The Cardinal Cup Award Committee
 About the Cardinal Cup Committee
Established in 1982 and presented since 1983, the Cardinal Cup Committee's, formerly the Jefferson Cup, goal is to promote reading about America’s past; to encourage the quality writing of United States history, biography, and historical fiction for young people, and to recognize authors in these disciplines. From 2012-2021 two books were selected: one for geared toward young adult readers and one for young readers. Beginning in 2022, the Committee returned to the original model, honoring the most distinguished biography, historical fiction, or American history book for young people.
The Cardinal Cup Committee selects the winning titles for the Cardinal Cup Award. The committee has 10 members: a chairperson (selected by the previous year's committee), 8 committee members, and a learning co-chair who will assume the role of chair for the upcoming award year. All committee members must be members of VLA and are all voting members of the committee.
Get Involved
Persons selected must be willing to commit time to read and evaluate books; committee members may receive over 200 titles and read and review approximately 100 books. Members will attend once monthly Zoom meetings, scheduled at the same time each month, to discuss contenders. These meetings generally last 1-2 hours. There will be a single all day meeting held in person in Richmond to select the winning titles, usually held in June. Please discuss this time commitment with your supervisor prior to applying.
Persons who serve on the committee should be knowledgeable of literature for young people and have book evaluation experience. Members of the committee agree to keep deliberations and books under review confidential. Cardinal Cup Committee members are expected to present programs at the annual VLA and VAASL conferences and should plan to attend one of these conferences.
About the 2026 Cardinal Cup Chair
Marta Steenstra Davis serves as the Youth Services Manager at Dolley Madison Library (Fairfax County Public Library). She was raised in Charleston, WV and attended Marshall University in Huntington, WV where she majored in Creative Writing and minored in History. She completed her MLIS at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She has lived in Northern Virginia with her husband Michael since 1999. Marta is the mother of two teenage children whose names were inspired by children’s books: Max (from Where the Wild Things Are) and Josephine (from Little Women).
One piece of advice for Cardinal Cup Committee members:
Pace yourself and take good notes! There are a lot of books to get through. But if you read a little bit each day and take careful notes it is very manageable. The notes are key – you won’t remember everything you thought and felt about what you read without them.
Learn more about Marta here.
2026 Cardinal Cup Committee Roster
Coming Soon!
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