2021 National Book Festival Starts Friday 9/17/21 and runs through Sunday 9/26/21

• September 17th, 2021
• by pearc007
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• Engage with your favorite authors through virtual live events and on-demand videos
• Watch a national television special produced with PBS Books
• Listen to a podcast interview on the go from NPR
• Tune in to author interviews on Washington Post Live
• Attend an in-person ticketed event at the Library
• Discover new authors and books on the Festival website
• Learn about your national library and its collections
• Explore your local events and Great Reads from Great Places
• Share your experience on social media and invite others to join

Genres

Author events and videos are all organized into one of the following genres:

• Children
• Teens
• Current Events
• Fiction
• History & Biography
• Lifestyle
• Poetry & Prose
• Science

Authors & Moderators

Explore the full lineup of authors, check out their biographies and discover their featured books.

Learn more about our moderators.

Meet the Library of Congress experts hosting special interactive presentations.

Programs & Schedule

The 2021 National Book Festival takes place Sept. 17-26, with a variety of programs and formats. On Sept. 17 at 10 a.m. ET, 35 video-on-demand programs will become available to watch anytime. The full Festival schedule of live programs features 38 virtual author conversations, nine audience Q&A sessions for children and teens, two in-person events with simultaneous livestreaming, and five interactive presentations with Library of Congress experts. This year, the Festival also features a national television special and related events on PBS, NPR podcasts, and author interviews on Washington Post Live. You can also explore events closer to home with the Festival Near You, which features related programs from local organizations and affiliate Centers for the Book.

All programs livestreaming from the National Book Festival website will be held Sept. 17-26, between noon and 8 p.m. ET on weekends and between 3 and 8 p.m. ET on weekdays. All live programs will include time at the end for audience Q&A. Only one program will livestream at any given time, meaning this year you won’t need to make any tough choices on which program to attend! Check out the schedule online or download a printable pdf (PDF 895KB).

Rick Bragg’s The Speckled Beauty selected to be featured at the 2021 National Book Festival

• July 30th, 2021
• by pearc007
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The Alabama Center for the Book has selected The Speckled Beauty: A Dog and His People by Alabama author Rick Bragg to be featured as the Alabama Great Reads selection for the 2021 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 21st Library of Congress National Book Festival will be a 10-day event with the theme, “Open a Book, Open the World,” running from Sept. 17-26. The, “Great Reads from Great Places,” portion of the festival will be held virtually again this year and broadcast through various web-based venues which will be announced in August.

The Speckled Beauty: A Dog and His People  is the warm hearted and story of how Rick Bragg’s life was transformed by his love for a poorly behaved, half-blind stray dog:

“Speck is not a good boy. He is a terrible boy, a defiant, self-destructive, often malodorous boy, a grave robber and screen door moocher who spends his days playing chicken with the Fed Ex man, picking fights with thousand-pound livestock, and rolling in donkey manure, and his nights howling at the moon. He has been that way since the moment he appeared on the ridgeline behind Rick Bragg’s house, a starved and half-dead creature, seventy-six pounds of wet hair and poor decisions. Speck arrived in Rick’s life at a moment of looming uncertainty. A cancer diagnosis, chemo, kidney failure, and recurring pneumonia had left Rick lethargic and melancholy. Speck helped, and he is helping, still, when he is not peeing on the rose of Sharon. Written with Bragg’s inimitable blend of tenderness and sorrow, humor and grit, The Speckled Beauty captures the extraordinary, sustaining devotion between two damaged creatures who need each other to heal,”

–Penguin Random House

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.

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.

Alabama Writers Hall of Fame Inductees Announced for 2020

• October 16th, 2019
• by pearc007
• in Uncategorized
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Alabama Writers Hall of Fame 2020

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.  — Seven distinguished authors will be inducted into the 2020 Alabama Writers Hall of Fame at The University of Alabama’s Bryant Conference Center March 9, 2020.

This year’s inductees include Mark Childress, Faye Gibbons, Carolyn Haines,  Honorée Fanonne Jeffers and Michael Knight. Authors Ralph Ellison and Zelda Fitzgerald will be inducted posthumously.

A reception will be held in the authors’ honor at 6 p.m. followed by dinner at 7 p.m. The induction ceremony will immediately follow dinner.

Individual tickets and sponsor tables can be purchased by contacting Emily Burnett at emburnett@ua.edu or 205-348-5543.

