Finalists Announced for the 2015 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature
2015 Finalists:
- Ali Benjamin, The Thing About Jellyfish (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
- Laura Ruby, Bone Gap (Balzer + Bray, a division of HarperCollins Children’s Books)
- Steve Sheinkin, Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War (Roaring Brook Press)
- Neal Shusterman, Challenger Deep (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
- Noelle Stevenson, Nimona (HarperTeen/HarperCollins Children’s Books)
The winners of the 66th annual National Books Awards will be announced on November 18 at a ceremony in New York City.
About the National Book Foundation
The National Book Foundation’s mission is to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America. In addition to the National Book Awards, for which it is best known, the Foundation’s programs include 5 Under 35, a celebration of emerging fiction writers selected by former National Book Award Finalists and Winners; the National Book Awards Teen Press Conference, an opportunity for New York City students to interview the current National Book Award Finalists in Young People’s Literature; NBA on Campus, a partnership that brings National Book Award authors to colleges across the country; the Innovations in Reading Prize, awarded to individuals and institutions that have developed innovative means of creating and sustaining a lifelong love of reading; and BookUp, a writer-led, after-school reading program for middle-school students.
The National Book Award is one of the nation’s most prestigious literary prizes and has a stellar record of identifying and rewarding quality writing. In 1950, William Carlos Williams was the first Winner in Poetry, the following year William Faulkner was honored in Fiction, and so on through the years. Many previous Winners of a National Book Award are now firmly established in the canon of American literature, such as Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, Jonathan Franzen, Denis Johnson, James McBride, Joyce Carol Oates, and Adrienne Rich. For more information, visit http://www.nationalbook.org/.
