LEE BENNETT HOPKINS POETRY AWARD HISTORY

The Lee Bennett Hopkins Award, established in 1993, is presented annually to an American poet or anthologist for the most outstanding new book of children's poetry published in the previous calendar year. Since its inception in 1993, the winning poet or anthologist has received a handsome plaque and a $500 honorarium made possible by Mr. Hopkins. In 2008, the honorarium was raised to $1000.

Selected by a panel of nationally recognized teachers, librarians, and scholars, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Award for Children's Poetry is the first award of its kind in the United States. Steven Herb, Education librarian is the administrator of the annual award.

The Children's Literature Council of Pennsylvania presented the first six awards to

• Ashley Bryan for Sing to the Sun (HarperCollins)
• Nancy Wood for Spirit Walker (Doubleday)
• Douglas Florian for Beast Feast (Harcourt)
• Barbara Juster Esbensen for Dance with Me (HarperCollins)
• David Bouchard for Voices from the Wild (Chronicle)
• Kristine O'Connell George for The Great Frog Race and Other Poems (Clarion)

The Pennsylvania State University began administering the prize in 1999 when it presented the Hopkins award to

• Angela Johnson for The Other Side (Orchard)
• Naomi Shihab Nye for What Have You Lost? (Greenwillow)
• Liz Rosenberg for Light-Gathering Poems (Henry Holt)
• Anna Grossnickle Hines for Pieces: A Year in Poems and Quilts (Greenwillow)
• Constance Levy for Splash! Poems of Our Watery World (Orchard)
• Stephen Mitchell for The Wishing Bone and Other Poems (Candlewick)
• Walter Dean Myers for Here in Harlem (Holiday House)

Beginning in 2006, the award is administered by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book and the University Libraries.

• Joyce Sidman for Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems (Houghton Mifflin) (2006)
• Walter Dean Myers for Jazz (Holiday House) (2007)

In 2008, the award went to

• Carole Boston Weatherford for Birmingham, 1963

In 2009, the award was presented to Helen Frost for Diamond Willow

For information about the Hopkins Award, contact Steven Herb, 510 Paterno Library, The Pennsylvania Center for the Book, University Park, PA 16802-1812, or call (814) 863-2141.