The Alabama Writers Hall of Fame was created in 2014 by a partnership between the Alabama Center for the Book, UA Libraries and the Alabama Writers’ Forum. Dr. Donald Gilstrap, dean of UA Libraries, said the gala showcases Alabama’s literary heritage as well as its contemporary prize-winning authors.

“This year we are honoring writers who are well-known for award-winning fiction, poetry, screen-writing, and writing for children and young adults, as well as two ground-breaking 20th-century authors,” Gilstrap said. “The variety of genres underscores the level of literary talent in Alabama. We hope people will celebrate their achievements with us in March.”

Childress is a native of Monroeville and a UA graduate. He’s the author of seven novels translated into 14 languages, as well as screenplays, children’s books, numerous articles, essays and reviews. He adapted his best-selling novel, “Crazy in Alabama,” into the screenplay for the Columbia Pictures film directed by Antonio Banderas.

A long-time resident of Deatsville, Gibbons has written more than a dozen children’s picture books and young adult novels that focus on life in the rural South since the 1980s.

Haines is a Lucedale, Mississippi native who lives in Semmes. She is a “USA Today” bestselling author of more than 80 books of fiction.

Jeffers was born in Kokomo, Indiana and grew up in Durham, North Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia, but she was educated in Alabama, with degrees from Talladega College and UA. Jeffers has published widely in poetry, fiction and essays, and she has four poetry collections, with a fifth, “The Age of Phillis,” scheduled to be published in early 2020.

Knight is the author of two novels, three collections of short stories and a book of novellas. His most recent collection of stories, “Eveningland,” was selected as an Editor’s Choice Pick by The New York Times and a Southern Book of the Year by Southern Living magazine.

Ellison was born in Oklahoma in 1914 and trained as a musician at Tuskegee Institute from 1933 to 1936. Soon after, he made a visit to New York and met author Richard Wright, which led him to his first attempts at fiction. The result was “Invisible Man,” a first novel by an unknown writer that remained on the bestseller list for 16 weeks and won the National Book Award for fiction. He died in 1994.

Fitzgerald is a Montgomery native who was an artist, writer and personality who helped to establish the Roaring 20s image of liberated womanhood embodied by the “flapper.” She and her husband, novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, became icons of the freedoms and excesses of the 1920s Jazz Age. Her novel, “Save Me the Waltz,” published in 1932, is an autobiographical recounting of her marriage. She died in 1948.

“The Alabama Writers Hall of Fame inductions present Alabama’s literary arts with distinction, and love,” said Jeanie Thompson, executive director of the Alabama Writers’ Forum. “This is a gala event, with individual tickets as well as tables that can be purchased in honor of a past inductee, or to celebrate one of the incoming inductees.”

Letters About Literature National Contest Ends

• July 15th, 2019
• by Donna
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After 27 years, the Letters About Literature national reading and writing contest, co-sponsored by the Library of Congress and the state centers for the book, will end with the conclusion of the 2019 program.

The Library of Congress has decided to step away from the administration of the program and give the state centers full control of the Letters About Literature program.

At its peak, more than 70,000 students entered their letters each year and wrote about how books changed their lives for the better.  More than 1 million students in grades 4-12 were touched over the life span of the contest.

“Due to the short notice, The Alabama Center for the Book has made the difficult decision not to continue the program this fall, but will look at reinstating the program or a similar program in the future,” said Donna Adcock, director.

 “I have had the privilege of working with many students, teachers and parents during the past 10 years.

“Meeting the students, their teachers and families at the Alabama Letters About Literature Awards Ceremony is always a highlight of the year.”

More than 200 Alabama students entered the national contest this past year.

The Alabama Center for the Book has been housed in the University Libraries at The University of Alabama since 2010. The Center supports reading, literacy and other book-related activities in Alabama and promotes appreciation of regional writers.  The Center is a founding co-sponsor of the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. 

Children’s Book by Kerry Madden-Lunsford selected to be featured at the 2019 National Book Festival

• July 8th, 2019
• by Donna
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Alabama Center for the Book has selected “Ernestine’s Milky Way” by Alabama author Kerry Madden-Lunsford to be featured at its booth at the 19th National Book Festival . Located in the Pavilion of States, the booth celebrates the Library of Congress’ “Discover Great Places Through Reading” program. 

