The Studs and Ida Terkel Prize has been awarded to Hold Fast to Dreams: A College Guidance Counselor, His Students, and the Vision of a Life Beyond Poverty. In this important book, authors—and husband-wife duo—Beth Zasloff and Joshua Steckel uncover, in heart-wrenching detail, the many ways the American education system fails to meet its promises as a ladder to opportunity. Steckel left his job as a private school college counselor to work at a school that predominantly serves students from low-income households who will be the first generation of their families to attend college. Hold Fast to Dreams traces the pathways of ten of Steckel’s students from their obstacle-ridden application processes through their world-changing college experiences.

The Studs and Ida Terkel Fund is devoted to supporting the work of promising authors in a range of fields who share the late Studs Terkel’s fascination with the many dimensions of everyday life in America and who, like Studs, are committed to exploring aspects of America that are not adequately represented by the mainstream media. Established in 2001 by Studs and his son, Dan, and supported by ongoing gifts from the Studs Terkel Estate and from New Press authors, the Terkel Fund furnishes authors with the vital support they need to conduct their research and writing, providing a new generation of writers the freedom to experiment and innovate, in the spirit of Studs’s own work.