September 17, 2007 Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature To Be Presented on Oct. 6

Authors Margarita Engle and Jennifer Riesmeyer Elvgren and illustrators Sean Qualls and Nicole Tadgell will receive the 2006 Americas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature at the 14th annual award presentation hosted by the Library of Congress from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Oct. 6, in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave., S.E., Washington, D.C. The award is sponsored by the Consortium of the Latin American Studies Program (CLASP) at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. The Library’s Hispanic Division and Center for the Book will host the event, which is free and open to the public. A continental breakfast will be served at 9:30 a.m. Reservations are required and can be made through the Hispanic Division at (202) 707-2013. Engle and Qualls will be honored for their book “The Poet Slave of Cuba” (Henry Holt, 2006). Elvgren and Tadgell will be recognized for their book “Josias, Hold the Book” (Boyds Mill, 2006). At the event, all will discuss and sign copies of their books. Engle is a Cuban American poet, novelist and journalist whose work has won such awards as a San Diego Book Award and a Willow Review Poetry Award. Qualls is the illustrator of “The Baby on the Way” and “Powerful Words.” Elvgren has been published in Ladybug and Highlights for Children. Tadgell has illustrated a number of books, including “Fatuma’s New Cloth,” winner of the Children’s Africana Book Award. The Americas Award recognizes outstanding U.S. works of fiction, poetry, folklore or selected nonfiction published in the previous year. The works must “authentically and engagingly portray Latin America, the Caribbean or Latinos in the United States.” More information about the Americas Award and CLASP can be found at www.uwm.edu/Dept/CLACS/. The Hispanic Division, established in 1939, is the Library’s center for the study of the cultures and societies of Latin America and the Caribbean, the Iberian Peninsula and other areas with significant Spanish and Portuguese influence. For more information about the division’s resources, visit www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/. Created by law as a public-private partnership in 1977, the Center for the Book uses the resources of the Library of Congress to stimulate public interest in books and reading. For information about its projects and publications and the activities of its affiliates in 50 states and the District of Columbia, visit www.loc.gov/cfbook/.