The book festival will be held Saturday, August 31, 2019, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

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.  

“Ernestine’s Milky Way” is an empowering picture book set in the 1940s about a determined five-year-old girl who embarks on a journey to deliver milk to her neighbors in the holler. The book is for children ages three to seven.

“The inspiration for ‘Ernestine’s Milky Way’ was my real mountain friend, Ernestine Edwards Upchurch,” said Madden-Lunsford.

“She was a social worker, a historian, the literary matriarch of the mountains, and a great storyteller. She had a bright burning curiosity about people and she read everything. Her house was full of books and she championed new authors and supported established authors. She loved kids and wanted them reading and telling stories too.

“After she told me about carrying milk through the mountains as a child, the title popped into my head when I looked up at the sky and saw the Milky Way and I thought – ‘Ernestine’s Milky Way.’ Somebody should write a story. Then I realized a few years later that somebody was going to have to be me, and I’m so grateful for Emily Sutton’s illustrations that brought the story to life.”

Madden-Lunsford’s first novel, “Offsides,” was a New York Public Library Pick for the Teen Age.  Her book, “Up Close Harper Lee,” made Booklist’s Ten Top Biographies of 2009 for Youth.  She has written plays, screenplays, articles and books.  She turned to writing children’s literature with her award-winning and well-reviewed Maggie Valley Trilogy.

Madden-Lunsford directs the Creative Writing Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and teaches in the Antioch MFA Program in Los Angeles.  The mother of three adult children, she divides her time between Birmingham and Los Angeles.

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.

Library of Congress Announces Reading-Writing Competition Winners

• July 2nd, 2019
• by Donna
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Letters About Literature, a Library of Congress national writing competition, has announced its winners for 2019. The national program, concluding its 27th year, asks students in grades 4 to 12 to write to an author about how his or her work affected their lives.

More than 29,000 students from across the country participated in this year’s initiative. The contest is promoted by the Library’s Center for the Book through its affiliated state centers, state libraries, state humanities councils and other organizations.

Top letter-writers are chosen for each state and in each of three levels: Level 1 (grades 4 to 6), Level 2 (grades 7 to 8) and Level 3 (grades 9 to 12). National Prize recipients receive a $2,000 award and National Honor Award Prize recipients receive a $500 award. The following are this year’s winners:

Level 1 National Prize

Xander Sanchez of Honolulu, Hawaii, wrote to Theodore Gray, author of “The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe.”

Level 1 National Honor Award

Evan Kotick of Seville, Ohio, wrote to Michael Lewis, author of “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game.”

Llaria Luna of Washington, D.C., wrote to Marsha Skrypuch, author of “Stolen Child.”

Level 2 National Prize

Yael Epstein of Carmel, Indiana, wrote to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of “Infidel.”

Thea Millenson-Wilens of Mount Tremper, N.Y., wrote to Gayle Forman, author of “If I Stay.”

Level 2 National Honor Award

Saimaa Widi of Cheyenne, Wyoming, wrote to Olivia Vella, author of “Why Am I Not Good Enough?”

Level 3 National Prize

Amatullah Mir of Hickory Hills, Illinois, wrote to Sana Amanat and G. Willow Wilson, authors of “Ms. Marvel Series.”

Level 3 National Honor Award

Colton Schons of Spokane, Washington, wrote to Paul Murray, author of “Skippy Dies.”

Tejal Pendekanti of Westlake, Ohio, wrote to Gloria Anzaldua, author of “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.”

The 2018-2019 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.

The Library’s Center for the Book, a unit of the Center for Learning, Literacy and Engagement, was established by Congress in 1977 to stimulate public interest in books and reading. A public-private partnership, the Center for the Book 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. For more information, visit read.gov .

The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States – and extensive materials from around the world – both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov, access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.

University Libraries Hosts 2019 Letters About Literature Award Ceremony

• April 29th, 2019
• by Donna
• in Uncategorized

The Alabama Center for the Book will honor state winners of the Letters About Literature contest at an award ceremony on Saturday, May 11, at 11 a.m. in Gorgas Library, room 205, at The University of Alabama.

Letters About Literature is a national reading and writing contest for students in grades four through 12.  Students are asked to read a fiction or nonfiction book, book series, short story, essay, or speech and write to the author (living or dead) about how the book affected them personally.

The competition 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.

