DAVID LEVITHAN AWARDED CHICAGO TRIBUNE YOUNG ADULT LITERARY PRIZE Award to Be Presented at the 2017 Printers Row Lit Fest Chicago, IL – May 1, 2017 – The Chicago Tribune today announced David Levithan as the recipient of its 2017 Young Adult Literary Prize. Levithan is the award-winning author of many best-selling works which explore a wide range of adolescent themes, including BOY MEETS BOY (2003); NICK AND NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST (2006); WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON (2010); EVERY DAY (2012); HOLD ME CLOSER (2015); and YOU KNOW ME WELL (2016). Levithan will be honored at the 2017 Printers Row Lit Fest on June 10th in downtown Chicago. “The Chicago Tribune has a longstanding history of celebrating literary innovators,” said Chicago Tribune Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Bruce Dold. “We are thrilled to recognize David Levithan for his extraordinary work and keen insight into the lives of young adults. We applaud his ability to connect with readers and touch on themes that resonate so closely with adolescents today.” Each year, the Chicago Tribune Young Adult Literary Prize honors an author whose work is aimed at a young adult audience, addresses themes especially relevant to adolescents, inspires young readers, and champions literacy. Past winners have included R.L. Stine, Lois Lowry, James Patterson, John Green, Judy Blume, and LeVar Burton. When asked about writing LGBT characters for the YA audience, Levithan says, “It’s important to have a range of LGBTQIA+ voices in YA literature because there is a range of LGBTQIA+ experiences in life.  Every teen deserves to be represented in some way in the books he or she or they or ze reads. It’s as simple as that.” Levithan, who is also an editorial director at Scholastic Corporation and the founding editor of the Scholastic young adult imprint PUSH, has written 23 novels to date, both as a solo author and in collaborations with John Green, Andrea Cremer, Nina LaCour, Rachel Cohn, David Ozanich, Chris Van Etten, and illustrator Brian Selznick. The Printers Row Lit Fest, now entering its 33^rd year, is the Midwest’s largest literary event. The two-day festival features hundreds of authors and booksellers and attracts more than 100,000 attendees. The festival takes place on Dearborn Street, from Harrison Street to Polk Avenue, rounding the corner on Polk and continuing to State Street, with indoor programming at the Harold Washington Library Center and Jones College Prep High School. The festival is free and open to the public, as is the majority of its programming. The Printers Row Lit Fest is made possible by the Chicago Tribune Media Group, publisher of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Chicago Tribune as well as related print and interactive media serving the Chicagoland area, including RedEye, Hoy, TribLocal, chicagotribune.com, triblocal.com, and metromix.com. Lit Fest is sponsored by COUNTRY Financial, C-SPAN, KIND, Navy Pier, the Chicago Public Library and 1001 S. State. Publicity Contact: Julia Borcherts Julia@kayepublicity.com, 773.878.0722