FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, October 19, 2020 CONTACTS Farrell Howe | Marketing & Communications Manager (269) 553-7879 | farrellh@kpl.gov<mailto:farrellh@kpl.gov> Karen Trout | Community Engagement Librarian (269) 553-7895 | karent@kpl.gov Kalamazoo Public Library Selects Best-selling Author Jacqueline Woodson for the 2021 Reading Together Author Kalamazoo, MI–Monday, October 19, 2020. Kalamazoo Public Library is honored to announce the chosen 2021 Reading Together author, Jacqueline Woodson! Woodson will host two virtual Meet the Author events on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. The first at 3 pm will be a craft talk, and at 7 pm, the keynote speech: “The Power of Story.” With hopes of bringing our community closer together in the midst of the social isolation brought on by COVID-19, Kalamazoo Public Library has decided to approach Reading Together a little differently for 2021. Instead of choosing one title, aimed primarily at adult readers, we have selected one author whose body of work spans all ages, from picture books, to middle grade and young adult fiction, to adult novels. That is why we have chosen National Book Award and four-time Newbery Honor Winner, MacArthur Fellow and bestselling author, Jacqueline Woodson<https://www.prhspeakers.com/speaker/jacqueline-woodson>. About the Author: Jacqueline Woodson is the author of more than two dozen award-winning books for young adults, middle graders, and children; among her many accolades, she is a four-time Newbery Honor winner, a three-time National Book Award finalist, and a two-time Coretta Scott King Award winner. She was named Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation in 2015 and was also named the 2018 Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress. Woodson was also the 2020 recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Woodson’s New York Times-bestselling memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming<https://www.kpl.gov/catalog/item/?i=ent://SD_ILS/0/SD_ILS:1642382>, was the 2014 National Book Award Winner and also a recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor Award, the NAACP Image Award, and the Sibert Honor Award. Her first adult novel in twenty years, New York Times bestselling novel Another Brooklyn<https://www.kpl.gov/catalog/item/?i=ent://SD_ILS/0/SD_ILS:1744939> (Harper/Amistad), was a 2016 National Book Award Finalist. In 2018, Woodson published Harbor Me<https://www.kpl.gov/catalog/item/?i=ent://SD_ILS/0/SD_ILS:1807651>, her first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming. Harbor Me and The Day You Begin<https://www.kpl.gov/catalog/item/?i=ent://SD_ILS/0/SD_ILS:1807349>, Woodson’s picture book that was published the same year, were both New York Times bestsellers. Red at the Bone<https://www.kpl.gov/catalog/item/?i=ent://SD_ILS/0/SD_ILS:1835237>, released in September 2019, was a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book of the Year, an NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) finalist for outstanding literary work in fiction. Woodson’s most recent book released in September 2020, Before the Ever After<https://www.kpl.gov/catalog/item/?i=ent://SD_ILS/0/SD_ILS:1852993>, explores how a family moves forward when their glory days have passed and the cost of professional sports on Black bodies. We encourage our 2021 Reading Together participants to explore all of Woodson’s work<https://www.kpl.gov/search/Jacqueline+Woodson/> but we will be primarily focused on the following titles: · The Other Side<https://www.kpl.gov/catalog/item/?i=ent://SD_ILS/0/SD_ILS:230992> – picture book · The Day You Begin<https://www.kpl.gov/catalog/item/?i=ent://SD_ILS/0/SD_ILS:1807349>/El Día En Que Descubres Quién Eres! (available soon!) – picture book available in English and Spanish · Harbor Me<https://www.kpl.gov/catalog/item/?i=ent://SD_ILS/0/SD_ILS:1807651> – middle-grade fiction · Brown Girl Dreaming <https://www.kpl.gov/catalog/item/?i=ent://SD_ILS/0/SD_ILS:1642382> – middle grade/young adult fiction · Another Brooklyn<https://www.kpl.gov/catalog/item/?i=ent://SD_ILS/0/SD_ILS:1744939> – young adult/adult fiction · Red at the Bone<https://www.kpl.gov/catalog/item/?i=ent://SD_ILS/0/SD_ILS:1835237> – adult novel About Reading Together: The purpose of Reading Together is to build a stronger community with deeper connections through the common experience of reading the same book and exploring its themes together. When we do that, we engage and learn, not only about ourselves but more importantly about each other and the world around us. By experiencing the same book, hearing the author of that work speak right here in Kalamazoo, and examining the book’s themes through a local lens, we are able to embrace our similarities and differences from a common point of reference. Very simply, when we read together, we grow together. ####
