Hello! In order to more effectively communicate with our educator audience, we encourage you to subscribe to our regularly updated education blog, “Teaching with the Library of Congress.” If you’re not familiar with our blog, check it out here. 

This "News for Teachers" list will no longer be active, and we’ll focus our outreach efforts to you via our regular blog posts. Please click here to subscribe to the blog.

We’re grateful for your interest in our education programs and resources, and hope you continue to enjoy them in the future.

Learning and Innovation Office
The Library of Congress

Happy Spring – the Season of Webinars.

Join us for our upcoming educator webinars.  All sessions are free and a certificate is available for those attending the live sessions where noted. 

March 26th 4 ET – Exploring Social Justice Through the Arts Part I

Hosted by Carolyn Bennett, our Music Teacher in Residence. 
The Library of Congress has over 900 WPA posters in its free-use online collection. Participants will explore ways to engage students in artistic inquiry through use of these rich primary sources, and strategies for increasing students’ capacity for personal artistic expression. Though the specific webinar content may be used in an elementary classroom or visual arts course, the strategies presented will help ALL students broadly use the performing and visual arts to explore primary sources. Certificate available for live attendance.

Register: https://locgov.webex.com/locgov/onstage/g.php?MTID=e1557046ca3b53943df04ee56638d679f

April 4^th 7 ET – The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AABP) in the Classroom

Join AAPB, LOC and WGBH education staff to learn about the collection and share resources on how to use with students. Former Teacher in Residence, Tom Bober, will share teaching ideas. Leave with knowledge of a digital and openly available online archival collection of historic public broadcasting programs that document important historical and culturally significant topics, events and people of the 20th and 21st centuries. Space is limited.

Register: https://wgbh.zoom.us/meeting/register/d5afddded61ad2c5dc2040ba88984b7b

April 16^th 4 ET - Exploring Social Justice Through the Arts Part II

Hosted by Carolyn Bennett, our Music Teacher in Residence.
The Library of Congress documents over a century of folk music, including diverse recordings of familiar songs.  What can students learn about the cultural, social, and historical context of musicians by comparing these recordings?  In this webinar, participants will explore several recordings of “This Little Light of Mine” to learn how inquiry leads students to learn about music and those who make it.  Though the specific webinar content may be used in a general or vocal music classroom, the strategies presented can engage students across content areas. Certificate available for live attendance.

Register: https://locgov.webex.com/locgov/onstage/g.php?MTID=e18065cd279530569dc5a29589f4bda94

April 30^th 4 ET - Creatively Exploring the 12-Bar Blues

Hosted by Carolyn Bennett, our Music Teacher in Residence. 
The 12-bar blues is a distinctively American musical form, which many diverse musicians have used to express their experiences and connect with others. Blues music provides a rich field for young musicians to create, perform, and respond. It also provides a lens to explore historical periods, and can empower students to express their own historical perspectives in an engaging, multimodal way. In this webinar, participants will experience several blues pieces from the Library of Congress. Participants will discuss how students can use these primary sources to develop musical and historical understandings, and how these understandings empower students’ own creative works. Certificate available for live attendance.

Register: :https://locgov.webex.com/locgov/onstage/g.php?MTID=ebb67ec244f884ed44ea12924542404df

We look forward to seeing you online!

The Library of Congress is continues to accept applications for our 2019 Summer Teacher Institutes for educators interested in using primary sources with their students.  Interested applicants are invited to apply by the deadline of March 10, 2019.  More information on this free professional development opportunity for educators of all disciplines, interested in using primary sources with their students, follows: 2019 Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institutes

Immerse yourself in the practice of teaching with primary sources from the unparalleled collections of Library of Congress. Held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., our Summer Teacher Institutes provide educators of all disciplines with resources and strategies to effectively integrate primary sources into K-12 classroom teaching. Each session will focus on pedagogy, with an emphasis on supporting student engagement, critical thinking, and construction of knowledge. While practicing these teaching strategies, attendees will explore some of the millions of digitized historical artifacts and documents available in the Library’s collections. They will also conduct research to identify primary sources and develop an activity related to their classroom content.

The Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institutes are appropriate for K-12 educators across many disciplines, including: Social Studies/History, English Language Arts, Science, Art, Music, or any other educators who feel that primary sources could be used with their curricula. Librarians and Curriculum/Professional Development specialists are also encouraged to apply.

Three week-long Summer Teacher Institute sessions will be offered this summer:

General Focus – open to K-12 educators across all content areas:

• July 8-July 12, 2019
• July 29-August 2, 2019

Science, Technology, and Engineering Focus – recommended for K-12 educators who teach science, technology, or engineering, or collaborate with those who do:

• July 15-July 19, 2019

Institute and instructional materials are provided at no cost. Participants will be responsible for transportation to and from Washington, D.C., and any required overnight accommodations.

Applications for the Summer Teacher Institutes are due March 10, 2019 and require a letter of recommendation. Read more and apply now

The Library of Congress is continues to accept applications for our 2019 Summer Teacher Institutes for educators interested in using primary sources with their students.  Interested applicants are invited to apply by the deadline of March 10, 2019.  More information on this free professional development opportunity for educators of all disciplines, interested in using primary sources with their students, follows: 2019 Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institutes

Immerse yourself in the practice of teaching with primary sources from the unparalleled collections of Library of Congress. Held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., our Summer Teacher Institutes provide educators of all disciplines with resources and strategies to effectively integrate primary sources into K-12 classroom teaching. Each session will focus on pedagogy, with an emphasis on supporting student engagement, critical thinking, and construction of knowledge. While practicing these teaching strategies, attendees will explore some of the millions of digitized historical artifacts and documents available in the Library’s collections. They will also conduct research to identify primary sources and develop an activity related to their classroom content.

The Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institutes are appropriate for K-12 educators across many disciplines, including: Social Studies/History, English Language Arts, Science, Art, Music, or any other educators who feel that primary sources could be used with their curricula. Librarians and Curriculum/Professional Development specialists are also encouraged to apply.

