The 2019 Walter Dean Myers Awards for Outstanding Children's Literature ceremony, hosted by We Need Diverse Books and the Library of Congress, took place March 29 in the Library of Congress's Thomas Jefferson Building. The winners for 2019 are Elizabeth Acevedo for The Poet X (in the Teen, ages 13-18, category) and Jewell Parker Rhodes for Ghost Boys (Younger Readers, ages 9-13). The Teen honorees are Tiffany D. Jackson for Monday's Not Coming and Emily X.R. Pan for The Astonishing Color of After; the Younger Readers honorees are David Bowles for They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's Poems and Veera Hiranandani for The Night Diary.
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The 2019 Walter Dean Myers Award winners and honorees: (l.-r.) WNDB CEO Ellen Oh, Christopher Myers, Meg Medina, Elizabeth Acevedo, Tiffany D. Jackson, Emily X.R. Pan, WNDB COO Dhonielle Clayton, Daniel Bowles, Veera Hiranandani, Jewell Parker Rhodes and Linda Sue Park. |
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Inaugurated in 2016, the mission of the Walter Dean Myers Awards is to "recognize diverse authors whose works feature diverse main characters and address diversity in a meaningful way." "The Walter" is named for prolific, multi-award-winning children's and young adult author Walter Dean Myers. The third National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Myers spent his career championing diversity in children's books.
Newbery Medalist and bestselling author Linda Sue Park, the ceremony's emcee and guest speaker, noted that 2019 marks five years for We Need Diverse Books; the first tweet with the hashtag was posted April 21, 2014. The goal, she said, remains the same: to create "a world in which children can see themselves in the pages of a book."
Author/illustrator Christopher Myers, the son of the late Walter Dean Myers, spoke as an honored guest, discussing the need for works that reflect the experiences of children from marginalized communities: "We're starving for images."
The ceremony was preceded by a symposium titled "On Writing, Voice, and Courage: A Conversation with Walter Honorees," moderated by Newbery and Pura Belpré Award-winning author Meg Medina. Medina and honorees Jackson, Pan, Bowles and Hiranandani discussed the development of their protagonists, creating structure and format and finding their voice. She also asked them, "How do we write the nuanced stories of our communities?" "It's a matter of honesty," Pan replied, adding that it's important to "put mistakes on the page" and to let readers see the "difficult" things. Medina agreed, noting that "we can get things wrong ourselves, even about our own communities." Jackson replied that it's "a delicate balance between perpetuating stereotypes and telling the truth.... I knew I was going to get slack for... exposing dirty laundry," she continued, nodding to Pan's point of putting the difficult things on the page. "I feel the weight of the dirty laundry, too," Medina said before moving on to lighter matters. "This is a joyous day, friends!" she exclaimed, then opened the floor to questions from the many teen readers in the audience.
WNDB will donate a minimum of 2,000 copies of each of the 2019 Walter Award-winning titles to schools with limited budgets across the United States. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness