VCFA Journal of the Arts

Kekla Magoon Honored by ALA, NAACP

By Claire Guyton

Hunger Mountain’s YA and Children’s Lit Editor Kekla Magoon just won the American Library Association’s Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent. The award is meant to shine a light on an exciting new writer who has done a masterful job of chronicling some aspect of the African-American experience. We are delighted to see Kekla’s beautiful YA novel The Rock and the River getting the attention it deserves. And she’s in excellent company—previous winners are Shadra Strickland for Bird, and Sundee T. Frazier for Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It.

The Rock and the River has also been nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. For four decades the NAACP has annually honored the extraordinary achievements in the arts by people of color with these prestigious awards. Tune into Fox on February 26 to see this year’s show. Previous winners in the category of Outstanding Literary Work for Youth/Teens are Hill Harper for Letters to a Young Sister: Define Your Destiny and Charles B. Schooler (author) & Gary Young (Illustrator) for More Than Entertainers: An Inspirational Black Career Guide. The complete list of this year’s nominees is here (see Literature to the left, click and then scroll to the bottom).

Congratulations Kekla!

Winner of the Hunger Mountain CNF prize is “Birds Have Eyes” by Valerie Arvidson

See what contest judge Robin Hemley says about the winning piece:

I loved “Birds Have Eyes.” That’s hands-down my favorite. Of all the entries, it was the one that demanded to be read. By this I mean that I read it early on and was moved and thought this could be the winner, and then I put it aside and read the others over a week. But my mind kept returning to this one. Then after I finished reading the others I took “Birds Have Eyes” again and headed downstairs to give it another look. I didn’t even make it downstairs. I stopped halfway down the stairs, mesmerized once again by the simple beauty of this piece, and then I sat down on the stairs and by the end, I’m a little embarrassed to say, tears were flowing. I’m not particularly sentimental and this writer isn’t sentimental either. But she knows how to tap into raw grief and lyric beauty all at once and just sucker punch you. I’m still moved by this piece and will be for a long time. I want to read it again. –Robin Hemley

For information about Valerie, about runners up Robert Nigro and Susan Southard, or to see a list of the finalists, click here.

Tricia Springstubb Wins Mosher Prize!
By Claire Guyton

Tricia Springstubb is having a very good year.

Last month Tricia won an Honorable Mention in our Katherine Paterson Prize for young adult and children’s writing. And now Andre Dubus III has selected her short story “Levitation” for top honors in our Howard Frank Mosher Prize for Short Fiction. Hunger Mountain’s editor was stunned to see Tricia’s name again when she matched “Levitation” to our list of Mosher Prize entrants (click here for a detailed description of our judging process). We’ve never before seen one writer win two Hunger Mountain prizes in one year. Of course anyone who knows Tricia won’t be surprised in the least. She’s been demonstrating her mastery of children’s, young adult, and adult fiction for decades.

Beginning in 1980, Tricia has published six picture books for early readers, five middle-grade novels, two young adult novels, two books of nonfiction, and short adult fiction in various glossies and journals. Her honors at Hunger Mountain are two more triumphs in a year that includes the top prize in the Iowa Review’s fiction contest and confirmation from Harper Collins that her latest middle-grade novel will be coming out in 2010. And she has a day job!

I spoke to Tricia this weekend about her easy navigation of multiple genres and the story that won her the Mosher Prize. Click here for the interview! And check out the honorable mentions and finalists for the 2009 Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize.

Winner of the Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing

Crazy Cat

By Liz Cook

I fly. Here in the white air I am not Catherine George, invisible sister of Invincible Ivan, champion skier. I am not Dear Catie, accommodating daughter with yet another weekend alone. And, I am not Klutsy Kate, fifteen-year-old ditz who totally bombed her first real kiss. Up here in the air, I am Cat, Crazy Cat, daredevil dame of the mountain, red hot chillin’ explosion of white air.

My board lands on the snow and ice, and even then I am flying, land-flying, speeding down the slope, skidding to a halt, spraying a white fountain of powder on the three boarders waiting below.

Dougie! Dougie! as we call him, always with exclamations, always his name twice, gives me the snowboarder’s hug, somewhat celebration, mostly tackle, landing us both on the hard-packed snow.

“Awesome!” he yells too close to my ear. “That was so sick!”

“You’re a freakin’ idiot!” I yell back, socking him in the arm and pushing him off. A natural acrobat, he bounces his board back onto the snow, grinning. Evidently, not too disturbed by last night. I still blush just being around him. Dougie is your typical snow surfer dude with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a smile that will make a sucker of any girl. I should know….

This is a sneak peek at the winning story. For more information about the winners of the Katherine Paterson Prize for YA and Children’s Writing, click here.