StudioTulsa

Meet Rita Williams-Garcia, the 2019 Winner of the Anne V. Zarrow Award

Public Radio Tulsa | By Rich Fisher

Published May 2, 2019 at 3:03 PM CDT

Each year, the Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature is given by the TCCL's Tulsa Library Trust to a nationally acclaimed author who has made a significant contribution to the field of literature for young adults. This year, that award will go to Rita Williams-Garcia, our guest today on ST. She is being recognized, as noted at the TCCL website, "for writing bestselling novels for young adults that inspire imaginations, dreams, and pride in all ages. Her books encourage cultural awareness and the importance of believing in yourself." Ms. Williams-Garcia, whose popular YA novels include "One Crazy Summer" and "Clayton Byrd Goes Underground," will accept the 2019 Zarrow Award at a public presentation at the Hardesty Regional Library in Tulsa on Friday, May 3rd, at 7pm. She also will present awards to winners of the TCCL's 2019 Young People's Creative Writing Contest at this ceremony.

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Rich Fisher

Rich Fisher passed through KWGS about thirty years ago, and just never left. Today, he is the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and the host of KWGS’s public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in August 2012 . As host of StudioTulsa, Rich has conducted roughly four thousand long-form interviews with local, national, and international figures in the arts, humanities, sciences, and government. Very few interviews have gone smoothly. Despite this, he has been honored for his work by several organizations including the Governor's Arts Award for Media by the State Arts Council, a Harwelden Award from the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, and was named one of the “99 Great Things About Oklahoma” in 2000 by Oklahoma Today magazine.

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