Alex Awards

About the Alex Award

The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18. The winning titles are selected from the previous year's publishing. The Alex Awards were first given annually beginning in 1998 and became an official ALA award in 2002.

The award is sponsored by the Margaret A. Edwards Trust. Edwards pioneered young adult library services and worked for many years at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore. Her work is described in her book Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts, and over the years she has served as an inspiration to many librarians who serve young adults. The Alex Awards are named after Edwards, who was called “Alex” by her friends.

See Current Committee Contacts Here

Suggest a Title for 2026 Consideration Here

The 2025 Alex Award Winners

The Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has selected 10 adult books with special appeal to teen readers to receive the 2025 Alex Awards. Find those 10 winners below, and view the full vetted list of official nominations here.

Members of the 2025 Alex Awards Committee are: Chair Catherine M. Andronik, Norwalk Public Library, Connecticut; Brigid Burns, Wake County Public Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina; Lisa Castellano, Norfolk Collegiate Upper and Middle School, Virginia; Laura Erwin, Upper Arlington Public Library, Ohio; Sheila E. Michaels, BookBag Program Director, Nixa, Missouri; Susen Shi, The New York Public Library, New York; Gretchen Wallett, Calumet City Public Library, Illinois; Gail Zachariah, Whiting Library, Chester, Vermont.

a gray background with multiple images of the author shown in small circles. the subtitle, "my thirteen truths about disablity," is in rainbow colors.

“Beautiful People: My Thirteen Truths About Disability,” by Melissa Blake, published by Hachette Go, an imprint of Hachette Books

jacket for big jim and the white boy features a black man in an orange shirt standing at the front of a raft

“Big Jim and the White Boy: An American Classic Reimagined,” by David F. Walker, illustrated by Marcus Kwame Anderson, published by Ten Speed Graphic, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House

“Daughters of Shandong,” by Eve J. Chung, published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House

a young black woman with braids and a gold venetian cat mask, holding two small daggers

“The Dead Cat Tail Assassins,” by P. Djèlí Clark, published by Tordotcom, an imprint of Tor Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan

book jacket for how to solve your own murder: a novel by kristen perrin. includes a positive blurb from elle cosimano

“How to Solve Your Own Murder: A Novel,” by Kristen Perrin, published by Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House

book jacket for i feel awful, thanks, by lara pickle features a small witch

“I Feel Awful, Thanks,” by Lara Pickle, published by Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group

cover image for i was a teenage slasher: a novel by stephen graham jones

“I Was a Teenage Slasher,” by Stephen Graham Jones, published by Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

jacket for the witch of colchis: medea's story by rosie hewlett

“The Witch of Colchis,” by Rosie Hewlett, published by Sourcebooks Landmark, an imprint of Sourcebooks

cover image for the witchstone by henry h. neff

“The Witchstone,” by Henry H. Neff, published by Blackstone Publishing

jacket for woman life freedom created by marjane satrapi

“Woman, Life, Freedom,” created by Marjane Satrapi, translated by Una Dimitrijević, published by Seven Stories Press

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Definition

The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.

Purpose

The purpose of the Alex Awards is to identify those adult titles that have the most interest and appeal to teens (ages 12 - 18). The Alex Awards were first given annually beginning in 1998. The titles were selected by the YALSA Adult Books for Young Adults Task Force from the previous year's publishing and were part of the Adult Books for Young Adults Project, which explored the role of adult books in the reading lives of teens and was funded by the Margaret Alexander Edwards Trust. Edwards was a young adult specialist for many years at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore. Her work is described in her book Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts, and over the years she has served as an inspiration to library staff who serve young adults. With the approval of the Trust, the task force appointed to develop and implement the project named the awards the Alex Awards after Edwards, who was called "Alex" by her friends.

In 2002, the Alex Awards were approved as an official ALA award, and the Task Force was superseded by the Alex Awards Committee. In 2010, it was decided that an annual vetted list of nominations would be published along with the ten award winners.

The major sponsor of the Alex Awards continues to be the Margaret Alexander Edwards Trust.

Audience

The list is prepared for librarians to use with young adults, and annotations will be written to attract the teen audience. It is a general list of adult titles selected for their demonstrable appeal to the personal reading tastes of the young adult.

