Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome (Holiday House) has won the $5,000 2019 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, which honors "a meritorious book published in the previous year for children or young adults."
The judges described Finding Langston this way: "Chicago brings culture shock for 11-year-old Langston, who moves there from Alabama with his father in 1946 after his mother dies. At school the other Bronzeville neighborhood kids call him 'country boy,' and at home the strange city noises keep him up at night. He's startled but delighted to find that his neighborhood hosts a beautiful library, and that, unlike the libraries back in Alabama that 'don't let in colored folks,' this one is open to all Chicago residents, serves its African-American community, and celebrates writers of color. Langston begins to find a Chicago home in the quiet welcome of that library, and his literary explorations lead him to learn more about his name--and even his family."
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Joyce Carol Oates is the recipient of the $10,000 2019 Jerusalem Prize, given to "international writers whose body of work assert the freedom of the individual in society." Oates will receive the award at the 2019 Jerusalem International Book Forum, the new name of the Jerusalem International Book Fair, held this year May 12-16.
The jury members said in part that Oates "has created a rich body of literary work. Her creative work dictates new creative horizons and denotes a continuous breach of boundaries. Although her work is characterized by an unmistakable voice, she continues to surprise her many readers with the elaborate narratives she creates, as well as the thematic variations of her works."
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Half Gods by Akil Kumarasamy (FSG) has won the Story Prize Spotlight Award, given to an exceptional debut short story collection. The $1,000 award is separate from the Story Prize, which will be awarded this year on March 6.
The Story Prize said that Half Gods is "a collection of 10 stories set in the U.S. and Sri Lanka that centers around a family that has a foot in each world. Although the book references the epic Hindu text the Mahabharata, these beautifully written and shaped stories are firmly grounded in the details of Kumarasamy's characters' everyday lives."
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The National Book Critics Circle has announced 31 finalists in the six categories of the 2018 awards, which will be presented March 16 in New York City. In related awards, the NBCC said that the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award has been won by Arte Público Press; Tommy Orange, author of There There, is the winner of the fifth annual John Leonard Prize; and the recipient of the 2017 Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing is Maureen Corrigan.