Presenter of the National Book Awards. Dedicated to the celebration of the best literature in America.
#NBAwards Finalist in Nonfiction, #Ta-Nehisi Coates writes the following in his personal memoir, Between the World and Me, an open letter to his teenage son:
“And so I had no sense that any just God was on my side. ‘The meek shall inherit the earth’ meant nothing to me. The meek were battered in West Baltimore, stomped out at Walbrook Junction, bashed up on Park Heights, and raped in the showers of the city jail.”
Martin Luther King, Jr., speech in Montgomery, AL, 1965
While Martin Luther King Jr., says in his well-known speech, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” Ta-Nehisi Coates, #NBAwards Finalist in Nonfiction, writes in his powerful memoir #BetweenTheWorldAndMe:
“My understanding of the universe was physical, and its moral arc bent toward chaos then concluded in a box.”
Watch the #NBAwards ceremony live stream at nationalbook.org, xxpm, November 18. For more on Ta-Nehisi Coates’s memoir and new framework for understanding Anerica’s history and crisis, visit: http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2015_nf_tcoates.html#.Vjos8269GSo
In the process of writing your book, what did you discover, what, if anything, surprised you?
Sy Montgomery (author of The Soul of an Octopus): In the process of writing this book, I was surprised at every turn: that octopuses taste with their skin. That most of their neurons are not in the brains, but in their arms. That their touch–one that many naturalists I admire found repulsive–was so soft, and that their suckers–dextrous enough to untie knots in surgical silk, and strong enough that just one sucker might lift 30 pounds–were capable of great tenderness. But what surprised me most was that a creature so unlike us was clearly capable of forming bonds with humans, and that my relationships with each individual octopus changed forever the way I understand what it means to think, to feel and to know.
Karen E. Bender, #NBAwards Finalist in Fiction, says that “economic inequality in this country is increasing, and concerns about money are showing up in my stories in a variety of ways.”
Bender takes us into the heart of the middle-class struggle by intertwining family and money in #Refund, her riveting collection of stories. You’ll meet world-swindlers, reality show creators, desperate artists, siblings, parents, along with an 80-year-old swindler, accustomed to tricking people for this money, in #Refund. Find out more at http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2015_f_kbender.html#.Vjozn269.
Watch the #NBAwards ceremony live stream at nationalbook.org on November 18.
The National Book Foundation is grateful to continue its partnership with the Miami Book Fair International, thanks to the generous sponsorship of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. This year, over two dozen authors recognized by the 2015 National Book Awards will travel to Miami for a series of remarkable readings at discussions.
Featuring 2015 National Book Award Poetry Longlister Jane Hirshfield, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Ru Freeman, and Tom Sleigh.
The Pressure to Measure Up Sunday, Nov 22 at 12pm, Prometeo (Building 1, 1st Floor, Room 1101) Cost: Free
Featuring 2015 National Book Award YPL Finalist Neal Shusterman, 2015 National Book Award YPL Longlister Becky Albertalli, Corey Ann Haydu, and Tamara Ireland Stone.
The Natural World Sunday, Nov 22 at 12:30pm, Room 8525 (Building 8, 5th Floor) Cost: Free
Featuring 2015 National Book Award Nonfiction Finalist Sy Montgomery, 2015 National Book Award Nonfiction Longlister Cynthia Barnett, and Susan Casey.
This week, we were thrilled to announce the Longlists for the 2019 National Book Awards. These titles in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature represent some of the best writing of the year. The Finalists will be announced October 8, all in the lead up to the 70th National Book Awards on November 20.
Barnes and Nobles is gonna start serving food and alcohol.
Everybody’s cracking jokes about how it’s a desperate attempt to stay relevant in the age of Amazon.
But you know what? Props to them. This is exactly what Blockbuster didn’t do. At no point was Blockbuster like “Hey, movie rentals aren’t the lucrative enterprise they once were. Perhaps it’s time we become known for our cheesy garlic bread.”
patrexes
that’s a fantastic plan, honestly? i would 100% go sit at a bookshop, buy a glass of wine, and pick up the newest biography. 50/50 i’d decide to buy it after a couple chapters, and even if i don’t, that’s still money i spent at B&N!
They could host book clubs with food and drinks where one of the employees shares their experiences with a book of their choice and tries to convince the guests to buy it.
Barnes and noble realizing the only reason people go to brick and mortar stores is for the experience and access to an enjoyable physical space they can socialize in (sure isnt for the price) and capitalizing on that is a stroke of genius and a really refreshing approach to the dilemma of competing with online stores
alwaysbringabookwithyou
