co-author, Paty. Children learn how Paty’s Indigenous Kichwa community protected their sacred forest home from an invading oil company, winning a landmark victory. After a fun “brain break,”Laura shares clips of Vanessa doing the watercolor art, then reads the story aloud as she shows the illustrations. Kids have ten minutes for questions and comments. They’ll leave the presentation feeling inspired, informed, and enthusiastic about creating books and protecting human and environmental rights.

(Approximately 45 minutes total length, recommended for elementary school age.)

Writing Workshops

Here are fun, interactive workshops (about an hour in length) that I can adapt for upper elementary through high school levels. Workshops emphasize basic creative writing skills including the use of sensory descriptions, specific details, imagery, showing-not-telling, character arc, and story structure.

Build Your Own Story! Ever wonder how authors take raw materials and craft them into an exciting story? Laura Resau will show you the building blocks of a story— character, setting, theme, and plot (problem and solution). You’ll do fun, hands-on activities using intriguing prompts and a basic blueprint. By the end of the workshop, your creativity will be flowing and you’ll have the satisfaction of having completed your own story. Then you can take the blueprint and build some more... *Recommended for upper elementary and middle school

Make Your World Come Alive! Isn't it a delicious feeling to delve into a book and enter another world? Laura Resau will show you how to enrich setting and character through imagery and description. You'll do short, fun writing exercises to help make your story a vivid, multi-sensory experience that readers can't resist. This workshop will let your writing shine! *Recommended for middle and high school

The Hero's Journey: How to Structure an Unputdownable Story—Acclaimed author Laura Resau shows how the Hero’s Journey framework can help you design plot, character development, and pacing. Laura has used some version of the Hero’s Journey for each of her nine novels for kids and teens. Humans resonate with this story structure on a deep psychological level, which makes it a powerful tool for writers. You’ll leave this fun, interactive workshop with ways to grab your readers and keep them emotionally engaged as your story unfolds. *Recommended for middle and high school

Chocolate Flight ‘n’ Write: Join acclaimed author Laura Resau for a delicious writing workshop. Laura will guide you through a fun chocolate tasting, which will open your senses and let your creativity soar. Write imagery-rich poems, stories, and character sketches… all while enjoying chocolate as exquisite inspiration. *Recommended for elementary through high school   

sessions for educators

I lead sessions for educators of upper elementary through high school students, including ESL and bilingual (Spanish) students. Here are sample workshops:

Flying with Words: Creative Writing with Your Students—Author and former ESL teacher Laura Resau will share ideas for engaging upper elementary through high school students in fun and inspired creative writing activities. In this dynamic session, she’ll discuss the stages of story-writing, beginning with brain-storming ideas with enticing visual prompts. She’ll show you how to weave together basic story elements like character, setting, plot, and theme. Finally, you’ll look at the process of giving and receiving feedback and doing revisions—all from an author’s perspective. Throughout the session, you’ll participate in short, fun creative writing activities so that you’re all set to use them with your students. Participants of all ages will find that creative writing is a liberating way to develop writing fluency, vocabulary, speaking and listening skills, and reading comprehension.

Connecting with Communities in South America through Literature—Laura Resau will share meaningful connections resulting from her books set in Ecuador. She’ll discuss her life-changing collaboration with Indigenous Ecuadorian co-author, María Virginia Farinango to write The Queen of Water—her inspiring true story of overcoming forced servitude during her childhood in the Andes. Laura will also discuss her other books set in Ecuador—Tree of Dreams and the picture book Stand as Tall as the Trees, co-written with the Indigenous Amazonian leader, Patricia Gualinga. Laura will share meaningful ways to connect your students with communities in Ecuador, including virtual cultural exchanges. Educators will leave with exciting ideas for book-inspired projects they can do with their classes. (About 45 minutes in length. For educators of upper elementary through high school students.)

Advanced Writing Workshops

These workshops are geared toward teen and *grown-up* writers who already have experience with creative writing.

Adventures in Novel Writing! Writing a book can be a wild journey— at times thrilling, and at times, not-so-fun. Laura Resau will share practical, emotional, and psychological strategies that have helped her enjoy the adventure, and most importantly, finish each of her ten acclaimed books for children and teens. You'll leave the session feeling energized and equipped with new tools to get through the rough parts of your own book-writing journey.

Creating Dazzling Worlds Isn't it a delicious feeling to delve into a book and enter another world? Laura Resau will explore ways to offer your readers (and editors!) this joy. She'll share strategies for enriching setting and character through imagery and description. You'll do short, fun writing exercises to help make your story a vivid, multi-sensory experience that readers can't resist. This workshop will let your writing shine, whether your focus is fiction or creative non-fiction, for adult or teen readers.

Book-in-Progress Consultations

Here you can find details about “Pick Laura’s Brain” packages to help you with the next steps in your writing/publishing journey.

Praise for Laura’s Adult Writing Workshops

“I was completely wow’ed and in awe of your caring, intentional, positive spirit and presence. You made everyone feel like they mattered and you sure delivered us grand motivation and inspiration. Your reflective adventure was chockful of questions that we as writers can keep going back to and using in this crazy adventure. And, you made it such fun. Your authenticity and open-ness was beautiful!” 

