Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today that the 2022 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction will be awarded to Jesmyn Ward. The 45-year-old Mississippian is the two-time winner of the National Book Award for the novels “Salvage the Bones” and “Sing, Unburied, Sing” among other major literary awards.
The Library of Congress announces the date, venue and website for the 2022 National Book Festival, Saturday, Sept. 3 in Washington, D.C.
Madeleine Albright, the first female Secretary of State, died today in Washington. She is remembered fondly at the Library.
We close our series of 2021 Festival highlights with LeVar Burton, host of “Open a Book, Open the World: The Library of Congress National Book Festival.” And we look forward to seeing you at the Washington Convention Center for the 2022 National Book Festival!
This week we highlight our poetry programs from the 2021 Festival, including conversations with Nikki Giovanni (“Make Me Rain”); francine j. harris (“Here Is the Sweet Hand”) and Patrick Rosal (“The Last Thing”); and Claudia Rankine (“Just Us”), Phillip B. Williams (“Mutiny”) and Kevin Young (“African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song”).
This week we highlight just a few of our many standout fiction programs from the 2021 Festival, including conversations with Alice McDermott (“What About the Baby?”) and George Saunders (“A Swim in a Pond in the Rain”), P. Djèlí Clark (“A Master of Djinn”), and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (“The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois”) and Deesha Philyaw (“The Secret Lives of Church Ladies”).
This week we highlight programs from the 2021 Festival that feature cooking and community, including conversations with Rodney Scott (“Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ”) and Trisha Yearwood (“Trisha’s Kitchen”), and Hawa Hassan (“In Bibi’s Kitchen”) and Marcus Samuelsson (“The Rise”).
A tribute to NPR books editor Petra Mayer, frequent National Book Festival moderator, who passed away at age 46.
This week we highlight programs from the 2021 Festival that feature Native writers, including conversations with Kelli Jo Ford (“Crooked Hallelujah”) and Toni Jensen (“Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land”), Rep. Sharice Davids (“Sharice’s Big Voice: A Native Kid Becomes a Congresswoman”) and Joy Harjo (“Poet Warrior”).
This week we highlight Kekla Magoon discussing her young adult book “Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People” at the 2021 Festival. This post includes prompts for writing and thinking that teens, families and teachers can use to explore the author and the author’s work — recommended for ages 12-17.