Latest news with #NationalBookAward
Axios
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Axios
Cleveland's Inkubator writing conference returns with fiery call to action
One of the country's largest free writing conferences returns to Cleveland this September with more events, more writers, and a theme doubling as a call to action: "Burn Bright." State of play: Literary Cleveland 's 11th annual Inkubator Writing Conference begins online Sept. 8-10 and continues in person Sept. 11-13 at the downtown Cleveland Public Library. It will coincide with the start of Cleveland Book Fest. The big picture: The theme, drawn from Cleveland native Celeste Ng's novel "Our Missing Hearts," is a response to a climate of rising censorship and authoritarianism. Literary Cleveland says writers are called to "burn bright" by defending democracy, free expression, and storytelling. By the numbers: The 2025 schedule includes 46 programs totaling 75 hours of free workshops, panels, and literary events. More than 3,000 people attended last year. Zoom in: The virtual conference opens with panels featuring acclaimed authors, including: Nonfiction writer Eve L. Ewing and National Book Award winner Imani Perry. Poet Franny Choi and Lambda Literary Award winner Danez Smith. Celeste Ng will deliver the keynote address Sept. 13 about literature's role in times of crisis. At CPL, attendees can hone their craft in workshops on fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and genre writing; explore careers in the literary arts; and drop by special events, including a Friday night mixer and open mic. Zoom out: Inkubator kicks off this year's expanded Cleveland Book Fest, which includes the region's other major literary events: the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards (Sept. 19-20) and the Great Lakes African American Writers Conference (Sept. 26-27).
Washington Post
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Pulitzer-winning novel 'James' is up for another major honor
NEW YORK — Percival Everett 's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel 'James' is up for another literary honor. Everett's dramatic retelling of Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' is a fiction nominee for the 20th annual Dayton Literary Peace Prize, which comes with a $10,000 cash award. Besides the Pulitzer, 'James' has also won the National Book Award and Kirkus Prize.
Al Arabiya
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Arabiya
Pulitzer-winning novel 'James' is up for another major honor
Percival Everett's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel James is up for another literary honor. Everett's dramatic retelling of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a fiction nominee for the 20th annual Dayton Literary Peace Prize, which comes with a $10,000 cash award. Besides the Pulitzer, James has also won the National Book Award and Kirkus Prize. David Greenberg's John Lewis, a biography of the late civil rights activist and congressman, is a nonfiction finalist, the Dayton prize foundation announced Thursday. Winners in both categories will be announced in September. The other fiction contenders are Priscilla Morris' Black Butterflies, Alejandro Puyana's Freedom Is a Feast, Kristin Hannah's The Women, Helen Benedict's The Good Deed, and Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! Besides John Lewis, the nonfiction nominees are Sunil Amrith's The Burning Earth, Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor's Solidarity, Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear War, Lauren Markham's A Map of Future Ruins, and Wendy Pearlman's The Home I Worked to Make. Established in 1995 and named for the historic agreements that ended the war in Bosnia, the Dayton prizes are given to authors whose work demonstrates the power of the written word to foster peace. Previous winners include Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer, Edwidge Danticat's Brother, I'm Dying, and Ta-Nehisi Coates' We Were Eight Years in Power.
