The American Library Association (ALA) announced the winners of the annual ALA Youth Media Awards on monday. These awards honor the top books, digital media, video and audio books for children and young adults.
The Printz Award went to short story collection The Collectors, edited by A.S. King with contributions from King, Anna-Marie McLemore, Randy Ribay, David Levithan, Jenny Torres Sanchez, Cory McCarthy, e.E. Charlton-Trujillo, G. Neri, Jason Reynolds, and M.T. Anderson.
This is the first time an anthology has won the award (the last time a multi-authored book won was in 2017 for March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell), and King is the first author to win the medal twice (Dig won in 2020). This win signifies a huge moment in literary history – and a huge moment for A.S. King.
The Collectors is a collection of short stories from nine of the current best YA novelists. The stories follow a prompt from now two-times Printz-winner A.S. King about the things that can be collected. From David Levithan’s story about a non-binary kid collecting pieces of other people’s collections to Jenny Torres Sanchez’s tale of a girl gathering types of fire while trying not to get burned to G. Neri’s piece about 1970’s skaters seeking opportunities to go vertical—anything can be collected and in the hands of these award-winning and bestselling authors, any collection can tell a story.
Printz Honors went to Fire from the Sky by Moa Backe Åstot, translated by Eva Apelqvist (Em Querido); Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow (Candlewick); The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption by Shannon Gibney (Dutton Children’s); and Salt the Water by Candice Iloh (Dutton Children’s).
You can read the full list of award winners here.
