New York Times best-selling author Gordon Korman is the winner of the Tulsa Library Trust’s 2016 Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers’ Literature. He will accept the award at a public presentation at Hardesty Regional Library’s Connor’s Cove, 8316 E. 93rd St., Friday, May 6, at 7 p.m. He also will present awards to winners of the 2016 Young People’s Creative Writing Contest awards at the ceremony.
Korman is being recognized for writing more than 80 books for children and teens during a publishing career that started when he was 12-years-old. In a career spanning nearly four decades, his books have been translated into more than 20 languages and have sold more than 25-million copies. In 1981 he was awarded the Most Promising Writer Under 35 by the Canadian Authors’ Association. His latest book, Criminal Destiny, was released in 2016 and is the second book in his Masterminds trilogy.
For his seventh-grade creative writing project, Korman spent one class period a day for four months writing what would become his first published novel, This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall.
As the class monitor for Scholastic Book Orders, he had a contact name and address for one of the largest publishers in the industry, Scholastic. He sent his manuscript off and by his freshman year was a published Scholastic author.
“It was a totally flukey and random way to launch a publishing career, but here’s the thing: It Worked,” recalled Korman on his website.
He is the New York Times bestselling author of three books in The 39 Clues series as well as five books in his Swindle series. He also has written the trilogies Island, Everest, Kidnapped, and Titanic as well as the series On The Run.
In 2013, Nickelodeon produced an original movie based on Korman’s book Swindle, the first book in the series. After accidentally selling a valuable multi-million dollar baseball card, a high school student enlists the help of his trusted friends to retrieve the baseball card from an unscrupulous collectible dealer.
The Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers’ Literature gives formal recognition, on behalf of the Tulsa County community, to a nationally acclaimed author who has made a significant contribution to the field of literature for young adults. The award, presented by the Tulsa Library Trust, consists of a $7,500 cash prize and an engraved crystal book.
Past winners include: Sharon Draper (2015), Jack Gantos (2014), Jim Murphy (2013), Jacqueline Woodson (2012), Kathryn Lasky (2011), Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (2010), Christopher Paul Curtis (2009), Louis Sachar (2008), Kate DiCamillo (2007), Sharon Creech (2006), Avi (2005), Susan Cooper (2004), Russell Freedman (2003), Richard Peck (2002), E.L. Konigsburg (2001), Jerry Spinelli (2000), Jane Yolen (1999), Cynthia Voigt (1998), Gary Paulsen (1997), Walter Dean Myers (1996), Lois Lowry (1994), Katherine Paterson (1993), Madeleine L’Engle (1992) and S.E. Hinton (1991).
For more information on the Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers’ Literature, call the AskUs Hotline, 918-549-7323, or visit the library’s website, www.tulsalibrary.org.
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