Arizona State University Professor Wins Book Award

Jewell Parker Rhodes, who holds the Piper Endowed Chair and is a professor of English and the founding director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University, received the 2014 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award in the books for older children category from the Jane Addams Peace Association.

Professor Rhodes was honored for her book Sugar (Little Brown & Co., 2013). The book tells the story of the relationship between a 10-year-old daughter of former slaves and the son of a Louisiana plantation owner in the years following the end of the Civil War.

Professor Rhodes holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a doctorate in English, all from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.