John Steptoe Award for New Talent
Purpose
The award is established to affirm new talent and to offer visibility to excellence in writing and/or illustration which otherwise might be formally unacknowledged within a given year within the structure of the two awards given annually by the Coretta Scott King Task Force.
Criteria
The criteria for eligibility will be the same as those for the writing and illustration awards, with the exception that the winner(s)' published works cannot exceed three in number. An author or illustrator who has already received or has just been selected to win one of the Coretta Scott King Awards in the current year is not eligible for the John Steptoe Award for New Talent. An author may receive this award one time.
One award will be presented annually for text or illustrations. The Committee may choose to select one book for writing and a second book for illustration. The award need not be given if the committee so decides in a particular year.
John Steptoe Award Recipients
2008
Sundee T. Frazier, for Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It
2007
Traci L. Jones, for Standing Against the Wind
2006
Jaime Adoff, Jimi & Me
2005
Author: Barbara Hathaway for Missy Violet and Me
(Houghton Mifflin)
Illustrator: Frank Morrison for Jazzy Miz Mozetta, written by Brenda C. Roberts (Farrar Straus Giroux)
2004
Author: Hope Anita Smith for The Way a Door Closes, illustrated by Shane W. Evans (Henry Holt)
Illustrator: Elbrite Brown for My Family Plays Music, written by Judy Cox (Holiday House)
2003
Author: Janet McDonald for Chill Wind
(Frances Foster Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Illustrator: Randy DuBurke for The Moon Ring
(Chronicle Books)
2002
Illustrator: Jerome Lagarrigue for Freedom Summer, written by Deborah Wiles
2001
No award presented.
2000
No award presented.
1999
Illustrator: Eric Velasquez for The Piano Man, written by Debbie Chocolate (Walker)
Author: Sharon Flake for The Skin I'm In (Jump at the Sun/Hyperion)
1998
No award presented.
1997
Another Way to Dance by Martha Southgate (Delacorte)
1996
No award presented.
1995
Tears of a Tiger by Sharon Draper (Simon & Schuster)
John Steptoe New Talent Award
