Lifetime Achievement Awards and Upcoming Books: A Talk with Christopher Paul Curtis

All right, kids. We’re classing this joint up a notch. And you read that headline right. My guest today is the one… the only… the incredible Christopher Paul Curtis. Newbery Award and Honor winner. National Book Award Finalist. He’s also gotten the Regina Medal and the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature. Most recently? He’s the winner of the 2024 Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Let’s put it this way. You look up the man on Google? His Encyclopedia Britannica listing comes right up. Go on! See for yourself!

It was my utter honor to get a chance to send him some interview questions after his Lifetime Achievement award win, but here’s the deal. The man’s a writer. So when I sent him questions, he didn’t just answer me. He took them and turned them into what is essentially an organic essay. In it, he discusses getting “the call” that he’d won the CSK Lifetime Achievement Award, Abbott Elementary, and the ultimate jaded kid response to good news.

Here then, is how he responded to my queries. If you, like myself, have been missing his voice lately, let this piece be a balm.

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Hello, Ms. Bird!

Thank you so much for your kind words, I’m particularly happy to be writing to you! Your Fuse 8 reviews of The Watsons Go To Birmingham and Bud, Not Buddy have served as confidence boosters to me for going on three decades. 

Seriously.

As an author yourself, I imagine you too have had times when doubt creeps into your ability to get onto paper what you want to say. Confidence is such an important part of writing and it’s difficult sometimes to find validation.  Whenever I find myself slipping into that mode I reread your insightful, inspiring reviews of my first two books and I’m refreshed. I go back and remember the joy those reviews brought me when I first read them.  I can say to myself, “She got it, someone understands,” and I realize, much as the reviews you write, our writing can make a difference.  So let me start by saying a huge, long-overdue thanks to you!

Of course, I’m absolutely thrilled to be this year’s winner of the CSK Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement award!  Any time you find yourself on a list with Nikki Grimes, Mildred Taylor, Jerry Pinkney, and Walter Dean Myers, you know you are in the company of giants.  “The call” came at an especially auspicious time for me, I was in the midst of a months-long funk and was in the living room with my then eleven year old daughter, Ebyaan, watching a recording of Abbott Elementary.  I’d been told there would be a Zoom call from someone on the CSK committee for an article about past CSK award winners.

As noon approached I told Ebyaan we were going to have to pause Abbott for a bit while I took a call.  She asked if she had to leave the room and I said she could stay as long as she was quiet. She pulled out her phone and was instantly lost in it.

I was surprised when the call came because there were seven or eight people on the screen.  I was doubly surprised when I saw two long-time friends, Chrystal Jeter Carr, for whom I had done my first school visit to Anchorage, Alaska in the mid-nineties, and one of my heroes, Dr. Pauletta Bracy.  We exchanged greetings and Emma K. McNamara started the interview. I was answering their questions when out of the blue Emma said,  “Well, actually, Christopher, we’re lying to you.”

It was one of those moments when what she said was so bizarre that I thought I’d misheard her.  I’m sure I had a stupefied expression on my face when I said,  “Huh?”  She repeated what she’d told me, and finally getting my wits back, I said,  “Huh?” again.  I think she left me like that for an hour or two before she said,  “Actually, we’re calling to let you know you’ve won the CSKVHLAA!”

My funk immediately dissipated, and my face was split by one of those smiles that are so unexpected and so welcomed that you think your lower jaw may fall off.

I thanked the committee and ended the Zoom call.

My joy, however, had a short shelf-life.  Ebyaan looked up from her phone and I said,  “I just won the CSKVH Lifetime Achievement Award!”

She replied,  “Oh.  Don’t you only get Lifetime Achievement Awards when your career is officially over?”

As far as someone who I’d like to see win the award, one name immediately pops to mind, Jacqueline Woodson.  Jackie’s books are powerful and often wrenching, she has consistently written one great novel after another.  I am in awe of her.

I think I’ll use my speech to thank those who have helped turn me from Christopher Curtis, hanger of doors for huge Buicks, to Christopher Curtis, author.  I’ll also talk a bit about the war on literature we are currently engaged in.

And, yes, I am well into a novel called “The Sanctuary Sessions.”  It comes from events in my life in Flint, Michigan back in the 60s when the south-side neighborhood where I lived became the target of a pernicious program known as Urban Renewal.  This was basically the destruction of Black communities across the country for the expansion of the US highway system. 

I was around ten or eleven when it happened and didn’t fully appreciate the impact it had on me until I went back to my old neighborhood mid-demolition and felt as though I was looking at Berlin after WW2.

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If it wasn’t already apparent, Mr. Curtis is the nicest man working in show business today. He’s just given you a hint of what’s going to be in his acceptance speech, and guess what? You could see it live and in person! The 55th Annual CSKBART Book Award Breakfast will be held on Sunday, June 30th at 7 a.m. at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in San Diego this year. If you’re already planning on attending the ALA Conference, be sure to buy a ticket to the breakfast in addition to your registration, and you’ll get the once-in-a-lifetime chance to see Mr. Curtis speak. It is NOT something you’ll want to miss.

Special thanks both to Mr. Curtis and to Kathy Dunn and the folks at Random House Children’s Books for helping us connect.

Filed under: Interviews