Tue,
03/14/2023 – 04:31pm
The College of Southern Mississippi’s (USM) annual Fay B. Kaigler Youngsters’s E-book
Competition might be held April 12-14 on the Hattiesburg campus, throughout which awarding
profitable and bestselling author and artist Gene Luen-Yang might be honored with the
occasion’s prime award, the Southern Miss Medallion.
The competition, to be held in-person for the primary time in three years as a consequence of previous restrictions
introduced on by the Covid-19 pandemic, may also function the Ezra Jack Keats Award recognition ceremony.
Yang joined the Kaigler Competition household in 2015 when he was a keynote speaker. He
is the bestselling author and artist behind American Born Chinese language, Boxers & Saints, the Avatar: the Final Airbender comics, Dragon Hoops, Superman Smashes the Klan, and plenty of different iconic works. American Born Chinese language, Gene’s first graphic novel, was the first-ever graphic novel to be named a finalist
for the Nationwide E-book Award. The guide went on to win the Printz Award, the ALA’s award
for the perfect younger grownup guide revealed in a 12 months, and an Eisner Award, one of many
most prestigious honors within the comedian guide world.
His follow-up solo graphic novel, Boxers & Saints, was additionally a Nationwide E-book Award finalist and received a Printz Honor and the LA Instances
E-book Prize for Younger Readers. His more moderen graphic novel Dragon Hoops additionally obtained a Printz Honor and an Eisner Award, and Superman Smashes the Klan received two Eisner Awards.
Karen Rowell, coordinator of the competition, says she’s eagerly anticipating the occasion’s
return to “regular” after three years of online-only programming, and recognizing Yang
for his excellent contributions to the style of youngsters’s literature.
“We’re thrilled on the prospect of seeing – in particular person – the smiling faces that actually
make the Kaigler Youngsters’s E-book Competition the particular occasion that it’s and all the time
has been and look ahead to honoring a real expertise in Gene Luen Yang with our prime
award,” Rowell mentioned.
Yang was named the Nationwide Ambassador for Younger Individuals’s Literature by the Library
of Congress in 2016. He was the primary ambassador who works primarily in graphic novels.
Throughout his two-year tenure, Yang promoted “Studying With out Partitions,” a platform he developed
with the Youngsters’s E-book Council and his writer, First Second, that inspired
younger individuals to learn exterior their consolation zones. In 2016, he was additionally awarded a fellowship
with the MacArthur Basis and the accompanying prestigious “genius” grant.
A powerful believer in collaboration, Yang has revealed books in partnership with esteemed
cartoonists. He’s a robust proponent of utilizing comics in schooling, and of representing
variety by means of the comics medium, which he does in all his comics work.
“As a library administrator who has been attending and presenting on the Kaigler Youngsters’s
E-book Competition for 5 years, I could not be extra excited to be again in particular person this
12 months,” mentioned Daybreak Zimmerer, grownup and youth companies director for the Madison County
(Mississippi) Library System. “It’s, maybe, among the finest skilled improvement
alternatives for me and our employees.”
Together with Yang, different honorees and keynote audio system within the competition’s schedule of
programming embody:
*Amy Bluemel – Coleen Salley Storytelling Award Winner
Bluemel is a gifted storyteller, educator, artist, and stomp dancer. Her appreciation
for cultural consciousness got here at an early age. She was raised in a navy household;
she lived in Germany, Okinawa, Turkey, and Scotland earlier than returning to her Chickasaw
roots in America. Because the great-granddaughter of Eastman Kaney (an unique Dawes Fee
enrollee), Amy is a proud member of the Chickasaw Nation. She usually performs with
the dance troupe Chikashsha Hithla throughout nationwide excursions and shares Chickasaw customs
(and people of different southeastern tribes) with audiences of all ages by means of full of life
applications at colleges and museums throughout the nation.
Bluemel was considered one of 36 Native American artists chosen to point out and promote her artwork on the
Smithsonian Nationwide Museum of the American Indian, Native American Artwork Market in
Washington D.C. in 2019; she additionally reveals and sells her creations at powwows and festivals
all through the USA. She lives in Austin, Texas, along with her husband, Carl,
and two daughters who’ve additionally taken to Chickasaw tradition and stomp dance.
*Linda Williams-Jackson
Williams-Jackson is the writer of critically acclaimed, Mississippi-based historic
novels Midnight With no Moon, A Sky Stuffed with Stars, and The Fortunate Ones (Widespread Sense Media Household Seal Choice 2022). Southern by delivery – and a Southern
author by the grace of God – Williams-Jackson is plum-picking proud to nonetheless name
Mississippi house. Born and raised within the Mississippi Delta within the city of Rosedale,
Williams-Jackson likes to spin tales about on a regular basis individuals in small-town settings.