Three week-long Summer Teacher Institute sessions will be offered this summer:

General Focus – open to K-12 educators across all content areas:

• July 8-July 12, 2019
• July 29-August 2, 2019

Science, Technology, and Engineering Focus – recommended for K-12 educators who teach science, technology, or engineering, or collaborate with those who do:

• July 15-July 19, 2019

Institute and instructional materials are provided at no cost. Participants will be responsible for transportation to and from Washington, D.C., and any required overnight accommodations.

Applications for the Summer Teacher Institutes are due March 10, 2019 and require a letter of recommendation. Read more and apply now

Do you work in the field of literacy or know someone who does? Consider applying for a Library of Congress Literacy Award.

Applications will be accepted from organizations that have made outstanding contributions to increasing literacy in the United States or abroad. You may apply on behalf of your own organization or for another organization.

The Literacy Awards are made possible through the generosity of David M. Rubenstein.

The deadline for applications is March 8, 2019.

Need more information? Go to http://read.gov/literacyawards/index to learn more.

• Call for Applications 2019.pdf

The Library of Congress launched By the People in the autumn of 2018. The application invites users to transcribe, review, and tag digitized images of manuscripts and typed materials from the Library’s collections. Everyone is welcome to take part! You don't even need to create an account, but if you do you'll have access to additional features such as tagging, and reviewing other people's transcriptions.

Spend an hour with Library experts and hear how all transcriptions are made and reviewed by volunteers before they are returned to loc.gov, the Library's website. Discuss the possibilities of using this tool in your work with students. The transcriptions will improve search, readability, and access to handwritten and typed documents for those who are not fully sighted or cannot read the handwriting of the original documents.

To register for the webinar see https://locgov.webex.com/locgov/onstage/g.php?MTID=efee8818158910ccb5d645c840b1d5e2a

For more information on By the People, please see the blog post Crowdsourcing Helps to Unlock the Mystery of Cursive

The Library of Congress is now accepting applications for several professional development opportunities that will be offered this summer in Washington, D.C.  One Week Long Summer Teacher Institutes

Immerse yourself in the practice of teaching with primary sources from the unparalleled collections of Library of Congress. Held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., our Summer Teacher Institutes provide educators of all disciplines with resources and strategies to effectively integrate primary sources into K-12 classroom teaching. Each session will focus on pedagogy, with an emphasis on supporting student engagement, critical thinking, and construction of knowledge. While practicing these teaching strategies, attendees will explore some of the millions of digitized historical artifacts and documents available in the Library’s collections. They will also conduct research to identify primary sources and develop an activity related to their classroom content.

The Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institutes are appropriate for K-12 educators across many disciplines, including: Social Studies/History, English Language Arts, Science, Art, Music, or any other educators who feel that primary sources could be used with their curricula. Librarians and Curriculum/Professional Development specialists are also encouraged to apply.

Three week-long Summer Teacher Institute sessions will be offered this summer:

General Focus – open to K-12 educators across all content areas:

• July 8-July 12, 2019
• July 29-August 2, 2019

Science, Technology, and Engineering Focus – recommended for K-12 educators who teach science, technology, or engineering, or collaborate with those who do:

• July 15-July 19, 2019

Institute and instructional materials are provided at no cost. Participants will be responsible for transportation to and from Washington, D.C., and any required overnight accommodations.

Applications for the Summer Teacher Institutes are due March 10, 2019 and require a letter of recommendation. Read more and apply now !

Two and ½ day Primary Sources Workshop for Library Media Specialists

This multi-day workshop is intended especially for K-12 Library / Media Specialists. Over the 2 ½ day, hands-on session, Library of Congress education specialists will model strategies for using primary sources to engage students, build critical thinking skills, and construct knowledge, with an emphasis on supporting inquiry and research. Participants will reflect on and discuss how these strategies apply to their school libraries, considering various subject areas. While the emphasis is on learning and applying teaching strategies, participants also have opportunities to meet experts from the Library and research in the Library's reading rooms.

The session will take place from June 19 – June 21, 2019.  Institute and instructional materials are provided at no cost. Participants will be responsible for transportation to and from Washington, D.C., and any required overnight accommodations.

Applications are due February 22, 2019 and require a letter of recommendation.  Read more and apply now !

Please contact teachinglcsummer@loc.gov with any questions.

The Library’s resolution for 2019 is to offer more opportunities to engage lifelong learners like you with our unique treasures and programs. Make your gift before we close the books on 2018!

Your gift supports FREE exhibitions, events, programs, and activities that connect millions of people across the nation and around the world with our unique collections, experts, and services.

The Library of Congress is your library, your gateway to understanding the world. There is so much to discover, not only the nation’s memory, but the world’s—information from all corners of the earth, in more than 470 languages. With millions of items available online, you can access the Library’s treasures from anywhere and connect with us in ways that are personally relevant and valuable.

The Library’s resolution for 2019 is to offer more opportunities to engage lifelong learners like you with our unique treasures and programs. Make your gift before we close the books on 2018!

Your gift can:

• Inspire curiosity in children to read more books and reflect on the power of books to change their lives
• Ignite thoughtful conversation among current and future generations of students and scholars
• Illuminate the minds of people like you who use the resources of the nation's Library here in Washington or via the Internet in their own homes and communities

With the help of supporters like you, we can spark the imagination of people of all ages with programs that open the Library’s doors wide to all.

Join us TODAY by making your 2018 tax-deductible donation, and together we’ll spark a lifelong adventure of learning.

The day has arrived—#GivingTuesday—a day when your gift makes a difference and a statement.

The Library of Congress depends on donations from people like you to produce exhibitions, events, programs, and activities that connect millions of people across the nation and around the world with our unique collections, experts, and services.

Gifts bring the Library to life with music, dance, film, sound, culture, scholarship, research, discussions and ideas. Your gift, no matter the size, will support diverse programs that are entirely FREE for everyone to enjoy, and will make the Library’s treasures and services more accessible.

