September 2006, eNewsletter 
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eNewsletter
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September 2006
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UNQUIET: ARTISTIC RESPONSES TO SEPTEMBER 11th
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Photograph © Heather Cross - http://gonyc.about.com
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The National Book Foundation and the Graduate Writing Program at the New School will commemorate the fifth anniversary of September 11, 2001 with writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, Monday, September 11th at 8:00 p.m. in Tishman Auditorium of the New School.
Using the historical event as a backdrop, Lynne Sharon Schwartz will read from The Writing on the Wall and Jay McInerney from The Good Life. Poet Kimiko Hahn will read from The Narrow Road to the Interior, her seventh book of poetry. Journalist Kevin Flynn will read gripping narratives from 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers. Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón will show images from their graphic adaptation of the 600-page federal report released by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Bob Kerrey, President of the New School and Member of the 9/11 Commission, will discuss the writing of the Commission's report and its aftermath.
The reading will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Robert Polito, the director of the writing program at the New School.
The event is scheduled to begin at 8:00 p.m. in the Tishman Auditorium of the New School, located at 66 W. 12th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), New York City. Admission is free and seating is available on a first come, first served basis.
For more information contact the New School at 212-229-5611 or visit www.nationalbook.org.
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Students to Play Role of Professional Journalists at the 2006 Teen Press Conference
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On Tuesday, November 14th, 250 middle and high school students attending New York City public and private schools will gather at the Donnell Library's auditorium for the popular Teen Press Conference to interview the 2006 National Book Award Finalists in Young People's Literature.
Students will prepare for the event by reading one of the five finalists' books and drafting questions based on character development, the text, the writing life, and what it means to be a National Book Award Finalist. At the event, each participating student will receive a professionally designed press kit with biographical information on each author, excerpts from their books, and materials related to the National Book Awards.
Authors will read from their work before the floor is turned over to the students for the Press Conference. Following the Conference, students will be invited to interact with the authors at a reception in Nathan Straus Young Adult Center of the Donnell Library.
Funding for this program is made possible through a generous grant from Con Edison.
Teachers and students interested in attending the National Book Awards Teen Press Conference, must contact Leslie Shipman at lshipman@nationalbook.org, no later than Friday, October 20th. Include your name, name of school, telephone number, and number of students attending. This event is popular and seats will fill up quickly.
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National Book Awards Team Up with the First Brooklyn Book Festival
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The National Book Awards is a cultural partner for the first Brooklyn Book Festival, scheduled for Saturday, September 16th.
In the past few years, Brooklyn has laid claim to being the literary epicenter of the country. To showcase its literary side, Brooklyn's new festival will present events with such smart, hip, and diverse authors as Jhumpa Lahiri, Jonathan Lethem, Philip Lopate, Touré, and fantasy novelist Holly Black. National Book Award authors Jennifer Egan and Paula Fox will also appear. Book sales and other events will make for a fun and enriching experience.
The Festival will take place at Brooklyn Borough Hall on Saturday, September 16th from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For more information visit www.visitbrooklyn.org.
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Quartet for National Book Award Author Joyce Carol Oates
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Four early novels written by Joyce Carol Oates examining American culture, values and dreams have been published by Random House's Modern Library as The Wonderland Quartet.
All four works in the quartet, published between 1968 and 1972, have been honored by the National Book Awards. Each novel includes an introduction by Elaine Showalter that puts Oates' work into context. The quartet opens with A Garden of Earthly Delights, and focuses on Clara, the daughter of Kentucky migrant workers, struggling for independence by way of her relationships with four different men. In Expensive People, the second in the series, the secrets of America's affluent suburbs are revealed through a well-to-do child murderer. Oates chronicles the aspirations and struggles of a family living on the edge of ruin in the slums of Detroit in them. Wonderland, the final volume in the quartet, stretching from the Great Depression to the turbulent Vietnam War, is the epic account of a boy who emerged from a family tragedy with his life spared but his world torn apart.
For a full listing of National Book Award books written by Joyce Carol Oates visit the Foundation's website at, www.nationalbook.org.
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Foundation Co-Presents Series of Events Honoring Maxine Hong Kingston and the 30th Anniversary of The Woman Warrior
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On Thursday, September 28th, the Asian American Writers' Workshop will present Maxine Hong Kingston with a lifetime achievement award on its fifteenth anniversary.
The following day, the National Book Foundation, the Workshop, and the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the award-winning memoir The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts with a series of events. On the 1976 publication of The Woman Warrior, Ms. Kingston became one of the first Asian Americans to achieve prominence in the literary world in America. Her popularity increased when she became a National Book Award Fiction Winner for China Men in 1981.
The daylong program of events will take place at Stuyvesant High School and New York University. Highlights include three panel discussions, featuring scholars in the field: "The Woman Warrior, Literary Forms, and Other Genres"; "Women and The Woman Warrior"; and "Politics, Immigration and The Woman Warrior". Ending the two-day festivities is "The Asian American Writers' Workshop's 30th Anniversary Tribute to The Woman Warrior"-a launch party for the forthcoming anthology, Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace, edited by Kingston and published by KOA Books.
For a detailed listing of events, please visit: www.aaww.org/aaww_events.html.
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Mark These Dates for the National Book Awards and Other 2006 Events
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September 11th, Unquiet: Artistic Responses to September 11, 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, Announcements of Master of Ceremonies for the 2006 National Book Awards Dinner and Ceremony, site of the National Book Awards Finalists announcement, and recipients for the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the Literarian Award at www.nationalbook.org at 9:30 a.m.
September 29th, Tribute to National Book Award Winner Maxine Hong Kingston on the 30th anniversary of the publication of 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, Jhumpa Lahiri, Michael Ondaatje, and Edward Hirsch at Symphony Space, New York City
November 2nd - 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, New York City
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, 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
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For
more information about these and other Foundation
events visit, www.nationalbook.org/progcalendar.html.
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