The New York Times Book Review included 5 Under 35, our prize for emerging writers, in its round up of the season’s biggest book prizes, alongside the Nobel Prize, Man Booker Prize, and the National Book Awards.
We’re delighted to see 5 Under 35 in such esteemed company!
See the full story: “Reader’s Guide to This Fall’s Big Book Awards”
At the annual National Book Awards Teen Press Conference, middle and high school students from New York City’s public and private schools played the role of reporters as they directed questions to the five Finalists for the 2014 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature.
The day before the 65th National Book Awards, the highly anticipated 2014 Teen Press Conference took place at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York and was attended by 300 enthusiastic students. The conference featured that year’s Finalists for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literautre: Eliot Schrefer, Threatened (Scholastic Press); Steve Sheinkin, The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights (Roaring Brook Press/ Macmillan Publishers); John Corey Whaley, Noggin (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/ Simon & Schuster); Deborah Wiles, Revolution: The Sixties Trilogy, Book Two (Scholastic Press); and Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming (Nancy Paulsen Books/ Penguin Group (USA)). It was hosted by Rachel Fershleiser.
Rachel Fershleiser is Director of Publisher Outreach at Tumblr. Previously she was the Community Manager at Bookish and the Director of Public Programs at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, where she now serves on the board of directors. She is also the co-creator of Six-Word Memoirs and co-editor of the New York Times Bestseller Not Quite What I Was Planning and three other books.
At the annual National Book Awards Teen Press Conference, middle and high school students from New York City’s public and private schools will play the role of reporters as they direct questions to the five Finalists for the 2015 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature.
The Teen Press Conference gives middle and high school students from New York City’s public and private schools who are interested in writing, reading, and journalism the opportunity to meet and interview the current five National Book Award Finalists in Young People’s Literature on a professional level. Students are encouraged to demonstrate the curiosity and ambition of a reporter who is granted an interview with an important public figure. At the event authors read from their honored work, respond to questions and comments from the students, and sign the students’ books. The event is moderated by a published author or a prominent figure in the book world.
To celebrate, expand, and enhance the cultural value of great writing, the National Book Foundation partnered with the 92nd Street Y for the 2015 Teen Press Conference to increase the number of students attending the event in New York City from 300 to 600. This year, for the first time, the Teen Press Conference will go on the road, its first stop in Miami, at the 2015 Miami Book Festival International and include authors Longlisted for the National Book Award. In Miami, over 200 students will attend the Teen Press Conference event.
Below is the live stream from the Teen Press Conference at the 92nd St Y.
At the annual National Book Awards Teen Press Conference, middle and high school students from New York City’s public and private schools will play the role of reporters as they direct questions to the five Finalists for the 2016 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature.
Tuesday, November 15
92nd Street Y, New York City
The Foundation is partnering with the 92nd Street Y for the second year in a row to invite over 600 students to the Teen Press Conference to meet and engage with the 2016 National Book Award Young People’s Finalists. In addition, the event will be live streamed to give students across the country the opportunity to view the event and “meet” the authors.
Hosted by Brendan Kiely.
Miami Book Festival International, Miami Florida
This year, the Teen Press Conference will return to the Miami Book Fair International. The winner, Finalists, and longlisted authors for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature are invited to meet with 200 students at one of the nation’s largest book fairs.
2018 Innovations in Reading Winner and Honorable Mentions – Academy of American Poets (winner). Honorable Mentions: Appalachian Prison Book Project, Friends of the Homer Library, Jewish Women International’s National Library Initiative, and Words Without Borders Campus
Each year the National Book Foundation, with support from the Levenger Foundation, awards the Innovations in Reading Prize, a $10,000 prize awarded to an individual or organization that has developed an innovative project which creates and sustains a lifelong love of reading in the community they serve.
The winner of the 2018 Innovations in Reading Prize is the Academy of American Poets and its Teach This Poem project, a weekly publication for K-12 educators that empowers teachers and students to make poetry an integral part of the educational experience. In addition to the winner, the Innovations in Reading Prize also identifies four honorable mentions each year. For the first year, these organizations will be awarded with $1,000 to recognize their meaningful work. The 2018 honorable mentions are the Appalachian Prison Book Project, Friends of the Homer Library, Jewish Women International’s National Library Initiative, and Words Without Borders Campus.
For more details about this year’s winner, the honorable mentions, or the Innovations in Reading Prize, please contact Jordan Smith: jsmith@nationalbook.org
Winner:
ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS and its TEACH THIS POEM project
The Academy of American Poets launched Teach This Poem in 2015 as a free resource that helps teachers and students actively integrate poetry into their educational lives. With over 27,000 teachers subscribed, Teach This Poem digitally distributes a weekly poem accompanied by unique curriculum and related teaching materials such as artwork, maps, and photographs curated by the Academy staff and their Educator in Residence, Dr. Mady Holzer. Poems are selected to address timely topics, and classroom activities are designed to provide cross-disciplinary strategies for incorporating poetry into daily school work and encourage not only the appreciation of poetry, but also the development of creative and critical thinking skills.
Academy of American Poets: www.poets.org Teach This Poem: www.poets.org/poetsorg/teach-poem
Honorable mentions:
APPALACHIAN PRISON BOOK PROJECT
The Appalachian Prison Book Project sends free books to incarcerated people in six states in the Appalachian region and facilitates books clubs and reading programs run with West Virginia University faculty and graduate students. aprisonbookproject.wordpress.com
JEWISH WOMEN INTERNATIONAL’S NATIONAL LIBRARY INITIATIVE
Jewish Women International’s National Library Initiative has opened 70 children’s libraries in domestic violence shelters throughout the country since 2005, providing safe and stable literary environments for mothers and families. www.jwi.org/nli
FRIENDS OF THE HOMER LIBRARY
Friends of the Homer Library, based in Homer, Alaska, reaches out to communities without easy access to the library’s resources, including outreach to Old Russian Believer families in remote villages outside the Homer area, whose schools do not have school libraries. friendshomerlibrary.org
WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS CAMPUS Words Without Borders Campus facilitates the building of cultural understanding through contemporary international literature with a free, online resource available to students and educators that features English translations of international texts. wwb-campus.org