Congratulations to the Honorees!

Today, we are proud to announce the honorees for our ninth annual 28 Days Later campaign, a Black History Month celebration of emerging and established children’s book creators of color. Throughout February, we will showcase outstanding authors and illustrators through guest posts, Q&As and features on their latest book. We invite you to come along on our journey and spread the news to your friends.

The submissions window for our campaign opened on November 15 and closed on December 1. We are grateful for the wonderful suggestions from librarians, teachers, publishers and kidlit lovers that came in. Our team considered those names along with internal nominations and nominees from past years, keeping focused on our mission to raise awareness of the many African-American voices writing for young readers.

The celebration will begin on Monday, February 1, 2015, and we will honor 28 children’s book creators – 24 authors and four illustrators. This year – a leap year – we’re honoring a  phenomenal children’s literature scholar who is dedicated to raising awareness of children’s book creators of color too.

The honorees and the day they will be featured are as follows:

(Vanguard authors/illustrators in bold.)

Day 1 – Maya Angelou 

Day 2 – Damian Ward

Day 3 – Mélina Mangal

Day 4 – Daniel José Older

Day 5 – Johnny Ray Moore

Day 6 – Renée Watson

Day 7 – Ekua Holmes

Day 8 – Guy A. Sims

Day 9 – Marguerite Abouet

Day 10 – Mo’Ne Davis

Day 11 – Ronald L. Smith

Day 12 – Troy Andrews

Day 13 – Jessixa Bagley

Day 14 – Dr. Lorenzo Pace

Day 15 – Sharee Miller

Day 16 – Trevor Pryce

Day 17 – Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

Day 18 – Tom Feelings

Day 19 – Lynda Blackmon Lowery

Day 20 – Cheryl Willis Hudson

Day 21 – Shannon Gibney

Day 22 – Edwidge Danticat

Day 23 – Christopher S. Ledbetter

Day 24 – Danielle Paige

Day 25 – John Lewis

Day 26 – Nnedi Okorafor

Day 27 – Aaron Phillip

Day 28 – Nicola Yoon

Day 29 – Edith (Edi) Campbell

Congratulations!