2003 Margaret A. Edwards Award Winner
Nancy Garden
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. The book recognized, “Annie on My Mind,” published by Farrar Straus & 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 Award Committee 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 Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Garden will receive $2,000 at the YALSA Awards Luncheon during the June 2003 ALA Annual Conference in Toronto, June 19-25.
Members of the Edwards Award Committee include Chance, Eunice Anderson, James Edward Cook, Sandra A. Farrell and Susan Raboy.
YALSA is a division of the ALA.
To hear and read speeches of previous winners visit the For Members Only section of the YALSA website. (In .pdf in the For Members Only section.)