Lois Lowry to be joined by Jeff Bridges at ALA President’s Program, Annual Conference

CHICAGO — Legendary best-selling youth author and two-time Newbery Medal winner Lois Lowry will be joined by Academy Award-winning actor Jeff Bridges at Barbara Stripling’s ALA President’s Program & Awards Presentation, 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 29 at the American Library Association Annual Conference. Stripling will conduct an interview with Lowry, then Bridges will join them to talk about the movie version of Lowry’s “The Giver,” in which he stars and which is scheduled for an August release. The program will wrap up with a Q&A with the audience.

Lowry is one of the world’s most beloved and versatile authors for children and young adults. The author of more than 40 books, including the popular Anastasia Krupnik series, she has also been honored with the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader’s Medal and the Mark Twain Award. For her contribution as a children's writer, she was a finalist in 2000 (and U.S. nominee again in 2004) for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books. In 2007 she received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her contribution to young adult literature.

Only four months old when he made his first screen appearance, Bridges is a popular award-winning actor, producer and country musician. “I’ve been trying to make this movie for about 20 years,” he says about “The Giver.” Visitors to his website at www.jeffbridges.com can find out about his many artistic accomplishments as well as his commitment to the End Hunger Network that he helped found in 1983.

Lowry and Bridges’ appearance is sponsored by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers.

The ALA Awards will be presented before Lowry’s appearance. Daniel Handler himself will present the first ever Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced With Adversity. This new award, administered by the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, is described by Handler/ Lemony Snicket as follows: “It is of the opinion of Lemony Snicket, author, reader, and alleged malcontent, that librarians have suffered enough. Therefore he is establishing an annual prize honoring a librarian who has faced adversity with integrity and dignity intact. . . . It is Mr. Snicket’s hope, and the ALA’s, that the Snicket Prize will remind readers everywhere of the joyous importance of librarians and the trouble that is all too frequently unleashed upon them.”

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