YALSA Announces 2024 William C. Morris finalists

CHICAGO – The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), selected five books as finalists for the 2024 William C. Morris Award, which honors the year’s best books written for young adults by a previously unpublished author. YALSA will name the Morris Award winner at the Youth Media Awards on Jan. 22, 2024, during ALA’s LibLearnX: The Library Learning Experience in Baltimore, MD.

The 2024 William C. Morris Award finalists are:

• "All the Fighting Parts," written by Hannah V. Sawyerr and published by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS.

• "Once There Was," written by Kiyash Monsef and published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.

• "Rez Ball," written by Byron Graves and published by Heartdrum, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

• "Saints of the Household," written by Ari Tison and published by Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.

• "She Is A Haunting," written by Trang Thanh Tran and published by Bloomsbury YA, a division of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc., part of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

"The 2024 Morris Committee was excited and honored to read so many diverse and empowering debut titles this year,” said Kim Farnsworth, chair of the 2024 William C. Morris Award Committee. “The incredible breadth and depth of the work made choosing just five titles a challenge. After many hours of careful reading, evaluation and deliberations, our finalist titles reflect a variety of voices and experiences including realistic fiction, fantasy and horror that are characterized by excellent storytelling.” 

The Morris Award is named after William C. Morris, an influential innovator in the publishing world and an advocate for marketing books for children and young adults. William “Bill” Morris left an impressive mark on the field of children’s and young adult literature. He was beloved in the publishing field and the library profession for his generosity and marvelous enthusiasm for promoting literature for children and teens.

More information on the finalists and the award can be found on the Morris Award page. Publishers and library staff can purchase finalist seals to place on the finalist titles at www.ala.org/awardsgrants/seals.

For more information on the Morris Award or YALSA’s other young adult literature awards, please visit www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists.

Members of the 2024 William C. Morris Award Committee are: Chair Kim Farnsworth, Sacramento, California; Todd Cates, Winder, Georgia; Molly Dettmann, Norman, Oklahoma; Sondra Eklund, South Riding, Virginia; Sarah Flowers, Morgan Hill, California; Paula Langsam, Denver, Colorado; Laura Pearle, East Boston, Massachusetts; and Maria Vivar-Guzman, Lanham, Maryland.

The mission of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is networking, advocacy, and professional development. The Young Adult Library Services Association empowers all those involved in the profession to provide equitable, diverse, and inclusive teen services. For more information about YALSA or to access national guidelines and other resources go to www.ala.org/yalsa.