Graphic Novelist Named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature
Friday, January 8th, 2016January 8, 2016
This week, the librarian of Congress named American cartoonist and author Gene Luen Yang as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Yang is the first graphic novelist to be so honored. The ambassadorship is awarded every two years to an American children’s author or illustrator. The position is intended to raise “national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.”
American cartoonist and author Gene Luen Yang was named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature on Jan. 7, 2016. He is the first graphic novelist to be so honored. Credit: © Gene Luen Yang
Yang was born on Aug. 9, 1973, in California, the son of Chinese immigrants, and grew up in the San Jose area. He began drawing and writing comic books in the fifth grade. In 1997, Yang received a grant for his comic Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks, which was eventually published by a comic book company. Yang completed a bachelor’s degree at the University of California—Berkeley in 1995 and worked as a computer engineer for two years. He then began teaching computer science at a high school in Oakland. Yang earned a master’s degree in education from California State University at East Bay in 2003. His first graphic novel, American Born Chinese (2006), was enormously successful. It won the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association for best young adult book. It was also the first graphic novel to be named a finalist for the National Book Award. The book includes three stories about struggles with one’s identity, a theme common to many of Yang’s works. Boxers & Saints (2013), a two-volume graphic novel about the Boxer Rebellion, was also a National Book Award finalist. In the fall of 2015, with illustrator Mike Holmes, Yang began writing the “Secret Coders” graphic novel series for middle-graders. The series follows a group of students who use their computer programming skills to solve mysteries. Yang was a high school computer science teacher until 2015, when he became a full-time writer.
The position of national ambassador was established in 2008 under the direction of the librarian of Congress. The award is sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress; the Children’s Book Council, a publisher’s organization; and Every Child a Reader, an independent foundation. The first national ambassador was Jon Scieszka, who served in 2008 and 2009. He was followed by Katherine Paterson (2010-2011), Walter Dean Myers (2012-2013), and Kate DiCamillo (2014-2015).
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