Welcome to our ongoing celebration of the Library of Congress National Book Festival. Each weekday, we will feature a video presentation from among the thousands of authors who have appeared at the National Book Festival and as part of our new year-long series, National Book Festival Presents. Mondays will feature topical nonfiction; Tuesday: poetry or literary fiction; Wednesday: history, biography, memoir; Thursday: popular fiction; and Friday: authors who write for children and teens. Please enjoy, and make sure to explore our full National Book Festival video collection!
“Immigration Memoirs” was the title of a panel discussion on the Understanding Our World stage of the 2019 Library of Congress National Book Festival. The authors sat with Carlos Lozada, nonfiction editor of The Washington Post, to discuss their books: Reyna Grande, “A Dream Called Home”; Aleksandar Hemon, “My Parents: An Introduction/This Does Not Belong to You”; and Suketu Mehta, “This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto.” Said Grande, “Sometimes I feel that ‘Why can’t I be just a writer, you know, why do I always have to be the immigrant writer? … Do I fit into American literature?’” Q&A begins at 55:55.
The 2020 Library of Congress National Book Festival will celebrate its 20th birthday this year. You can get up-to-the-minute news, schedule updates and other important festival information by subscribing to this blog. The festival is made possible by the generosity of sponsors. You too can support the festival by making a gift now.