Sir Terry Pratchett wins 2011 Edwards Award

SAN DIEGO - Sir Terry Pratchett is the recipient of the 2011 Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring hissignificant and lasting contribution to writing for teens. The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), announced the award today at the ALA Midwinter Meeting, held Jan. 7 – 11 in San Diego.

 

Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2009 for services to literature, Pratchett published his first short story when he was thirteen. A resident of Somerset, England, Pratchett has one daughter, a wife, and many cats. He has published over fifty books and his works have been translated into thirty six languages.

 

 Pratchett’s tales of Discworld have won over generations of teen readers with intelligence, heart, and undeniable wit. Comic adventures that fondly mock the fantasy genre, the Discworld novels expose the hypocrisies of contemporary society in an intricate, ever-expanding universe. With satisfyingly multi-layered plots, Pratchett’s humor honors the intelligence of the reader. Teens eagerly lose themselves in a universe with no maps.

 

Published by HarperCollins Publishers, readers first encountered Discworld with “The Color of Magic” and continued the journey in such titles as “Guards! Guards!”, “Equal Rites”, “Going Postal”, “Small Gods” and “Mort”. Pratchett entered the young adult publishing world via HarperCollins Children’s Books with “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents”. The adventures of young witch Tiffany Aching begin in “The Wee Free Men” and “A Hat Full of Sky”.

 

“Pratchett’s work draws teens into a world where humor, perseverance and hope are the order of the day,” said Edwards Committee ChairRobin Brenner.

 

Sir Terry Pratchett will be honored at the YALSA Edwards Award Luncheon and presented with a citation and cash prize of $2,000 during the 2011 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, June 23 – 28. The award is sponsored by School Library Journal.

 

Members of the 2011 Edwards Committee are:Chair Robin Brenner, Brookline (Mass.) Public Library; Amy J. Alessio, Schaumburg (Ill.) Township District Library; Christine A. Jenkins, University of Illinois, Champaign, Ill.; Betsy Levine, San Francisco Public Library; and Hollis Rudiger, Madison West High School, Madison, Wis.

 

The award is named in honor of the late Margaret A. Edwards, a pioneer in providing library services to young adults. Through her work at Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Edwards demonstrated that only through literature would young adults move beyond themselves into a larger world.

 

For more than 50 years, YALSA has been the world leader in selecting books, videos and audio books for teens. For more information about YALSA or for lists of recommended reading, viewing and listening, go to www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists.

 

For information on the Margaret A. Edwards Award and other ALA Youth Media Awards, please visit www.ala.org/yma.