Fallen Angels is a 1988 young-adult novel written by Walter Dean Myers, about the Vietnam War. It won the 1988 Coretta Scott King Award. Fallen Angels is listed as number 16 in the American Library Association's list of 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990–2000 due to its use of profanity and realistic depiction of the war.
Christopher Paul Curtis is an American children's book author. His first novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963, was published in 1995 and brought him immediate national recognition, receiving the Coretta Scott King Honor Book Award and the Newbery Honor Book Award in addition to numerous other awards. In 2000, he became the first person to win both the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award—prizes received for his second novel Bud, Not Buddy—and the first African-American man to win the Newbery Medal. His novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 was made into a television film in 2013.
Virginia Esther Hamilton was an American children's books author. She wrote 41 books, including M. C. Higgins, the Great (1974), for which she won the U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Newbery Medal in 1975. Her works were celebrated for exploring the African-American experience, what she called "Liberation Literature."
Nathan Lee Powell is an American graphic novelist and musician. His 2008 graphic novel Swallow Me Whole won an Ignatz Award and Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel. He illustrated the March trilogy, an autobiographical series written by U.S. Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, which received the 2016 National Book Award, making Powell the first cartoonist to receive the award.
Charlie Jane Anders is an American writer specializing in speculative fiction. She has written several novels as well as shorter fiction, published in magazines and on websites, and hosted podcasts; these works cater to both adults and adolescent readers. Her first science fantasy novels, such as All the Birds in the Sky and The City in the Middle of the Night, cover mature topics, received critical acclaim, and won major literary awards like the Nebula Award for Best Novel and Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Her young adult trilogy Unstoppable has been popular among younger audiences. Shorter fiction has been collected into Six Months, Three Days, Five Others and Even Greater.
Jacqueline Woodson is an American writer of books for children and adolescents. She is best known for Miracle's Boys, and her Newbery Honor-winning titles Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. After serving as the Young People's Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, she was named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, by the Library of Congress, for 2018 to 2019. Her novel Another Brooklyn was shortlisted for the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. She won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2018. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2020.
Nikki Grimes is an American author of books written for children and young adults, as well as a poet and journalist.
Rita Williams-Garcia is an American writer of novels for children and young adults. In 2010, her young adult novel Jumped was a National Book Award finalist for Young People's Literature. She won the 2011 Newbery Honor Award, Coretta Scott King Award, and Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for her book One Crazy Summer. She won the PEN/Norma Klein Award. Her 2013 book, P.S. Be Eleven, was a Junior Literary Guild selection, a New York Times Editors Choice Book, and won the Coretta Scott King Award in 2014. In 2016 her book Gone Crazy in Alabama won the Coretta Scott King Award. In 2017, her book Clayton Byrd Goes Underground was a finalist for the National Book Award for young people's literature.
Beth Bernobich is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. She also goes by the pen name Claire O'Dell. She was born in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania in 1959. Her first novel, Passion Play was published by Tor Books in October 2010, and won the Romantic Times 2010 Reviewer Choice Award for Best Epic Fantasy. Her novel, A Study in Honor was published by Harper Voyager in July 2018 and won the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery.
Mildred DeLois Taylor is a Newbery Award-winning American young adult novelist. She is best known for her novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, part of her Logan family series.
Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush is a 1982 children's novel by Virginia Hamilton. The novel deals with the paranormal, poverty, single motherhood, childhood illness, and child abuse. The novel, like many of Hamilton's works, is set in Ohio.
Jason Reynolds is an American author of novels and poetry for young adult and middle grade audiences. Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in neighboring Oxon Hill, Maryland, Reynolds found inspiration in rap and had an early focus on poetry, publishing several poetry collections before his first novel in 2014, When I Was the Greatest, which won the John Steptoe Award for New Talent.
Kacen Callender is a Saint Thomian author of children's fiction and fantasy, best known for their Stonewall Book Award and Lambda Literary Award—winning middle grade debut Hurricane Child (2018). Their fantasy novel, Queen of the Conquered, is the 2020 winner of the World Fantasy Award, and King and the Dragonflies won the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature.
Richard Gregory Christie is an American author and illustrator of picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, and album covers best known for his Coretta Scott King Award-winning books No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller, Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U. S. Marshal, and Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan, Only Passing Through, and the NAACP Image Award-winning Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change.
The Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works that celebrate or explore LGBT themes. The organization is considered to be one of the main promoters of new and emerging LGBT writers.
Hurricane Child is a children's novel by Kacen Callender. The book was published in March 2018 by Scholastic Press. The book is set in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and tells the story of Caroline Murphy, who discovers her love for another girl.
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.
Felix Ever After is a young adult novel written by Kacen Callender and published in 2020 by Balzer + Bray. The story is narrated by a Black trans teen as he grapples "with identity and self-discovery while falling in love for the first time".
Queen of the Conquered is a 2019 fantasy novel by Kacen Callender. Callender's adult debut, published by Orbit in 2019, the book was the 2020 winner of the World Fantasy Award. In October 2020, a Time panel rated the book one of the top 100 fantasy novels of all-time.
Famous Men Who Never Lived is a 2019 science fiction novel by American author K. Chess, about refugees. It was first published by Tin House.
