The PA Center for the Book is excited to announce the 2025 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award winner: Counting Winter by Nancy White Carlstrom and illustrated by Claudia McGehee from Eerdmans Books for Young Readers! 

This year's honor book is Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renée Watson and illustrated by Ekua Holmes from Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers, a division of Penguin Random House.

Learn more about the 2025 awardees here. 

To celebrate Free Comic Book Day on May 3, we are highlighting a few comic book artists from Pennsylvania: 

• Rachel Masilamani (Pittsburgh)
• Alison Bechdel (Beech Creek)
• Marcel L. Walker (Pittsburgh)
• Kelechi Azu (Philadelphia)
• Bill Sienkiewicz (Blakely)

To celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, we are highlighting a few Asian American authors from Pennsylvania: 

• Joan He (Philadelphia)
• Michelle Lin (Pittsburgh)
• Phuc Tran (Carlisle)
• Cat Nguyen (Philadelphia)
• Celeste Ng (Pittsburgh)

To celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month in May, we are highlighting a few Jewish authors from Pennsylvania: 

• Idra Novey (Johnstown)
• Emma Copley Eisenberg (Philadelphia)
• Lindsay Hameroff (Harrisburg)
• Michael Chabon (Pittsburgh)
• Jennifer Weiner (Philadelphia)

Check out these new and/or upcoming titles from Pennsylvania authors:

• The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict (February 11)
• Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage (April 15)
• Kittybunkport by Scott Rothman and illustrated by Zachariah OHora (May 6)
• By the Time You Read This by Brianna Labuskes (May 27)

Want to learn more about Pennsylvania's literary and cultural heritage? Check out these new or updated biographies from the Literary and Cultural Heritage Maps of Pennsylvania:

• August Wilson (1945-2005)
• John Repp
• Lee Bennett Hopkins (1938-2019)
• Kelly Starling Lyons
• Taylor Swift