Announcing the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame Class of 2022

• June 15th, 2021
• by pearc007
• in News
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala.  — Eight distinguished authors will be inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame at The University of Alabama’s Bryant Conference Center on Monday, June 6th, 2022.

The 2022 class inductees include Tom Franklin, Trudier Harris, Angela Johnson, Howell Raines, Michelle Richmond, and Daniel Wallace. Authors Eugene Walter and Kathryn Tucker Windham will be inducted posthumously. 

2020 inductee Carolyn Haines is slated to serve as Master of Ceremonies. More information will be provided in the coming months. The Alabama Center for the Book and the Alabama Writers’ Forum would like to congratulate the members of the 2022 class. 

For press inquiries please contact please contact Jeanie Thompson, Executive Director of the Alabama Writers’ Forum, at jeaniethompson@writersforum.org  or Michael Pearce, Director of the Alabama Center for the Book, at pearc007@ua.edu .

Environmental Injustice: Reckoning with American Waste

• March 3rd, 2021
• by pearc007
• in News
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Children’s Book by Charles Ghigna selected to be featured at the 2020 National Book Festival

• July 24th, 2020
• by pearc007
• in News, Uncategorized
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The Alabama Center for the Book has selected The Night the Forest Came to Town , by Alabama author Charles Ghigna to be featured as the Alabama Great Reads selection for the 2020 National Book Festival .    

The Library of Congress National Book Festival is an annual literary event that brings together best-selling authors and thousands of book fans for author talks, panel discussions, book signings and other activities. The 20th Library of Congress National Book Festival will celebrate “American Ingenuity” in 2020, featuring the creativity and inspiration of some of the nation’s most gifted authors in a re-imagined virtual festival the weekend of Sept. 25-27. The event will be held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, broadcast through various web based venues which will be announced in August.

The Night the Forest Came to Town , “sings the story of a paved parking lot returning to a paradise teeming with diverse people, plants, and animals. It begins with an illustration of distracted townspeople scurrying across gray streets on a summer evening. The children, full of wide-eyed wonder, notice the wind blowing in something new…” (Kirkus Reviews,  2018).  With beautiful and engaging illustrations as backdrop, Ghigna takes reader’s on a lyrical journey from drab grey concrete living, to vibrant urban renewal.   

Every year, a list of books representing the literary heritage of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, is distributed by the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book during the National Book Festival.  Each book is selected by a Center for the Book state affiliate or state library and most are for children and young readers. Books may be written by authors from the state, take place in the state, or celebrate the state’s culture and heritage.

The Alabama Center for the Book supports reading, literacy and other book-related activities in Alabama as well as promotes appreciation of regional writers.  The Center is a founding co-sponsor of the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame.

The Library of Congress’ Center for the Book, established by Congress in 1977 to stimulate public interest in books and reading, is a national force for reading and literacy promotion.  A public-private partnership, its sponsors educational programs that reach readers of all ages through its affiliated state centers, collaborations with nonprofit reading-promotion partners and through its Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. For more information, visit Read.gov.

2016-2017 Letters About Literature: Reading and Writing Contest

• May 19th, 2016
• by admin
• in News

Letters About Literature is a reading and writing contest for students in grades 4-12. Students are asked to read a book, poem or speech and write to the author (living or dead) about how the book affected them personally. Letters are judged on state and national levels. Tens of thousands of students from across the country enter Letters About Literature each year. If you are in grades 4-12, you are eligible to enter.

The 2016-2017 Letters About Literature contest for young readers is made possible by a generous grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, with additional support from gifts to the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, which promotes the contest through its affiliate Centers for the Book, state libraries and other organizations.

If you are in grades 4-12, you are eligible to enter the Letters About Literature reading and writing contest. You do not have to enter through a class. You can enter on your own. To read more about the contest, learn about the guidelines, and to download an entry coupon, please go to www.read.gov/letters.

Also located on the website is The Letters About Literature Teaching Guide. The guide provides activities teachers can use to direct their students through the book discussion and letter-writing process. The guide addresses the LAL teaching strategies and ways in which the program can dovetail with curriculum for teaching reading and writing. Also included are worksheets for duplication and assessment checklists.

The contest is promoted by the Alabama Center for the Book, a state affiliate of the national Center of the Book.  State winners will be announced next spring at a state award ceremony at Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library at The University of Alabama.

For more information about the contest, please contact Donna Adcock, Alabama state coordinator, at dbadcock@ua.edu.

Letters About Literature Award Ceremony 2016

• April 15th, 2016
• by admin
• in News

Letters About Literature Award Ceremony Scheduled for May 14

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama Center for the Book will host the 2016 Letters About Literature Award Ceremony on Saturday, May 14, at 11:00 am in the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library in room 205 at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.  State winners, semi-finalists, families, and teachers are invited to attend the ceremony.  Author Jeff Weddle will be the guest speaker.

Weddle’s stories, poems and essays have appeared in many print and online publications. His latest book is a short story collection, When Giraffes Flew(Southern Yellow Pine, 2015). He won the Eudora Welty Prize for Bohemian New Orleans: The Story of the Outsider and Loujon Press (University Press of Mississippi, 2007). Jeff’s other books include a poetry collection, Betray the Invisible (OEOCO, 2010) and, as co-author, The Librarian’s Guide to Negotiation: Winning Strategies for the Digital Age (Information Today, 2012). He is an associate professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama.

All students will receive a certificate.  Student winners in each level will receive cash prizes. The first place winner in each level will compete at the national level.

Letters About Literature is a reading and writing contest for students in grades 4-12. Students are asked to read a book, poem or speech and write to the author (living or dead) about how the book affected them personally. Letters are judged on state and national levels.

List of Alabama Winners

Letters About Literature 2015 Guidelines

• September 28th, 2015
• by rbsarwar
• in News

Letters About Literature 2015 Teaching Guide

• September 28th, 2015
• by admin
• in News

Click here to read the new teaching guide.

Letters About Literature – Author Ted Dunagan Coming

• April 16th, 2015
• by rbsarwar
• in News

 

Ted got started on his writing journey young in life. At five years old his cousin shared with him his first story. Ted says he remembers repeatedly running through the story in his head. To this day the story of Hansel and Gretel is still burned into his mind from that fateful day. 

 

From then on Ted was hooked on books. His next literary stage took place at age 12 when he was introduced to works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Daniel Defoe, Mark Twain, and many others. At first he thought he wanted to be just like the characters Tom and Huck. Later on in life however, he realized he wanted to emulate not the characters, but the authors. 

 

Life however got in his way and he engaged in business instead of his true passion. The flame however never died, always waiting in the back of his mind, ready to strike. 

 

His opportunity to become a writer soon presented itself to him and he jumped on it with full force. Many obstacles presented themselves along the journey, but nothing could stop him from attaining his dream. 

 

So he took his first steps forward, swearing that what he wrote would be of the highest good, and would inspire, not degrade. “Something that would make my grandchildren proud” he said. Fast forward a few years and he has done just that. 

 

Now Ted either spends his time writing new books, or traveling across the south visiting elementary and middle schools. He loves teaching kids about what it was like to be a kid long ago, the wonder of reading, and the art of writing. 

 

We are honored to welcome Ted as our 2015 Letters About Literature guest author. To read more about Ted Dunagan visit his website at http://teddunagan.com.

Letters About Literature – Alabama Finalists and Semi-Finalists

• April 7th, 2015
• by rbsarwar
• in News

Alabama Writers Hall of Fame

• January 10th, 2015
• by rbsarwar
• in News