Help spread the word today and encourage your friends and family to make a gift to the nation’s library, your gateway to understanding the world!

#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration.

This year is the second year the Library of Congress is participating in #GivingTuesday—a global giving movement. On Tuesday, November 27, we are asking you to make a gift to spark a lifelong adventure of learning.

Your gift supports FREE exhibitions, events, programs, and activities that connect millions of people across the nation and around the world with our unique collections, experts, and services.

The Library of Congress is your library, your gateway to understanding the world. There is so much to discover, not only the nation’s memory, but the world’s—information from all corners of the earth, in more than 470 languages. With millions of items available online, you can access the Library’s treasures from anywhere and connect with us in ways that are personally relevant and valuable.

Save the Date to Make Your Gift!

Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.

Attention subscriber to bulletin services from the Library of Congress:

As you may be aware, on May 25, 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation EU (2016)/679 (GDPR) came into force in all EU member states. The GDPR applies to “personal data,” meaning any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified by reference to an identifier. It requires that personal data be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner, and that personal data be collected for specified and legitimate purposes.

For those who subscribe to the Library’s email and RSS bulletins, the Library of Congress collects email addresses which can include personal data. The Library of Congress relies on its legitimate interests to process this data so that we can keep you up to date with developments for the topics to which you subscribe. The Library does not make any other use of this data.

The Library respects your personal data and takes care to maintain its confidentiality. You have the right to unsubscribe from the Library’s e-mail newsletters and alerts at any time. You can manage your subscriptions by clicking “Subscriber Preferences” in the box at the bottom of this email.

If you have any questions about the Library’s data privacy policy, please email the Library: ogc@loc.gov

K-12 educators interested in attending one of the Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institute sessions have only one week – until March 21, 2018 – to apply. 

Held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., these professional development opportunities provide educators with resources and strategies to effectively integrate primary sources into K-12 classroom teaching.  Each session will focus on pedagogy, with an emphasis on supporting student engagement, critical thinking, and construction of knowledge.

While practicing these teaching strategies, attendees will explore some of the millions of digitized historical artifacts and documents available in the Library’s collections.  Finally, they will conduct research to identify primary sources and develop an activity related to their classroom content.

Five five-day sessions will be offered this summer:

General Focus – open to K-12 educators across all content areas:

• June 18-June 22
• June 25-June 29
• July 30-August 3

WWI Focus – recommended for K-12 educators who teach some aspect of WWI as part of their curriculum, or collaborate with those who do:

• July 9-July 13

Science, Technology, and Engineering Focus – recommended for K-12 educators who teach science, technology, or engineering, or collaborate with those who do: 

• July 16-July 20

Professional development and materials are provided at no cost. Participants will be responsible for transportation to and from Washington, D.C., and any required overnight accommodations.

Applications are due March 21 and require a letter of recommendation. Read more and apply now:

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/teacherinstitute/

Greetings from the Library of Congress!

We are requesting your valuable input as part of our research in envisioning the Library of Congress’ future. Please take a few moments to complete a survey about your work with K-12 students. The information you provide will help us to improve services and deliver high-quality experiences for K-12 students, librarians, and teachers.

Please begin the survey by clicking here.

If the link above does not work, copy and paste this into your browser: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Envisioning_K12.

If you know other K-12 educators interested in sharing their thoughts with the Library of Congress, please feel free to share the survey link.

Thank you in advance for your time and input. We will read every comment we receive.

The Library of Congress Educational Outreach Division is looking for a Performing or Visual Arts teacher to serve as the 2018-2019 Teacher in Residence. This is the first time the Library has specifically recruited a performing arts or visual arts teacher for this opportunity.

The selected teacher will participate in this program via an intergovernmental personnel agreement between the Library and his or her home school district. The Library will reimburse the district for salary and benefits paid to the teacher during the school year, and will release the Teacher-in-Residence for all district holidays and vacations. The term of the appointment will match the dates of the teacher's home school district's school year.

The selected teacher will receive a monthly housing stipend if he or she teaches outside of the Washington DC metropolitan area. The Library cannot pay for travel or moving expenses.

Qualifications of successful candidates include:

• knowledge about the Library's digitized primary sources with experience using them in instruction
• leadership experience, especially in designing and delivering professional development
• an innovative, flexible and collaborative work style, able to work on a team in an office environment
• excellent communication skills
• the ability to live and work in the Washington, DC, metro area for the duration of the school year

The deadline for applications is Monday, April 9, 2018. Direct any questions to edoutreach [at] loc.gov

K-12 educators interested in attending one of the Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institute sessions still have one month – until March 21, 2018 – to apply. 

Held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., these professional development opportunities provide educators with resources and strategies to effectively integrate primary sources into K-12 classroom teaching.  Each session will focus on pedagogy, with an emphasis on supporting student engagement, critical thinking, and construction of knowledge.

While practicing these teaching strategies, attendees will explore some of the millions of digitized historical artifacts and documents available in the Library’s collections.  Finally, they will conduct research to identify primary sources and develop an activity related to their classroom content.

Five five-day sessions will be offered this summer:

General Focus – open to K-12 educators across all content areas:

• June 18-June 22
• June 25-June 29
• July 30-August 3

WWI Focus – recommended for K-12 educators who teach some aspect of WWI as part of their curriculum, or collaborate with those who do:

• July 9-July 13

Science, Technology, and Engineering Focus – recommended for K-12 educators who teach science, technology, or engineering, or collaborate with those who do: 

• July 16-July 20

Professional development and materials are provided at no cost. Participants will be responsible for transportation to and from Washington, D.C., and any required overnight accommodations.

Applications are due March 21 and require a letter of recommendation. Read more and apply now:

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/teacherinstitute/

This spring, the Library of Congress will host two free, one-day workshops for K-12 educators interested in incorporating WWI-related primary sources into their classroom instruction.