Elle
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers Loved This Book So Much, She Had to ‘Lie Down' After Finishing It
Welcome to Shelf Life, books column, in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you're on the hunt for a book to console you, move you profoundly, or make you laugh, consider a recommendation from the writers in our series, who, like you (since you're here), love books. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too. 'I've written essays for about 20 years now, and they are fueled by my intellectual fascinations with culture, history, womanhood, literature, and the origins and meanings of 'race' in this nation,' says Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, whose latest book, an essay collection called Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings , is out now. 'I place 'race' in quotation marks because it doesn't really exist as a biological reality, yet it's a concept that has actual consequences for many in the United States.' After writing five award-winning volumes of poetry, Jeffers published her debut novel, the generation-spanning The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois (which she thought would be a beach read and took 11 years to complete) in 2021. The book was long-listed for the National Book Award and won the National Book Critics Circle Award as well as the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and it earned a spot in Oprah's Book Club in addition to President Barack Obama's annual favorite books list. After the novel's success, Jeffers says, 'finishing a collection of essays seemed a natural progression for my writing journey. But then my mother died, which raised the emotional stakes on what being an intellectual even meant—and revealed how Mama had influenced me as a writer, thinker, and woman. [ Misbehaving at the Crossroads ] greatly changed on the other side of grief.' With the essay collection, Jeffers says she 'wanted to humanize what it means to be a Black woman who holds feminist principles dear. So many times, Black women who struggle against oppression—against patriarchy and racism—are characterized as tough or mean or angry. To call yourself a Black feminist is to elicit confusion: What's a Black feminist anyway? How's that different from being a mainstream feminist? I try to answer those questions in the book and through stories about my life; somehow show that Black feminism also connects with being a utterly vulnerable human being. Yes, I've struggled against these big systems of racism and patriarchy—and yes, I get angry sometimes—but I'm still a tender woman filled with plenty of love. And I wanted to reveal those parts of myself that are frightened or wounded, even as I have tried to move in courageous ways.' The Indiana-born, North Carolina- and Georgia-raised bestselling author earned her undergraduate degree at Talladega College (where her mother, who once taught Alice Walker, was a professor); received her creative writing M.F.A. from the University of Alabama; once met James Baldwin, who knew her father, a poet in the Black Arts Movement; canvassed for Jimmy Carter in 1976; writes in longhand ; is a self-described introvert; runs the Substack ' Critical Thinking 101 '; is a vegetarian and ('slow') runner; and appears in the Stamped from the Beginning Netflix documentary. Good at: research (her poetry collection The Age of Phillis —about Phillis Wheatley Peters, the first African-American author to publish a book of poetry—required 15 years of research); writing more than one book at a time; waking up early naturally . Bad at: housekeeping ; being a holiday person . Fan of: the artist Carrie Mae Weems; the painting 'Mecklenburg Morning' by Romare Bearden; Chaka Khan's NPR Tiny Desk Concert ; Ava DuVernay; 22k gold jewelry; the Alabama sun. Peruse her book recommendations below. The book that: …made me weep uncontrollably: Oh, hands down Ann Patchett 's Bel Canto ! I've read it twice, and the first time, I was so overtaken emotionally with her gorgeous language—and I don't know, some kind of mojo that she has—that I started crying. Then I felt faint and had to lie down for a nap. That is the first time that ever happened to me. …I recommend over and over again: The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton, 1965-2010 . That lady sure knew she could work some wisdom and beauty into a poetic line. ...shaped my worldview: In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens by Alice Walker allowed me to see a brilliant Black woman (other than my mother) hold forth on literature and culture and politics. It is an absolutely amazing book. …I swear I'll finish one day: War and Peace by Tolstoy. I read a few pages each year, but it's so long! I know I have my nerve talking about long books, because my first novel is 797 pages! But War and Peace is, like, three times as long as my novel. (In my defense, I did finish Anna Karenina , though.) …I'd pass on to a kid: I have passed on The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin to students of mine. It's inventive, it's courageous in terms of gender depiction, and it's one of those novels that features the wondrous inventions that fans of science fiction love, alongside the character development that fans of literary fiction require. …I last bought: Kyle T. Mays's An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States . I love me a good history book, especially one that can surprise me with information only a handful of folks understood before the book was published. …has a sex scene that will make you blush: My friend Kennedy Ryan sent me the galley of her book Can't Get Enough , which chronicles a romance between two African-American characters. There are three truly naughty scenes in the novel, which I enjoyed not only for—ahem—obvious reasons, but also, I just adore Black folks kissing and hugged up with and heart-loving on each other. There's not a lot of that on television in this country, so at least I can get that from Kennedy's books. Kennedy Ryan Wants Publishing to 'Let Her Cook' …helped me become a better writer: Edward P. Jones All Aunt Hagar's Children . The way that man can work four flashbacks and seven instances of character development into one paragraph only 200 words long is just a miracle. …should be on every college syllabus: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones is a novel that humanizes the United States' carceral crisis. It's told from the point