Children's author and illustrator Yuyi Morales will be honored with the 2026 Hummingbird Award in Literary Arts on Saturday, October 31, during a ceremony at Martin Regional Library in East Tulsa running from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The event at 2601 S. Garnett Road will include Morales discussing her life and writing, followed by a book signing.
The award, presented every two years by the Tulsa Library Trust alongside the library system's Hispanic Resource Center, recognizes a nationally prominent author, poet or artist whose work elevates and affirms the voice of the Latinx community, according to News On 6. Also known as Premio Colibrí en Arte Literaria, the honor comes with an engraved plaque and a $15,000 cash prize, per the same report. Morales has won six Pura Belpré Awards over her career, and her book Little Rebels received the 2025 New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Books award.
A Career Rooted in Folklore and Migration
Morales was born in Xalapa, Mexico, and moved to the United States with her husband and infant son in 1994, developing a storytelling practice partly inspired by Mexican folklore, according to the News On 6 report. Her book Bright Star, published in 2021, tells a story of perseverance and growth along the Mexico-United States border. Her memoir Dreamers recounts her own move to the U.S. and the community she found inside a public library.
That library connection runs deeper than a single memoir. Morales has credited public libraries with changing her life, recalling that she taught herself English and learned to create children's books while reading picture books to her infant son at a San Francisco Public Library branch after immigrating from Mexico, according to Mackin Community. She later became the first Latina artist to earn a Caldecott Honor when her 2014 book Viva Frida, which featured handcrafted puppet photography, was recognized in 2015, as reported by KERA.
Third Honoree Since the Award's 2022 Launch
Morales becomes the third author to receive the Hummingbird Award since the Tulsa City-County Library established the biennial tradition in late 2022, when author and poet Benjamin Alire Sáenz, previously the first Latino author to win the PEN/Faulkner Book Award for Fiction, was named the inaugural recipient, per Public Radio Tulsa. Bestselling memoirist Reyna Grande received the second award in October 2024 at Martin Regional Library as part of the library's Hispanic Heritage Month programming, according to Tulsa City-County Library records tied to that ceremony. Grande's own memoirs recount her experience immigrating from Mexico as an undocumented child.
Martin Regional's Hispanic Resource Center
The Hispanic Resource Center at Martin Regional Library was established in 1999 to provide targeted library services, Spanish-speaking staff, and cultural programming for Spanish-speaking residents across Tulsa County, according to the Tulsa City-County Library. The center offers access to Spanish-language materials.
Martin Regional Library, where the ceremony will be held, hosts weekly bilingual storytimes and cultural programs. For questions about the event, the Tulsa City-County Library can be reached at 918-549-7323.