In each session, Library of Congress education specialists will model a variety of strategies for using primary sources to engage students, build critical thinking skills, and construct knowledge. Through a series of inquiry-based classroom activities, participants will work with historic photographs, prints, manuscripts, maps, multimedia, and other resources from the Library’s collections. All of these items are digitized and freely available online for teachers to use with their students after the session. Certificates are available for teachers completing the workshop.

Additional Information: 

Audience:  K-12 educators of all disciplines interested in incorporating primary sources into their classroom instruction.

When:  Two separate one-day sessions will be offered.

·         Tuesday, March 27, 2018, and

·         Thursday, April 5, 2018.

Each session will run from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm; building opens at 8:30 am.

Where:  Library of Congress; Washington, D.C.

How to register:  Register online here! Apply now, as space is limited.

Questions? Please contact teachinglcsummer@loc.gov

The Library of Congress is now accepting applications for its week-long summer institutes for K-12 educators. Held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., this professional development opportunity provides educators of all disciplines with resources and strategies to effectively integrate primary sources into K-12 classroom teaching.  Each session will focus on pedagogy, with an emphasis on supporting student engagement, critical thinking, and construction of knowledge.

While practicing these teaching strategies, attendees will explore some of the millions of digitized historical artifacts and documents available in the Library’s collections.  They will also conduct research to identify primary sources and develop an activity related to their classroom content.

Five week-long sessions will be offered this summer:

General Focus – open to K-12 educators across all content areas:

• June 18-June 22
• June 25-June 29
• July 30-August 3

WWI Focus – recommended for K-12 educators who teach some aspect of WWI as part of their curriculum, or collaborate with those who do:

• July 9-July 13

Science, Technology, and Engineering Focus – recommended for K-12 educators who teach science, technology, or engineering, or collaborate with those who do: 

• July 16-20

Institute and course materials are provided at no cost. Participants will be responsible for transportation to and from Washington, D.C., and any required overnight accommodations.

Applications are due March 21 and require a letter of recommendation. Read more and apply now!

There are still a few slots available for the Teaching with Primary Sources Face to Face workshop, scheduled for November 4,  from 9 am – 4 pm, in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building.

In this free workshop for K-12 educators of all disciplines, Library of Congress education specialists will model a variety of strategies for using music-related primary sources to engage students, build critical thinking skills, and construct knowledge. 

Additional activities and presentations will also be led by staff from the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), as well as reference specialists from the Library’s Music Division. 

For more information and to apply, visit:  http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/webinar/musicworkshop/?rssloc=eanft
Register TODAY!!! 

On Saturday, November 4, 2017, the Library of Congress will host a free, one-day workshop for K-12 educators interested in incorporating music-related primary sources into their classroom instruction.

In this hands-on, collaborative session, education specialists from the Library of Congress will model a variety of strategies for using music-related primary sources to engage students, build critical thinking skills, and construct knowledge. Through a series of inquiry-based classroom activities, educators will experience historic audio files, sheet music, song sheets, prints and photographs, and other resources from the Library’s collections. Most of these items are digitized and will be freely available online for teachers to use with their students.

Certificates are available for teachers completing the workshop.

Additional Information:

Audience: K-12 music educators and teachers of other disciplines interested in incorporating music-related primary sources into their classroom instruction.

When: Saturday, November 4, 2017, from 9 am – 4:00 pm. Where: Whittall Pavilion, Ground Floor, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress, 10 First St. SE, Washington, DC 20540 Directions here. The room will be open at 8:30 am. Attendees are encouraged to leave plenty of time for travel and to arrive early.

How to register: Register online here! Apply now, as space is limited.

Questions?  Please contact: teachinglcsummer@loc.gov

Teachers familiar with the instructional power of primary sources might also be interested in the opportunity to teach using authentic data and activities from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The recently updated Statistics in Schools program offers free activities and resources that can help you bring statistics into any K-12 classroom.

Statistics in Schools activities use real-life census data to help students understand statistical concepts and gain data analysis skills.

The geography, history, math and sociology activities were created by teachers and correspond with relevant education standards.

Visit census.gov/schools to explore the program and download activities you can start using in your classroom.

Sign Up and Learn More

The Library of Congress invites you and your students to join in a virtual program to celebrate El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), an official literacy celebration of the American Library Association.

Author, illustrator Lulu Delacre, will lead this bilingual celebration by reading and presenting her award-winning book, “Olinguito From A- Z !” in both English and Spanish.

“Olinguito From A- Z !” will take place on Thursday, April 27 at 10:30 AM EDT, and will be streamed live at this URL: https://youtu.be/vvSRinFRAQ8

We hope you enjoy the program!

In this one-day workshop for K-2 educators, Library of Congress education staff and our current Teacher in Residence, will model a variety of strategies for using primary sources to engage young learners, build critical thinking skills, and construct knowledge. This hands-on, collaborative session will feature maps, prints and photographs, historic audio and film recordings, and other resources from the Library’s collections, all of which are digitized and readily available to teachers after the session. Participants will learn about unique children’s books from the past and ways the Library is making them more accessible. In addition, a specialist from the Young Readers Center will explain resources and non-fiction books that support the K-2 learner.

Attendees will receive a personalized certificate for professional development hours.

Audience:  K- 2 educators interested in incorporating primary sources into their classroom instruction.

When: Saturday, May 6, 2017, from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm.

Where: Room 119 in the Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress, 10 First St. SE, Washington, DC 20540. (For directions, go here:  https://www.loc.gov/visit/directions/)

Deadline to apply: April 28, 2017

Questions? Please contact: teachinglcsummer@loc.gov

Interested in attending?  Please fill out the registration form on the page following and email it to teachinglcsummer@loc.gov

• K-2+Workshop+-+Application.docx

The deadline is rapidly approaching to apply for one of the five week-long Summer Teacher Institutes being held at the Library of Congress between June and August this year.  Educators will have until March 17 at midnight Pacific Time to apply online.

Held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., these unique professional development opportunities provide educators of all disciplines with a host of resources and strategies to successfully use primary sources with their students. Each session will focus on practical teaching strategies, with an emphasis on supporting student engagement, critical thinking, and construction of knowledge.

