YASLA shares Paulsen's response when asked to reflect on what winning the Margaret A. Edwards award meant to him.

Gary Paulsen (1997)

Awards have never meant much to me (for most of my life, I never got any). But books mean a great deal to me. People who love books mean even more. People who love books and share them with young people mean the most of all. That's what being honored with the Margaret A. Edwards Award meant to me—the chance to meet and talk to a great many people who put books, some of them were even MY books, in the hands of young readers.

A long time ago Mike Printz whispered to me that I was a shoo-in for it. I don't really know what shoo-in means and I don't think like that anyway but, I swear, I heard his voice and his chuckle when I got the call. He'd died not long before and, to this day, I wonder about the coincidence in timing. But not too hard because, of course, he loved books and young readers and me and there are some things in this life—like the expression on the face of a child who is lost in the pages of a book, and the sound of sled dog puppies breathing in the dark night of a drowsy kennel, and the way the wind snaps the sailcloth when all you can see is blue in every direction—that you just don't question. When you experience those kinds of things, all you can do is
say thank you. So: Thank you. Thank you again. Thank you always. Thank you, Mike, and thank you YALSA. —Gary Paulsen