THE HARVARD LIBRARY OF NEW YORK PRESENTS THE YOUNG READERS PRIZE
The eighth annual prize will be presented on May 29th, 2024 from 5:30-7:00PM
Call for Applications // Please Share With All NYC DOE Schools // Apply by May 3, 2024
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.
Three tenth graders from NYC Public Schools will be selected.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS - PLEASE SHARE WITH ALL NYC DOE SCHOOLS - APPLY BY MAY 3, 2024
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
On May 29rd, 2024, the Harvard Library in New York will award the eighth 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.
Awardee Recognition
Prize winners will be recognized at the Harvard Library in New York City On May 29rd, 2024 from 5:30 - 7:00pm. Transportation to and from the Library will be provided for winners and their families.
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 2024 Keynote Presenter, Susan Choi. Gift certificates can be redeemed online or in store.
2024 KEYNOTE PRESENTER
Susan Choi
Photo by Larry Canner
Susan Choi is the author of five novels, including Trust Exercise, which received the 2019 National Book Award for fiction. She has also been recipient of the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction, the PEN/W.G. Sebald Award, a Lamba Literary award, the 2021 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She serves as a trustee of PEN America and teaches in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.
PAST PRESENTERS
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![Quiara Alegría Hudes]()
QUIARA ALEGRÍA HUDES
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and writer; co-wrote In the Heights with Lin-Manuel Miranda.
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DAN ABRAMS
New York Times best-selling author, and Legal Correspondent for ABC News.
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![Rashida Jones]()
RASHIDA JONES
Award-winning actress, director, writer, and producer.
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![Jacqueline Woodson]()
JACQUELINE WOODSON
Award-winning author and poet, and 2020 MacArthur Genius Award recipient.
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![Graydon Carter]()
GRAYDON CARTER
Co-Editor of Airmail, former Editor-in-Chief of Vanity Fair, and Spy Magazine.
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![Fran Lebowitz]()
FRAN LEBOWITZ
Writer, public speaker, and star of recent Netflix series Pretend It’s a City.
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![Claire Messud]()
CLAIRE MESSUD
The Joseph Y. Bae and Janice Lee Senior Lecturer on Fiction at Harvard University.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES & CRITERIA
Please submit student essays by May 3rd, 2024
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.
Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.
- Franz Kafka
Books take us to places we’ve never been, introduce us to people we have never met, and allows us a chance to see into their worlds. We can live many different lives through the characters and situations we encounter in fiction. In essence, books offer new experiences we can have from the comfort of our own homes.
Like with other new experiences, the way we respond to books may come as a surprise, even to ourselves. Whether we are identifying or empathizing with a character or become angry or sad because of a turn of events, fiction can reveal new and important aspects of ourselves.
In your journey through reading, what new discoveries have you made about yourself?
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.
Please submit student essays by
May 3rd, 2024