The Harlem Book Fair, televised annually by C-Span’s BookTV and attended by thousands, will be held this year July 19-20, in, New York – Harlem, of course. The Book Fair features big-name authors, music, panel discussions, outdoor readings, food, writing workshops, and more, and this year they acknowledge their fifteen years in business.
In celebration of this event, QBR, a national book review exclusively dedicated to books about the African experience, and the diaspora, is now sponsoring The QBR Phyllis Wheatley Book Award. According to the website, The QBR Wheatley Book Awards “…recognizes the best African American books and writers in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Children’s books.” Special honor will be also given for Publisher of the Year and Performance Poet of the Year. Nominations, dear bloggers, are where you and I come in. Even if you can’t get to New York for the festivities, you have until June 15th, 2013 to nominate an author for the Children’s Fiction categories. As you might guess, in a book festival dominated by adult titles, children’s lit is invisible – and, since we always complain that African American children’s lit is virtually invisible, I think that people need to get in there and make some noise on behalf of diversity and children’s lit. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page, and recommend a title, with author name, for consideration in CHILDREN’S (Early Readers). Title must have been published in 2012. If everyone is only allowed one nomination (and I don’t know that for sure), we all need to do it!
Past of Boston’s Women’s Memorial on Commonwealth Avenue & Fairfield Street.
Good! Thanks for the head's up. I was just about to nominate a book published this year when I rechecked the rules.
I had to search and SEARCH for where to nom for children's lit. I hope this brings some attention.