On Wednesday evening, November 20, the book publishing community gathered at Cipriani Wall Street in downtown Manhattan for the 75th National Book Awards. From that ceremony, we present the five finalists for the Young People’s Literature prize, along with their editors. Click here to see our coverage of winner Shifa Saltagi Safadi’s acceptance speech.
Shifa Saltagi Safadi (r.) with her editor, Ruta Rimas, senior executive editor and publishing director at G.P. Putnam’s Books for Young Readers. In her NBA acceptance speech, Safadi thanked Rimas, “who truly infuses magic in every edit and whose insight makes every word and my heart shine.”
Finalist Erin Entrada Kelly (l.) and Virginia Duncan, VP and publisher of Greenwillow Books, who edited The First State of Being, the Newbery Medalist’s middle grade science fiction novel about Y2K and time travel.
Josh Galarza (l.) with Jess Harold, his editor at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers. Galarza is a visual artist specializing in printmaking and book arts; The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky was the author’s debut.
Violet Duncan (r.) and her editor, Nancy Paulsen, president and publisher of Nancy Paulsen Books, a Penguin Young Readers imprint. Duncan’s NBA-nominated Buffalo Dreamer, about a family healing from the Canadian residential school system, is based on her own family history.
Angela Shanté (r.) and her editor Tamara Grasty, YA editor at Page Street Publishing. Shanté is a former New York City teacher and the author of several picture books; her nominated title, The Unboxing of a Black Girl, a collection of stories and poems, is her first work for teens.
