Children's writer Andrea Davis Pinkney to be honored by the U

Bestselling children's writer Andrea Davis Pinkney will be honored with this year's Kerlan Award at a virtual event that is free and open to all. The annual award is given to a notable writer for children by the Friends of the Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature at the University of Minnesota Libraries.

Pinkney is the author of picture books, novels and nonfiction for children, including "The Red Pencil," "I Smell Honey" and "Seven Candles for Kwanzaa." She has received the Coretta Scott King Book Award, the Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor medal and many other honors.

She also wrote the libretto for the Houston Grand Opera's "The Snowy Day Opera," based on the picture book by Ezra Jack Keats, has worked as a publisher and editor and is the founder of the first African American children's book imprint at a major publishing house.

Pinkney will join a long line of distinguished children's authors to receive this award; in years past it has gone to Wanda Gag, Kate DiCamillo, Lois Lowry and others — all of whose works are part of the Kerlan Collection, one of the largest children's literature archives in the world.

Pinkney will be honored at 6 p.m. Oct. 11 and the event will be live-streamed as part of the Rain Taxi Twin Cities Book Festival. Go to raintaxi.com/2022-kerlan-award-andrea-davis-pinkney/

Laurie Hertzel is the Star Tribune's senior editor for books.