TULSA, Okla. --- New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds is the winner of the Tulsa Library Trust’s 2021 Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers’ Literature. He will accept the award at a public presentation on Thursday, May 6 at 7 p.m. He also will present awards to winners of the 2021 Young People’s Creative Writing Contest at the ceremony.
Named the 2020-2021 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Reynolds has written over a dozen fiction, nonfiction and poetry books for middle-grade and young adult readers. Inspired by rap as he grew up in Maryland, Reynolds began writing poetry when he was just 9. It’s through this form that he broke into the publishing industry, starting with the nonfiction poetry and visual art memoir “My Name is Jason,” co-written with Jason Griffin. A self-proclaimed nonreader, Reynolds didn’t read a book in full until he was 18. Now he writes the books he wishes he could have read as a young adult and discourages others from staying or becoming nonreaders.
Other works of poetry by Reynolds include “For Every One” and “Long Way Down,” a novel in verse that received great acclaim as a Newbery Honor Book, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book, winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award, a National Book Award finalist and more. Most recently, Reynolds collaborated with Ibram X. Kendi on the youth nonfiction book “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You.”
His fiction works include “Ghost,” the first title in his Track series; “The Boy in the Black Suit,” a 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book; “When I Was the Greatest”; “All American Boys,” co-written with Brendan Kiely and recipient of the 2016 Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature; “As Brave As You,” winner of the 2016 Kirkus Prize, the 2017 Schneider Family Book Award and the 2017 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth/Teen; the Marvel Comics novel “Miles Morales: Spider-Man”; and “Look Both Ways,” also a National Book Award finalist.
The Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers’ Literature gives formal recognition, on behalf of the Tulsa County community, to a nationally acclaimed author who has made a significant contribution to the field of literature for young adults. The award, presented by the Tulsa Library Trust, consists of a $10,000 cash prize and an engraved crystal book.
Past winners include: Katherine Applegate (2020), Rita Williams-Garcia (2019), Pam Munoz Ryan (2018), Laurie Halse Anderson (2017), Gordon Korman (2016), Sharon Draper (2015), Jack Gantos (2014), Jim Murphy (2013), Jacqueline Woodson (2012), Kathryn Lasky (2011), Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (2010), Christopher Paul Curtis (2009), Louis Sachar (2008), Kate DiCamillo (2007), Sharon Creech (2006), Avi (2005), Susan Cooper (2004), Russell Freedman (2003), Richard Peck (2002), E.L. Konigsburg (2001), Jerry Spinelli (2000), Jane Yolen (1999), Cynthia Voigt (1998), Gary Paulsen (1997), Walter Dean Myers (1996), Lois Lowry (1994), Katherine Paterson (1993), Madeleine L’Engle (1992) and S.E. Hinton (1991).
For more information on the Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers’ Literature or library programming, call the AskUs Hotline at 918-549-7323 or visit the library’s website, www.tulsalibrary.org.
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