ALSC seeks host site for 2011 Arbuthnot Lecture featuring Lois Lowry

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Jenny Najduch


ALSC Marketing Specialist


(312) 280-4026


JNajduch@ala.org

NEWS RELEASE


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


March 2, 2010

CHICAGO— Applications to host the 2011 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture are now available.  The selected site will host Lois Lowry, internationally acclaimed author and two-time winner of the Newbery Medal, who will present a paper that will be considered a significant contribution to children’s literature. A library school, department of education in a college or university or a children’s library system may be considered. The lecture is administered by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association.

Host site application forms can be downloaded at
www.ala.org/alsc; click on the link under “Breaking News.”
Completed applications are due May 1, 2010. Information about host site responsibilities is included in the application materials. The lecture traditionally is held in April or early May.

"I am very excited to see applications to host Lois Lowry for the 2011 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture,” said Carol Edwards, chair of the ALSC 2011 Arbuthonot Honor Lecture Committee. “She has been one of my personal favorite authors for a long time and I am so eager to hear what she will say, and yet I am almost as eager to see the proposals for hosting the lecture. It will all become more real when I can envision the day. "

Lowry’s career spans more than 30 years. She received the Newbery Medal, in 1990 for Number the Stars, set in Denmark during World War II, and in 1994 for the eerily dystopian The Giver (both Houghton Mifflin). She was the recipient of the 2007 Margaret A. Edwards Award, which honors an author’s contribution to young adult literature. Lowry writes for a number of audiences from preschool to young adults, and her work has varied greatly in terms of content and style.

ALSC established this lecture series in 1969, with sponsorship from Scott, Foresman and Company (now Pearson Scott Foresman) in honor of author May Hill Arbuthnot. The lectureship,  now funded by the ALSC May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Endowment, has the distinction of featuring many notable authors, critics, librarians, historians, and teachers of children’s literature from various countries. Past lecturers over the decades have included Mary Ørvig, Leland B. Jacobs, Virginia Hamilton, Maurice Sendak, and Richard Jackson. Kathleen T. Horning will present the 2010 Arbuthnot Lecture, hosted by the Riverside County (Calif.) Library System.

ALSC, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), is the world’s largest organization dedicated to the support and enhancement of library service to children. With a network of more than 4,200 children’s and youth librarians, literature experts, publishers and educational faculty, ALSC is committed to creating a better future for children through libraries. To learn more about ALSC, visit ALSC’s Web site at
www.ala.org/alsc.

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