Smith-Carlsen Grant
The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE (ALAN) established the Smith-Carlsen grant in 2015, to support ALAN workshop attendance of a graduate student in English Education, Literacy Education, and/or Young Adult Literature. The grant honors the contributions of Dora V. Smith and G. Robert Carlsen, whose knowledge of and passion for teacher education contributed to the field of Young Adult Literature.
This grant awards a complimentary ALAN workshop registration towards a deserving graduate student’s attendance at the workshop. This year’s workshop will be held November 22-23, 2026, in Philadelphia, PA. One Smith-Carlsen grant will be awarded each year, and each recipient may only receive the grant once. Please note that graduate students who have never attended an ALAN workshop, as well as those who have attended
previously, are eligible to apply for this grant (so long as they have not previously received a Smith-Carlsen grant).
Eligible applicants must:
- Be enrolled as a graduate student (full or part-time) in a program focused on the study of English Education, Literacy Education, and/or Young Adult Literature. You may be at any stage of your graduate study, from coursework through thesis/dissertation writing.
- Be a member of ALAN. If not a member, please include proof of your registration and payment with your application materials (available at http://www.alan-ya.org/join/).
Please complete the following questions, Smith-Carlsen grant application.
Applications must be received by September 15th, 2026.
Have questions or concerns about the grant? Please contact ALAN Executive Director Mark Letcher at markeletcher@gmail.com.
2025 Winner: Shuya Su
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About the Smith-Carlsen Grant
The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE (ALAN) established the Smith-Carlsen Grant in Spring 2015 to support the attendance of a graduate student working in English Education, Literacy Education and/or Young Adult Literature to attend the ALAN Workshop. The grant honors the contributions of Dora V. Smith and G. Robert Carlsen, whose knowledge of and passion for teacher education contributed to the field of Young Adult Literature.
Dora V. Smith (NCTE President, 1936-1937) researched, lectured, and wrote extensively about language arts and English curricula in elementary and secondary schools. Dubbed “The First Lady of the United States in the Teaching of English,” Smith was also internationally acclaimed as a scholar and consultant. Addressing the question of whether students should read “classics” or contemporary children’s and adolescent literature, she argued that the “recommendation of a single book which fills a real need in the life of a child will do more to foster mutual relations of interest and good will than all the prescribed reading lists ever printed.” After more than 40 years of scholarship and service in the areas of curriculum development, reading habits, and children’s and YA literature, Smith retired from the University of Minnesota as a full professor in 1958. That same year, she received the highest honor of the National Council of Teachers of English—the W. Wilbur Hatfield Award—for her “long and distinguished service to the teaching of English in the United States.”
Source: Browse Biography (2010).
http://www.browsebiography.com/bio-dora_smith.html
Robert Carlsen (NCTE President, 1962-1963) was for many years a professor at the University of Iowa and a classroom teacher at U-High. Carlsen’s work was innovative and exemplary. His Books and the Teenage Reader (New York: Harper, 1967) brought national attention and critical approval to adolescent literature. The elective curriculum and the focus on individualized reading at U-High, under his leadership, became the subject of considerable inquiry and experimentation in the 1960s and early 1970s. His thirty-four articles selected by Anne Sherrill and Terry Ley for the collected essays, Literature Is…: Collected Essays by G. Robert Carlsen (Johnson City: Sabre Printers, 1994), demonstrate his versatility and creativity. His study of hundreds of reading autobiographies, Voices of Readers: How We Come to Love Books, done with Sherrill (Urbana: NCTE, 1988), was his culminating work.
Source: Nelms, B.F. (March 2004). In memoriam: G. Robert Carlsen. The English Journal 93:4, 10-11.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4128970.pdf?acceptTC=true