Demetria Tucker 2013 recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement

SEATTLE — Demetria Tucker is the recipient of the 2013 Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. The announcement was made today by the American Library Association (ALA), during the ALA Midwinter Meeting, held Jan. 25 – 29 in Seattle.

“Through consummate dedication and nurturing, Demetria Tucker has for more than 30 years served as an inspiration for children and their families in Virginia’s public and school libraries,” stated Award Committee Chair Pauletta Brown Bracy.

Demetria Tucker has served as youth services coordinator within the Roanoke (Va.) Public Library System and library media specialist at the Forest Park Elementary School, where she was selected 2007 Teacher of the Year. As family and youth services librarian for the Pearl Bailey Library, a branch of the Newport News (Va.) Public Library System, Tucker now coordinates a youth leadership program, a teen urban literature club and many other programs that support the youth of her community.

The Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement is named in memory of beloved children’s author Virginia Hamilton. The annual award is presented in even years (i.e. 2014, 2016, 2018…) to an African American author, illustrator or author/illustrator who has made a significant and lasting literary contribution, for a body of his or her published books for children and/or young adults.

In odd years (i.e. 2013, 2015, 2017…), the award is presented to a practitioner for substantial contributions through active engagement with youth using award-winning African American literature for children and/or young adults, via implementation of reading and reading-related activities/programs. The recipient may be a public librarian, academic librarian, school librarian(public or private), an educator (preK-12 or any level therein, or higher education) or youth literature advocate whose vocation, work, volunteer service or ongoing promotion of books with and/or on behalf of youthis significant and sustained. 

Virginia Hamiltonwas an award-winning author of children’s books. She wrote more than 35 books throughout her career, including “M. C. Higgins, the Great,” for which she won the 1975 Newbery Medal. During her lifetime, Hamilton received numerous awards, including the Coretta Scott King Book Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Members of the 2013 Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement Award Committee are: Chair Pauletta Brown Bracy, School of Library and Information Sciences, North Carolina Central University, Durham, N.C.; Rita Auerbach, New York; Carolyn S. Brodie, School of Library and Information Science Kent (Ohio) State University; Rose T. Dawson, Alexandria (Va.) Library; and Loretta Dowell, Fisher Children’s Center San Francisco Public Library.

The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association in the world with 58,000 members.  Its mission is to provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.

For more information on the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement Award and other ALA Youth Media Awards, please visit www.ala.org/yma.

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