Award-Winning Children's Book Author

Speaking

I love sharing my books and experiences as a writer with audiences of all ages and sizes. In addition to school visits, I lead writing workshops, give lectures and keynote addresses, and hold story time and meet the author events. Currently, I am scheduling both in-person and virtual visits using the meeting platform of your choice. However we meet, I work to make our time together as interactive, engaging and fun as possible!

Presentations

✓ In-Person

✓ Virtual

✓ All Ages

✓ Audience of any size

✓ School Visit

✓ Writing Workshop

✓ Story Time

✓ Meet the Author

✓ Lecture

✓ Keynote Address

Contact me to see how we can design a visit or event that fits your group.

Schedule a Visit

Book Visit

Examples

My Picture Books

Using my picture books to introduce Muslim culture, traditions and the Ramadan and Eid celebrations with an emphasis on universal values.

My Middle Grade Novels

Sharing my middle grade novels, including my writing process, how I develop characters and themes, and my inspirations and goals for the books with a focus on building compassion and respect.

Adventures in Writing!

How to use personal experiences and research to inform writing and as a launch point for creativ­ity. A step-by-step explanation of how I construct my choose-your-own path style novels.

Brainstorm Challenge

Bringing your culture into your writing. Speaking about my journey as a writer, my experience writing as Pakistani American Muslim, and the need for diverse stories. Challenging students to brainstorm their own personal narratives.

Writing Workshops

Writing workshops that specialize on how to make your writing more amazing, writing good dialogue and more!

Customized for Your Group

I’m always happy to customize my presentations to fit your needs.

Testimonials

I think over the course of the years I’ve been director here, I’ve had at least 15 author visits. Authors generally are very nice people, but you are definitely in a league of your own. Thank you for your wisdom, your graciousness, and for just being a delightful person to spend a few days with. I can’t tell you how many people expressed how much they enjoyed and appreciated your talk Thursday night. And I’ve heard from two 2nd grade teachers who couldn’t stop raving about how important your school visit was. Along with being a great writer – you are a wonderful ambassador. Your visit will definitely go down in our memories as one of the best author visits we’ve ever had. Priscilla Berggren-Thomas, Library Director, Phillips Free Library, Homer, NY
Hena is a great speaker whose love for writing and her characters comes through in her presentation! It was very powerful and the feedback from our students was extremely positive. They felt as though they had learned something important and appreciated Hena’s message and passion. Katie Ryan, Librarian, Brooklyn Friends School
Truthfully, she did an amazing job and our students were interested, excited and had some really great questions. She spoke about Islamic culture and traditions and the research side of her chapter books…they were interested in it all! And I can’t tell you how thrilled our Muslim students were to be recognized. It was a wonderful experience for all of us. Jennifer Stacy, Library Media Specialist, Patrick Henry ES
Author Hena Khan’s visit to two of our school campuses was fabulous! She was able to captivate students at a range of ages all the way from the PreK 4 and kindergarten students to our third through fifth graders. She has a warm and gentle way of introducing herself and her Muslim culture that will prepare these students to be open and understanding of differences they experience in their communities and their schools. Every comment I heard from teachers the next day was overwhelmingly positive! Sue Bloom, Librarian, Peabody Primary Campus, Capitol Hill Cluster School
After our schools were forced to end in-person programs because of COVID, Hena adapted her presentation to fit an online format, met with each classroom individually through Zoom, and provided signed bookplates in advance so our students could have autographed copies of her books. We were thrilled to be able to offer our schools an amazing event, and received nothing but positive feedback from our teachers and kids. Monica Walen, Librarian, Kent District Library

Appearances

Hena has been a keynote speaker, panelist, and storytime reader at numerous festivals, conferences, libraries, and schools including:

  • The Washington Post Storytime
  • Gaithersburg Book Festival
  • Wisconsin State Reading Association
  • Virginia Association of School Librarians
  • Texas Book Festival/Reading Rock Stars
  • Truman State University Children’s Literature Festival
  • Association of Library Services to Children (ALSC)
  • Boston Book Festival
  • Sharjah International Book Fair
  • North Texas Teen Book Festival 
  • Bay Area Book Festival
  • Green Mountain Book Festival
  • CoStar Group
  • American Express 
  • Brooklyn Public Library
  • Orange County Library, CA
  • United Nations International School, NY, NY
  • International School of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • Frostburg State Children’s Literature Festival, MD
  • Qatar Academy, Doha, Qatar
  • Shanghai Dulwich International School, China