MORRISTOWN, NJ-BASED AUTHOR MEG WIVIOTT TO BE HONORED BY A CHRISTOPHER AWARD FOR "PAPER HEARTS" ON MAY 19 IN NYC

Morristown, N.J.-based author Meg Wiviott has won a Christopher Award for the book Paper Hearts (Young Adult, Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster). It is one of 12 books for adults and young people by 21authors and illustrators to be celebrated, along with the writers, producers and directors of nine winning feature films and TV/Cable programs, on May 19, 2016 at the 67th annual Christopher Awards in New York.

According to Tony Rossi, director of communications for The Christophers, “The novel in verse, based on a true story, is about a birthday card for a fellow Auschwitz inmate that becomes an act of defiance and statement of hope for two Jewish young women with the determination to survive.” On her website Wiviott noted that when Zlatka made the card in 1944 for her best friend Fania, she was committing a crime punishable by death. To do this she “stole and bartered for paper and scissors, secretly creating an origami heart. Then she passed it to every girl at the work table to sign with their hopes and wishes for happiness, for love and most of all—freedom.” The women were slave laborers at a munitions factory.

“I do not generally write in verse,” wrote Wiviott. “I do not consider myself a poet. Poetry is something I struggle with as a reader, so my learning curve for writing poetry was steep. Truthfully, it was hard to write in verse, but considerably easier than writing in prose. Once entangled in a story, a writer must get up every morning and ‘go’ to that place. Auschwitz was not a nice place to go to every day. Writing in verse gave me a bit of distance from the horror through the use of metaphor, white space, illusion, and elision. Verse also gives distance to the reader and, presents the historical facts truthfully, but not graphically.”

In addition to the Christopher Award, Wiviott’s Paper Hearts was a YALSA Best Book of the Year, a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, an Amelia Bloomer Pick and a Cybil Award Winner for Poetry and Novel in Verse. She is also the author of the award-winning picture book Benno and the Night of Broken Glass. Wiviott was a history major at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, earned a Master’s in Education from Northwestern University, and graduated with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from The Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and a ridiculously friendly cat. They have two grown children.

Created in 1949, The Christopher Awards are presented to authors and illustrators as well as writers, producers and directors whose work “affirms the highest values of the human spirit.” Rossi says, “The world around us can seem like a dark place but the stories we honor with Christopher Awards remind us that we can illuminate the darkness by choosing to practice faith, love, compassion, courage, teamwork, and determination.”

The Christophers, a nonprofit organization founded in 1945 by Maryknoll Father James Keller, is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition of service to God and humanity. The ancient Chinese proverb—“It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness”— guides its publishing, radio, and awards programs. More information about The Christophers is available at www.christophers.org.