THE HARVARD LIBRARY OF NEW YORK PRESENTS THE YOUNG READERS PRIZE

The ninth annual prize will be presented on May 19, 2025

Call for Applications // Please Share With All NYC DOE Schools // Apply by: April 15th, 2025

Known unofficially as “the bookworm award,” the prize is intended to encourage the kind of self-reflection, empathy, curiosity and broad-mindedness that reading for its own sake fosters.

 
Harvard Library logo.jpg
 

Three tenth graders from NYC Public Schools will be selected. 

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS - PLEASE SHARE WITH ALL NYC DOE SCHOOLS - APPLY BY April 15, 2025

This prize is available to all New York Public and Charter School 10th Grade Students. To be considered for the prize, students must submit brief essays related to their love of reading and show thoughtfulness about what they read and how it impacts them. 

 

The Young Readers Prize

The Harvard Library in New York will award the ninth annual “Young Readers Prize” to three NYC public school tenth graders. The prize recognizes students who show a deep love of reading for its own sake – irrespective of academic or testing performance.

 

40052594913_3c6bddfaa2_k.jpg

Awardee Recognition

Prize winners will be recognized at the Harvard Library in New York City in May 2025 from 5:30 - 7:00pm. Transportation to and from the Library will be provided for winners and their families.

harvard

Summary of Prize

Prize winners will be recognized and awarded a $500 gift certificate to the Center For Fiction Bookstore in Downtown Brooklyn as well as a selection of books curated by our 2025 Keynote Presenter. Gift certificates can be redeemed online or in store.

2025 KEYNOTE PRESENTER

WALTER ISAACSON

Walter Isaacson is the Leonard Lauder Professor of American History and Values at Tulane. He is the past CEO of the Aspen Institute, where he is now a Distinguished Fellow, and has been the chairman of CNN and the editor of TIME magazine.

Isaacson’s most recent biography is Elon Musk (2023). He is also the author of The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race (2021), Leonardo da Vinci (2017), The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014), Steve Jobs (2011), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992), and coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986).

 He is a host of the show “Amanpour and Company” on PBS and CNN and a contributor to CNBC.

He serves on the board of United Airlines, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Society of American Historians, Halliburton Labs, The New Orleans City Planning Commision and My Brother’s Keeper Alliance. He is an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg, a financial services firm based in New York City.

Walter Isaacson

PAST PRESENTERS

  • SUSAN CHOI

    Award winning author of five novels, including Trust Exercise, which received the 2019 National Book Award for fiction.

  • Quiara Alegría Hudes

    QUIARA ALEGRÍA HUDES

    Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and writer; co-wrote In the Heights with Lin-Manuel Miranda.

  • DAN ABRAMS

    DAN ABRAMS

    New York Times best-selling author, and Legal Correspondent for ABC News.

  • Rashida Jones

    RASHIDA JONES

    Award-winning actress, director, writer, and producer.

  • Jacqueline Woodson

    JACQUELINE WOODSON

    Award-winning author and poet, and 2020 MacArthur Genius Award recipient.

  • Graydon Carter

    GRAYDON CARTER

    Co-Editor of Airmail, former Editor-in-Chief of Vanity Fair, and Spy Magazine.

  • Fran Lebowitz

    FRAN LEBOWITZ

    Writer, public speaker, and star of recent Netflix series Pretend It’s a City.

  • Claire Messud

    CLAIRE MESSUD

    The Joseph Y. Bae and Janice Lee Senior Lecturer on Fiction at Harvard University.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES & CRITERIA

Submission Deadline: April 15th, 2025

Students are asked to write a brief personal essay (250-500 words), responding to the following assignment. Essays should be personal reflections on the quote below – essayists are encouraged to reflect on what the quote means to them, and how it relates to their life, personal experiences, and most importantly their relationship with reading and literature.

"Reading makes immigrants of us all.  It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere." - Jean Rhys

Jean Rhys (1890–1979) was a Dominican-born British author best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Rhys herself was an immigrant - she was born and raised in the Carribean and moved to England at age 16.

Whether you have had the experience of physically living in different neighborhoods, cities, or countries, feelings of belonging, or not belonging, are universal. How has reading fiction allowed you to "travel away from home" in a way that has been meaningful to you. In what ways has it allowed you to find a sense of home or belonging for yourself within books? In your essay, please refer to specific books or characters and how they have impacted your own experience at critical times in your life.

Criteria for selection

The Prize Committee will select the winners of the “Young Readers Prize” based on the following: 

  • Demonstrated insight into the role of reading in one’s personal development

  • Specific examples of themes and characters from fictional works

  • Thoughtful self-reflection

  • Originality and creativity

  • Authentic style

  • Grammar and structure

Submission Guidelines

  • Email youngreadersprize@gmail.com with essay, school name, student name and contact information

  • Submission Deadline: April 15th, 2025