While practicing these core strategies, attendees will also explore some of the millions of digitized historical artifacts and documents available in the Library’s collections. They will meet library experts and conduct research to identify primary sources related to their teaching, with the goal of developing an activity to use with their students in the coming school year.  See what some of our previous Institute’s participants have to say about their experience!

Five week-long sessions will be offered this summer:

General Focus – open to K-12 educators across all content areas:

• June 19-23
• June 26-30
• July 10-14

Science, Technology, and Engineering Focus – recommended for K-12 educators who teach science, technology, or engineering, or collaborate with those who do:

• July 17-21

World War I Focus – recommended for K-12 educators who teach some aspect of WWI as part of their curriculum, or collaborate with those who do:

• July 31-August 4

Institute and course materials are provided at no cost. Participants will be responsible for transportation to and from Washington, D.C., and any required overnight accommodations.

Apply by March 17!  Note that a letter of recommendation will be required.  Learn more about the program and fill out the application here.

Matt Haig’s award-winning books for adults and children include Reasons to Stay Alive and A Boy Called Christmas. Born in 1975 in Sheffield, he now lives in Brighton with his family. His new children’s book, Evie and the Animals, follows a girl with a secret superpower: she can understand and talk to animals.

Your Christmas trilogy was written in response to your son’s question “What was Father Christmas like as a boy?” Does Evie and the Animals have an evolution story?
So that my daughter didn’t end up talking to her therapist in 20 years’ time about not being the special one, I genuinely asked her what she wanted me to write about. And she said: “talking animals”. I had to come up with a story that wasn’t just replicating Doctor Dolittle, and I wanted to somehow bridge the world of domestic animals and wild animals. I was also feeling more ecologically minded, as many of us are.

Boisterous, popular, self-aware: a new collection of all Frank’s known writing brings her into sharp focus, says the Costa-winning biographer

Albert Gomes de Mesquita is one of the last people alive to have known Anne Frank in person. He appears briefly in her diary as a fellow student at the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam, where she writes of him: “Albert de Mesquita came from the Montessori School and jumped a year. He’s really clever.”

There is nothing else. In all likelihood, Albert more or less vanished from her memory, but for him the situation is, inevitably, very different.

As the Hay festival begins, authors reveal the books that have transformed the way they think

The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells. This is, unfortunately, non-fiction. If only it were fiction. In crystalline prose, Wallace-Wells provides a devastating overview of where we are in terms of climate crisis and ecological destruction, and what the future will hold if we keep on going down the same path. Urgently readable, this is as much an epoch-defining book as Naomi Klein’s No Logo was two decades ago. However much you think you might know about climate crisis, Wallace-Wells’s exhaustive but compelling study will open your eyes even wider. The crisis is so much more than sea level rises and isolated terrifying incidents, and this book is brilliant at showing how everything connects. Matt Haig is author of Notes on a Nervous Planet and Evie and the Animals, published by Canongate.

The demon dog behind LA Confidential, American Tabloid, The Black Dahlia and new thriller This Storm will be answering your questions on Monday 27 May at 3pm BST

3.21pm BST

I’m very pleased to say that the demon dog himself, James Ellroy, will be joining us for a webchat on Monday 27 May at 3pm BST.

This is a great opportunity to put a question to one of the most successful and influential crime writers of our time. We’re fortunate that someone so entertaining will be answering our questions. Not to mention someone with such a fascinating personal story.

How an unlikely Casanova and blacklisted clergyman conned his way around the world

What does it take to stop a determined fraudster? Imprisonment? Deportation? Exposure in the popular press? If Robert Parkin Peters is anything to go by, no deterrence will suffice. For more than 60 years, Peters conned his way into academic jobs for which he wasn’t qualified, religious posts from which he was barred and marriages that, as a bigamist, he wasn’t entitled to have. He lied, stole, plagiarised and swindled, leaving unpaid bills and bewildered women in his wake. His story might make a movie in the lovable rogue tradition. Except that he wasn’t in the least lovable. And what drove him wasn’t money or sex but something stranger – a love of hierarchical ritual.

Born in Carlisle in 1918 (though he pretended it was a decade later), he went from school to a theological college in Birkenhead and for several years worked as a clergyman, before his licence was withdrawn. Unfazed, he continued to preach and hold services in various religious establishments (including St Paul’s Cathedral) while also embarking on a career as a teacher. After eloping with the deputy headmaster’s wife in one school, and being sacked for making improper advances to the daughter of a colleague in another, he spent four months in prison for bigamy. A further prison sentence – for passing a false cheque and stealing a car – led to tabloid headlines (“Romeo of the church swept 7 women off their feet”). Disgraced and defrocked, he might have lost heart. Instead, emboldened, he set his sights on becoming a history don.

Readers of eight and up are spoilt for choice this month. Dancing the Charleston (Puffin), from the perennially popular Jacqueline Wilson, is set in the 1920s and features clever, precocious Mona, who lives with Aunty, dressmaker to the lady of the manor. When Lady Somerset dies, their position becomes precarious – until her ladyship’s scandalous artistic son takes a fancy to them. Wild glamour, class conflict, buried secrets and a cameo appearance by Hetty Feather are all delivered with Wilson’s inimitable, intensely readable flair, interspersed with Nick Sharratt’s cheery illustrations.

Runaway Robot (Macmillan) by Frank Cottrell-Boyce is a comic and compelling tale set in a near-future filled with automated buses and dust-hog street cleaners, uproariously illustrated by Steven Lenton. After losing his right hand in an accident, Alfie is unwilling to return to school. Passing time truanting at the airport, he discovers Eric, a courtly, one-legged robot, and smuggles him home. But humanoid robots have just been banned, and Eric could get Alfie into terrible trouble – or possibly help him find his confidence again.

