Presenter of the National Book Awards

August 2006, eNewsletter

eNewsletter August 2006 
ATTENTION STEINBECK FANS! National Book Awards at the Steinbeck Festival, Salinas, CA
National Book Award Judges to Discuss Truth in Nonfiction, Texas Tech University
Symphony Space and the National Book Foundation Celebrate Mavis Gallant
MARK THESE DATES: The National Book Awards and Other 2006 Events
ATTENTION STEINBECK FANS! National Book Awards at the Steinbeck Festival, Salinas, CA
The 26th Annual Steinbeck Festival Awards: The Price of Fame will take place in John Steinbeck's hometown of Salinas, California from August 3 - 6, 2006. Presented by the National Steinbeck Center, this year's Festival-four days of speakers, bus and walking tours, films and other events that explore Steinbeck's work and life and the area in which he lived-will focus on awards and the effects they have on writers and their readers. John Steinbeck was a two-time Finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction, received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and was awarded of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Guest speakers will include Harold Augenbraum, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation and Co-Director of the 2002 National Steinbeck Centennial, who will deliver the talk Nobel's Oblige, on Steinbeck, William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway and literary awards. Susan Shillinglaw, the National Steinbeck Center's Scholar in Residence and also Co-Director of the 2002 National Steinbeck Centennial, will discuss Steinbeck Resisting Fame. Other speakers and panelists include:
  • Lawson Inada, the Poet Laureate of Oregon and a 2005 judge for the National Book Award in Poetry who also serves as the Steinbeck Chair at Hartnell College and the National Steinbeck Center
  • Thomas Steinbeck, author and son of John Steinbeck
  • Chris Mitchum, son of actor Robert Mitchum, who starred in The Red Pony movie
  • Jim Risser, former Director of Stanford Knight Fellows and a Pulitzer Panelist, who will speak on John Steinbeck and the Pulitzer Prize
  • Robert DeMott, distinguished Professor at Ohio University and one of the country's preeminent Steinbeck scholars.
For more information on the 26th Annual Steinbeck Festival, please visit www.steinbeck.org.
National Book Award Judges to Discuss Truth in Nonfiction, Texas Tech University
The 2005 National Book Award Nonfiction judges Mark Bowden, Dennis Covington, Brenda Wineapple and Gregory Wolfe will participate in a panel that addresses truth in nonfiction-including their thoughts on judging the National Book Awards-on Wednesday, October 11th at Texas Tech University, organized by Covington, a professor of creative writing and a National Book Award Nonfiction Finalist for Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia. Bowden, Wineapple and Wolfe will also deliver individual talks about their work. Bowden is author of Black Hawk Down, a 1999 National Book Award Finalist in Nonfiction. Wineapple is author of Hawthorne: A Life. Wolfe is author of Beauty Will Save the World: Art, Faith, and the Stewardship of Culture.

The panel discussion and the individual talks are free and open to the public. The panel will be filmed by C-Span for later broadcast. For more information please visit http://www.ttu.edu
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Symphony Space and the National Book Foundation Celebrate Mavis Gallant
Mavis Gallant
Photo credit: Alison Harris
On November 1st, Russell Banks, Jhumpa Lahiri, Michael Ondaatje and Edward Hirsch will celebrate and read from the work of  Canadian-born short-story master Mavis Gallant at Symphony Space in New York City, as a special focus of its popular Selected Shorts:  A Celebration of the Short Story series. Ms. Gallant, who lives in Paris, is acclaimed for her mastery in short story writing that has influenced American writers for nearly fifty years. She has published more than 100 short stories in the New Yorker, the third-most in the magazine's "storied" history. Gallant will make a rare New York appearance at the event.

The event is co-presented by PEN and the National Book Foundation.

For more information and tickets, visit www.symphonyspace.org.
MARK THESE DATES: The National Book Awards and Other 2006 Events
August 3rd-6th, The 26th Annual Steinbeck Festival in Salinas, California. Harold Augenbraum, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, will speak on literary awards and the careers of John Steinbeck (two-time National Book Award Finalist), William Faulkner (four-time NBA finalist and two-time winner), and Ernest Hemingway (a two-time NBA finalist).

August 15th, Deadline for National Book Award Judges and the National Book Foundation to receive books bound galleys, and /or bound manuscripts from publishers for the National Book Awards.

September 11th, Commemoration of 9/11 at the New School in New York with National Book Award Finalists and other authors, New York City.

September 16th, Brooklyn Book Festival at Borough Hall from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

September 20th, Announcement of Master of Ceremonies for the 2006 National Book Awards Dinner and Ceremony, site of the National Book Awards Finalists announcement, and recipient for the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the Literarian Award.  

September 29th, Tribute to National Book Award Winner Maxine Hong Kingston on the 30th anniversary of the publication The Woman Warrior, various locations in New York City, in conjunction with the Asian American Writers Workshop and New York University

October 11th, Announcement of this year's National Book Award Finalists, San Francisco

November 1st, A Special Celebration for Mavis Gallant with guests Russell Banks, Edward Hirsch, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Michael Ondaatje at Symphony Space, New York City

November 2-4th, the Literary Writers Conference, a program of  the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, co-sponsored by Donadio & Olson, the National Book Foundation, the New School Graduate Writing Program, and Sobel Weber Associates, Inc., New York City

National Book Awards Week in New York

November 13th, 5 Under 35, a celebration of the next generation of fiction writers, with National Book Award Finalists and Winners

November 14th, National Book Awards Teen Press Conference, at the Donnell Library, sponsored by Con Edison.

November 14th, National Book Awards Finalist Reading at the New School, hosted by Nicole Krauss

November 15th, National Book Awards Ceremony and Dinner