I am honored and overjoyed to say WHAT I CARRY is the 2021 recipient of the YA Literature Washington State Book Award! Thank you so much, readers, librarians, teachers, booksellers, book bloggers, judges - all the people in takes to make a book. Thank you so much Melissa Sarver at Folio Literary, my editor Jenna Lettice and the entire Random House team, the Seattle Public Library and the Washington Center for the Book. I am stunned and thrilled for all the finalists and the multitude of books that come from our beautiful, beloved and very literary Washington State. WHAT I CARRY was written for my daughter, and for the brave & beautiful people who shared their stories of life in Foster Care in America with me, and with Muir. Thank you. Here’s the email I read while shopping the Chip and Joanna section at TARGET which made my hands go tingly and I had to sit on the floor and try to breathe until a nice TARGET lade asked me if I was okay:
“The Washington Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book, and a partnership of the Washington State Library (a division of the Office of the Secretary of State) and The Seattle Public Library, is thrilled to congratulate you for winning the 2021 Washington State Book Award for Young Adult Literature for What I Carry.
The Washington State Book Awards honor works of outstanding literary merit by Washington authors. The award is given based on the strength of the publication’s literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality. This is the 55th year of the program, formerly called the Governor’s Writers Awards.”
I love my heart home state of Washington. I love our libraries, librarians, teachers, readers, Indie Bookshops . . . our very literary-loving state of trees and ocean and whales and mountains and coffee and books and rain friends. I am so grateful to be here. Thank you.
http://www.washingtoncenterforthebook.org/washington-state-book-awards-2021/
Winning Books *Washington State BOOK AWARDS 2021* What I Carry YA Literature