Before Terry Pratchett died, Gaiman told his friend he would adapt their novel about an angel and a devil stopping the apocalypse. As Good Omens starts on TV, he discusses fame, politics and honouring that promise

You’d never know from watching Good Omens, Neil Gaiman’s effervescent apocalyptic comedy of errors, that he started writing it fresh off the plane from the funeral of his friend Terry Pratchett, when “nothing seemed funny”. After “all of the fanciest writers that we could find and think of” had turned the job down, Gaiman promised to adapt their co-written 1990 novel himself; and when Pratchett died in the spring of 2015, “suddenly it was a last request”.

Having made the pledge, Gaiman said when we met recently in New York, he “knew that I couldn’t just invent it, write it down and give it to somebody and go: ‘OK, I’m done,’ because at that point anything could happen”, so he plunged in as showrunner, making all the creative calls himself and cast it partly from “my address book”. The result is a delightful, hectic and “ridiculously personal” confection, brimming with jokes and stars – Benedict Cumberbatch is Satan, Frances McDormand plays God – which aspires, despite its lavish Amazon budget, to “a handmade feel”. Gaiman briefed the designers to bring him all the ideas they might assume were “a bit too mad, but …” and gleefully embraced “the little clunky bits”: there are pointedly old school graphics and a pre-credit sequence in episode three that spans much of world history and goes on for nearly half an hour. If you look carefully at the scenes set in a second-hand bookshop, you might spot Pratchett’s hat and scarf, “just hanging there” in tribute.

At Hay festival, Wolf restated belief that John Addington Symonds was deeply affected by laws against homosexuality

Naomi Wolf has said she “stands by” her latest book and denied that the presence of errors had undermined her wider argument, after historians called into question her claim that dozens of Victorian men were executed for sodomy.

The errors in Outrages were first identified this week on BBC Radio 3, when the historian Dr Matthew Sweet challenged Wolf on air when she said she had found “several dozen executions” of men accused of having sex with other men. In the book, Wolf argues that in 1857 there was a brutal turn against consensual sex between men, with an increase in executions influencing the lives of Victorian poets such as John Addington Symonds.

Behavioural scientist Paul Dolan says traditional markers of success no longer apply

We may have suspected it already, but now the science backs it up: unmarried and childless women are the happiest subgroup in the population. And they are more likely to live longer than their married and child-rearing peers, according to a leading expert in happiness.

Speaking at the Hay festival on Saturday, Paul Dolan, a professor of behavioural science at the London School of Economics, said the latest evidence showed that the traditional markers used to measure success did not correlate with happiness – particularly marriage and raising children.

Speaking at Hay festival, comedian recalls a charity event where a man forced his tongue into her mouth

Jo Brand has spoken of the need to maintain the momentum of the #MeToo movement despite the fact that some people are “fed up with it already”, recalling a charity event where a man forced his tongue into her mouth.

The comedian told an audience at the Hay festival she was at a corporate charity day at Canary Wharf where “they were all pissed, it was about nine o’clock in the morning”.

Michael Fuller, who led Kent force, says women have hit top ranks but not black officers

Britain’s first black chief constable has questioned why no one has been given the opportunity to follow his path, despite the talent available.

Michael Fuller was expressing his concerns to an audience at Hay festival, where he also asked why the Football Association had not done more to combat racism against players, and revealed he was approached to join the Masons.

Did a love affair lead to the demise of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, one of the most famous and most exploited poets in early 19th-century Britain ?

In 1838 the newly married wife of the governor of Cape Coast Castle in West Africa was found dead in her room, having apparently poisoned herself. You can see why she might have been feeling defeated. George Maclean, responsible for keeping the peace in a large stretch of what is modern-day Ghana, had turned out to be a dour bully with a “country wife” and family already in residence. Then there was the melancholy discovery that, despite slavery being illegal, the fortress over which the new Mrs Maclean was expected to preside was kept shipshape by black “prisoners” guarded by soldiers with bayonets. Finally, there was the tropical climate, which spoiled everything: “Keys, scissors, everything rusts,” the 36-year-old bride wrote home miserably to her mother.

In the normal run of events the sad news of Mrs Maclean’s death would have warranted a short paragraph in the Times and a tactful side-stepping of whether this was actually suicide or an accidental overdose. But Mrs Maclean was not simply a disillusioned last-chance bride abandoned in a rotten corner of the burgeoning British empire. In her former life, as Letitia Landon, or rather LEL, she had been the most famous poet in Britain. For almost two decades she had spewed out – and sometimes it really did feel like an involuntary hurl – poetry that managed to be mawkish and sensational, coy and fruity. In poems – or songs as she liked to call them – with such titles as “The Fate of Adelaide” and “Romance and Reality”, LEL gushed tales of female passion and social ruin, all sufficiently coded so that nice girls could get away with reading them.

The complaint has become all too familiar: the phones by our bed are Trojan horses, brimming with enemy soldiers (demands, anxieties, distractions) laying siege to our sleep. The risk of a culture with no off switch is that sleep becomes an inconvenience, an obstacle to the ideal of 24/7 productivity. This is the context for the widely proclaimed insomnia epidemic that, according to sleep scientists such as Matthew Walker, threatens a public health emergency of catastrophic proportions, with dire consequences for our health, safety and productivity.

Few would argue with the basic premise that the digital age is menacing our sleep. But as psychoanalyst Darian Leader’s bracing and important intervention in the debate makes clear, this is a narrow point of agreement amid many points of contention. The most basic concerns the nature of insomnia itself: is it a psychosocial malaise, or a neurobiological one?

This well-judged book, which centres on Western thinkers identifying positive aspects of Ottoman rule, complicates the idea of Orientalism

In 1534 an Ottoman delegation was in Paris to discuss a plan to unite France and Turkey against their shared enemy, the Habsburg empire. That François I should lavish courtesies on infidel diplomats was bitterly resented by French Lutherans, who were being persecuted after the “affair of the placards”: a scandalous denunciation of the Catholic mass had been discovered pinned to the door of the royal bedchamber; the Turkish visitors were escorted past pyres that would be fed by Protestant heretics.

