Awards: SCBWI On-the-Verge Emerging Voices; Ezra Jack Keats

The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators announced the winners of this year's On-the-Verge Emerging Voices Award, which is given to two writers or illustrators "who are from ethnic and/or cultural backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in children's literature in America and who have a ready-to-submit completed work for children."

The 2015 recipients are Jackie Dorothy for her manuscript Wind Rider, "the story of one Arapaho boy's struggle to protect his family from an evil shaman while the battle between modernization and tradition plague his tribe's reservation"; and Judy Allen Dodson for Fast Friends, "the story of Jesse Owens and Marty Glickman's inspiring relationship during the race for the gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics."

Each winner receives a paid trip to the SCBWI Summer Conference in Los Angeles to meet editors, agents and other industry professionals. The winning manuscripts will also be available to select agents and editors via a secure website.

SCBWI executive director Lin Oliver said, "Every child should have the opportunity to see themselves reflected in the pages of a book. And all authors should have the opportunity to write their truth. SCBWI is proud to contribute to this important effort to bring forth new voices."

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The Ezra Jack Keats Book Awards, which aim to "recognize and encourage emerging talent in the field of children’s books," have gone to:

New Writer: Don Tate for Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton (Peachtree Publishers)
New Illustrator: Phoebe Wahl for Sonya’s Chickens (Tundra Books)

The winners receive a gold medallion and an honorarium of $1,000. The awards are presented by the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, in partnership with the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

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