Phoenix Award

The Children's Literature Association Phoenix Award recognizes books of exceptional literary merit. First presented in 1985, it is given to the author, or the estate of the author, of a book for children first published twenty years earlier that did not win a major award at the time of its publication but which, from the perspective of time, is deemed worthy of special attention. Since 1989, honor books have also been named.

NOMINATIONS FORM

Submission Period:

Anyone may nominate a book, with the practical deadline being the conference at which the committee prepares the shortlist and begins its final deliberations for the award. For example, all nominations for the 2015 award must be received by the 2013 conference.  The committee reads two years in advance.

Selection Criteria:

• The award goes to a book published in the year twenty years before the annual conference at which it is awarded. The 2012 award, for example, is for a book published in 1992.
  
  
• The book must have been originally published in English. Books do not need to have a minimum page count to be considered.
  
  
• The book must not have won a major award although it may have been a finalist, honor book, runner-up, or commended, whatever term is used. A book is ineligible for consideration if it has won any one of the following awards or prizes:
  • Australian Children’s Book of the Year Award
  • Boston Globe-Horn Book Award
  • Governor General's Literary Awards
  • Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award
  • Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Young Adults
  • Carnegie Medal
  • Coretta Scott King Award
  • Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize
  • Michael L. Printz Award
  • National Book Award for Young People’s Literature
  • New Zealand Library Association Esther Glen Medal
  • Newbery Medal
  • Newbery Honor Medal
  • Pura Belpré Award
  • Whitbread Children’s Book Award (Renamed the Costa Book Award, 2006)
  • The Nebula Award (added in 2008)
  • The Hugo Award (added in 2008)
  • Other major awards may be added in future years.

• The book may be a retelling or an edited work, such as an anthology, not simply a reprinting or new edition.
  
  
• The book is to be judged on its literary merit.
  
  
• The book does not have to be in print.
  
  
• The author does not have to be alive.
  
  
• If the Phoenix Award Committee finds no book suitable for the award, it need not be given in that year.
  
  
• A maximum of two honor books may be, but are not necessarily, designated.
  
  
• The award winner is selected two years prior to the conference at which the award is given. For example, the award announced and presented at the 2014 ChLA annual conference was chosen in 2012.

The Children's Literature Association Proudly Announces the 2020 Phoenix Award Recipient:

Many Stones by Carolyn Coman
Namelos, 2000

Many Stones is a book about weight – the weight of stones, the weight of grief, the weight of history.  Coman’s writing offers nuanced insights, minute by minute, into a vexed father-daughter relationship in the painful aftermath of the murder of Berry’s older sister. During a trip to South Africa for the memorial service, Berry and her father see their American affluence and privilege in a new way. The novel explores the country’s ongoing racism and poverty, legacy of its past, and hopes for a healing future, while always keeping the focus on Berry’s struggles to have her own moments of “truth and reconciliation.” The parallels are kept from being heavy-handed by Berry’s scathingly honest voice. In this vividly realized South African setting, a former prisoner held with Nelson Mandela shares what helped him to survive: "'You have to have stories,' he says. He says it so fiercely that I hold my breath. He shakes his tightened fist as if it holds all the stories that were taken out of all the letters, and then he doesn't say any more."

2020 Phoenix Honor Book: 

145th Street: Short Stories by Walter Dean Myers
Ember, 2000

Once again Walter Dean Myers honors Harlem in this place-centered collection of ten linked short stories. 145^th Street interweaves voices and tones, offering both a tight focus on place and a broad range of personalities. Some stories are lighthearted: in one, Big Joe throws himself a funeral, so he can enjoy it while alive; in another, a high school basketball player worries about wasting a streak of good luck. Others present haunting depictions of violence. Throughout, we meet a cast of characters, from young to very old as they face challenges, celebrate triumphs, and care for each other. Myers crafts a neighborhood epic – heartbreaking and funny -- in which each voice is a crucial part of 145^th Street.