The Margaret A. Edwards Award is an

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th century ...

(ALA)

literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded Literature, literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award c ...

that annually recognizes an author and "a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". It is named after Margaret A. Edwards (1902–1988), the longtime director of

young adult In medicine and the social sciences, a young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence, sometimes with some overlap. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages ...

services at

Enoch Pratt Free Library The Enoch Pratt Free Library is the free public library system of Baltimore, Maryland. Its Central Library is located on 400 Cathedral Street (southbound) and occupies the northeastern three quarters of a city block bounded by West Franklin S ...

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

. The award was inaugurated in 1988 as the biennial "''School Library Journal'' Young Adult Author Award/Selected and Administered by the American Library Association's Young Adult Services Division". After 1990, it was renamed and made annual. It continues to be sponsored by ''

School Library Journal ''School Library Journal'' (''SLJ'') is an American monthly magazine containing reviews and other articles for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, wi ...

'' and administered by the

Young Adult Library Services Association The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), established in 1957, is a division of the American Library Association. YALSA is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates whose mission is to expand the capacity of l ...

, descendant of YASD. The winner is announced during the ALA midwinter meeting and the citation and $2000 cash prize are presented at a luncheon during the ALA annual conference (June 27 – July 2 in 2013).

History and criteria

The "young adult" class of books developed in library collections and publisher promotions, and

young adult literature Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as family dysfunction, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. It is characterized by simpler world build ...

became a "respected field of study", in the second half of the twentieth century. When ''

'' initiated the award for YA writers, the ALA awards program recognized the YA class only by annual lists of recommended books, the Best Books for Young Adults and a list "for the reluctant YA reader". (Indeed, the

Printz Award The Michael L. Printz Award is an American Library Association literary award that annually recognizes the "best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit". It is sponsored by ''Booklist'' magazine; administered by the ALA's ...

for the year's best book was established only in 1999.) Chief editor Lillian N. Gerhardt determined that ''SLJ'' should merely sponsor the award and recruited the ALA Young Adult Services Division to administer it. The official name of the award approved in 1986 was unusually long even with initialisms, "The ''SLJ'' Young Adult Author Award/Selected and Administered by the ALA's YASD". In the 1988 and 1990 award citations as presented online decades later, it is called the "Young Adult Services Division/''School Library Journal'' Author Achievement Award". During the third cycle it was made annual and renamed for the recently deceased Edwards. As of the fourth cycle, 1991/1992, the committee was charged to select "a living author or co-author whose book or books, over a period of time, have been accepted by young people as an authentic voice that continues to illuminate their experiences and emotions, giving insight into their lives." Among other specific criteria, the body of work should have "acceptable literary quality" and be "currently popular with a wide range of young adults in the many different parts of the country". Furthermore, the winner must "agree to personally accept the award at the following Annual Conference", about five months after the selection. ''SLJ'' editor Gerhardt covered the award at least once, in an editorial at the time of inaugural presentation to

S. E. Hinton Susan Eloise Hinton (born July 22, 1948) is an American writer best known for her young-adult novels (YA) set in Oklahoma, especially '' The Outsiders'' (1967), which she wrote during high school. Hinton is credited with introducing the YA ge ...

(June 1988). For some time beginning 1990, the June issue of ''SLJ'' covered the current award and carried an interview with the preceding winner.

Winners

The honored writers have been natives and lifelong residents of the United States except

Anne McCaffrey Anne Inez McCaffrey (1 April 1926 – 21 November 2011) was an American writer known for the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, ''Weyr Search'', 1968) an ...

Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English author, humorist, and Satire, satirist, best known for the ''Discworld'' series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983 and 2015, and for the Apocalyp ...

Susan Cooper Susan Mary Cooper (born 23 May 1935) is an English author of children's books. She is best known for '' The Dark Is Rising'', a contemporary fantasy series set in England and Wales, which incorporates British mythology such as the Arthurian ...

, and

Markus Zusak Markus Zusak (born 23 June 1975) is an Australian-German writer. He is best known for ''The Book Thief'' and ''The Messenger (Zusak novel), The Messenger'', two novels that became international bestsellers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award in 2 ...

Multiple awards

Jacqueline Woodson Jacqueline Woodson (born February 12, 1963) is an American writer of books for children and adolescents. She is best known for '' Miracle's Boys'', and her Newbery Honor-winning titles '' Brown Girl Dreaming'', '' After Tupac and D Foster'', ''F ...

and Walter Dean Meyers have won both the Edwards Award and the

Children's Literature Legacy Award The Children's Literature Legacy Award (formerly the ''Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal'' or ''Wilder Award'') is a prize awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to writers ...

, which the ALA children's division ( ALSC) awards for "substantial and lasting contributions to children's literature" (from 1954, now annual). Four Edwards winners have been selected by ALSC to deliver its annual

May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture The Children's Literature Lecture Award (known as the May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture from 1970 to 2020) is an annual event sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association. The organiza ...

in 2001,

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( ; Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantas ...

in 2004,

Walter Dean Myers Walter Dean Myers (born Walter Milton Myers; August 12, 1937 – July 1, 2014) was an American writer of children's books best known for young adult literature. He was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, but was raised in Harlem, New York City ...

in 2009, and

Lois Lowry Lois Ann Lowry (; née Hammersberg; born March 20, 1937) is an American writer. She is the author of many books for children and young adults, including '' The Giver Quartet'', '' Number the Stars'', the Anastasia series, and '' Rabble Starkey''. ...

in 2011. ALSC considers the Arbuthnot selection, inaugurated in 1970, another career award for contribution to children's literature. The lecturer prepares and delivers—currently about 16 months after selection—"a paper considered to be a significant contribution to the field of children's literature", which is also published in the ALSC journal.

Notes

References

{{ALA(library) Awards established in 1988 American children's literary awards American Library Association awards Young adult literature awards English-language literary awards

History and criteria

Winners

Multiple awards

See also

Notes

References