21 April 2011

2011 Street Lit Book Award Medal Winners (2010 publications)



The Street Lit Book Award Medal Committee comprises of a group of volunteer librarians and library workers from across the U.S. who work with Street Lit and its readers in public and school libraries. The Committee collected, discussed, and nominated titles based on library patron popularity, book club interest, and overall reception of the story as a valuable addition to the Street Literature genre. Three rounds of nominations resulted in the following winners for 2010 publications:

2011 Street Lit Book Award Medal Winners
(2010 publications)

        Winner: Decoded by Jay-Z  
  Committee comments: 
-- "Hands down the best non-fiction book for Street Literature,
published last year."
-- "Insightful examination of Hip Hop culture as a socio-political force."

HONOR BOOKS




Damaged, Kia DuPree (Grand Central Publishing)

Committee comments:
-- "An impressive debut novel that realistically depicts the inner-city lives of youth in Washington, DC, while remaining readable for teens."
-- "Searing portrait of a girl in the hood coming of age under duress."


Welfare Wifeys, K'wan (St. Martin's Griffin)
Committee comment:
-- "This latest installment to K'wan's "Hood Rat" series was great; he really brings the characters to life, especially "Animal". In reading K'wan's book the story has such a realistic feel to it, therefore making the flow of the story extremely engaging. His books are very popular in my library."

The Streets Keep Calling, Chunichi (Urban Books)
-- "Chunichi delivers a realistic, fast-paced cautionary tale of a man released from prison, trying to reboot his life, only to be driven back into his previous activities - a huge gamble that does not pay off in the end."

Diary of a Young Girl, Anthony Whyte (Urban Books)
Committee comment:
-- "This a great book about a young woman coming to terms with all the harm she caused. Mark Anthony is an intense writer of novels such as "Dogism", "Lady's Night" and the ever popular series "Streets of New York." Mark Anthony’s “Diary of a Young Girl” is relevant to the lives of today’s youth." 


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2011 Street Lit Book Award Medal Committee Members (for 2010 publications):
K.C. Boyd is the Library Media Specialist at the acclaimed Wendell Phillips Academy High School in Chicago, IL. Boyd runs a city-wide book club, and she blogs about Young Adult Street Lit at http://www.missdomino.blogspot.com.

Marvin DeBose is an Adult/Teen Librarian in the Free Library of Philadelphia system. He manages the largest Street Lit library collection in Philadelphia, PA.
Marvin is also a member of the PAALA Librarian Book Club.

Connie Farley is  Reference Technician for St. Louis (MO) Public Library where she runs an Urban Lit Discussion Group that boasts a diverse membership coming from several African and Caribbean nations.

Susan McClelland is a Librarian with the Evanston Public Library in Illinois. Susan is also the convener of the PhatFiction Panel for the Public Library Association. PhatFiction runs a Street Lit discussion panel at ALA Annual, and also maintains a wiki site at http://phatfiction.wikispaces.com and a blog at http://www.phatfiction.blogspot.com.

Patrice Smith is a Young Adult Specialist at a regional public library in Charleston, SC.

Vanessa Irvin Morris is the convener of the Street Lit Book Award Medal Committee. She is the author of the Street Literature blog at http://www.streetliterature.com, and the forthcoming 2011 publication, The Readers Advisory Guide to Street Literature, published by ALA Editions.

For more information about the Street Lit Book Award Medal, contact Vanessa Irvin Morris at: vanirvinmorris@gmail.com.

3 comments:

  1. From K'wan, author of Welfare Wifeys:
    "Please pass my thanks and appreciation along" for Welfare Wifeys being recognized as a 2010 Honor Book for the Street Lit Book Award Medal.

    ReplyDelete
  2. From Kia Dupree, author of Damaged:
    "Thank you so much for creating this award. I think it is such a great idea...because it gives merit to this genre, which gets so much negative attention. Thanks for the honor!"

    ReplyDelete
  3. You have to add Pam Ward's WANT SOME GET SOME.
    It was a page turner until the end.

    ReplyDelete

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