Chris Crowe and Carol Lynch Williams were presented with Association for Mormon Letters Lifetime Achievement Awards at the AML Conference, July 20, 2024. You can see a recording of the awards ceremony here. The award citations are given below.
2024 Lifetime Achievement Award: Chris Crowe
The Association for Mormon Letters proudly presents its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award to Chris Crowe, an accomplished author, scholar, and teacher. Chris has not only published an impressive array of fiction for young readers, but he has championed young adult literature and the writers who craft it throughout his career as a high school teacher and college professor.
His work as a writer began during his years of teaching high school English in the 1980s when he wrote a humor column for The Latter-Day Sentinel (1981-1988) and frequently wrote for the New Era and other related publications of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since then, he has published both fiction and non-fiction for adult audiences (including Fatherhood, Football and Turning Forty: Confessions of a Middle-Aged Mormon Male), young adults (including Mississippi Trial 1955, Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case, Up Close: Thurgood Marshall, and Death Coming Up The Hill), and even a picture book, Just As Good: How Larry Doby Changed America’s Game.
Mississippi Trial 1955, published in 2002, is likely his most-recognized book for young readers. With this book Chris brought fresh and much-needed attention to the story of Emmet Till, a young black boy who was cruelly lynched by white men in Mississippi, offended that Emmet had the temerity to interact with a white woman. Emmet’s death in 1955 had shocked a nation then, and Chris’s novel powerfully brings Emmet’s story and the larger conversation about civil rights and justice to a new generation. Telling the story from the perspective of Hiram, a white teenager who becomes involved in the prosecution of the men who murdered Till, Crowe deftly presents readers with different perspectives about race relations and the complicated history of the South, through the experiences Hiram has; as Hiram grows to understand what’s at stake in these events, so, too, does the reader gain an appreciation for both what is just and for the need to and consequences of standing up for what is right. In 2003, the novel was recognized with the International Reading Association Children’s Book Award for Young Adult Fiction in 2003 and was honored on the American Library Association’s (ALA) list of Best Books for Young Adults.
The extensive research that Chris did for the fictionized account resulted the next year in a non-fiction book for young readers, Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case. In engaging details and photographs, this book reveals Emmet Till’s life and character to readers and presents as balanced an account as possible of the events at the small Mississippi store that preceded Emmet’s death. At the same time, the book provides compelling and revealing details about the history of racism and Jim Crow in the United States and the investigation, the trial, and the aftermath of the exoneration of the men who murdered Till. Like its fictional counterpart, this book was recognized as a Best Book for Young Adults in 2004 by the ALA. In the years since their publication, both books have been read widely in public school classrooms, and Chris has graciously spent hundreds of hours in those same classrooms talking to students about the details of Emmett’s life and death and the craft of writing.
Death Coming Up the Hill represents Chris at his most experimental as a writer. Inspired by playing around with the haiku for as a way of sparking writing, the novel evolved into 976 Haiku stanzas (translating into one syllable for each of the 16,592 soldiers who died in the Vietnam war) that tell the story of Ashe, a young boy confronted in 1968 with the dissolution of his parents’ marriage and the possibility of being drafted into the Army to serve in Vietnam. While the book also touches on themes of racism, its focus is on the inner dialogue of a young man in uncertain and fractious times, both abroad and at home. The poetic format Chris chooses for the story allows him to share remarkable insights into this young man and brings his craft as a writer into new territory.
As a scholar of young adult literature, Chris has focused his attention on the representations of African-Americans in young adult literature, including giving close attention to the work of Mildred D. Taylor (through his biography of her, Presenting Mildred D. Taylor and a book on teaching her works in classrooms entitled Teaching the Selected Works of Mildred D. Taylor ) and the life and career of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (in the biography Up Close: Thurgood Marshall). He has also extensively explored sports in young adult literature, including in his scholarly book More than a Game: Sports Literature
for Young Adults, often arguing that stories about athletes and the games they play are about more than the excitement of the game but also about character and development. From 1998-2003, he wrote a regular column on Young Adult Literature for English Journal, the premier academic journal for English teachers in the United States. In addition, he has published numerous articles about the genre in some of the best venues throughout his career.
