ALAN, The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents is a teachers organization in the United States, an independent assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Founded in November 1973, ALAN is made up of teachers, authors, librarians, publishers, teacher-educators and their students, and others who are particularly interested in the area of young adult literature. ALAN, which is self-governing, holds its annual meetings during the NCTE annual convention in November and also publishes The ALAN Review.
Almost from its inception, ALAN has given the ALAN award to honor those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of adolescent literature. The recipient may be a publisher, author, librarian, scholar, editor, or servant to the organization. Each year, an honoree is chosen by the Executive Board and receives the ALAN Award at the annual ALAN breakfast, which is held early morning Saturday during the NCTE Convention. In addition, in 2000 ALAN created the Hipple Award in honor of longtime Executive Secretary Ted Hipple, whose service led to the creation of the award for dedicated service to the organization.