Awards & Winners

Joyce Carol Thomas

Date of Birth 25-May-1938
Place of Birth Ponca City
(Kay County, Oklahoma, Osage County)
Nationality United States of America
Also know as Joyce Thomas
Profession Writer, Playwright, Author, Illustrator, Poet
Joyce Carol Thomas is an African-American poet, playwright, motivational speaker, and author of more than 30 children's books. Thomas was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma, the fifth of nine children in a family of cotton pickers. In 1948 they moved to Tracy, California, to pick vegetables. She learned Spanish from Mexican migrant workers and earned a B.A. in Spanish from San Jose State University. She took night classes in education at Stanford University, while raising four children, and received the master's degree in 1967. For her 1982 novel Marked by Fire, Thomas won a National Book Award in category Children's Fiction and an American Book Award. Thomas has been one of three to five finalists for the Coretta Scott King Award thrice, in 1984 for Bright Shadow, in 1994 for Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea, and in 2009 for The Blacker the Berry in 2009. Part of the American Library Association program, the King Award annually recognizes the "most distinguished portrayal of African American experience in literature for children or teens". She also received a New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year Award and an Outstanding Woman of the 20th Century Award.

Awards by Joyce Carol Thomas

Check all the awards nominated and won by Joyce Carol Thomas.

2013


Nominations 2013 »

Award Nominated Nominated Work
NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Children's In the Land of Milk and Honey

2009


Nominations 2009 »

Award Nominated Nominated Work
Coretta Scott King Award for Authors The Blacker the Berry

1994


Nominations 1994 »

Award Nominated Nominated Work
Coretta Scott King Award for Authors Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea

1984


Nominations 1984 »

Award Nominated Nominated Work
Coretta Scott King Award for Authors Bright shadow

1983


National Book Award for Children’s Books (Fiction, Paperback)
Honored for : Marked by Fire

Nominations 1983 »

Award Nominated Nominated Work
National Book Award for Children’s Books (Fiction, Paperback) Marked by Fire