Presenter of the National Book Awards. Dedicated to the celebration of the best literature in America.
Next Chapter Book Club, winner of our Innovations in Reading Prize, runs hundreds of book clubs for adults and adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The truth is that if you’re an author, the only way that you can really write a story that matters for anyone is by believing it when you’re writing it. You have to care and you have to believe.
Neil Gaiman, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal’s Book Club.
Gaiman will be leading a discussion on The 13 Clocks by two-time National Book Award Finalist James Thurber in July. Find out why he considers it “required reading in order to be a human being here” here.
A metal gate clinks behind him, and suddenly Gary Durant finds himself between two worlds, standing amid 47 large dogs at the upscale doggy day care where he now works, thinking of the inmates at the prison he just left.
All animals, it seems, act the same when caged.
Several of the dogs bump their muscular bodies in a test of boundaries. Others lie on beds against the wall, keeping to themselves.
“Break it up!” a fellow worker booms as one pooch pounces on another, drawing a crowd. The blond-furred offender is led to a segregated area.
“Some dogs,” Durant says, watching, “they just live in timeout.”
Gary Durant, left, and John Becker work in a doggy day care and boarding facility in the District. Durant, who at 17 was convicted as an adult of manslaughter, was released from prison this year. Now 24, he is trying to make a new life for himself.
Durant, a reserved 24-year-old with a chiseled 6-1 frame, spent almost seven years in three different prisons for his role in a shootout that left a teenager dead. Two of those years were passed in solitary confinement after fights with other inmates.
Released in February, Durant is among hundreds of ex-offenders who return to the District each year with felonies on their records, looking to navigate a city that doesn’t resemble the one they left.
But for him and others like him, that challenge is even more fraught. They were still boys when they were first swept into the adult criminal-justice system. Charged and convicted as adults, the adjustment of coming home is less about reestablishing stability than in finding new footing without much of a foundation.
At least 678 juveniles have been charged as adults in the District since 2002, and about 60 more will probably find themselves in that position next year, according to Free Minds, a book club and writing workshop that provides regular discussions with young inmates and helps them reenter society once they come home.
Tara Libert, co-founder of the D.C.-based organization, has met almost every juvenile held as an adult at the D.C. jail over the past decade and describes Durant as both typical and a standout. Typical because he’s a young black man from a rough neighborhood and struggling family. A standout because of his sensitive nature and extraordinary potential — a star high school athlete who seemed destined for college before he let the pull of a trigger put him on a far different path.
“Once you’re in that system, it’s like quicksand — you can’t get out,” Libert says. “To me, Gary represents everything that is wrong with this system.”
For more information about our 2010 Innnovations in Reading prize winner Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop, you can visit their web site here or the National Book Foundation here
“For over a hundred years the Book Club of California has been heralding the artistry of Western writers and printers, and their public clubhouse has become a bastion where print will never die.”
Atlas Obscura opens the doors to San Francisco’s century-old Book Club of California, dedicated to the printed book.
Justin Stanley founded the Uprise Books Project with a very simple mission: distribute banned or challenged books to underprivileged kids to encourage them to read. A Winner of our 2013 Innovations in Reading Prize, Stanley shares his personal experiences of poverty, the difficulties of championing banned books to schools, and how an Innovations in Reading Prize is helping propel his important work forward.
National Book Foundation: What inspired your Innovations in Reading-winning program?
Justin Stanley: My family didn’t have much when I was a kid. My younger brother and I were raised by a single mother and when we were in elementary school we were completely dependent on government and community help to make ends meet. I knew what government cheese tasted like and the various ways people looked at you when your mom pulled out a book of food stamps in the grocery store line, what it was like to be we-have-to-skip-the-electric-bill-this-month-if-we-want-to-eat poor.
I also remember the day in second grade when I came to school to find a group of strangers from some place called “RIF” standing behind a table of books, telling us kids that we could have one. For free. I couldn’t tell you what specific book I chose that day, but I’ve never forgotten how great it felt to bring it home.
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
