2023 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction

The 2023 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction went to Irene Latham and Charles Waters for African Town, a novel told in many voices and inspired by the people brought to Alabama on the last known slave ship to reach the United States. The book follows them through enslavement and their longing to return to Africa, and on to the community they built for themselves, Africatown. A committee chaired by Mary Ann Stahr of the Kent State School of Information chose the book as the year's single winner, with no honor books named. The award, which carries $5,000, is administered by Kent State University's Reinberger Children's Library Center.