Walter Dean Myers

Who is Walter Dean Myers?

Walter Dean Myers is an African-American writer of children's books best known for young adult literature. He has written over fifty books including picture books and nonfiction. He has won the Coretta Scott King Award for African-American authors five times. His 1988 novel Fallen Angels is one of the books most frequently challenged in the U.S. because of its adult language and its realistic depiction of the Vietnam War. He currently sits on the Board of Advisors of the Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators

Myers received the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1994 for his contribution in writing for teens. For his lifetime contribution as a children's writer he was U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2010.

As of January 2012, Myers is the Library of Congress National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, a two-year position created to raise national awareness of the importance of lifelong literacy and education.