We Need Diverse Books announced the winners and honorees of the Walter Dean Myers Awards, given each year to “diverse authors whose works feature diverse main characters and address diversity in a meaningful way.”
The winner of the Walter Award in the younger readers category is Jacqueline Woodson for Remember Us, her novel about a middle-school student in Brooklyn who befriends a young newcomer to her neighborhood.
Aisha Saeed, Huda Al-Marashi, Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, and S.K. Ali received the younger readers Walter Honors for their novel Grounded, which follows four children stuck in an airport following a Muslims of North America conference.
In the teen category, Ari Tison was named the Walter Award winner for Saints of the Household, a novel that tells the story of two Bribri American brothers in Minnesota who beat up a schoolmate while defending their cousin.
The teen Walter Honors went to Hannah V. Sawyerr for All the Fighting Parts, a novel-in-verse about a 16-year-old survivor of clergy sexual abuse.
The Walter Dean Myers Awards, established by the literary nonprofit We Need Diverse Books and named after the young adult author who died in 2014, were first given out in 2016. Previous winners include Jason Reynolds for Long Way Down, Elizabeth Acevedo for The Poet X, and Angeline Boulley for Firekeeper’s Daughter.
This year’s winners and honorees will be recognized at a ceremony on March13 in Washington, D.C., featuring Acevedo as moderator.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
