St. Katharine Drexel Award

(formerly Certificate of Merit 1966-2001)

The St. Katharine Drexel Award was established in 1966 under the title Certificate of Merit and renamed in 2002. Presented by the Children and High School/Young Adult Library Services Section through the St. Katharine Drexel Award Committee, the St. Katharine Drexel Award recognizes an outstanding contribution to the growth of high school librarianship.

2023 St. Katharine Drexel Award Winner - Antony B. Kolenc

4/20/2023

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Tony is the author of award-winning Catholic fiction and non-fiction.

He writes The Harwood Mysteries: an award-winning medieval historical fiction series for youth published by Loyola Press. He is the host of The Shepherd's Pie, an ecumenical radio show and podcast that focuses on youth issues. He also writes short stories and pens a regular legal column in Practical Homeschooling Magazine. At his day job, Tony is a professor at Ave Maria School of Law, where he is the Director of the Veterans and Servicemembers Law Clinic and authors legal articles on matters of constitutional law. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps after 21 years of military service, where he litigated civil and criminal cases before trial and appellate courts and taught at the Air Force Academy.

He and his wife, Alisa, homeschooled their five children.
 

St. Katharine Drexel Award Recipients

2022 Corinna Turner

2021 Matthew Kelly

2020 Dr. Lesley Farmer

2019 Michael O'Brien

2018 Regina Doman

2017 Gene Luen Yang

2016 Amy Welborn (website)

2015 Joan Bauer (website)

2014 Voya Press

2013 Kimberly Willis Holt (website)

2012 Michael Cart

2011 Laurie Halse Anderson (website)

2010 Jacqueline Woodson (website)

2009 Lois Duncan (website)

2008 Walter Dean Myers (website)

2007 Caroline B. Cooney

2006 Patrick Jones

2005 Chris Crutcher (website)

2004 Norma Fox Mazer

2003 Rosen Publishing (website)

2002 Joan Lowery Nixon

Certificate of Merit recipients

2001 Sharon Draper (website)

1998 Enslow Publisher (website)

1997 Social Issues Resource Series (SIRS) (website)

1996 Winnebago Software Company (website)

1995 Donald R. Gallo

1994 Follett Library Book and Software Companies (website)

1993 Sister Francis Marita McGettigan, IHM

1992 St. Anthony Messenger Press (website)

1991 United States Catholic Conference (website)

1990 Ave Maria Press (website)

1989 Reverend John Powell

1988 Reverend John Catoir (website)

1987 World Book (website)

1986 Judge Michael F. Godfrey

1985 Doubleday Image Books

1984 James Clayton

1983 Marjorie Holmes

1982 Peggy Sullivan

1981 Ruth Ann Davies

1980 Margaret Allen Waltzer

1979 Scholastic Magazines / Press (website)

1978 Field Enterprises

1977 Mary Arthur Hoagland, IHM

1976 Lillian Shapiro

1975 Jane Hindman

1974 Reverend John R. Whitley

1973 Monsignor Edward T. Hughes

1972 Media and Methods (website)

1971 American Association of School Librarians, ALA (website)

1970 Isaac Asimov (website)

1969 Time-Life Books

1968 H.W. Wilson Company (website)

1967 Francis Keppel and Mildred Batchelder (website)

1966 Paulist Press (website)