The Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP) presented the 1999 Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature to Juan Felipe Herrera for his book CrashBoomLove at the Library of Congress on June 16. The event was sponsored by the Hispanic Division and the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress.
In his award-winning novel in verse, Juan Felipe Herrera draws from his own experience and focuses on "the soul of a generation" of Chicanos. CrashBoomLove helps readers understand what it is to be a teenager and a migrant worker and "a boy wanting to be a boy."
Mr. Herrera is a professor of Chicano Studies at California State University in Fresno. He is a renowned poet and novelist, and his most recent works include Thunderweavers (2000), Upside Down Boy (2000), Lotería Cards and Future Poems (1999) and Laughing Out Loud: Poems in English and Spanish (1999).
The Americas Award is given in recognition of U.S. works of fiction, poetry, folklore or selected nonfiction (from picture books to works for young adults) published in the previous year in English or Spanish that authentically and engagingly relate to Latin America, the Caribbean or to Latinos in the United States. The award focuses on cultural heritage of the Western Hemisphere. An international jury selects the award recipient. The Americas Award is sponsored by the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs with headquarters at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Julie Klein, Outreach and Academic Programs Coordinator at the University of Wisconsin, is also the coordinator of the Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature.
