Coretta Scott King Awards Celebrate 40th Year

July 17, 2009

Chicago native and Black Entertainment Television Sunday Best finalist Shari Addison led a capacity crowd in “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” to begin the 40th Annual Coretta Scott King Book Awards Breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Chicago July 14.

Despite the early hour, attendees were greeted by a star-studded array of inspiring thank-you speechs from the winners of the 2008 awards—illustrator winner Floyd Cooper (The Blacker the Berry, HarperCollins) and author and illustrator honor winner Kadir Nelson (We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, Disney Book Group), as well as illustrator honor winners Jerry Pinkney (The Moon Over Star, Penguin) and Sean Qualls (Before John Was a Jazz Giant, Macmillan) and author honor recipients Hope Anita Smith (Keeping the Night Watch, Macmillan), Joyce Carol Thomas (The Blacker the Berry, HarperCollins), and Carole Boston Weatherford (Becoming Billie Holiday, Boyds Mills Press). Also honored was Shadra Strickland, the John Steptoe Award for New Talent winner for Bird (Lee and Low Books).

Andrea Davis Pinkney, chair of the King Awards Public Awareness Campaign, provided a tribute in honor of the anniversary, and Arnold Adoff read “of course,” a poem he wrote in special honor of the 40th year of the King Awards (see above).

The breakfast concluded with a salute to Satia Orange, director of ALA’s Office for Literacy and Outreach Services and staff liaison to ALA’s Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT), who is retiring next month.

The King Awards are sponsored by the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee and EMIERT. Visit the Coretta Scott King Book Awards website for more information.

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