School and Event Visits

I love meeting students and discussing my books and writing. I have experience as a secondary school English and writing teacher, as well as a professional editor and journalist. I have presented at elementary, middle and high schools across the country and the world. My books are also great read-aloud and teaching tools. Check out the educator’s page for teachers’ guides.

This, year I will primarily be doing school visits and other events for my new middle-grade novel, The Lost Year. Inspired by some of my own family history, this is my most teachable book yet, giving 10-14 year-old readers a sense of Ukrainian history that ties to current events. The Lost Year introduces them to the Holodomor or man-made famine of 1932-33 that killed millions. As a journalist, I also fashioned this story to help educators teach kids about media literacy and disinformation. In addition, the book helps middle-grade readers grapple with the fallout of the covid pandemic. Finally, I built a writing lesson into the story.

On my launch tour I spoke to 3,000 students about The Lost Year. Here is one school librarian’s reaction:

This morning, Katherine Marsh visited our school
to talk about her latest book, The Lost Year
(released Tuesday, Jan 17th). She has definitely set
the bar high for my favorite 2023 best middle
school historical fiction novel!! Her presentation
was informative, thought provoking, engaging, – for
both students & adults….. just FANTASTIC!!

I have presented at numerous conferences and book festivals including the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE); Los Angeles Times Festival of Books; Miami Book Festival; AJC Decatur Book Festival; Tweens Read (Houston, TX); All Pikes Peak Read (Colorado Springs, CO); Harbor Springs Festival of the Book (Harbor Springs; MI) BYU Books for Young Readers Symposium (Provo, UT); and Gaithersburg Book Festival.

If you are interested in a school visit, Q&A session, book festival, conference or other speaking event, please contact nighttourist@gmail.com for my availability and rates (discounts available for Title 1 schools and with book buys) or my publicist Chantal Gersch: chantal.gersch@macmillan.com.