A decade later the Franco-Ottoman alliance was so fixed a part of the European scene that François allowed a Turkish fleet under Hayreddin Pasha to winter in Toulon, the Mediterranean port having been emptied of its Christian inhabitants. The church bells were silenced and cantatas in the cathedral gave way to the call to prayer.“Looking at Toulon,” remarked an eyewitness after the Ottoman sailors had settled in, “you would say that it was Istanbul, with great public order and justice.”

A quiet American in London tries to overcome her ‘neurosis’ in the latest account of shyness

Are authors more likely to be introverts than the rest of the population? Recent publishing history suggests so. Joe Moran put his finger on it in Shrinking Violets, concluding: “Shyness turns you into an onlooker, a close reader of the signs and wonders of the social world.” Melissa Dahl, in Cringeworthy, took a scientific approach to understanding and overcoming awkwardness. Susan Cain discussed the power of introverts in the bestselling Quiet. Now comes Jessica Pan, a shy American who finds herself in a new city, married, but with no good friends nearby. Pan has “friend dates”, talks to strangers, travels alone and gives speeches, in what she calls “an introvert’s year of living dangerously”. Doing all of this in famously unfriendly London, and as someone who barely drinks alcohol, certainly adds an extra layer of jeopardy.

She begins the book by describing her shyness as a neurosis, and writes: “Ninety percent of my acquaintances don’t even know that I’m an introvert because I take such pains to hide it.” For adults, being shy is not quite acceptable and yet, as Pan argues, it is many people’s natural state. A once-quiet “charisma coach” tells her: “It’s a fact that extroverts have massive advantages, so I’m self-taught.”

The superstar DJ’s account of his journey from poverty to wild parties in mansions is funny and often harrowing

For many people, evacuating your bowels in a squalid Times Square strip-club lavatory because you have drunkenly ingested a furious stripper’s entire bag of cocaine might qualify as “rock bottom”. Not for Moby, the superstar DJ and musician, an “alcohol enthusiast”. The second instalment of his memoirs bumps along so many of these notional rock bottoms, it’s like a dredger scraping an undersea mountain range. “I used to teach Bible study!” Moby laughs, hysterical at his own self-abasement, Versace trousers round his ankles, security pounding on the door.

We are all overly familiar with my-drug-hell stories touted by celebrities seeking redemption and a pay cheque, however reduced it may be. Moby’s memoirs are a little different: peopled by everyone you have ever heard of (Bono! Madonna! Hillary Clinton!), they are often squawk-out-loud funny and unexpectedly lyrical in places.

As Will Wiles demonstrated in his first novel, 2012’s Care of Wooden Floors, a stain is never just a stain. That novel was a Kafkaesque farce, set in an unnamed post-Soviet principality in which an accidental wine-spill provoked a full-blown existential crisis. The narrator of Wiles’s third novel appears no less neurotic and persecuted; though in this case it is a mysterious column of smoke that seems to be following him around.

Jack Bick, a feature writer for an east London-based lifestyle magazine, finds himself staring idly out of the window during an editorial meeting when he notices a mysterious new landmark has appeared: “A column of black smoke arose from the ill-defined, low-rise muddle of the horizon city. Further out than the skyscrapers on the Isle of Dogs, it nevertheless bested them in height and weight, appearing as the most solid structure in sight.”

What is a novelist to do in the age of Trump? One option would be to write a story in which the female narrator, a Hillary-supporting New Yorker, is lured by a mystery into the California desert, where she encounters a political allegory about a divided nation. The desert, you see, could be home to two off-the-grid tribes: a matriarchal hippy gang called the Rabbits, and a macho crew known as the Bears, who all but go around in red Make America Great Again caps. Their generations-long standoff could encapsulate quite neatly what the author thought about the modern schisms between Democrats and Republicans.

So it goes with the new novel by Jonathan Lethem, in which Brooklynite Phoebe Siegler, having freshly quit her job at the New York Times, goes in search of her friend’s missing teenage daughter, Arabella. The titular feral detective is one Charles Heist, a craggy, taciturn PI in a red leather jacket who does not shrink, lest the impatient reader wonder where this might all be going, from uttering helpfully thematic material. (“Who’s not missing?” he remarks to the narrator, who herself feels unmoored.) Heist has three very loyal dogs, lets an arguably more feral teenage girl sleep in his office and keeps a pet opossum in his desk drawer. In a sad case of dramatic exigency, the opossum, which cannot be taken along on the forthcoming road trip, dies off stage early on.

Homer’s Iliad, as Natalie Haynes notes in the afterword to A Thousand Ships, is rightly regarded as “one of the great foundational texts on war and warriors, men and masculinity”. Recently we’ve seen a wave of novels that offer a new slant on its male-centred vision. Pat Barker gave Briseis, a minor character in Homer’s epic, a powerful narrative voice of her own in The Silence of the Girls. From the Odyssey Madeline Miller’s Circe spotlights the sorceress who detains Odysseus on his way back from Troy; both are shortlisted for the Women’s prize. Now Haynes, who has a background in classics, provides a bold choral retelling of the Iliad that’s panoramic and playful yet makes a serious comment on war and its true cost.

Haynes previously reimagined the Oedipus story in her 2017 novel The Children of Jocasta. Here she sets out to demonstrate that the Trojan war “is a woman’s war, just as much as it is the men’s”, and to draw attention to “the pain of the women who have always been relegated to the edges of the story, victims of men, survivors of men, slaves of men”. As she reminds us drily, “they have waited long enough for their turn”. But she is also interested in the business of how narratives are assembled. Her main narrator is Calliope, muse of epic poetry. She answers Homer’s famous invocation – “Sing, Muse, he says, and the edge in his voice makes it clear that this is not a request” – by leading him on a zigzagging journey. What we get isn’t a single, linear story but a series of stories, as the voices that have been muffled up till now – “the forgotten, the ignored” – begin to speak.