of view of three characters who are affected in different ways by the false imprisonment of a Black man. …I've re-read the most: I have read Toni Morrison's Beloved seven times. It's the most difficult novel I've ever read in terms of structure—so many twists and turns—but I love it so. …I consider literary comfort food: Daddy was a Number Runner by Louise Meriwether is a Y.A. novel that I loved as a kid and which I return to whenever I want to revisit why I became a writer. …I never returned to the library (mea culpa): This is so horrible, but my daddy borrowed Ernest J. Gaines's short story collection Bloodline from a library in San Francisco like 60-plus years ago, before I was even born. I have it on my bookshelf right now. I keep saying I should return it, but I'm pretty sure the library has replaced it by now. …makes me feel seen: Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde says all the hardcore Black feminist things that I needed to know as a young woman trying to understand myself in a world that didn't always like me. …features the coolest book jacket: Yellowface by R.F. Kuang must have the coolest—and, possibly, the most courageous—cover I've ever seen. It's political and sly and just gave me all the feels. When I first saw the cover, I exclaimed, 'Hell yeah!' …I asked for one Christmas as a kid: Alex Haley's Roots was the book that I remember asking for as a Christmas gift. I buddy-read that book with my daddy. (However, to keep it completely real, I also asked for a non-book gift: an Easy-Bake Oven, which I never received because Daddy was convinced it emitted radiation! I still get unreasonably irritated whenever women of my age mention they had an Easy-Bake in childhood.) Bonus question: If I could live in any library or bookstore in the world, it would be: Librairie Présence Africaine in Paris. It's a Black-owned bookstore that I know my late mother would have loved: she spoke fluent French. I imagine that if I ever make it to heaven, Mama and I will roam the shelves of that bookstore and I'll read snippets of books aloud to her, like I used to as a little girl. The literary organization/charity I support: Kweli Journal has been described as The Paris Review for writers of color. The founder and executive director Laura Pegram is a tireless literary citizen. I give a small donation every month to Kweli, and then, whenever I get a little extra money, I always give some more. Now 42% Off Credit: Harper Perennial Now 22% Off Credit: BOA Editions Ltd. Now 42% Off Credit: Amistad Now 41% Off Credit: Vintage Now 10% Off Credit: Ace Books Now 39% Off Credit: Beacon Press Now 31% Off Credit: Forever Now 29% Off Credit: Amistad Now 62% Off Credit: Algonquin Books Now 48% Off Credit: Vintage Now 26% Off Credit: The Feminist Press at CUNY Now 25% Off Credit: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Now 37% Off Credit: William Morrow Paperbacks Now 48% Off Credit: Grand Central Publishing
Atlantic
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Atlantic
The Atlantic Announces Staff Writers Quinta Jurecic, Toluse Olorunnipa, and Nancy Youssef
As The Atlantic continues a major expansion of its editorial staff, today editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg is announcing the hires of Quinta Jurecic, Toluse Olorunnipa, and Nancy Youssef as staff writers. Nancy is joining from The Wall Street Journal where she was a national security correspondent; Toluse joins from The Washington Post, where he was a national political reporter and previously served as White House bureau chief; and Quinta has been a contributing writer for The Atlantic and senior editor at Lawfare. Below is the staff announcement about Nancy, Toluse, and Quinta: Dear everyone, I'm writing to share the news that three excellent journalists are joining our team as staff writers: Quinta Jurecic, Toluse Olorunnipa, and Nancy Youssef. The Atlantic continues to be the premier destination for the most talented journalists in America, and the addition of these three extraordinarily talented writers simply underscores this point. First, Quinta: Quinta's byline is actually a familiar one to you and to our readers; as a contributing writer here for the past several years, she's produced some of the most incisive coverage of the Trump years of anyone in journalism. Quinta was one of the people I looked to in the early days of the first Trump term to try to make sense of it all, and she delivered, time and time again. (Her Atlantic archive is a rich source of analysis and wisdom for those seeking to understand our political moment.) Quinta is sharp, quick, and extremely adept at translating difficult concepts of law and governance into illuminating stories for the general reader. She is currently a fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a senior editor at Lawfare, for which she previously served as managing editor. Quinta will be joining us at the Wharf. Next, Tolu, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter known for his thoughtfulness, brilliant writing, and years of experience covering politics at the highest level. He is equally at home questioning presidents in the Oval Office as he is documenting the impact of their decision-making on the people they ostensibly serve. He joins us from The Washington Post, where he has been a national political reporter and the paper's White House bureau chief. Before joining the Post, Tolu did stints at Bloomberg News and The Miami Herald. Tolu is the co-author of His Name is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice, which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the J. Anthony Lukas Prize. Tolu will be based at the Wharf. And now, Nancy: Nancy is a fearless and experienced reporter with a great knowledge of the Middle East. She was based in Baghdad during the Iraq War and later in Cairo, where she covered the broader Muslim world. Her reporting from Iraq focused on the everyday experience of Iraqis and how the U.S.'s military presence reshaped the country's social and political dynamics. Nancy comes to us from The Wall Street Journal, where she developed a reputation both as a scoop artist and as a tenacious leader among Pentagon and national security reporters. Before joining the Journal, she was a reporter at Buzzfeed News, the Daily Beast, McClatchy Newspapers, the Detroit Free Press, and the Baltimore Sun. Nancy will also be based at the Wharf. Please join me in welcoming them to The Atlantic. Best wishes, Jeff
