YA author Ned Vizzini, known for his 2006 novel It’s Kind of a Funny Story, who committed suicide in 2013, is being honored with a new award that celebrates emerging young authors. Vizzini grew up in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, and was a frequenter of the central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The Library is stewarding the Ned Vizzini Teen Literary Prize to both remember the author and recognize young writers.
On Tuesday evening, June 7, the prize finalists will be joined by library president and CEO Linda Johnson; Vizzini’s wife, Sabra Embury; Vizzini’s mother, Emma Price; and authors Coe Booth, Soman Chainani, Meg Medina, and Tommy Wallach for a ceremony and reading.
For its first year, the contest drew in more than 300 submissions. More than 60% of the entrants – and two of the finalists – were female. The prize has two categories: prose and poetry, with the top three in each category receiving cash prizes of $500, $250, and $100 respectively. This year’s poetry winners were Kat Snoddy, Odelia Fried, and Lucy Berry. The prose winners were Stina Trollbäck, Adil Gondal, and one writer who requested anonymity.
