2018-2019 Lunchtime Lecture Series Schedule.
On Thursday, February 21st, author Elizabeth Acevedo, National Poetry Slam Champion, educator, and winner of the 2018 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Best Fiction, will discuss her cultural heritage, writing process, and how she arrived at writing her debut young adult novel, The Poet X (HarperCollins, 2018).
Nonfiction Writer Cynthia Levinson Spoke at the Guild's January 17th Lunchtime Lecture
As a nonfiction writer, Cynthia Levinson delves into an often-gnarly question: “What happened?” In her January 17th presentation, Levinson looked at this query from a variety of angles, including:
(1) What truly happened?
(2) What should a writer do about widely accepted untruths?
(3) What if no one knows the truth?
(4) What happens when the truth is embarrassing? and
(5) Well, the final angle is personal; you’ll have to come and hear for yourself!
Levinson writes nonfiction for young readers from elementary through high school. Focusing on issues of social justice, her books have won numerous awards, including the Crystal Kite, Carter G. Woodson, Julia Ward Howe, Jane Addams, IRA, Orbis Pictus honor and Sydney Taylor notable awards. Levinson loves visiting schools, including with An Open Book Foundation, and giving presentations to teachers and other writers. She divides her time between Austin and Boston and visits her daughter and family in Washington, D.C., as often as possible.
Carole Boston Weatherford
2019 Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award Winner
The Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C., has selected Carole Boston Weatherford as its 2019 Nonfiction Award Winner. The award, given annually since 1977, honors authors or illustrators whose total work has contributed significantly to the quality of nonfiction for children.
Weatherford’s books introduce individuals and subjects through careful research, often using different poetic styles to engage young readers. While some of her books tell the stories of famous figures such as Lena Horne and Billie Holiday, she also brings lesser known people such as photographer Gordon Parks and race car driver Wendell Scott to a wider audience. Though she writes on many topics, Weatherford’s work often showcases the breadth and depth of African-American history, from the 1700’s to the present day.
Weatherford has won numerous honors for her individual books. Freedom in Congo Square won a Charlotte Zolotow Award for best picture book text. Weatherford also won a Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Honor for Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement and the 2018 Walter Dean Myers Award for Schomberg: The Man Who Built a Library.
Nonfiction Award Committee member Cecilia Cackley was particularly impressed by the text in Weatherford’s picture books. “Whether she is writing in rhyming poetry, free verse or rhythmic prose, she has great respect for the child audience and doesn’t talk down to the reader, even when writing about difficult topics.”
Weatherford will be honored at a Children’s Book Guild Award Luncheon on May 11, 2019, at Clyde’s Restaurant of Gallery Place, 707 7th St. N.W., Washington, D.C. Tickets are $35 ($36 when paid on line via PayPal). RSVP and pay.
