LYNN WARD PRIZE ANNOUNCED

In a press release last fall, Penn State University Libraries and the Pennsylvania Center for the Book announced the creation of the Lynd Ward Prize for Graphic Novel of the Year. “The Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize honors Ward’s seminal influence in the development of the graphic novel and celebrates the gift of an extensive collection of Ward’s wood engravings, original book illustrations and other graphic art donated to Penn State University Libraries by his daughters, Robin Ward Savage and Nanda Weedon Ward. Between 1929 and 1937 Ward published his six ground-breaking wordless novels — Gods’ Man, Madman’s Drum, Wild Pilgrimage, Prelude to a Million Years,  Song without Words and Vertigo,” all of which have been re-issued lately by The Library of America in a two-volume boxed set entitled Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts, “the first time the nonprofit publisher has included a graphic novelist in its award-winning series.”

The Lynd Ward Prize will be presented annually to the best graphic novel, fiction or non-fiction, published in the previous calendar year in the United States by a living American citizen or resident. The announcement of the award will take place each spring, and the prize of $2,500, the two-volume set of Ward’s novels, and a suitable commemorative will be presented each fall to the winner at a ceremony to be held at Penn State.