America.gov-The Arts: Books

Writers as Changemakers

Keith Ellison — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:52:33 -0400

The first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress says writers such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Toni Morrison are among those who shaped his world view.

On Penning a Verse for the President-elect

Elizabeth Kelleher — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:23:19 -0400

There are a lot of people ready to give poet Elizabeth Alexander advice about the poem she is writing to mark the inauguration of President-elect Barrack Obama. But she says she has created some silence around her and is looking to earlier American poets — Walt Whitman, Gwendolyn Brooks, W.H. Auden and Robert Hayden – as inspiration.

Thousands Flock to the National Mall to Celebrate Reading

Meghan Loftus — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:20:46 -0400

The National Book Festival is held on the National Mall each year. The 2008 festival featured more than 70 authors and illustrators from many different literary genres. James Billington, the 13th librarian of Congress, welcomed participants to “celebrate our shared love of reading” on America’s front lawn.

Arab-American Writers Reveal Life’s Richness and Frustrations

Burton Bollag — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:41:25 -0400

More and more works by Arab-American writers are being published, read and reviewed, according to a panel of writers. Arab-American literature, like that of other immigrant and ethnic communities, reveals a struggle to fit in and overcome prejudice and ignorance.

U.S. Publishers Work to Correct Literary “Trade Imbalance”

Jaroslaw Anders — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:10:09 -0400

An alliance of U.S. publishers, booksellers and literature promoters is trying to raise the general U.S. reading public’s awareness of foreign literature. Despite common perceptions to the contrary, U.S. readers “do want to read literature in translation and they aren’t afraid of it,” says one publisher.

Poetry of Rumi a Unifying Force of Civilizations

Anjum Naim — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:26:50 -0400

The 13-century Persian poet, philosopher and mystic known as Rumi is one of the most widely read poets in the United States. In an interview with SPAN, surgeon and translator Dr. Nevit Ergin says Rumi's popularity may be due to American “spiritual hunger” and the inadequacy of material comforts alone in the pursuit of happiness.

Martin Luther King Jr.: A Life Remembered in Words and Song

Lauren Monsen — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:02:19 -0400

A new book and CD, issued in tribute to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., are helping to teach U.S. schoolchildren about the history of their nation’s civil rights movement from its earliest days in the 1950s to the present, emphasizing the movement’s ongoing commitment to equality, justice and racial reconciliation.

New Encyclopedia Celebrates Arab-American Artists

NEA — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:18:05 -0400

Fayeq Oweis, noted artist and professor of Arabic language and culture at Santa Clara University in California, publishes the Encyclopedia of Arab American Artists, highlighting 85 individuals and groups working in painting, sculpture, photography, film, cartooning, calligraphy, mixed media, architecture and theater design.

Iraqi, American Poetry Reading Bridges Cultural Divides

Jim Fisher-Thompson — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:02:02 -0400

“One of the treasures of poetry is that it allows full equality to all artists and freedom of expression in what defines a truly democratic society,” said U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker at the first annual Iraqi/American Poetry Reading, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in partnership with the Iraqi Tawasin Cultural Society.

Sufi Poet and Mystic Rumi Remains Compelling to American Readers

Howard Cincotta — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:28:19 -0400

Ask Americans who is the most popular poet in the country today, and they might guess Walt Whitman or Robert Frost. Many might be surprised to learn that the correct answer (measured either in public interest or total book sales) is the Sufi mystic and poet known as Rumi (Jalal ad-Din Mohammad Balkhi) who was born 800 years ago in Central Asia.

Love of Books Survives in an Electronic Age

Carolee Walker — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:32:06 -0400

Nancy Pearl, author of Book Lust and the model for a “shushing” librarian action figure, talks about how she developed an early love of reading books because she spent much of her unhappy childhood and adolescence in Detroit in the local library. “I learned very early that being home was not a safe place to be,” Pearl says during a USINFO Webchat held at the Frankfurt, Germany, city library.

Children, Teens Among Book Lovers at Annual Festival

Carolee Walker — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:41:53 -0400

How much children read and what they read have an effect on the future of any nation, says professional basketball star Al Harrington. When Harrington is not playing for the Golden State Warriors basketball team in Oakland, California, he is in the community talking about the importance of reading and doing well in school. “Kids need to read books to achieve whatever it is they want to do with their lives,” Harrington told USINFO in an interview at the National Book Festival on the Smithsonian Mall in Washington. Seventy authors participated in the 2007 National Book Festival, sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by first lady Laura Bush. The annual festival is free and open to the public, and fans wait in long lines for their favorite authors to sign copies of their books.

