2026 ALCS Annual Awards winners announced
The winners of this year’s ALCS Annual Awards, hosted by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), have been announced.
The ALCS Annual Awards celebrate significant contributions to literacy, creativity and educational writing. Of the three honours presented, two are in the children’s book world: the ALCS Educational Writers’ Award in association with the Society of Authors and the Ruth Rendell Award for Services to Literacy in partnership with the National Literacy Trust.
The winner of the ALCS Educational Writers’ Award is This Book Will Make You an Artist by Ruth Millington, illustrated by Ellen Surrey, published by Nosy Crow, while the Ruth Rendell Award was awarded to MC Grammar aka Jacob Mitchell.
Launched in 2008, the ALCS Educational Writers’ Award is the UK’s only award for educational writing that inspires creativity, encourages students to read widely and builds up their understanding of a subject beyond the requirements of exam specifications. This year the award was for books aimed at children aged 5-11.
This Book Will Make You an Artist by Ruth Millington and illustrated by Ellen Surrey, inspires children to ‘explore 25 different art techniques – from cave painting to contemporary performance – inspired by ground-breaking artists from around the world.’
The judges were primary school headteacher Paul Massey, school librarian 9and Books for Keeps reviewer Tanja Jennings), and award-winning illustrator and animator Allen Fatimaharan.
The Ruth Rendell Award, launched by ALCS and the National Literacy Trust in 2016, recognises the writer or author who has had the most significant influence on literacy in the UK over the past year.
Jonathan Douglas, National Literacy Trust Chief Executive, said of winner MC Grammar aka Jacob Mitchell, ‘Jacob’s mission to engage children with literacy and reading is a national phenomenon. He has inspired thousands of children as a writer with his Adventures of a Rap Kid books as a World Book Day Ambassador, rapping kids’ lit on TV, in schools and in sell out events at Edinburgh, Cheltenham and Bath Festivals, in a memorable double act with Michael Rosen at Glastonbury and more quietly at Great Ormond Street Hospital. With over 300k Instagram followers, he is winning a generation for literacy, by using the power of rap to take reading to the heart of popular culture.’
Also shortlisted for the Ruth Rendell Award were Rob Biddulph, Maisie Chan, Maz Evans, Nicola Garrard, Laura Henry-Allain, Nathanael Lessore and Piers Torday.
The ceremony was hosted by award-winning author, poet and playwright Cecilia Knapp, who previously won the Ruth Rendell Award in 2021.
