2015 Michigan Author Award Winner – David Small

The Michigan Library Association (MLA) has selected author and illustrator David Small to receive the 2015 Michigan Author Award. The award will be presented at a luncheon during the MLA 2015 Annual Conference in Novi on Wednesday, October 28, 2015.

David Small won the 2001 Caldecott Medal for So You Want to Be President by Judith St. George. His many books include The Gardener, The Friend, George Washington’s Cows, Imogene’s Antlers and Hoover’s Bride. He is also the illustrator for Russell Hoban’s The Mouse and His Child as well as My Senator and Me: A Dog’s Eye View of Washington D.C, written by Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Small’s graphic memoir Stitches, was a #1 New York Times Best Seller and a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

After receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale, Small taught drawing and printmaking on the university level for 14 years. He lost his job in the 1980s due to cutbacks. This brought both a crisis and a commitment to begin working on combining his love of art and writing. Submitted to more than 20 publishers, his first book Eulalie and the Hopping Head was eventually published in 1981.

A panel of judges representing MLA members determined the recipient on overall literary merit. To be eligible, authors must be a current resident of Michigan, a long-time resident of Michigan, recently relocated or an author whose works are identified with Michigan because of subject and/or setting.  Small was born and raised in Detroit and currently resides in Southwest Michigan with his wife, author Sarah Stewart.

Past Michigan Author Award Winners include: Dan Gerber, Charles Baxter, Nancy Willard, Janet Kauffman, Elmore Leonard, Loren Estleman, Gloria Whelan, Jerry Dennis, Janie Lynn Panagopoulos, Thomas Lynch, Nicholas Delbanco, Diane Wakoski, Patricia Polacco, Christopher Paul Curtis, Steve Hamilton, Sarah Stewart, Tom Stanton, Dave Dempsey, John Smolens, Gary Schmidt, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Laura Kasischke and Jim Harrison.

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