Jas Hammonds | |
|---|---|
 Hammonds at the 2024 Texas Book Festival. | |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Young adult |
| Years active | 2020–present |
| Notable awards | Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award (2023) |
| Website | |
| www | |
Jas Hammonds is an American writer of young adult fiction, best known for her Coretta Scott King Award-winning [1] debut We Deserve Monuments.
Hammonds says she enjoys writing about themes of mental health, queerness, exploration of mixed-raced identities and Blackness, complicated family and friendship dynamics, and bittersweet endings, which always an appearance in her works. [2]
The first book she remembers reading is There’s a Wocket in My Pocket by Dr. Seuss and the book that made her want to be a writer is Alice in Rapture, Sort of by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. [3]
Hammonds identifies as a Black, queer writer [4] and has lived in the Pacific Northwest. [4]
Before becoming an author, she was a flight attendant. [5]
Hammonds is a recipient of the 2020 James Baldwin fellowship at MacDowell. [6] She has also been awarded multiple fellowships by Highlights Foundation, Lambda Literary Review, and Baldwin for the Arts.
We Deserve Monuments is set in a fictional town in Georgia and tells the story of a Black biracial girl moving there to aid her aging, sick grandmother. [4] The story explores the themes of love, family, generational trauma, and racism. [2] She wrote the first draft in 2016 and originally envisioned it as a ghost story. [4] It was published by Roaring Brook, an imprint of Macmillan, in Summer 2022. [7]
It was critically well-received, becoming a Summer/Fall 2022 Indies Introduce YA selection, [8] and a Best Book of 2022 as chosen by Kirkus Reviews [9] and School Library Journal , [10] as well as garnering starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, [11] Booklist, [12] School Library Journal, [13] BookPage, [14] and Shelf Awareness. [15]
We Deserve Monuments also was the 2023 Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award for New Talent Winner. [1]
Her second novel, Thirsty, is about a mixed-race lesbian girl that joins an exclusive sorority in her first year of college that promises to help her build valuable connections to powerful women of color, and uses alcohol to cope with the financial pressure, her anxiety, and her lack of social status. It was published in May 2024. Hammonds says her aim was to explore the themes of the connection between alcohol and societal pressure in a college setting. [2]
Carole Boston Weatherford is an American author and critic. She has published over 50 children's books, primarily non-fiction and poetry. The music of poetry has fascinated Weatherford and motivated her literary career. She has won multiple awards for her books, including the 2022 Coretta Scott King Award for Author for her book Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre. As a critic, she is best known for her controversial criticism of Pokémon character Jynx and Dragon Ball character Mr. Popo.
Kwame Alexander is an American writer of poetry and children's fiction.
El Deafo is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Cece Bell. The book is a loose autobiographical account of Bell's childhood and life with her deafness. The characters in the book are all anthropomorphic bunnies. Cece Bell, in an interview with the Horn Book Magazine, states "What are bunnies known for? Big ears; excellent hearing," rendering her choice of characters and their deafness ironic.
Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is a 2016 picture book biography by Javaka Steptoe about Jean-Michel Basquiat. Using a style similar to Basquiat's, the book tells the story of his childhood and early career. It won the 2017 Caldecott Medal and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for its illustrations.
Tiffany D. Jackson is an American author and filmmaker. She writes young adult fiction and makes horror films. She is best known for her NAACP Image Award—nominated debut novel Allegedly.
Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets is a 2017 collection of poems for children's by Kwame Alexander with co-authors Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth and illustrated by Ekua Holmes. The book won the 2018 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. Each of the 20 poems is written in tribute to and in the style of a well known poet.
The Poet X, published March 6, 2018 by HarperTeen, is a young adult novel by Elizabeth Acevedo. Fifteen-year-old Xiomara, also known as "X" or "Xio," works through the tension and conflict in her family by writing poetry. The book, a New York Times bestseller, was well received and won multiple awards at the 2019 Youth Media Awards.
The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog is a young adult novel written by Adam Gidwitz and illuminated by Hatem Aly, published by Dutton Children's Books in 2016, and inspired by The Canterbury Tales. It is set in medieval France and describes how three magical children meet each other and become outlaws. It was named a Newbery Honor book in 2017.
Kekla Magoon is an American author, best known for her NAACP Image Award-nominated young adult novel The Rock and the River, How It Went Down, The Season of Styx Malone, and X. In 2021, she received the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association for her body of work. Her works also include middle grade novels, short stories, and historical, socio-political, and economy-related non-fiction.
Freedom in Congo Square is a 2016 poetic nonfiction picture book by Carole Boston Weatherford, and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. It was published in hardcover by Little Bee Books. The book provides an account of 19th-century slaves in New Orleans who were able to gather in one place on Sundays: Congo Square. In addition to the book's main text, "an introduction and afterword provide further historic detail."
Me & Mama is a 2020 picture book written and illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera and published by Simon & Schuster under the Denene Millner Books imprint. The book celebrates the relationship between a mother and her daughter.
Tracy Deonn is an American author. Her debut novel Legendborn (2020) was a New York Times bestseller and received a Coretta Scott King–John Steptoe Award for New Talent and the 2021 Ignyte Award for Best Young Adult Novel. The sequel novel Bloodmarked was published in 2022 and also became a #1 New York Times bestseller.
Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks is a young adult novel written by Jason Reynolds, illustrated by Alexander Nabaum, and published October 8, 2019 by Atheneum Books. The book is a New York Times best seller, National Book Award for Young People's Literature finalist (2019), Coretta Scott King Award honor book (2020), and Carnegie Medal recipient (2021).
X: A Novel is a young adult novel by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon, published January 6, 2015 by Candlewick Press.
Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People is a nonfiction book about the Black Panther Party, written by Kekla Magoon and published November 23, 2021 by Candlewick Press. In 2021, the book was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.
The Sun Is Also a Star is a young adult novel by American author Nicola Yoon, published November 1, 2016, by Delacorte Press. The book follows two characters, one of whom is about to be deported, and explores “the ways in which we are all connected and the ways in which people across all walks of life have much more in common than they think they do.”
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre is a picture book written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Floyd Cooper. Published on February 2, 2021, by Carolrhoda, it tells the history behind the Tulsa race massacre in verse.
Everything Sad Is Untrue: is a young adult/middle grade autobiographical novel by Daniel Nayeri, published August 25, 2020 by Levine Querido. In 2021, the book won the Michael L. Printz Award, Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature, and Middle East Book Award for Youth Literature.
Natasha Farrant is a British children's author. In 2020, she won the Costa Book Award for Children's Book for Voyage of the Sparrowhawk.
Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement is a 2015 non-fiction and poetic children's book by written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Ekua Holmes.
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