Beverly Cleary to Receive Robert Kirsch Award

Beverly Cleary's 'exceptionally happy career'. (Los Angeles Times, 4/17/2011)

Excerpt:   There's a sense of both serendipity and tenacity to such an anecdote, two qualities that define Cleary as well. For many years, she has been an icon — not just of children's literature but also of American literature, the writer who changed everything with the publication of "Henry Huggins," her first novel for middle readers, in 1950. In the decades since, she has been a Newbery Medal and Honor winner; she's a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and has been declared a living legend by the Library of Congress. Ramona has become the mascot for Drop Everything and Read Day, which takes place in libraries and schools each year on Cleary's birthday, April 12. Later this month, she will receive the Robert Kirsch Award, presented each year to a writer in the American West for lifetime achievement, at the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes.