Jacqueline Woodson
Brown Girl Dreaming
Jacqueline Woodson
Jacqueline Woodson
On February 20, 2015 AfriClassical posted:
Today The Poetry Foundation made this announcement:
CHICAGO – The Poetry Foundation is honored to announce that
Jacqueline Woodson
has been named the Young People’s Poet Laureate. Awarded every
two years, the $25,000 laureate title is given to a living writer in
recognition of a career devoted to writing exceptional poetry for young
readers. The
laureate advises the Poetry Foundation on matters
relating to young people’s literature and may engage in a variety of
projects to help instill a lifelong love of poetry among the nation’s
developing readers. This laureateship aims to promote poetry to children
and their families, teachers, and librarians
over the course of its two-year tenure.
"Jacqueline Woodson is an elegant, daring, and restlessly innovative writer," said Poetry Foundation president Robert Polito."So
many writers settle on a style and a repertoire of gestures and
subjects, but Woodson, like her characters, is always in motion and
always discovering something fresh. As she once told an interviewer, 'If
you have no road map, you have to create your own.'
Her gifts, adventurousness and generosity, suggest she will be a
terrific young people's poet laureate."
Jacqueline
Woodson was born in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up in Greenville, South
Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of more than 30
books for children
and young adults, including From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun (1995), which was named a Coretta Scott King Honor Book and won a Jane Addams Children’s Book Award;
Miracle’s Boys (2000), which won the 2001 Coretta Scott King Award and a
Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Hush (2002), a National Book Award finalist;
Locomotion (2003), also a National Book Award finalist; Coming on Home Soon
(2004), a Caldecott Honor Book and a Booklist Editors’ Choice; and
Behind You (2004), included in the New York Public Library’s list of
best Books of the Teen Age. Three of Woodson’s books have been named
Newbery Honor Books:
Show Way (2005), Feathers (2007), and After Tupac & D Foster
(2008). Her recent books include the young adult novel Beneath a Meth Moon
(2012) and Brown Girl Dreaming (2014), a novel in verse about
Woodson’s family and segregation in the South, which won a National Book
Award and was named a Newbery Honor Book.
In an op-ed for the
New York Times, Woodson described how she wrote the book: “As
I interviewed relatives in both Ohio and Greenville, S.C., I began to
piece together the story of my mother’s life, my grandparents’ lives and
the lives of cousins, aunts and uncles.
These stories, and the stories I had heard throughout my childhood,
were told with the hope that I would carry on this family history and
American history, so that those coming after me could walk through the
world as armed as I am.”
Woodson
was awarded a Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in
writing for young adults, a St. Katharine Drexel Award, and an Anne V.
Zarrow Award for Young
Readers’ Literature. Jonathan Demme is adapting Beneath a Meth Moon for the screen. Woodson currently lives in Brooklyn with her family.
“Woodson’s
lyrical, deeply empathetic work is enthralling to all readers, making
her the ideal ambassador for young people’s literature,” said Katherine
Litwin, Poetry
Foundation library director. “We couldn’t be more honored and excited
to have her join us for the next two years in this important role.”
In recognition of Woodson’s achievements, the Poetry Foundation’s website, poetryfoundation.org, is featuring her in a
Poetry off the Shelf podcast
and an interview.
###
About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of
Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization
committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in American culture. It
exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before
the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation
seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by
developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and
encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and
programs. For more information, please visit
poetryfoundation.org.
Follow the Poetry Foundation and
Poetry on Facebook at facebook.com/poetryfoundation or on Twitter
@PoetryFound.
POETRY FOUNDATION | 61 West Superior Street | Chicago, IL 60654 | 312.787.707
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