Frequency of List

The Alex Award list of ten winning titles will be produced annually. The titles that appear on the final list of official nominations are those that have been read and discussed by the full committee, in accordance with the committee's policies and procedures, and that the committee has come to a consensus that these titles are worthy of being placed on the official list of nominations. A vetted list of Alex Award nominations will also be made available in January, at the publication of the award.

Policies and Procedures

Committee Members

YALSA's Alex Award Committee selects ten books from the previous year written for adults that have special appeal to teens. In addition, it also provides an official vetted list of nominated titles considered for the award.
Committee members are appointed by YALSA's President-Elect and serve a one-year term. There are 9 voting committee members, including the chair. Each term begins Feb. 1st and ends Jan. 31st of the following year, for a 12 month term. If someone resigns, the current President of YALSA appoints a new person to finish out that particular term.
Committee members, including administrative assistants and chairs, who have completed one full term on any of YALSA’s six award committees may not be appointed to the same or another YALSA award committee for two years from the conclusion of their term. In extreme circumstances, and at the President’s discretion, an exception may be made if a committee member resigns suddenly or if there is a shortage of qualified candidates for positions. The President, after discussion with the Executive Director and Committee Chair, may determine that the best course of action is to appoint a member regardless of his/her recent committee service history.

Responsibilities of regular committee positions

Members are required to attend all committee meetings and read widely from books eligible for nomination. Additional information about committee member responsibilities is available from YALSA's Handbook. All committee members must comply with YALSA's Policies, as presented in the online Handbook, including: Social Media Policy, Ethical Behavior Policy for Volunteers and the Award Committees Conflict of Interest Policy.

Special positions within Committee

In addition to the 8 regular committee members, the Alex Committee will also include a Chair, a Booklist consultant and an administrative assistant, if the Chair chooses to select one.

Responsibilities of special positions

A committee chair is appointed by YALSA's President-Elect for an annual term; and, as such, has the right to vote, to validate titles (by a vote) for consideration on the list and to enter into discussion of titles. It should be understood, however, that the primary responsibility of the chair is facilitator of the committee's charge, including all business matters. The chair should only discuss a title after other committee members have had an opportunity to speak so as not to unduly influence the decision. Furthermore, the chair and his/her administrative assistant have sole responsibility for publisher contact. An administrative assistant can be named by the committee chair in consultation with the President-Elect of YALSA. The administrative assistant will assist the chair in duties which may include the following: maintaining the nominations' database, tabulating votes and other such duties assigned by the chair. The administrative assistant is a non-voting member of the committee.

Booklist will designate a member of their staff to serve as a consultant, who is a nonvoting member of the committee.

YALSA's Program Officer for Conference & Events serves as a staff liaison to this committee.

Eligibility & Title Acquisition

While YALSA's Alex Committee may receive ARCs, eARCs, books and e-books from publishers, it is the committee's responsibility to look more widely. Members must make every effort to seek out eligible titles to consider. Other ways to obtain eligible titles include but are not limited to:

Picking up galleys at Midwinter and Annual ALA meetings and at other conferences.
Examining review copies received in the work place.
Browsing new titles at bookstores.
Borrowing books on interlibrary loan.
Sharing books among members by mail.
Request books through e-galley services like Edelweiss or Net Galley.

What makes a title eligible or ineligible

The Alex Committee considers any title from a publisher's adult list in the calendar year prior to the announcement. The chair is responsible for verifying the eligibility of all nominated titles. A book originally published outside the United States will be considered according to its U.S. publication year. Books published outside of the United States are not eligible unless a U.S. edition is available. Works of joint authorship and editorship will be eligible. Titles that are self-published, published only in eBook format, and/or published from a publisher outside of the US will not be considered eligible until the first year the book is available in print or distributed through a US publishing house.

Suggested selection criteria

YALSA's Alex Committee looks for outstanding titles that are of interest and value to teenagers. Suggested selection criteria:

Titles are selected for their demonstrated or probable appeal to the personal reading tastes of young adults
Appeal and popularity are not synonymous In addition to the question of appeal, committee members should consider the following when assessing titles: language, plot, style, setting, dialog, characterization, and design.

