The Coretta Scott King Award is an annual award presented by the Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table, part of the American Library Association (ALA). Named for Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King, Jr., this award recognizes outstanding African American authors and illustrators, and is awarded for books about the African-American experience that are written for a youth audience (high school or elementary).
Lillie Patterson won the first award in 1970 for Martin Luther King, Jr.: Man of Peace. Since 1974, both author and illustrator awards are granted. Starting in 1978 Honor Books have been recognized. Illustrator Honor Books recognitions began in 1981. The Coretta Scott King Award Seal was designed by artist Lev Mills in 1974; bronze for winning books and pewter for honor books. There has since been a revision of the seal; a bronze and black seal for winners, pewter and black for honors. Dr. Henrietta M. Smith edited four volumes published by the American Library Association that provide a history of the award.
From 1996 the Coretta Scott King Awards program includes the occasional John Steptoe Award for New Talent. Through 2012, seventeen new talents have been recognized in 18 years.
1995: Sharon Draper, author of Tears of a Tiger (Simon & Schuster)
1996: none
1997: Martha Southgate, author of Another Way to Dance (Delacorte)
1998: none
1999: Sharon Flake, author of The Skin I'm In (Jump at the Sun/Hyperion)
1999: Eric Velasquez, illustrator of The Piano Man, written by Debbie Chocolate (Walker Books for Young Readers)
2000: none
2001: none
2002: Jerome Lagarrigue, illustrator of Freedom Summer, written by Deborah Wiles (Atheneum)
2003: Janet McDonald, author of Chill Wind (Frances Foster Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
2003: Randy DuBurke, author and illustrator of The Moon Ring (Chronicle Books)
2004: Hope Anita Smith, author of The Way a Door Closes, illustrated by Shane W. Evans (Henry Holt)
2005: Barbara Hathaway, author of Missy Violet and Me (Houghton Mifflin)
2005: Frank Morrison, illustrator of Jazzy Miz Mozetta, written by Brenda C. Roberts (Farrar Straus Giroux)
2006: Jaime Adoff, author of Jimi & Me (Jump at the Sun, an imprint of Hyperion Books for Children)
2007: Traci L. Jones, author of Standing Against the Wind (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
2008: Sundee T. Frazier, author of Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything In It (Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children's Books)
2009: Shadra Strickland, illustrator of Bird, written by Zetta Elliott (Lee & Low Books)
2010: Kekla Magoon, author of The Rock and the River (Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division)
2011: Victoria Bond and T. R. Simon, authors of Zora and Me (Candlewick Press)
2011: Sonia Lynn Sadler, illustrator of Seeds of Change, written by Jen Cullerton Johnson (Lee & Low Books)
2012: none
2013: none
2014: Theodore Taylor III, illustrator of When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop (Roaring Brook Press)
2015: Jason Reynolds, author of When I Was the Greatest (Atheneum)
2016: Ronald L. Smith, author of Hoodoo (Clarion Books)
2016: Ekua Holmes, illustrator of Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement (Candlewick Press)
2017: Nicola Yoon, author of The Sun Is Also a Star (Delacorte Press)
From 2010 the Coretta Scott King Awards include the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, or Virginia Hamilton Award. It is presented to creators and practitioners alternately: in even years, to an African American writer or illustrator of books for children or young adults; in odd years, to a practitioner for "active engagement with youth using award winning African American literature for children and/or young adults, via implementation of reading and reading related activities/programs."
2010: Walter Dean Myers, author
2011: Dr. Henrietta Mays Smith, professor emerita at the University of South Florida, Tampa, School of Library and Information Science
2012: Ashley Bryan, storyteller, artist, author, poet, and musician
2013: Demetria Tucker, family and youth services librarian for the Pearl Bailey Library, a branch of the Newport News (Va.) Public Library System
2014: Patricia and Fredrick McKissack, children's authors
2015: Deborah D. Taylor, young adult librarian
2016: Jerry Pinkney, illustrator
2017: Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, Professor Emerita of Education at Ohio State University
