Augusta Savage: The Shape of a Sculptor's Life by Nelson, Marilyn

This powerful biography in poems​ tells the life of Augusta Savage, the trailblazing artist and pillar of the Harlem Renaissance.

A Claudia Lewis Award Winner for Poetry by the Bank Street College of Education
A Black Caucus ALA Children & Young Adult Award Winner
A CCBC Children's Choice - A CBC Teacher Favorite

Augusta Savage was arguably the most influential American artist of the 1930s. A gifted sculptor, Savage was commissioned to create a portrait bust of W.E.B. Du Bois for the New York Public Library. She flourished during the Harlem Renaissance, and became a teacher to an entire generation of African American artists, including Jacob Lawrence, and would go on to be nationally recognized as one of the featured artists at the 1939 World's Fair. She was the first-ever recorded Black gallerist. After being denied an artists' fellowship abroad on the basis of race, Augusta Savage worked to advance equal rights in the arts. And yet popular history has forgotten her name.

Deftly written and brimming with photographs of Savage's stunning sculpture, this is an important portrait of an exceptional artist who, despite the limitations she faced, was compelled to forge a life through art and creativity.

Features an afterword by the curator of the Art & Artifacts Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Horn Book - Kirkus Reviews - School Library Journal - Bank Street College

★ "A stunning portrait of artistic genius and Black history in America." --Booklist, starred review

★ "A wonderful addition to young people's literature on African American artists." --Horn Book, starred review

★ "In a rich biography in verse, Nelson (A is for Oboe) gives voice to the Black sculptor Augusta Savage (1892-1962), a key Harlem Renaissance figure." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ "Nelson's arresting poetry, which is accompanied by photographs of Savage's work, dazzles as it experiments with form. ... A lyrical biography from a master of the craft." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

★ "A master poet breathes life and color into this portrait of a ­historically significant sculptor and her remarkable story." --School Library Journal, starred review

Author: Marilyn Nelson
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books-Little Brown and Hach
Published: 01/25/2022
Pages: 128
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.10w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780316298025
Age Range: 13-17

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 6.1
Point Value: 2
Interest Level: Middle Grade Plus
Quiz #/Name: 523457 / Augusta Savage: The Shape of a Sculptor's Life


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 10/15/2021 pg. 44
Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2021
Publishers Weekly 11/29/2021
Horn Book Magazine 01/01/2022 pg. 128
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 01/01/2022
Shelf Awareness 01/04/2022
School Library Journal 04/01/2022 pg. 155
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2022 - Outstanding, Noteworthy In Style

About the Author

Marilyn Nelson is the author of many award-winning books, including August Savage, which was named to Kirkus, School Library Journal, and The Horn Book's Best of Year lists in addition to receiving a Black Caucus ALA Honor and the Bank Street College of Education's Claudia Lewis Award for Poetry. She is also the author of Carver: A Life in Poems, which was a National Book Award finalist, a Newbery Honor Book, and a Coretta Scott King Honor Book, and A Wreath for Emmett Till, which garnered a Coretta Scott King Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor. Marilyn lives in Connecticut.

Tammi Lawson is the curator of the Art and Artifacts Division at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the steward of a collection of over fifteen thousand items that visually document the Black Diaspora. The Schomburg also houses the largest collection of art by Augusta Savage in a public institution. The New York Public Library recently awarded Lawson the 2020 Bertha Franklin Feder Award for Excellence in Librarianship.