Sitting At The Grown-Ups Table

On Getting An Adult Award For A Young Adult Book

I was on a plane when I got the news that Accountable had won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, which was awkward. The plane was stuck on the tarmac due to a minor mechanical issue, and I had mindlessly opened my phone to check my email. I knew my book had been shortlisted for the award, which is co-administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard and recognizes “superb examples of nonfiction on an American topic that exemplifies the literary grace, commitment to serious research and social concern that characterized the work of the award’s namesake.”

Frankly, I was thrilled to have made it that far. Previous winners include Alex Kotlowitz, Jane Mayer, Andrew Solomon, and Shane Bauer. This was a serious award for serious journalists. I figured there was approximately zero chance that a YA title would take the prize.

All the same, my reaction to learning the news was a bit muted. I stared at my phone in shock for a good minute and then, at the moment when I would normally have screamed and jumped up and down and done a little victory dance, I remembered I was on an airplane and such behavior might be frowned upon. I certainly didn’t want to become one of those People-Behaving-Strangely- On-Airplanes videos you see on TikTok. So I covered my mouth with my hands and silently screamed and danced in my seat. The guy next to me was so intent on his phone he didn’t even notice.

It wasn’t until I landed that I could call to tell my husband and son, and I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone other than my publisher for another several weeks. That gave me plenty of time to wonder if the prize judges (Masha Gessen, Kurt Andersen, Suzy Hansen and Linda Villarosa) knew they’d given the prize to a YA Title. Would they take the prize away if they found out?

Well, apparently they did know, because when the award was announced yesterday, they put it in the press release:

Judges’ citation: For the first time, the Lukas Prize is awarded to a book aimed at a young adult audience. Accountable embodies the best of the Lukas tradition of deep reporting and compassionate storytelling. Dashka Slater uses a paper trail of court documents, police reports, texts, emails, social media posts and even poetry — along with hundreds of hours of first-person interviews — to construct a portrait of a school and a community in crisis. With honesty and authenticity, Slater gets into the minds and under the skin of a group of teenage subjects as well as the flailing adults ripped to shreds by the toxic power of online speech. Accountable confronts sticky questions of race, class and gender head-on and with care, resulting in an explosive, page-turning masterwork.

It seems that my little young adult book has gotten a seat at the Grown-Ups Table. And for any of us —all of us—who write for younger readers, that’s a very big deal. I’ve had countless people ask me why I wrote such a deeply-researched book for a young adult audience rather than for adults. My answer is that I did write it for adults— I wrote it for everyone. I just wrote it especially for young adults because they’re the ones I care most about reaching. They’re the ones who are living these stories and, most importantly, they’re the ones who are about to receive the keys to our whole democracy. I want them to have all the information they need to be good at driving it.

There’s one thing that writing for young adults requires: you can never be boring.

Writing for young adults doesn’t mean dumbing down my writing, skimming over difficult material, simplifying complex questions, or relying on secondary sources. I reported as thoroughly and as deeply as I do for the New York Times Magazine (which ran an excerpt of the book) or any other adult publication. I wrote the story with all the complexity and creativity in my power. But there’s one thing that writing for young adults requires that writing for adults doesn’t: you can never be boring.

Every word must be as valuable to the reader as it is to the writer, which means no larding the text with research you can’t bear to leave out or points you can’t resist making one more time. If it’s dry, you have to figure out how to make it interesting. If it’s wonky, you have to figure out how to lure a disinterested reader into the weeds with you. Instead of asking myself whether my work will impress distinguished colleagues, I’m constantly asking myself whether it will hold the attention of a 16 year old who could be scrolling TikTok or playing video games.

Frankly, I think that makes me a better writer. And so if there’s one thing that I hope this award does, it’s help more readers realize that Accountable isn’t an aberration. Children’s and young adult writers, of both fiction and nonfiction, are doing incredible work—complex, interesting, innovative, incisive and lyrical. I’d love to see more of what we do — particularly nonfiction titles like The 21, Vincent and Theo, America Redux, Boots on the Ground, Queer Ducks, and Family Style—enjoyed by readers of all ages. Including grown-ups.

IN OTHER NEWS…

"Escargot tires of winter and searches for signs of spring . . . Hanson's gentle watercolors bring to life a charming verdant landscape. Equal parts insecure and boastful, Escargot embodies the roller coaster of emotions that many youngsters feel on any given day. Not to fear: Flowers are finally found and friendships are formed, but the steady, slimy path of chatty dialogue is, as usual, magnifique."

—Kirkus Reviews

• The newest Escargot book, Escargot and the Search for Spring, is now in stores. Come see me on:

  • Sunday, March 24, 10:30 am

    Linden Tree Books

    265 State Street
    Los Altos, CA 94022

  • Sunday, April 14, 12:00 pm

    Books Inc. Palo Alto

    855 El Camino Real #74

    Palo Alto, CA 94301

• Accountable has won a Golden Kite Honor from SCBWI and is a Finalist for a California Book Award

I bow to you,

Dashka