His published books and scholarly contributions have made an indelible impact on young readers and on the field of young adult literature. Equally important is the work he has done as a teacher and mentor, work that began as a high school teacher where he first engaged in his tireless and ongoing efforts to pair young readers with well-written young adult books. Since being hired at BYU Provo in 1993, he has taught a young adult literature course of one form or another nearly every year; these courses have impacted hundreds of students–undergraduate and graduate–as he has shared his extensive understanding of the genre, its history and its features, and his passion for the kinds of 
books that resonate with young readers. His teaching has been recognized for its quality and impact several times by the University, including most recently with its highest faculty honor, the Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Lecturer Award in 2020. As part of his teaching, Chris has also mentored, formally and informally, dozens of aspiring writers, most often in the form of master’s thesis projects. He is an astute reader and has proffered insightful critique and encouragement across many decades for hundreds of students, several of whom have gone on to become published writers themselves.
An interview with Chris Crowe, conducted by Ann Dee Ellis, and broadcast on Saturday, July 20, is available here.
2024 Lifetime Achievement Award: Carol Lynch Williams
Carol Lynch Williams is an award-winning author of over 25 books for young readers. Her novels are masterful character-studies of courageous adolescent protagonists as they overcome difficult circumstances. They are heartfelt messages of reassurance to her readers. The message is, “You are powerful. Like Carolina in Carolina Autumn, you can navigate heartbreak and grief to repair a broken relationship. Like Lacey in Miles from Ordinary, you can face the challenges of a loved one’s mental illness. Like Kyra in The Chosen One, you can escape abuse and indoctrination to gain freedom and independence.” Carol’s books say, “Believe in yourself. You can do difficult things.”
Carol grew up in Florida and now lives in Utah. She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College. She won the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship for her novel Glimpse and was nominated for the PEN award for The True Colors of Caitlynne Jackson. The Chosen One was named one of the ALA’s Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers and Best Books for Young Adult Readers. Carol has won AML Awards for My Angelica and The Chosen One, the latter set in a Mormon fundamentalist polygamous group and also winning a Whitney Award. In addition to her nationally published works, she has written several books for young LDS readers, including the Latter-day Daughters series and Once I Was a Beehive.
Carol is not only a great writer but a captivating teacher, mentor, and speaker. Carol co-founded and has directed the annual Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers (WIFYR) conference since 1999, and she is a professor of creative writing at BYU. She cares deeply about the learning and success of her students. She will take the time to provide helfpful feedback to a struggling writer, or give personal insights on story development to groups of students in her college classes and conference workshops. Thousands of hopeful writers have benefitted from Carol’s wisdom and generosity, time and attention.
However, Carol will tell you that her greatest accomplishment is the raising of her five beautiful daughters. And from this endeavor she has gained a spirited, creative grandson she affectionately calls “Bub.” He, in turn, calls her “Bubby.” Bub and Bubby are practically inseparable, adventurous buddies like Batman and the Joker who they once dressed up as for Halloween.
Carol has a deep and abiding faith in God which provides her with strength when times are tough. But she also has a wry sense of humor. Despite a lack of formal dance training, she’s willing to strut her stuff in front of a crowd of people with reckless abandon. Whether she’s oblivious to what good dancing should look like or is too caught up in the moment to care, nobody is exactly sure. We love Carol too much to say anything to stop her.
Carol is many things to many people. Author, teacher, mentor, mother, and grandmother. But for anyone fortunate enough, it is a privilege to call her a friend. (Citation by Kristyn Crow).
To celebrate this award, Carol Lynch Williams was interviewed by John Bennion and Cheri Earl, where they talked about her life and career. The conversation can be viewed here.