Nancy Garden named Edwards winner

Contact: Paige Wasson


312-280-4393


pwasson@ala.org

For Immediate Release


January 27, 2003

Nancy Garden named Edwards winner

Nancy Garden, author of "Annie on My Mind" (1982), is the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring her lifetime contribution in writing for young adults. The award was announced January 27, during the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, January 24-29.

Garden's writing encompasses nonfiction and a range of fiction from historical to fantasy to realistic. "Annie on My Mind," published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, is the bittersweet story of two young women who fall in love.

"Nancy Garden has the distinction of being the first author for young adults to create a lesbian love story with a positive ending," said Chair Rosemary Chance, an assistant professor at The University of Southern Mississippi. "Using a fluid, readable style, Garden opens a window through which readers can find courage to be true to themselves."

Garden currently lives in Carlisle, Mass., with her partner. She writes full time and also teaches writing to correspondence school students.

The award is sponsored by School Library Journal and administered by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of ALA. Garden will receive $2,000 at the YALSA Awards Luncheon during the ALA Annual Conference in Toronto, June 19-25.

Members of the Edwards Award Committee include Rosemary Chance, Eunice Anderson, James Edward Cook, Sandra A. Farrell and Susan Raboy.

More information on the Edwards Award can be found
online.