THE HARVARD LIBRARY OF NEW YORK PRESENTS THE YOUNG READERS PRIZE

The tenth annual prize will be presented in May 2026 (date to be confirmed)

Call for Applications // Please Share With All NYC DOE Schools // Apply by: April 15th, 2026

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.

SUBMIT BY EMAIL

Three tenth graders from NYC Public Schools will be selected.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS - PLEASE SHARE WITH ALL NYC DOE SCHOOLS - APPLY BY April 15, 2026

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

The Young Readers Prize

The Harvard Library in New York will award the tenth 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 in May 2026 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 2026 Keynote Presenter. Gift certificates can be redeemed online or in store.

2026 KEYNOTE PRESENTER:

to be announced

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
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and writer; co-wrote In the Heights with Lin-Manuel Miranda.
DAN ABRAMS
New York Times best-selling author, and Legal Correspondent for ABC News.
RASHIDA JONES
Award-winning actress, director, writer, and producer.
JACQUELINE WOODSON
Award-winning author and poet, and 2020 MacArthur Genius Award recipient.
GRAYDON CARTER
Co-Editor of Airmail, former Editor-in-Chief of Vanity Fair, and Spy Magazine.
FRAN LEBOWITZ
Writer, public speaker, and star of recent Netflix series Pretend It’s a City.
CLAIRE MESSUD
The Joseph Y. Bae and Janice Lee Senior Lecturer on Fiction at Harvard University.
WALTER IASAACSON
Author, Leonard Lauder Professor of American History and Values at Tulane University.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES & CRITERIA

Submission Deadline: April 15th, 2026

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.

David Foster Wallace was a novelist who often talked and wrote about the importance of fiction in helping humans feel connected to one another. He wrote that "the fun of reading is 'an exchange between consciousnesses, a way for human beings to talk to each other about stuff we can’t normally talk about."

Drawing on your own experience reading, what are some times that you've felt like reading allows you to deeply understand the mind of someone else? How has that experience impacted you? What has it taught you about yourself and others? Please use examples from one or more specific books.

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, 2026

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.