…everything changes.
This picture of Coretta Scott King (with Jesse Jackson, incidentally — didn’t notice that at first) was taken before I was born, in the year that the first Coretta Scott King Award was won. It was for Lillie Patterson’s biography, Martin Luther King, Jr. Man of Peace, and I imagine the woman herself was present to applaud the winner.
The Coretta Scott King Award is for the most distinguished portrayal of African American experience in literature for children, and without a doubt, it would be an honor to receive such an award — and to know that you had done your best to shine a light on a piece of the American experience which reflects the same light that Mrs. King did, the light of justice and rightness and peace.
MARE’S WAR has won a Coretta Scott King Honor, and I’m really grateful for all the people — including my MFA thesis team, my writing group, my SAM, and my editor — who were so supportive and amazing in what was a long process. Thank-you, sincerely, my dears.
And WOW, am I shocked. It sort of grew… quietly. I had NO CLUE, and finally turned on my email/Facebook about noon, to check in with the world at large. My Google Reader came up, and I zipped over to my Poetry Princess buddy, Tricia, who… was congratulating me. I decided I should really read my email — immediately. And there was a note from my editor with the word YOU! in the subject line.
OH.
I was trying for nonchalant. And now, with the growing number of authors “friending” me on Facebook and the notes from my editor, still in Boston, and calls from my SAM — still no call from The Committee, but they only call the winners, I’m sure, not the Honors — I’m going from nonchalant to sort of …weirdly giddy.
Wow.
Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Thank you, ALA and Coretta Scott King Award team.
Photo courtesy Academy of Achievement, Museum of Living History, Washington, D.C.
