Judy Blume will Receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for 'Bravery in Literature'

Explore the legacy of Judy Blume, recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Lifetime Achievement Award for Bravery in Literature. A celebration of courage in storytelling.

on Jan 12, 2024

Judy Blume will Receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for 'Bravery in Literature' | Frontlist

Judy Blume's latest honour is a new prize named after a past First Lady.

The Eleanor Roosevelt Centre and the Fisher Centre at Bard College announced Blume's selection as the first winner of the Eleanor Roosevelt Lifetime Achievement Award for Bravery in Literature on Thursday. Blume, 85, is noted for young adult novels such as "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" and "Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing." She is also a longtime opponent of censorship, and she has had some of her own work questioned or taken from shelves because of its forthright depictions of sex, puberty and other subjects

The two centres will also offer the first Roosevelt Awards for "authors and books that advance human rights in the face of an alarming rise in book banning and censorship." The winners include frequently banned works such as Maia Kobabe's "Gender Queer," George M. Johnson's "All Boys Aren't Blue," and Alex Gino's "Melissa." Other awardees include Laurie Halse Anderson's "Shout," Mike Curato's "Flamer," and Jelani Memory's "A Kids Book About Racism."
The winners will be honoured at a ceremony on February 17 at the Fisher Centre. Blume will engage in a virtual discourse with the other authors.