The Ezra Jack Keats Book Awards, which recognize a writer and an illustrator early in their careers for their outstanding work, have gone to:
New Writer: Derrick Barnes for Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, illustrated by Gordon C. James (Agate Bolden/Denene Millner Books)
New Illustrator: Evan Turk for Muddy: The Story of Blues Legend Muddy Waters, written by Michael Mahin (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
The winners receive a bronze medallion and an honorarium of $3,000, which is triple the amount awarded in previous years. 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.
The 2018 award ceremony will be held on April 12 during the Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival at the university. T.A. Barron will present the Ezra Jack Keats Book Awards, and Charlotte Jones Voiklis will deliver the Keats Lecture.
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An inaugural shortlist has been released for the €20,000 (about $24,820) EBRD Literature Prize, which was launched by the British Council and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to champion "the art of translation as well as the extraordinary richness, depth and variety of arts and history in the countries in the Bank's region."
The prize honors "the best work of literary fiction translated from the original language into English and published by a U.K. publisher in the 18 months up to 15 November 2017." The money is equally divided between author and translator. Three finalists will be announced in early March, with a winner named April 10 on the eve of the London Book Fair. The shortlisted titles are:
All the World's a Stage by Boris Akunin, translated by Andrew Bromfield from Russian
Belladonna by Daša Drndic, translated by Celia Hawkesworth from Croatian
The Traitor's Niche by Ismail Kadare, translated by John Hodgson from Albanian
The Red-Haired Woman by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Ekin Oklap from Turkish
Istanbul Istanbul by Burhan Sönmez, translated by Ümit Hussein from Turkish
Maryam: Keeper of Stories by Alawiya Sobh, translated by Nirvana Tanoukhi from Arabic