America.gov-The Arts: Books

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.

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.

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.

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.

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