WNBA Award The WNBA Award is presented by the members of the Women's National Book Association to "a living American woman who derives part or all of her income from books and allied arts, and who has done meritorious work in the world of books beyond the duties or responsibilities of her profession or occupation." The award was formerly known as the
Constance Lindsay Skinner Award. Winners have included Mildred C. Smith, co-editor of ''Publishers' Weekly'' (1944); Emily P. Street, Secretary of William Morrow & Company and Director of Sales and Advertising (1947);
May Massee, Director of Doubleday's Books for Children department from 1923 to 1933, and Director of the Junior Book Department at The Viking Press from 1933 until she retired (1950);
Dorothy Canfield Fisher, author of
Understood Betsy and one of the members of the original panel of judges for the Book-of-the Month Club (1951);
Fanny Butcher, Literary Editor of the
Chicago Tribune (1955);
Bertha Mahony, launched the first Bookmobile and founded
The Horn Book (1955);
Edith Hamilton, author of
Mythology (1958);
Eleanor Roosevelt (1961);
Barbara Tuchman, author of
The Guns of August and a Pulitzer Prize Winner;
Barbara Bush (1990);
Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of
Team of Rivals (1998);
Patricia Schroeder, Former Congresswoman and President and CEO of the
Association of American Publishers (2000);
Nancy Pearl, author, librarian, book reviewer, and radio talk show personality (2004);
Ann Patchett, author of
Bel Canto and owner of Parnassus Books (2012);
Carla Hayden, 14th
Librarian of Congress and
Louise Erdrich, author of
The Round House and owner of
Birchbark Books in
Minneapolis (2017); and
Judy Blume, children's book author and owner of Books and Books in
Key West (2025).
Pannell Award This award was established by the organization in 1981 in honor of a longtime member, Lucile Micheels Pannell. Pannell was a well-known librarian, author, and manager of the Hobby Horse Bookshop at Carson, Pirie, Scott, and Company department store in Chicago. Pannell founded the Chicago Children's Reading Table and was the first bookseller to win the WNBA Award in 1949. The Pannell Award recognizes the work of booksellers, both general booksellers and those specializing in children's books, who creatively promote and encourage public interest in books. The grant honors Ann Heidbreder Eastman, a longtime member of the organization and national president, as well as a member of the American Librarian Association, where she held many leadership roles.
WNBA annual writing competition After years of celebrating published authors, extraordinary book women and others in the field, WNBA decided it is time to celebrate emerging writers. In 2012, the first annual writing contest was announced, for fiction and poetry. == United Nations affiliation ==