Jury Announced for the 2023 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature
World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, has announced the names of the jury members who will select the finalists for the renowned NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. The biennial NSK Prize recognizes the significant achievement of a writer, either over a lifetime or in a single publication, as well as their ongoing, positive impact on children’s literature.
The NSK Prize is awarded to a living writer or illustrator from anywhere in the world. The international jury is composed of esteemed authors who select finalists based on literary merit alone. The jury’s selections are not affected by book sales or publisher influence.
The jury’s list of finalists will be announced on June 15, and final deliberations and voting for the 2023 prize will take place in August.
The jury for the 2023 NSK Prize is composed of the following members:
- William Alexander
- Raúl Colón
- Veera Hiranandani
- Jessica Kim
- Trung Le Nguyen
- Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
- Lawrence Schimel
- Brenda Woods
- M.O. Yuksel
The jurors’ full bios can be found on the Neustadt Prize website.
The 2023 NSK Prize winner will be announced during the 2022 Neustadt Festival, set for Oct. 24–26. Hosted on the OU Norman campus each fall, the Neustadt Festival is a three-day event featuring artistic performances representing that year’s winning writer’s culture as well as roundtable discussions of literary trends and the author’s literary and cultural influence. At the 2023 festival, which will be hosted in the NSK Prize winner’s honor, the recipient will receive $35,000, a silver medallion, and a certificate.
The NSK Prize was first awarded in 2003 to Newberry Medal winner Mildred D. Taylor. Other notable winners include National Book Award recipients Katherine Paterson (2007) and Virginia Euwer Wolff (2011), Naomi Shihab Nye (2013), and Marilyn Nelson (2017), winner of the Poetry Society of America’s Frost Medal. Last year’s NSK Prize was awarded to Muscogee writer Cynthia Leitich Smith.
The NSK Prize is given in alternating years with the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. The 2022 Neustadt Prize winner is Senegalese writer Boubacar Boris Diop. Diop will be recognized at the 2022 Neustadt Festival.
