Library of Congress names 2025 Literacy Awards winners, honors 24 programs

The Library of Congress announced its 2025 Literacy Awards winners and honorees, recognizing 24 programs that support reading and literacy across classrooms, homes and communities, an agency presenter said.

"This year's 24 award recipients demonstrate that literacy learning happens everywhere, in our classrooms, in our homes, and in our communities," the presenter said.

The awards honored several major prizes. The David M. Rubinstein Prize recognizes an organization for "outstanding and measurable contribution to increasing literacy in the United States or abroad," the presenter said. The Kislak Family Foundation prize this year recognized Literacy Mid-South for "fostering an entire community that is invested in literacy education;" the presenter noted Literacy Mid-South has worked for more than 50 years and partners with schools, health-care providers and social service agencies across Memphis.

The American Prize went to the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities for its Primetime Family Reading Program, which the presenter said was developed in 1991, serves families with children ages 3 to 10 and has been used in more than 100 communities across the United States. The international prize was awarded to Building Tomorrow for community-powered learning in Uganda and Rwanda; the presenter said Building Tomorrow's Roots to Rise program and its fellows and volunteers have reached more than 800,000 children since 2015.

The Library also recognized 15 honorees across four categories, including organizations cited for bolstering K–12 education (City Schools Collaborative; Digital Inquiry Group; Reading Assist; SML Good Neighbors Incorporated), boosting family engagement (Book Harvest's Books from Birth; Scottish Book Trust's Bookbug; WETA's Colorín Colorado), exemplifying new models for literacy promotion (Indie Reads; Key Read Global; Richland County Public Library's Education Studio), and honoring storytelling (Naboo; NPR's Student Podcast Challenge; Philadelphia Writing Project; Start a Library Trust's National Read Aloud initiative). Five Emerging Strategies honorees were named for recent programs that demonstrate creativity and promise: Dyslexia Alliance for Black Children; Loxion Mobile Library; Start Lighthouse Incorporated; Teach for Change Nigeria's Literacy Amidst Violent Conflict Initiative; and Welcome Home Jersey City's Literary Initiative.

The presenter thanked the Literacy Awards Advisory Board for recommending this year's winners and acknowledged philanthropist David M. Rubinstein and the Kislak Family Foundation for supporting the awards program.

The Library of Congress invited the public to join in congratulating the 2025 Literacy Awards winners and honorees.