Alicia Diane Williams | |
---|---|
Born | September 26, 1970 |
Occupation | Novelist |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Hamline University |
Alicia Diane Williams (born September 26, 1970) [1] is an American author and teacher. Her debut novel, Genesis Begins Again , published in 2019, received wide praise by several publications, won a Newbery Honor, Coretta Scott King- John Steptoe Award for New Talent, and finalists to the William C. Morris Award and Kirkus Prize for Young Readers Literature.
Alicia D. Williams grew up in Detroit, Michigan. [2] After graduating high school, Alicia went on to attend the University of Kentucky and majored in African American Studies. She received her BA in 1994, and went on to New York City, where she trained in theatre at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. While living in New York, Alicia performed in plays, commercials, sketch comedy, and stand-up comedy. Wanting a change, she moved back to Detroit, where she eventually found a job as a flight attendant and was stationed in Charlotte, North Carolina. [3] : 3:20
In 1999, Williams had a daughter, Nailah, [3] : 5:50 and afterwards she returned to working with the theater and writing "one-woman historical shows". [3] : 8:20
In 2009, having promised herself she would write a book, [3] : 7:40 she began attending writing conferences. In 2012, Alicia began graduate school at Hamline University. [4] After graduating, [5] she kept working on the manuscript for several years while being employed as a Teaching Artist in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2015, Alicia completed her manuscript Genesis Begins Again [6] and the book was published in January 2019 by Simon & Schuster/Atheneum Books for Young Readers.
Williams' book was generally praised by critics. She was awarded a Newbery Honor and the Coretta Scott King "John Steptoe Award for New Talent" in 2020. [7] The novel was also a finalist for the William C. Morris Award and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers Literature. [8] [9]
Her 2021 book about Shirley Chisholm won the Jane Addams Children's Book Award.
Cynthia Kadohata is a Japanese American children's writer best known for her young adult novel Kira-Kira which won the Newbery Medal in 2005. She won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2013 for The Thing About Luck.
The Coretta Scott King Award is an annual award presented by the Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table, part of the American Library Association (ALA). Named for Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., this award recognizes outstanding books for young adults and children by African Americans that reflect the African American experience. Awards are given both to authors and to illustrators.
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. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2020.
Sharon Mills Draper is an American children's writer, professional educator, and the 1997 National Teacher of the Year. She is a five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for books about the young and adolescent African-American experience. She is known for her Hazelwood and Jericho series, Copper Sun,Double Dutch, Out of My Mind and Romiette and Julio.
Ashley Frederick Bryan was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. Most of his subjects are from the African-American experience. He was U.S. nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2006 and he won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his contribution to American children's literature in 2009. His picture book Freedom Over Me was short-listed for the 2016 Kirkus Prize and received a Newbery Honor.
Kathi Appelt is an American author of more than forty books for children and young adults. She won the annual PEN USA award for Children's Literature recognizing The Underneath (2008).
Kwame Alexander is an American writer of poetry and children's fiction.
Last Stop on Market Street is a 2015 children's book written by American author Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christian Robinson, which won the 2016 Newbery Medal, a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor, and a Caldecott Honor. The book follows a young boy named CJ as he learns to appreciate the beauty in everyday things during a bus ride. De la Peña and Robinson both drew on personal experiences when working together to create the book. Through its story and illustrations, Last Stop on Market Street tackles issues of race and class as they may be seen through the eyes of a young teen. Last Stop on Market Street was met with widespread acclaim after its release, receiving positive reviews from Kirkus Reviews and the New York Times Book Review amongst many others. Last Stop on Market Street's Newbery win was monumental, as it is extremely rare for picture books to be awarded this medal. In 2018, the children's book was adapted into a children's musical which has been performed by various children's theater groups across the country.
Kelly Barnhill is an American author of children's literature, fantasy, and science fiction. Her novel The Girl Who Drank the Moon was awarded the 2017 Newbery Medal. Kirkus Reviews named When Women Were Dragons one of the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2022.
Erin Entrada Kelly is an American writer of children's literature. She was awarded the 2018 John Newbery Medal by the Association for Library Service to Children for her third novel, Hello, Universe.
Jason Reynolds is an American author of novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade audience. 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.
Ronald L. Smith is a children's book author. He is the author of Hoodoo (2015), The Mesmerist (2017), Black Panther: The Young Prince (2018), The owls have come to take us away (2019), and Gloom Town (2020). For Hoodoo, Smith won the American Library Association's Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent.
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.
Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut is a 2017 picture book by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James. The book, Barnes' first picture book, is a poem describing a boy's feelings and experience while getting a haircut. James, who was not the first choice to be the illustrator, wanted the oil color illustrations to have the feel of fine art.
Derrick Barnes is an American author. He is known for writing several popular series of children's books and is a former staff writer for Hallmark greeting cards. In 2018 Barnes received several awards that include the Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award for his 2017 book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut.
Long Way Down is a young adult novel in verse by Jason Reynolds, published October 24, 2017, by Atheneum Books. The book was longlisted for the National Book Award and was named a Printz Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Honor Book, and Newbery Medal Honor Book, alongside other awards and positive reviews.
James E. Ransome is an American illustrator of children's books.
Genesis Begins Again is a 2019 children's book by Alicia D. Williams. It tells the story of thirteen-year-old Genesis Anderson, whose family has been evicted several times from their home due to the father's gambling addiction. Genesis is also a victim of bullying and colorism, both at home and school, two recurring themes of the novel. Genesis Begins Again, Williams' debut novel, received general praise and won a Newbery Honor and "Steptoe Award for New Talent".
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).
Ain't Burned All the Bright is a 2022 young-adult picture book written by Jason Reynolds, with artwork by Jason Griffin. Narrated by an African-American youth who copes along with his family amid the early months of COVID-19, the work is set to sparse, first-person poetic prose and stylistic illustrations, and is divided into three sections called "Breaths".
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link)