"I've gone to a lot of workshops, but Laura's was the first one in a long time that energized me, motivated me to pause and start again."

"Laura's workshop was exactly what I have needed for a long time."

“Laura was so personal and refreshing.”

"What an energizing workshop. I needed that boost...I needed those questions."

"Laura's questions made me dig deep and look at myself in the mirror. I kept working on my answers in my journal."

“Your workshop was the best one I attended that weekend. You are amazing and have inspired me beyond words.”

Teacher Praise for Laura’s School Visits

I can't say enough great things about Laura's visits to my class. I've had her come for three years in a row. Not only is Laura extremely personable, but she also uses a multisensory approach that really engages the kids. In addition to reading, Laura has beautiful pictures of people, places, and events that inspire her writing... Laura also shares samples from her writing journals and shows how bits become incorporated into her novels. One of my favorite pictures is of her many drafts of What the Moon Saw all stacked side-by-side. It is a powerful visual to illustrate revision. The students truly get a sense of the writing process. A bit of background: I always have Laura visit my 6th-grade class after they finish reading her novel What the Moon Saw, which they invariably enjoy. So they eagerly anticipate her visit. However, I've been to two of her book signings, and she simply has a warm, engaging personality that connects with her audience. I highly recommend Laura for an author visit to your middle school.
— Beth Knees, Sixth Grade Teacher

It was such a treat having you come visit our students and our school today! I loved how you included the process of the artist's watercolors in your presentation. That was beautiful and fun for our little artists to see! I also appreciated how you interwove the story and its illustrations with pictures and videos from the real-life places that the story was depicting. That made it all so real for your audience. That connection between our life experiences and art and writing as a means of expressing those experiences is so powerful and inspiring.

– Mrs. Caputo, 2nd grade teacher, Irish Bilingual Immersion School, Fort Collins

Thank you sooooo much for coming in yesterday! The kids absolutely loved your presentation. Not only did they love the presentation, but also, all of them had some great connection to the content you were discussing. It was amazing to see some of the Hispanic kids come out of their shells and speak up about their experiences in Mexico. Thanks again for your time, and I would love for you to come visit again!
— Derek Decker, Teacher, Putnam Elementary, Fort Collins

We loved having you at Harris. It was so great that you were able to speak Spanish to set up the scenes that you were reading in English. The students really loved it, and so did I.
— Martha Petty, Media Specialist, Harris Bilingual Immersion Elementary, Fort Collins

Mrs. Resau provided an engaging, student-centered Power Point program interweaving Q & A breaks to our district intermediate Battle of the Book student teams, their families, administrators, and their academic coaches. Her complete attention on her audience and focus on the writing process, the inspiration of her books, and her worldwide travels made her an instant hit with everyone in audience. She has set the bar high for quality author visits to come. I highly recommend this outstanding author, Laura Resau, to come to your school.
— Kathy L. Deal, Vigo County District Intervention Coach, Indiana

Thank you again for the amazing visit. You were truly captivating. The kids are still talking about it!
— Alexis Gerard, Media Specialist, Clemente Middle School

Thank you so much for the awesome presentation. The children really enjoyed having you here. The students from Ms. George's class that came from Mexico really had a connection to you, your book, and the smells that you passed around. One student in Mr. Decker's room mentioned that you talked a long time with her. She is a published author and is very excited about that and also about talking to you. Thank you again for coming to our school and doing such a wonderful job engaging our students in writing.
— Karen McCoy, Putnam Elementary, Fort Collins

I enjoyed reading [the students'] journal entries [from the workshop]. The imagery was inspired, by you, I suspect!... I really appreciate your tangible approach using sensory stimuli to engage the students. Thank you again for a wonderful visit.
— Diane Odbert, 6th grade Language Arts teacher, Bacon Elementary

The students were super engaged and made so many connections with the experiences you shared with them. 

– Mrs. Rogers, 2nd Grade Teacher at Harris Bilingual Immersion School, Fort Collins

Student Praise for Laura's Visits

Your presentation on Tuesday was wonderful! It was AWESOME to hear about all your experiences... Many of the things you talked about touched me, and you helped me to realize an important point in my writing: it doesn't have to be perfect the first time!... I feel that I learned much from your presentation.... You are a very down-to-earth person with much to share and I'm glad I got to be a part of it...You are my inspiration!
— High school student

You really inspired me to read more books ((: Not only that but I've actually discovered that I have writing skills.
♥— High School student

[Your workshop] really gave me some more motivation, and I made my mother take me to Walgreens to buy my idea notebook that you mentioned. I actually wrote down a poem already on the first page because I felt like the first page of this composition book was a new beginning...
— High School student

It was amazing to meet a real author for the first time.
— Tanya, 6th grade

You inspired me!
— Andrea, 6th grade

I also enjoyed the fun creative writing assignment. I wrote a short narrative and poem about the mint leaves. Maybe someday I'll be an author or poet.
— Ellie

It was very interesting how you came up with your ideas; now I want to go to Oaxaca!
— Caitlin