Current:Home > MyJudy Blume to receive inaugural lifetime achievement award for 'bravery in literature'-InfoLens
Judy Blume to receive inaugural lifetime achievement award for 'bravery in literature'
View Date:2024-12-23 16:24:13
NEW YORK — Judy Blume's latest honor is a new prize named for a former first lady.
The Eleanor Roosevelt Center and the Fisher Center at Bard College announced Thursday that Blume is the first-ever recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Lifetime Achievement Award for Bravery in Literature. Blume, 85, is known for such novels for young people as "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" and "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing." She is also a longtime opponent of censorship, and she has seen some of her own work challenged or removed from shelves because of her candid depictions of sex, puberty and other subjects.
Of lawmakers who are calling to ban books from schools, Blume, who fought similar calls in the ’80s, previously said they're "fearful" and "want to control what our kids know, what our kids think, what our kids can question."
"You can't do that," Blume said in April 2023. "But somehow, we're right back there where they think, 'Oh, if we can just get these books out of their schools and libraries, they won't know it or talk about it,' which is totally not true."
The two centers also will be presenting inaugural Roosevelt awards for "authors and books that advance human rights in the face of an alarming rise in book banning and censorship." The winners include such frequent targets for banning as Maia Kobabe's "Gender Queer," George M. Johnson's "All Boys Aren't Blue" and Alex Gino's "Melissa." The other honorees are Laurie Halse Anderson's "Shout," Mike Curato's "Flamer" and Jelani Memory's "A Kids Book About Racism."
Check out: USA TODAY's weekly Best-selling Booklist
The winners will receive their awards during a ceremony Feb. 17 at the Fisher Center. Blume will participate virtually in a conversation with the other authors.
Judy Blume:Author and actress Rachel McAdams talk periods, book bans and 'Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.'
Judy Blume at Variety's Power of Women:Author criticizes book bans at event
Contributing: Hannah Yasharoff, USA TODAY
veryGood! (7315)
Related
- Mike Tyson-Jake Paul: How to watch the fight, time, odds
- NBA playoffs bracket watch: Which teams are rising and falling in standings?
- Months ahead of the presidential election, Nebraska’s GOP governor wants a winner-take-all system
- Michigan prosecutors seek 10 to 15 years in prison for James and Jennifer Crumbley
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, 4G
- Tish Cyrus' Husband Dominic Purcell Shares Message About Nonsense Amid Rumored Drama
- Panama and Colombia fail to protect migrants on Darien jungle route, Human Rights Watch says
- Wolf kills a calf in Colorado, the first confirmed kill after the predator’s reintroduction
- King Charles III celebrates 76th birthday amid cancer battle, opens food hubs
- Largest fresh egg producer in U.S. finds bird flu in chickens at Texas and Michigan plants
Ranking
- CFP bracket prediction: SEC adds a fifth team to field while a Big Ten unbeaten falls out
- The teaching of Hmong and Asian American histories to be required in Wisconsin under a new law
- Black Residents Want This Company Gone, but Will Alabama’s Environmental Agency Grant It a New Permit?
- Why Heather Rae El Moussa Says Filming Selling Sunset Was “Very Toxic”
- NBC's hospital sitcom 'St. Denis Medical' might heal you with laughter: Review
- GOP suffers big setback in effort to make winning potentially critical Nebraska electoral vote more likely
- 2024 NFL mock draft: Who will Bills land to replace Stefon Diggs at WR after trade?
- Meghan McCain slams off-Broadway stage play about late dad John McCain: 'This is trash'
Recommendation
-
Sister Wives’ Madison Brush Details Why She Went “No Contact” With Dad Kody Brown
-
Hannah Waddingham recalls being 'waterboarded' during 'Game of Thrones' stunt
-
Experienced climber found dead in Mount St. Helens volcano crater 1,200 feet below summit
-
Caitlin Clark wins second straight national player of the year award
-
Saks Fifth Avenue’s holiday light display in Manhattan changing up this season
-
Texas asks court to decide if the state’s migrant arrest law went too far
-
Bills to trade star WR Stefon Diggs to Texans in seismic offseason shakeup
-
Bills to trade star WR Stefon Diggs to Texans in seismic offseason shakeup