Author Kwame Alexander and illustrator Dare Coulter highlighted the Children’s Book Guild’s Signature Event on May 31—an event that also celebrated the Guild’s 80th anniversary. The Guild also remembered the late Roz Beitler, a member for many years, who honored the guild with a generous bequest.

 

In remarks to a crowd of several dozen people at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Coulter, who grew up in the D.C. area, said, “My favorite thing about art is how it reaches people.” Her slide presentation included not only her art for children’s books but also her public art, such as a mural in North Carolina on a site near where Black people were sold into slavery. 

 

Coulter illustrated Alexander’s 2023 picture book An American Story, which won the 2024 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Book Award.

 

Alexander, a Guild member who appeared in conversation with Guild Vice President Caroline Brewer, recounted his successes—for example, winning the 2015 Newbery Medal for his middle grade novel in verse The Crossover—as well as lower moments in his career before The Crossover was published.

 

“It was all low, it was all necessary, and it was part of the journey,” he said. 

 

Alexander, a longtime D.C. area resident, also gave credit to the Guild for supporting him along the way. “People give you seeds of encouragement, and you give…back to them,” he said. 

 

At the conclusion of the program, which was moderated by Guild President Monica Valentine, the Guild presented Alexander with an original piece of Brewer’s art, depicting a sunflower and incorporating material relating to Alexander’s books.

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By Deborah Kalb