New U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic Immigrated as Teen

Jeffrey Thomas — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:26:12 -0400

Charles Simic, the new poet laureate of the United States, did not begin learning English until he was 15 and moved to New York City, then Chicago, after a traumatic childhood in the former Yugoslavia. “The big, big influence on my life was being born in Yugoslavia in 1938. And then, in 1941, the war started and I was there during the war, and then in the years after the war under communism. The war years in Yugoslavia were pure hell,” Simic tells USINFO. An immigrant learning English in his teens “doesn’t take it for granted,” Simic says. “One notices things about language, one notices things about American culture and other things that I imagine a native-born would not see.”

The Luminous Characters of Anne Tyler

Howard Cincotta — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 18:30:11 -0400

Novelist John Updike once wrote memorably that fellow writer Anne Tyler "is not merely good, she is wickedly good." For more than 40 years, in meticulous “wickedly good” prose, Tyler has been writing quietly luminous novels that examine the nuances of character and the foibles of American family life.

Poets Laureate of Two Nations Reach Across the Atlantic

Elizabeth Kelleher — Fri, 11 May 2007 17:49:05 -0400

U.S. poet laureate Donald Hall and British poet laureate Andrew Motion read together at the Library of Congress. British Ambassador to the United States David Manning calls it a “marvelous thing” that the two poets are “talking together and reading their poetry together.” Even though the poets laureate had not met until just days before the Washington reading and are of different generations – Hall is 78 years old, and Motion, 54 -- they had an immediate rapport. The two talk to USINFO about poetry in the United Kingdom and the United States and common misconceptions some have about similarities and differences in the works of poets from the two countries.

Lucille Clifton First Black Woman To Win Lilly Poetry Prize

Jeffrey Thomas — Thu, 10 May 2007 17:51:49 -0400

Poet Lucille Clifton, the first black woman to win the prestigious 2007 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, talks with USINFO about how she sees her work within the context of American poetry. “I’m a contemporary American poet who is African American and female,” Clifton says.

Urban Poetry Walk Takes Verse to the Streets

Elizabeth Kelleher — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 11:46:32 -0400

April is National Poetry Month, a time when communities across the United States popularize poetry. In New York, restaurants place poems inside diners’ menus. All over, transit systems are “advertising” poems on buses and in subway trains. Here, in a suburb of Washington, poems have sprung up as steel street signs. The Takoma Park signs, designed by local students, feature several works by important African-American poets, including Langston Hughes, Robert Hayden, Lucille Clifton, Toi Derricotte, Rita Dove and Natasha Trethewey.

After Shootings at Virginia Tech, Many Find Solace in Poetry

Elizabeth Kelleher — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 17:54:38 -0400

“At any time of stress, people are going to turn to poetry. Emotionally, it goes to the heart of things,” poet and Virginia Tech writing teacher Nikki Giovanni tells USINFO. Giovanni says poetry balances a characteristic peculiar to the United States. “It is a quick nation. … Your mother can die, and someone can say, ‘you really need to move on.’” Giovanni delivered a convocation address at Virginia Tech April 17, the day after her former student, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people at the university before taking his own life.

Egyptian Author Naguib Mahfouz Sought To Reconcile East and West

Lauren Monsen — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:39:21 -0400

When Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1988, he already was the most dominant literary figure in the Arab world, but suddenly his work began to attract a wider audience in the West.

Science, History, Music Coalesce in 2006 National Book Awards

Michael J. Bandler — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 18:03:51 -0400

Reading Program Raises Foreign Authors' Profiles in United States

Michael Jay Friedman — Tue, 09 May 2006 18:33:49 -0400

One-Book Programs Sweep the United States

Steve Holgate — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 12:09:26 -0400

In Portland, Oregon, thousands of residents are reading The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. In Brownsburg, Indiana, the book of choice is Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom. In Westport, Connecticut, they are reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. In the metropolis of Los Angeles, the book is Walter Mosley’s Little Scarlet, while in the tiny nearby community of Malibu, home of movie stars and surfers, they are reading Gidget, the story of a girl's discovery of surfing and love. Each of these cities and towns has adopted a single book through One-Book programs, an idea started in 1998 by librarian Nancy Pearl.

Poetry Slams Rock Literary World

Steve Holgate — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 14:22:11 -0400