National Book Foundation

[National Book Foundation]

Sometimes our Twitter users mix-up the National Basketball Association (#NBA) with the National Book Awards (#NBAwards). That same confusion inspired our first spring fundraiser: The Other NBA, a charity basketball featuring award winning writers.

At St. Francis College in Brooklyn on June 20, you can support the expansion of BookUp, our after-school reading program, to Detroit and Pittsburgh while you watch National Book Award Finalist Jess Walter acclaimed writer and BookUp instructor Mitchell S. Jackson compete against the movers and shakers of the publishing world.

Tickets go on sale soon. Don’t miss out!

[National Book Foundation]

[thetinhouse]

Dear Gordon Lish, by Mitchell S. Jackson

From the hot-off-the-presses Rejection Issue, here is Mitchell S. Jackson on being rejected by his onetime mentor, Gordon Lish.

Continue reading →

[nationalbook]

New writing from Mitchell S. Jackson, author of The Residue Years and one of our BookUp instructors. 

[National Book Foundation]

TONIGHT, Mitchell S. Jackson, author of The Residue Years and an instructor for BookUp, the Foundation’s after-school reading program, will be awarded the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. This $10,000 prize for emerging African-American fiction writers honors the legendary American writer who published the classic works The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and A Lesson Before Dying.

According to The Root, Jackson sees many parallels between events in his own life and that of the protagonist of A Lesson Before Dying. “You don’t often find stories that show the humanity of people who are outcasts. To capture their struggles, the angst and loneliness of being segregated from other inmates, that means a lot,” the writer says.

You can read an excerpt from The Residue Years here.

Photo credit (top image): Joe Sanford Pelican Pictures

Photo credit (bottom image): John Ricard

[National Book Foundation]

Congratulations to the 2014 Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards nominees

The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award is “the first national award presented to published writers of African descent by the national community of Black writers.”

Among this year’s nominees are National Book Award-Winners James McBride and Jesmyn Ward, National Book Award-Finalists Jamaica Kincaid and Adrian Matejka, 5 Under 35-Honoree NoViolet Bulawayo, and upcoming BookUp instructor Mitchell S. Jackson.

Find out more about the award here.

[National Book Foundation]

Last Sunday, Mitchell S. Jackson, author of The Residue Years, worked with family, friends, and the African American Literature Book Club to give away 125 copies of his novel on 125th Street in Harlem.

We’re honored to have Mitchell joining us on the BookUp faculty this fall!

Find out more about Mitchell here, and visit our website to learn more about BookUp.