This is your semi-regular roundup of new and recent awards won by Texas books and authors.
The Jane Addams Peace Association
The Jane Addams Peace Association has announced the recipients of the 2021 Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards. The winner in the Books for Older Children category is A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat (Candlewick). Beginning in 1953, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award annually recognizes children’s books that effectively engage young readers in thinking socially and globally.
The Youth Media Awards were announced during the American Library Association’s midwinter conference. Five Newbery Honor Books were named, including All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team and A Wish in the Dark, both by Christina Soontornvat. Two Belpré Children’s Author Honor Books were named, including The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cuevas.
Association of American Publishers
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) unveiled forty-five Subject Category Winners for the 2021 PROSE Awards honoring the best scholarly works published in 2020. Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump by Jennifer Mercieca won in the Government & Politics category.
Patrick Dearen’s historical novel Apache Lament took gold in Inspirational Western Fiction in the Will Rogers Medallion Awards in Fort Worth. Silverbelly, the sixth installment in S. J. Dahlstrom’s Wilder Good series, took gold in Western Fiction: Young Readers.
Golden Kite Awards
Winners of the 2021 Golden Kite Awards, presented to children's book authors and artists by their peers and sponsored by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, have been named. This year's winning titles include William Still and His Freedom Stories by Don Tate in Nonfiction Text for Younger Readers, All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat in Nonfiction Text for Older Readers, and Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger was named an honor book in Young Adult Fiction.
The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame presented the Fuller Award to Sandra Cisneros for her lifetime contribution to literature. The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame said: "Cisneros, a world-famous novelist, short story writer, poet, essayist, performer, activist, and artist first achieved acclaim with her international bestselling novel, The House on Mango Street. Published in 1984, the novel has since sold over six million copies, has been translated into 20 languages, and, according to the author's website is 'taught everywhere from inner-city grade schools to universities.' Set in Chicago, where she was born and raised, The House on Mango Street won the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award in 1985."
Schaffner Award
Bruce Bond, poet, musician, the Regents Professor of English at the University of North Texas, and poetry co-editor for American Literary Review, is the winner of the 2021 Nicholas Schaffner Award for Music in Literature for his poetry collection Liberation of Dissonance, which Schaffner Press will publish in spring 2022.
J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards
Winners and finalists for the 2021 J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards, which honor the best in American nonfiction writing and are sponsored by the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, include Jessica Goudeau, for After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America.
The Audie Awards recognize distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment and are sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association (APA). Winners of the twenty-sixth year of annual Audie Awards include Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire by Jen Hatmaker in the Faith-Based Fiction or Nonfiction category.
Book award winners were announced at the PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on April 8, including Amang’s Raised by Wolves: Poems and Conversations, translated from the Chinese by Steve Bradbury.
Twelve books for adults and young people have been honored with Christopher Awards, which are presented to authors and illustrators whose works "affirm the highest values of the human spirit." This year's winning titles include After the Last Border by Jessica Goudeau and A Knock at Midnight by Brittany K. Barnett in the Adult category and Fauja Singh Keeps Going by Simran Jeet Singh, illustrated by Baljinder Kaur, and Nacho's Nachos by Sandra Nickel, illustrated by Oliver Dominguez, in the Young Readers category.
The forty-first annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, presented in twelve categories, included the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction, which went to Stephen Graham Jones, for The Only Good Indians.
Fowzia Karimi’s Above Us the Milky Way (which was also a PubWest Design Bronze winner) was announced as the winner of the 2020 Big Other Book Award for Fiction.
Story Monsters Approved
Einstein's Compass: A YA Time Traveler Adventure by Grace Blair and Laren Bright won in the Spirituality/Religion category at the 2020 Story Monsters Approved Awards from Story Monsters, home to the award-winning Story Monsters Ink® magazine.
Johnnie Bernhard’s novel Sisters of the Undertow took first place in its category in the Press Women of Texas Communications Contest.
Philosophical Society of Texas
The Philosophical Society of Texas presents three literary awards annually. The 2020 winners are: Leila Meacham, for Dragonfly, in Fiction; Stephen Harrigan, for Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas, in Nonfiction; and Edward Vidaurre, for JazzHouse, in Poetry.
Texas Outdoor Writers Association (TOWA)
The TOWA Excellence in Craft Contest is an opportunity for members in the Active, Active Retired, Life and Student membership categories to receive special recognition for journalism excellence. The 2020 winner in Best Outdoor Books is It's More Than Fishing: The Art of Texas Trout and Redfish Angling by Pat Murray.
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