Although she has lived in a couple of different states (Alabama, Missouri, and Kansas), she at present
makes her house in a not-so-small city in Mississippi along with her husband and three kids.
Whereas a level in math and pc science from the College of Alabama allowed
her to get pleasure from a profession in data expertise as a database administrator and adjunct
professor, she now prefers manipulating phrases slightly than numbers and symbols. In addition to
her novels for younger readers, Williams-Jackson has additionally written studying evaluation
passages for varied instructional publishers and is revealed in 5 Hen Soup for the Soul titles.
*Loren Lengthy – de Grummond Youngsters’s Literature Assortment Lecturer
Lengthy is the writer and illustrator of the New York Instances bestselling image books
Otis, Otis and the Twister, Otis and the Pet, An Otis Christmas, Otis and the Scarecrow, and Otis and the Kittens. He’s the #1 New York Instances bestselling illustrator of President Barack Obama’s
image guide Of Thee I Sing, Matt de la Peña’s Love, the re-illustrated version of The Little Engine That Might by Watty Piper, and Mr. Peabody’s Apples by Madonna. Lengthy’s re-creation of Clement C. Moore’s The Evening Earlier than Christmas is a contemporary, extra inclusive tackle the basic poem. His most up-to-date works are By no means Overlook Eleanor by Jason June, Somebody Builds the Dream by Lisa Wheeler, and the much-anticipated Change Sings, written by Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman. The Otis sequence has been developed as an animated tv sequence, Get Rolling With Otis, on Apple TV, for which Lengthy served as govt producer.
*Kyle Lukoff
Lukoff writes books for youths and different individuals. Earlier than changing into a full-time author,
he labored at 5 bookstores, in 4 libraries, for 3 colleges, as two genders,
by means of one intersection: individuals, and books. Lukoff’s center grade novel Too Vibrant to See obtained quite a few awards, together with a Newbery Honor and a Stonewall Youngsters’s and
Younger Grownup Literature Award. Kyle’s image guide, When Aidan Grew to become a Brother, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita, additionally obtained a Stonewall Youngsters’s and Younger Grownup
Literature Award. His most up-to-date books embody A Totally different Sort of Fruit, Mermaid Days, and If You’re a Child Like Gavin: The True Story of a Younger Trans Activist.
*Vikram Madan
Madan grew up in India the place he actually needed to be a cartoonist, however ended up an
engineer. A few years later, he lastly got here to his senses and adopted his coronary heart again
into humor. When not making whimsical work in his Seattle studio, Madan writes
and illustrates humorous books, together with the award-winning poetry collections A Hatful of Dragons, The Bubble Collector, and Lord of the Bubbles. A Hatful of Dragons is being changed into a musical theater efficiency and is being launched in India
by Harper Collins India. Madan has additionally written and illustrated the graphic novel
sequence, Zooni Tales, and the early reader sequence, Bobo & Pup-Pup. His early reader guide Owl & Penguin obtained a 2023 Geisel Honor and was acknowledged on the 2023 ALSC Notable Youngsters’s
E-book Listing.
*Angie Manfredi- Southern Miss SLIS Lecturer
Manfredi is a librarian, author, and editor. She has a particular curiosity in and focus
on spotlighting and uplifting marginalized voices in each youth literature and librarianship.
She passionately advocates, within the phrases of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, giving readers
“mirrors, home windows, and sliding glass doorways” in all of the books shared with them. She
cherishes mentoring new librarians and championing fairness of entry for all youth
readers. Her areas of experience in librarianship embody assortment improvement and
upkeep and youth programming. She edited the younger grownup anthology, The (Different) F Phrase: A Celebration of the Fats & Fierce. Manfredi is at present a center college librarian within the southwest, serving grades
Seventh-Eighth. From 2019-2021, she was the Youth Providers Marketing consultant for the State Library
of Iowa. She supplied persevering with schooling, coaching, and assist round every part
associated to youth companies for all 543 public libraries in Iowa. Beforehand, she labored
because the Head of Youth Providers on the Los Alamos County Library System in Los Alamos,
New Mexico from 2007-2018.
The Fay B. Kaigler Youngsters’s E-book Competition is introduced by the USM College of Library and Info Science. Go to the Fay B Kaigler Youngsters’s E-book Competition web page to study extra on schedule, persevering with schooling credit and extra particulars.