Guest speaker will be children’s author Charles Gigna, better known as Father Goose.

Gigna is the author of more than 100 books from Random House, Simon & Schuster, Time Inc., Disney, Scholastic, and Harper’s to Highlights and Cricket magazines.  He served as poet-in-residence and chair of creative writing at the Alabama School of Fine Arts and is instructor of creative writing at Samford University.

One of his latest books, “Alabama My Home Sweet Home” celebrates Alabama’s bicentennial for young readers.

“Winners, semi-finalists, parents and teachers are invited to attend the awards ceremony,” said Donna Adcock, director of public relations, University Libraries, and director of the Alabama Center for the Book. 

First place winners will receive a $100 gift card, second place will receive a $75 gift card, and third place winners will receive a $50 gift card.  All semi-finalists will receive certificates.

2019 Alabama Winners

Level 1 (Grades 4-6)

First Place – Edith Kaplan, N. E. Miles Jewish Day School

Second Place – Davis Philhower, Individual Entry

Third Place – Ari Azrad, N.E. Miles Jewish Day School

Level 2 (Grades 7-8)

First Place – Landon Perdue, Baldwin Arts & Academics Magnet School

Second Place – Alexandra Ours, Baldwin Arts & Academics Magnet School

Third Place – Ariel Steele, Baldwin Arts & Academics Magnet School

Level 3 (Grades 9-12)

First Place – Anna Carden, Pelham High School

Second Place – Lupita Aguilar, Pelham High School

Third Place – Michael Jones, Individual Entry

LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE

• September 26th, 2018
• by Donna
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LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE

About the Contest

2018-2019 Documents

• Call for Students (PDF)
• Official Rules (PDF)
• Permission Form for Students Under 13 (PDF)
• How to Enter:  Students or Teachers

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 Letters About Literature reading and writing contest.

For the first time, students are asked to submit their 2018-2019 letters via the Letters About Literature online platform. Entries will be accepted starting Nov. 1, 2018.  The deadline for all Alabama entries is Jan. 11, 2019.

Students may enter the contest individually or teachers may submit their classroom entries.

All Alabama entries will be judged first by Alabama judges.  There will be a first, second and third place winner in each of the three levels.  First place winners will receive a $100 gift card, second place winners will receive a $75 gift card and third place winners will receive a $50 gift card.  All semi-finalists will receive a certificate.

The three first place winning entries will then advance to the national competition. National winners in each competition level will receive a $2,000 cash award. National honorable mention winners in each competition level will receive a $500 cash award.

The Alabama Award Ceremony will be held on May 19, 2019, in Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library on the campus of The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.  All semi-finalists, winners and their families will be invited to attend.  Guest speaker will be children’s author Charles Ghigna better known as Father Goose®. Ghigna is the author of more than 5,000 poems and 100 award-winning books.

The 2018-19 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.

For additional information, please contact Donna Adcock, dbadcock@ua.edu, state coordinator.

Charles Ghigna’s Children’s Book Selected to Represent Alabama at the 2018 National Book Festival

• August 8th, 2018
• by Donna
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“Alabama My Home Sweet Home!” by Charles Ghigna, aka Father Goose®, has been selected by the Alabama Center for the Book to represent the state in the 52 Great Reads at the 18^th Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, DC on Sept. 1, 2018.

This creative story book was written to celebrate Alabama’s 200^th birthday and takes children on a tour through Alabama discovering some of the state’s most famous figures, places and events.

Every year, a list of books representing the literary heritage of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands is distributed by the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book during the National Book Festival.

Children, young adults and adults visit each state’s booth located in the Parade of States area collecting stamps for their Great Reads Map and gathering additional information about the state.

Visitors to the Alabama booth this year will have an extra treat. Ghigna will be on hand throughout the day to greet guests and sign autographs.  His book, along with books from the other states, DC and the Virgin Islands, will be on sale in the book festival’s sales area.

Ghigna and illustrator Michelle Hazelwood Hyde both reside in Alabama.  Ghigna has written more than one hundred books for children and adults; while Hyde is a freelance illustrator of ten children’s books.

The Alabama Center for the Book participates each year at the annual book festival held in the Washington Convention Center.  One of the pre-eminent literary events in the United States, thousands of book fans gather to hear lectures by best-selling authors, panel discussions, attend book signings and enjoy other fun activities.