“The More You Give” Wins The Ohioana Book Award

I recently had the honor of attending the 82nd annual Ohioana Book Awards in Columbus.

Left to right: me, Celeste Ng, David Weaver (Director of the Ohioana Library), Kortney Morrow, Jasmine Warga, Kelcey Ervick

It was such a lovely evening at the Ohio Statehouse celebrating with the other winners, Celeste Ng (in fiction), Jasmine Warga (in middle grade/young adult) and Kelcey Ervick (in a book about an Ohioan) as well as Kortney Morrow who won the Walter Rumsey Marvin grant, given to a writer under 30 who has not yet published a book. Also receiving awards, but unable to attend the ceremony, were Ross Gay (in nonfiction), Saeed Jones (in poetry) and John Scalzi (Readers’ Choice winner).

This was my third time being nominated for the award. Both of my other two picture books, “Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse” and “Something Good” were nominated in 2019 and 2022, respectively. I was definitely getting used to saying it is an honor to be nominated (and it is!) but it certainly is fun to win.

I’m so very grateful to the Ohioana library staff and board members for supporting Ohio writers and our work. In today’s times when book censorship, especially of children’s books, is a daily headline, and when I’ve been fighting against those who would seek to ban books right in my town, it was so uplifting to spend an evening celebrating the joy of books and the freedom to read with like-minded people.