I request funding to attend the 44th Annual Children's Literature Association conference in Tampa, FL June 20-25, 2017. I serve as one of five nationally elected members of the Phoenix Award selection committee, which meets the day before the conference when we begin to make our selection for the following year. The committee also offers and hosts on the final day a panel of scholarly papers on the winning author(s) who respond in person to the session. Finally we five attend the final banquet when Phoenix winners make an acceptance speech published on the website. The Phoenix Award is given to a book of "high literary merit" that was originally published in English and somehow was overlooked when major awards in children's literature were given two decades earlier. "Phoenix books rise from the ashes of neglect and obscurity and once again touch the imaginations and enrich the lives of those who read them." Five of my 2014-15 UROP students created an excellent film featuring Ann Arbor author Zibby Oneal, whose 1992 Y/A novel, A Formal Feeling, received the Phoenix Award in 2002. Another UROP student developed a research project around books that became finalists that year. In the past I have been able to drive to conferences and left early, but this year I am being asked to attend the entire four days (which requires five nights at a hotel) and to play a role in hosting the winner, who is coming from Vancouver.