DeAndra Miller, a teaching assistant professor in the Department of English, has received the American Library Association’s 2026 William C. Morris Award for her book, “All the Noise at Once.” The announcement that she received the award was made on Jan. 26 in Chicago.
“When you get awards from the American Library Association, which for a lot of us, especially if you write children’s literature, it’s like the Oscars of children’s literature,” Miller said.
In her short time at App State, Miller has loved working with students. Miller has an M.F.A. from Florida International University, and has been teaching creative writing at App State since this past August.
“One of my favorite parts of being here at App genuinely is that I think my students are always so engaged, they’re always ready to go, they’re always interested,” Miller said.
The book, “All the Noise at Once,” follows a young Black boy who is autistic, and is figuring out what happened the night his brother was wrongfully arrested. “All the Noise at Once” is a story about treating people fairly and the same as you would want to be treated, no matter how different they may seem.
Miller notes that it’s important for children to see themselves represented in literature, and to see others who may not be like them represented as well; winning this award helps the book work its way into school libraries and classrooms.
“All I’ve ever wanted is for my book to be in the hands of children, you know, for autistic kids to be able to see themselves on the page and know that they can be main characters,” Miller said. “For other kids who are not autistic to see an autistic kid on the page and know that autistic people can be main characters.”
Miller said she began to play with the idea of this story when she was in college, as it was originally a short story and then took on many different forms before becoming her thesis and eventually the book, “All the Noise at Once.” She was inspired by both her son’s autism diagnosis as well as the story of Elijah McClain. Miller wanted to make an impact, and open people’s understanding.
“I do think one of the things that I want for people to take away is to understand that everyone’s experience is not our experience, but that doesn’t mean that their experience is not valuable and not something that we should pay attention to and it’s not something that we should not listen to,” Miller said.
