Photo credit: Michael Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye Celebrated for Connection with Youth
The Young People’s Poet Laureate title and $25,000 prize celebrate a living writer in recognition of their devotion to writing exceptional poetry for young readers. This two-year-term laureateship promotes poetry to children and their families, teachers, and librarians.

Naomi Shihab Nye will serve from 2019 to 2021, aiming to bring poetry to geographically underserved, or rural communities through readings underwritten by the Poetry Foundation. In addition, every month during her tenure, which begins in August, she will recommend a new poetry book for young readers.

Nye is acclaimed as a children’s writer for her sensitivity and cultural awareness, such as in her book 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, published just after September 11, 2001, which invites readers to reflect and explore life as an Arab American. Also acclaimed for her work for adults, Nye’s writing moves seamlessly between ages in a way that is accessible, warm, and sophisticated even for the youngest of readers. Her poetry collections for young adults include Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners and A Maze Me: Poems for Girls.

Nye is the recipient of numerous honors, including a Lavan Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, and many Pushcart Prizes. She has received many awards for her writing for children, including the NSK Neustadt Award for Children’s Literature in 2013, and the 2018 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award from the American Library Association.

Nye is currently a professor of creative writing at Texas State University.

She joins notable past winners, including Jack Pretlutsky, Jacqueline Woodson, and most recently Margarita Engle.