TODAY I am a writer, but I also see myself as something of a landscape artist. I paint pictures of scenes for inner-city youth that are familiar, and I people the scenes with brothers and aunts and friends they all have met.
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#lit #walter dean myersThe Work To Be Done event, a celebration of literary icon Walter Dean Myers, was organized by his son Christopher Myers and held at Symphony Space in uptown Manhattan on March 8th. Not only were kind words said about Walter and the inspiration he had on others but how his work extends to a whole community that didn’t see themselves.
"My father told me his voice saved him, that his writing saved him," said Christopher. And in many ways his work has saved many others. Thank you Walter Dean Myers for all you’ve done and contributed through your writing and presence. And thanks to Christopher and everyone who participated and attended for a wonderful day to remember Walter.
(photos from top to bottom: Photo of Walter Dean Myers; Christopher Myers; Jason Reynolds; Eisa Davis; Jacqueline Woodson; Helga Davis; Brian Selznick; WNDB team member Jennifer Baker, Christopher Myers, and WNDB team member Dhonielle Clayton.)
Congratulations on a wonderful evening!
“I don’t feel that the dispossessed are hopeless, just in need of a helping hand. When I was fourteen my family was dysfunctional. I had an alcoholic mother, a father suffering from depression, a recently murdered uncle, etc., etc. I barely survived that period and there were those willing to write me off. The kids I interview in prisons are often desperate to understand the world around them, and we who are fortunate enough to be secure in our lives need to understand the kids. I offer my books as bridges.”
The National Book Foundation sadly regrets the passing of celebrated author and three-time National Book Award Finalist Walter Dean Myers.
Myers, pictured here with his son Christopher Myers, was the author of more than 100 books for children and young adults and served as the Library of Congress’s National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature in 2012. In addition to winning two Newbery Honors, Myers was the first winner of the Michael L. Printz Award and the first recipient of the Coretta Scott-King Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
The first thing I had to do was to cop the time from whoever brought me a meal. Then I would mark that off, and the next time they brought me a meal I would mark that off, and then divide that into sections.
The room was getting darker. Soon it would be so dark I would have to feel my way to the cot. But I wasn’t feeling bad about it anymore. Maybe if I stayed in detention for months, or even years, it would be different. But I could put up with bad stuff happening to me.
Then why do I fight all the time?
Because fighting is good. When you fight you’re alive, you’re somebody. You’re not standing in the corridor with your hands behind your back. Maybe that’s it, that you’re free, swinging your fists, letting people know who you are. Even if you’re going to die. That kid who beat up Mr. Hooft, maybe he knew more than Mr. Hooft thought. Maybe he knew he was going to die but needed to be somebody for that minute. Like the guys in the hood running down the streets throwing signs and spitting smack like they’re bulletproof but knowing they aren’t. Knowing they aren’t.
I could do detention. Sitting there in the dark, trembling as the minutes slipped by. It didn’t make any difference how slow it went. I was locked in and the rest of the world was locked out. I couldn’t touch them, but they couldn’t touch me, either.
I’m all right.
When they finally let me out, I was jumpy, off balance. It’s how they wanted me to feel.
Excerpted from Lockdown, a 2010 National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature. Its author, Walter Dean Myers was the 2012 Library of Congress National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and three-time National Book Awards Finalist. Myers passed away July 1.
By eight, I was leading a dual life. I played in the streets all day, and at night I would come home and spend a lot of time with stories. It was my very special world. As time went on, the stories stayed in my mind. They were with me like secret friends and would pop up in the oddest places. In the middle of a stickball game, for example, or on a tree-climbing expedition.
A Celebration of the Life & Legacy of Walter Dean Myers, “Work to be Done” in NYC at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway) on March 8th from 5-7pm.
Speakers for this event include: Christopher Myers, Brian Selznick, Jacqueline Woodson, Wah Ming Chang, Jason Reynolds, Emily Raboteau and many many more!
Hey New Yorkers ! This looks great!
CONGRATULATIONS Cynthia Kadohata, WINNER of the 2013 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature
Cynthia Kadohata lives in Los Angeles, California and is the author of several books for children and adults. Her novel The Thing About Luck won the 2013 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature on November 20. Shortly before the Awards Ceremony, Kadohata spoke with National Book Award Winner William Alexander for the National Book Foundation’s Compilation of 2013 Finalists’ interviews.
William Alexander: Tell us about riding a harvester!
Cynthia Kadohata: Riding a combine through a wheat field, going over and over up and down the field, was actually a kind of relaxing, meditative experience. You really feel like a natural part of the field, like an extension of it, all of you (including the wheat) working together in some cosmic way to put bread on tables around the world. I wasn’t driving; I was riding along. Combines cost around $350,000 and have about a zillion parts that can break, so I don’t think they would have let me drive one.
WA: Summer is constantly translating those around her, as though twelve-years-old were another country and a separate language. Her grandmother’s affection stands out, for me at least, as something spoken in a language Summer doesn’t understand—or is only just beginning to understand. What are some of your own daily acts of translation?
CK: I don’t know if this is a daily act of translation, but every day I learn something new about my son, or think I understand him better after a long talk…and then he grows up a little bit and what I’ve learned becomes moot. Then I have to learn to translate a whole new language.
WA: I gather that a household love of Legos and a similar devotion to dogs are both translated from your own life. True?
CK: If you stepped through the threshold to our house, you would be immediately faced with two crazy dogs and a LOT of Legos. For a while my son seemed to have moved on from Legos, but now he’s back into them, which is good since they were damn expensive. The Legos and one of the dogs were definitely verbatim from real life, with no translating. The Doberman in the book was my Doberman, Thunder, in every way.
WA: Do you have any good luck rituals? I’m especially curious about writerly rituals, something that might please the muse before a session of banging on the keyboard or scribbling in the notebook.
CK: I have three writerly good luck rituals. Two of them I can’t stop doing, just in case they help. But they’re probably just OCD…or are they? I confess that I really believe in one of the three. One of the OCD ones was actually started by my live-in boyfriend of 14 years. So we both do it. I asked him if I could tell you what it is, and he cried out, ‘NO, it’ll mess with the karma!’ I’ll just say that it makes us look a little silly in public sometimes. It involves parking lots, of all things.
WA: What is the very first bedtime story you can remember?
CK: My father usually wasn’t around for bedtime because he worked such long hours, and I don’t believe my mother read to us or told us stories. I’ve told my son, Sammy, every story I can think of when we have our pre-bedtime life talk that I think we both really, really enjoy.
William Alexander won the National Book Award in 2012 for his debut novel, Goblin Secrets, and the Earphones Award for his narration of the audiobook. He teaches at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
E. Lockhart at Books of Wonder, 5/20/14
A 2008 #NBAward YPL Finalist and 2013 YPL Judge.
. Read our interview with the author of the National Book Awards Finalist Threatened and find out what’s next for Eliot Schrefer’s Great Ape Quartet.
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.
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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.”
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
