ANN ANGEL’S REACTIONS UPON HEARING HER BOOK, JANIS JOPLIN: RISE UP SINGING, WON THIS YEAR’S YALSA AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION FOR YOUNG ADULTS

Ann Angel

 We asked Ann Angel to tell us what it was like to win the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults and her response is below, but first let me explain the process. When the award is announced at the American Library Association Midwinter Conference, the author is flown into the city where the conference is being held so she can attend a ceremony in her honor and autographs books. That is what she is referring to when she talks about going to the airport.

ANN'S REACTION TO WINNING THE AWARD: 

Imagine sitting in the audience when your book receives a shout out as winner of an American Library Association's Youth Award. That was my dream and it came true on Monday, January 11th. There was no containing my cheers when ALA spokespeople announced that JANIS JOPLIN: RISE UP SINGING was the winner of the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award. The entire ALA experience was mind-blowing and fun and happy, happy, happy celebrating!   

The committee actually called my house Saturday evening but we were across the street having dinner with friends (coq au vin, in case you’re wondering what kind of cooks I befriend), and so I missed that call on my cell phone which was on the kitchen table in my purse. I didn’t check my phone until Sunday morning when husband Jeff told me my purse had been making weird noises. When I looked at my cell phone, I had a ton of missed calls beginning with Don Latham, the committee chair asking me to call him, then finally, a call that said he was sorry he’d missed me but JANIS JOPLIN: RISE UP SINGING was the award winner. Would I please call him back. Well, I’m a girl and so I did what girls do. I screamed, OMYGOD! OMYGOD! OMYGOD! Jeff was all, WHAT! WHAT! WHAT! I said screamed JANIS WON! SHE WON! And there you have it.

Actually, I was packed and ready to go to the airport by 11 am even though my plane to ALA didn’t take off until 7 that night. I couldn’t sit still. I couldn’t tell anyone until the Monday morning award announcement. I could have walked to San Diego I was so excited.

The other four finalists were powerful writers and books and I’m so proud to be in that company. They include :“They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group,” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; “Spies of Mississippi:  The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried to Destroy the Civil Rights Movement,” by Rick Bowers and published by National Geographic Society; “The Dark Game: True Spy Stories,” by Paul Janeczko and published by Candlewick Press; and “Every Bone Tells a Story: Hominin Discoveries, Deductions, and Debates,” by Jill Rubalcaba and Peter Robertshaw and published by Charlesbridge. Each one was so strong, in fact, that I refused to hazard a guess as to the winner. I also felt like the Janis Joplin team had done such an amazing job of bringing the art and music to the book through page design and photo placement that I seriously, secretly thought it was possible. But that was my secret! Now I can say — Thank you YALSA committee!