The RVW Award shall be awarded every year to an author or illustrator who resides in the seven-county region and has, over a period of years, made a significant contribution to literature for young people. The spirit of the award is to recognize an author/illustrator from the SLMSSENY region for a body of work. As such, the following criteria will be used to determine the awardee:

Must live within the 7 county region: Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, Westchester
The author’s/illustrators body of work should include well reviewed books for children/young adults
The author’s/illustrators body of work should have lasting relevance to young people
The author/illustrator has been consistently recommended as an outstanding contributor to the field of literature by school librarians.

Please take the time to nominate an author or illustrator from the SLMSSENY Region who you believe has made a substantial contribution to literature for young people.

A list of previous winners can be found here: http://www.slmsseny.org/awards/rip-van-winkle

This page may help identify regional authors and illustrators. NYS Authors Wiki:
http://nysauthorsandillustrators.pbworks.com/w/page/6408331/FrontPage
Some of the information is not up to date

The nominations period closes December 15.
A ballot will be sent to all SLMSSENY Members shortly thereafter to determine the winner.