At the University of Oklahoma, the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature is going from $35,000 to $50,000. The NSK Neustadt Prize, awarded every other year to a living writer or author-illustrator with significant achievement in children’s or young-adult literature, has been given since 2003.

Kathy Neustadt, one of three sisters responsible for the prize’s endowment, made the official announcement Friday.

“My sisters and I are thrilled to raise the NSK Prize amount as a signal to the world about the importance of children’s and young adult literature,” Neustadt said. 

The expanded purse’s first recipient will be the winner of the 2027 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. 

Candidates for the award are nominated by a jury of writers, illustrators or scholars, and the jury also selects the winner.

This year’s winner will be announced at a public reception beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, in Beaird Lounge of Oklahoma Memorial Union on the OU Norman campus.

Made possible through the generosity of Kathy Neustadt, Nancy Barcelo, and Susan Neustadt Schwartz, the NSK Prize is sponsored by World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture.

R. C. Davis-Undiano, executive director of the WLT organization, commented that “the University of Oklahoma and the world of literature have few better friends than Kathy, Nancy and Susan.”

For more information about the prize and the festival, visit the Neustadt website or call Terri Stubblefield at (405) 325-4531.