New York, NY—January 22, 2019—LEE & LOW BOOKS is pleased to announce that SD Youngwolf of Moffat, Colorado is the winner of the company’s nineteenth annual New Voices Award. His picture book manuscript, The Echo People, is the story of two children who go on a special journey with their grandfather and, through their different experiences, learn how we create our own realities through the words and actions we give to the world.
SD Youngwolf is a writer and an award-winning artist who is tribally enrolled in the Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee. His creativity is inspired by traditional indigenous stories and history, and by the young people he meets during his storytelling performances. He hopes that The Echo People will resonate with readers by giving them a stronger sense of responsibility for the way they lead their lives. Youngwolf will receive a prize of $2,000 and a publication contract.
LEE & LOW BOOKS is also proud to announce that Patty Cisneros Prevo of Wheat Ridge, Colorado, will receive the New Voices Award Honor for her picture-book manuscript, Unstoppable: Thirteen Adventures Alongside Athletes with Physical Disabilities. Prevo introduces readers to a variety of modern-day athletes with physical disabilities who have overcome challenging obstacles to achieve great successes in their lives.
Patty Cisneros Prevo is a two-time Paralympic gold medalist, a first-generation Mexican-American elementary teacher, and a mentor for people with disabilities. She wrote Unstoppable to bring people with disabilities to the forefront of children’s literature and inspire all young readers with these athletes’ exciting stories. Prevo will receive a prize of $1000.
Congratulations to SD Youngwolf and Patty Cisneros Prevo!
Download a copy of the press release here.
ABOUT THE AWARD: Established in 2000, the New Voices Award encourages writers of color to submit their work to Lee & Low Books, which takes pride in nurturing authors new to the world of children’s book publishing. Published past winners include It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw by Don Tate, winner of the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award Honor; Bird by Zetta Elliott, an ALA Notable Book; Juna’s Jar by Jane Bahk, a Spring 2015 Junior Library Guild selection; and Take A Picture of Me, James VanDerZee by Andrea Loney, an NAACP Image Award nominee. For more information, visit our New Voices Award page.
Authors of color who write for older readers are encouraged to learn about our New Visions Award for middle grade and young adult manuscripts as well.
