The Library’s 2024 Literacy Awards recognized four top honorees from around the world for their work in promoting a love of reading, language preservation and literacy lessons in refugee camps, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said yesterday on International Literacy Day. The year’s awards recognize work in six countries and in more than a dozen spots across the United States. The top four winners were rewarded with a total of $350,000, and 20 other efforts received smaller awards.
This is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, chief of the Prints and Photographs Division. It also appears in the July-August issue of Library of Congress Magazine. Greetings from Washington, D.C.! And from Gordon, Nebraska; Black River Falls, Wisconsin; San Francisco, California; and countless other big cities and tiny hamlets spread across the vastness of …
Viet Thanh Nguyen fled Vietnam as a child, escaping Saigon with his family the day before the capital city fell. They went to military bases in the Philippines and Guam, then lived in Pennsylvania for a few years before finally settling in San Jose, California, where he discovered the American dream was complicated. His literary work, most notably his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Sympathizer," (now an HBO series) explores the duality that he feels as a refugee and as an American writer. He spoke about his work at the National Book Festival, sharing stories of how his local library was his "salvation" as a child.
Kelsey Beeghly, a science curriculum and assessment coordinator from Orlando, Florida, was the Library’s 2023–24 Albert Einstein distinguished educator fellow. Here, she talks about some of her discoveries at the Library and suggestions for STEM teachers.
James McBride, winner of the Library's 2024 Prize for American Fiction, took the main stage at the National Book Festival last weekend, delighting a rapturous crowd with anecdotes and observations about his best-selling books and his remarkable writing career. "Love is the greatest novel ever written," he said. "That's it."
This weekend at the Library’s National Book Festival, fans of Kazu Kibuishi’s epic Amulet series will have a chance to hear him read from his ninth and final book in the series, “Waverider” and talk about how he created the immersive world where his graphic novels are set. Here, he answers a few questions about his creative process.
Pablo Cartaya’s novels touch on themes of family, culture and community, so it was no surprise when my 11-year-old daughter connected with the young characters of his latest book, “Curveball.” This weekend at the National Book Festival, Cartaya will be talking about "Curveball" and reading from an earlier book, "Tina Cocolina: Queen of the Cupcakes." In this piece, he answered a few of our most pressing questions.
Stories can be a lot of things, as journalist and novelist Annalee Newitz writes in “Stories Are Weapons,” but in the end they are powerful instruments that can be used for good or evil, to comfort the afflicted or afflict the comfortable. “The thing about stories is that they are emotional and oftentimes appeal to …
Gregory Lukow, chief of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, led the Library's efforts to construct the Center, teaming with the Packard Humanities Institute to make it one of the world's best film preservation facilities. He recently brought his 24-year career to a close. Here, he reflects on some major highlights.
