A national organization for English teachers has established a new award for equity and inclusion in young adult literature. It will first be given to gay author Bill Konigsberg and named after him for future recipients.
The Bill Konigsberg Award for Acts and Activism for Equity and Inclusion through Young Adult Literature was created by the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN), part of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), ALAN announced on its website last week. The award was motivated by a talk Konigsberg gave November 19 at this year’s NCTE national convention, where he discussed an incident at another session in which one panelist made repeated anti-LGBTQ remarks. This was all the more shocking because the panel was titled, “Disproportionately Censored: A Conversation with YA Authors Who Write about Race, Gender, and Sexuality.” Konigsberg responded in a speech two days later at the convention. He explained that he had first tried to engage in dialogue with the other panelist, but then moved into anger “when it became clear that she wasn’t there for a conversation.” He asserted in his speech:
LGBTQ youth are my kids. I’m a fierce papa bear and you do not come after LGBTQ youth.
LGBTQ youth are my kids. And I’m a fierce papa bear and you do not come after LGBTQ youth. Let’s widen that. You do not come after marginalized kids. They, too, are my children. We’re adults, and this panelist is free to believe whatever bullshit she wants to about me. Where I draw the line is when she advocates against my children.
Konigsberg, who has won the Stonewall Book Award, Lambda Literary Award, and GLAAD Media Award, among other accolades, also talked in his speech about his new YA novel, The Music of What Happens
Interestingly, this is NOT a book about homophobia. It’s a love story between two boys who are openly gay, who are comfortably out. That’s a modern tale, and despite all the people like that panelist out there, it’s not an incorrect one. It’s just … complicated. We live in multiple worlds at the same time, it seems, these days.
This is a book that couldn’t have been written 10 years ago, because it wouldn’t have made sense to have kids NOT dealing with coming out. But now, thank god, we can have some books that are just about the lives of LGBTQ kids.
He also says some very smart things about masculinity, femininity, messages, and role models. I urge you to read it in full or watch below.
The week after Konigsberg’s talk, NCTE formally denounced the panelist and announced steps it was taking to ensure future panels were respectful and safe spaces. An anonymous donor then offered to fund the establishment of the award, which will go in 2019 to Konigsberg himself. In the future, it will be presented annually “to an individual who has acted in selfless advocacy of marginalized youth through the creation, teaching, funding or other form of promotion of young adult literature.” The award will be open to anyone, ALAN tells us, including “authors, publishers, educators and other individuals standing up for groups of young people who are victimized by hate speech or actions.” The winner will be selected by a subset of the ALAN Awards Committee from nominations submitted by ALAN members, and winners will receive $300 and be recognized at the ALAN Breakfast.
Kudos to Konigsberg for his support of LGBTQ and other marginalized youth through both his written and spoken words.
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