Special Announcement: 2026 Conference Keynote Speakers

In celebration of Montgomery’s 151st birthday, the L.M. Montgomery Institute is proud to announce the three keynote speakers for our 2026 biennial conference:  

Megan Follows

Keynote Title: “Anne of Everywhere: How A Redheaded Girl from PEI Became Canada’s Greatest Cultural Ambassador and Changed my Life Forever.”

Katharine Slater

Keynote Title: “Change the Subject: Queer Opacity and L.M. Montgomery”

Dr. Katharine Slater is an associate professor of English at Rowan University, where she teaches courses on children’s and young adult literature, queer literature, and romance. Her most recent publication on L.M. Montgomery’s work is titled “‘A ghost you can feel and hear but never see’: Queer Hauntings in Emily of New Moon,” and her current book project, The Queer Mobilities of Girlhood in Young Adult Literature, argues that sapphic girls in YA texts grow and move in ways that disturb linear narratives around female adolescent development. In addition to her academic work, Kate writes adult sapphic romance under a pen name; her debut novel was a recent finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards.

Allison McBain Hudson

Keynote Title: “Maud, Pat, and Me: The Materiality of Change”

Dr. Allison McBain Hudson is the current Visiting Scholar at the L.M. Montgomery Institute. She recently completed her Ph.D. at Dublin City University on the significance of material culture in the novels of L.M. Montgomery, particularly the Emily trilogy. Originally from Alberta, she obtained a BA in English from the University of Calgary in 1995 and moved to Ireland in 1997. She earned an MA in Children’s and Young Adult Literature from Dublin City University in 2019 with a focus on Montgomery’s unique Romanticism and “everyday magic.” When she’s not studying or teaching, she is quilting and sewing, walking the dogs in the woods, and looking for old houses and kindred spirits. She is married to an Irish artist, and they live on the outskirts of Dublin with their two daughters.