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

Applications for the 2026 Cardinal Cup Committee are currently closed. Please check back in August 2026 to apply for the 2027 committee.

Virtual or in-person: Virtual, with one single in person meeting in June or early summer (usually held in Richmond).
Time commitment: One virtual meeting per month via Zoom that lasts one - two hours, plus the time it takes to read 10-15 books per month.
Recruiting period: August - September
Active time: September - June for committee members
Busiest time of the year: May-June

Committee communication platforms: Google Sheets, Basecamp, Email, Zoom
Conference attendance: VLA Conference attendance is required for the chair and strongly encouraged for all members. Members may attend and present materials at the VAASL conference instead with approval from the chair.
Conference presentation: Group presentation
Additional information: 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. 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.

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.