I'm pleased to share Evangeline Parsons-Yazzie's response to the news that Her Land, Her Love had been selected by the American Indian Library Association for one of its honors.
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Evangeline said:
On Friday February 5th, when I was first told by my publisher, Eric Lockard of Salina Bookshelf, Inc., that my novel had been selected by the American Indian Library Association as an Honor Book in the Young Adult category, I held my breath and asked Eric to repeat the news to me. I wanted to hear the news several more times but my memory has been doing that for me.
A heart-felt appreciation and deep gratitude is what I feel toward the awards committee who selected my novel, Her Land, Her Love as an Honor Book. I am still in awe of the the beautiful blessing that the people on the committee have bestowed upon my novel.
Her Land, Her Love is my first novel and one that I cherished through the years as I wrote and rewrote it. I wrote it at a time when I was going through a divorce, obtaining my doctorate degree, raising four children under the ages of ten, and a first year of teaching at Northern Arizona University. At the time, I desperately needed strength so I turned toward the stories my maternal grandmother and my father had told me regarding the Navajo Long Walk which is a painful time in Navajo history. I began writing and gained strength from the stories of my elders. So, not only has the committee blessed me, you have also blessed the Navajo elders with whom I consulted to obtain the truth about the Long Walk. Since the story reflected a painful time in history, I decided to weave in a love story to lighten the topic and to hold the attention of my readers.
I also praise and thank the Lord for the gift of writing that He instilled within me. It has been five days since I heard the news and I am still smiling!
Once again, I thank the American Indian Library Association's awards committee for the honor of their recognition for my work.
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