Confidentiality

There will be no announcements of final selections until after the final committee meeting at the ALA winter meeting.

Nominating procedures

Nominations may be accepted from Committee up to December 31st of that calendar year. The committee will consider and vote on books published within their assigned calendar year, January 1 to December 31.

Field Suggestions

Anyone can suggest titles for YALSA's lists and awards. Suggestion forms are available on the YALSA web site at http://www.ala.org/yalsa/alex-award-suggestion-form. Suggestions and nominations from authors or publishers for their own titles are not eligible for the list. Field suggestions are encouraged. To be eligible, they must be submitted on the official suggestion form. All field suggestions must then be seconded by a committee member, and periodically the chair will send a list of field suggestions to committee members for this purpose. If, within thirty days, no second is forthcoming, the title will be dropped from consideration. Only those titles that have been nominated (and seconded if field suggestions) may be discussed at Midwinter and Annual Conference meetings. Furthermore, all nominated titles must be discussed. Publishers, authors, or editors may not suggest or nominate their own titles.

Voting procedures

Final selections are made at the winter event during a series of meetings. The chair will provide each book's nominator with the first opportunity to address that title if he/she desires. All nominated titles must be discussed. After comments and committee discussion are completed, a vote is taken to determine if a title should be included on the official vetted list of nominations. Straw votes may be conducted periodically, at the discretion of the Chair, to reveal levels of support for individual titles.

Procedures for final votes

A book must receive a majority vote from the official vetted list of nominations to be placed among the top ten winning titles. Only members attending the Midwinter meeting will be allowed to vote. Members can only vote on books they have read. If a committee member has an emergency and must leave before the final vote, that member must give a signed ballot to the chair who will then designate a voting proxy for the absent member. The final vote will be counted by an individual designated by the chair.

Annotations and Press Release

The committee is responsible for writing a press release and annotations for the winning title and honor books. Both the annotations and the press release will include discussion of the literary merits of the titles. The annotations and press release must be written prior to the Monday awards press conference.

Publisher solicitation

The Ethical Behavior Policy for Volunteers and the Award Committees Conflict of Interest Policy outline appropriate interactions between committee members and publishers.

The chair and/or administrative assistant are responsible for contact with the publishers. Committee members must not solicit publishers for free personal copies of books. If members receive, or are offered, unsolicited copies of books from publishers, they may accept the titles.

Committee members must not solicit publishers for favors, invitations, etc. If members receive these, however, they will use their own judgment in accepting. Publishers understand that such acceptance in no way influences members' actions or selections.

Distribution

The annotated list is disseminated each January. The complete and final annotated list will be available each year shortly after the close of ALA's Midwinter Meeting. Following its last meeting the committee will provide the YALSA Office with the final annotated list of winning titles as well as vetted nominations. Both winning titles and vetted nominations will be made available on the YALSA website and winners may appear in a spring issue of Booklist. YALSA will also include the final Alex list in its annual Best of the Best for Young Adults compilation of selection and award titles for young adults.

Outside Participation at Meetings

Alex meetings and discussions are closed to the membership and the general public.

Committee members are welcome throughout the year to get teen feedback on materials and bring that feedback to face-to- face meetings and online discussions.

Use and Reproduction
YALSA's Alex List may be reproduced under "fair use" standards. As stated in Section 107 of The Copyright Act of 1976, factors to be considered shall include:

the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
the nature of the copyrighted work;
the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole

Sample citation

YALSA Alex Awards Committee. "2011 Alex Awards." Young Adult Library Services Association. [insert dater published on the web]. Young Adult Library Services Association, Web. [insert date accessed by user]. <http://www.ala.org/yalsa/alex-awards>. For more information about acceptable use of YALSA's lists of recommended reading, and/or to request permission to reproduce the list, please contact ALA's Rights and Permission Manager at permissions@ala.org.

Last revision, June 2014. These procedures are subject to review and possible revision by the Organizations and Bylaws committee with final approval by the YALSA Board of Directors.

Alex Awards

About the Alex Award

The 2025 Alex Award Winners

More Information

Seal Licensing

Previous Winners

Policies and Procedures