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Portland-raised author Renée Watson can now add the prestigious Newbery Medal to her list of accolades.
On Jan. 26, the American Library Association awarded Watson’s book All the Blues in the Sky the 2026 John Newbery Medal, which goes to “the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature.” All the Blues in the Sky is a young adult novel written in verse and vignettes about 13-year-old Sage grieving the death of her best friend. It was published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books in February 2025.
All the Blues in the Sky takes place in Harlem, N.Y., where Watson lives half-time, alternating with her hometown of Portland. Her books center the experiences of Black girls and women and are often inspired by her experiences growing up in the Portland. Watson graduated from Jefferson High School in 1996.
“Thank you to the committee, to my team at Bloomsbury. And especially to every anchor that has supported me as I navigated my own grief these past few years. What a profound gift to love someone enough to grieve them. What a deep comfort to have been loved,” Watson wrote on social media.
She continued: “Here’s to loving and living, to grieving and remembering, to growing and most of all to letting ourselves feel joy even in the midst of sorrow. There is much to rage against and also, there is so much celebrate.”
Watson’s 2017 novel Piecing Me Together won a Coretta Scott King Award and a Newbery Honor. Her 2024 poetry collection Black Girl You Are Atlas received a Coretta Scott King Honor and won the Walter Dean Myers Award.