Hard science and dreamy Romanticism combine in a meditation on the responsibilities of creation and the possibilities of AI

“Actually, Frankenstein was the name of the scientist, not the monster.” Has any other pedantic literary clarification become so ingrained, so frequently repeated, as to attain the status of near-parody? As is often the case, an overly familiar truth at times obscures a more interesting one. In fact, neither Victor Frankenstein nor his reanimated creation is the “real” monster – that honour belongs to the book itself. Mary Shelley’s novel has long outgrown her humble aim of writing a frightening story to enliven a rain-soaked Swiss holiday. This deathless artistic afterlife is both inspiring and cautionary. Given form, the output of our minds slips the hold of our intention and assumes an independent existence. This is all very well if your creation happens to be a novel, but what if it’s an atom bomb, or, to take an example currently lodged in the public consciousness, an artificial intelligence, one capable not only of outliving its creator, but supplanting them entirely?

The troubling ramifications of technological advancement are rapidly becoming a central preoccupation of contemporary British fiction. Last year, James Smythe’s ambitious and inventive I Still Dream followed the maturation of an AI as it grew from a comparatively simple algorithm into an all-knowing pseudo-deity. Will Eaves’s award-winning Murmur looks back to AI’s progenitor Alan Turing, using aspects of his life to construct a hallucinatory meditation on consciousness. Turing also has a role in Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me, which imagines not a digital future, but a counter-historical cyborgian past.

This important collection brings together 34 working-class writers “in celebration, not apology”. There are essays, memoirs, stories and poetry, and most come from the heart. Louise Doughty tells of her aspirational, hard-working father, who left school at 13 and thought ITV and blue jeans were common. Stuart Maconie returns to his childhood home and recalls night-time football, slow-cooked steak and housing projects that almost lived up to their grandly utopian aims.

Previously unpublished writers also shine. Astra Bloom’s tale of a girl’s bittersweet moment of glory after she wins a writing competition is touching and beautifully told. Loretta Ramkissoon anchors her reminiscence around a tower block’s shared lifts, whose cold interiors nurture community spirit, decades of small talk building into something special as the floors rush by.

Pajtim Statovci was born in Kosovo in 1990; his family emigrated to Finland just as the genocidal assault on Bosnia began, and later Kosovo. A Finnish-language writer of Kosovan-Albanian heritage, Statovci works at a fertile imaginative confluence that allows him the multiple perspective of the outsider-insider.

His creepy 2017 debut My Cat Yugoslavia featured a pet python and a talking cat with whom the self-loathing protagonist, son of Kosovan immigrants, has an ambiguous relationship. It also included a vivid coming-of-age backstory about a young Kosovan, with a narrative of clan politics and brutal sexual awakening. It won awards in Finland and was compared with Let the Right One In for its subversive take on intimacy. It is a novel that gets under your skin.

A perilous wilderness blaze and a true-crime podcast fuel two of the best new mysteries

The danger in Peter Heller’s The River (W&N) is so vast and so deadly that it dwarfs more human threats. Wynn and Jack are students, best friends who take the summer off from Dartmouth to canoe the Maskwa river in northern Canada. “Diehards nostalgic for the days of the voyageurs”, they are phoneless and out of contact with the civilised world as they journey down the white waters and across the lakes of this immense wilderness, “the birches just beginning to yellow, and the brightening day flushing the lake with blue, the tall grasses and the fireweed in so many shades of pink”.

But then they start to smell smoke and spot a forest fire. “Who knew how far off or how big, but bigger than any they could imagine… they didn’t say a word but the silence of it and the way it seemed to breathe scared them to the bone.” Their only way to survive is to stay ahead of it and reach Hudson Bay, but they pass a couple arguing and then, later, the man catches up with them, telling them his wife has vanished. They go back to look for her, prompting a cat-and-mouse game with a potential killer as the fire closes in on them and the white water of the falls and the rapids approaches.

She was as dedicated to her work as she was to her family, right to the end. And no one could draw a tiger’s smile quite like her, remembers Nancy Banks-Smith

• Share your tributes and memories of Judith Kerr

When I went to interview Nigel Kneale about Quatermass he would keep talking about his wife. Apparently she was a writer herself. The more I hauled the steering wheel over to malevolent Martians and aliens in the attic (he kept the Quatermass monster in his study) the more the conversation drifted back towards pink rabbits and tigers who dropped in for tea. Some powerful gravitational force was at work here, professor.

God knows what I made of it all.

Michael Morpurgo, Quentin Blake, Julia Donaldson and more reveal the books that inspired them and how to keep children interested in a world of digital distractions

It began in front of a log fire after a convivial dinner with friends and neighbours, Ted and Carol Hughes. I was grumbling about the lack of attention and credit generally given in the adult world to children’s books. Hughes, poet laureate at the time, said something like: “A fine children’s book is as important and worthwhile as any kind of literature, and maybe more so. Read and love a great story or poem when you’re young and the chances are that you’ll become a reader for life, and maybe a writer or an artist. Something should be done.”

“You’re the poet laureate,” I ventured, “maybe we should have a children’s laureate?”

The beloved illustrator and author of more than 140 books, Pieńkowski’s magical art has won him the BookTrust lifetime achievement award. Now living with Alzheimer’s, his partner and admirers reflect on his career

There is something delightfully anomalous about the fact that Jan Pieńkowski and Helen Nicoll used to meet up at Membury motorway services, near Marlborough, to work in a fenced-off part of the dining area as they dreamed up new adventures for Meg and Mog. The stories are so wonderfully batty – did Meg really have to leave Jess, Bess and Tess as mice for an entire year? – the images so joyfully vibrant, that a restaurant in a service station on the M4 feels far too prosaic as their birthplace.

On this week’s show, we’re talking about two books that encourage us to look anew at nature. Claire sits down in Cartegena with Andrea Wulf, who won the Royal Society prize in 2016 for The Invention of Nature, her biography of Alexander von Humboldt. They discuss her latest take on the polymath explorer’s life: graphic novel The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt.

We also discover how you can find food growing wild - even in the city - as Richard tries to collect his dinner with professional forager John Wright, the author of The Forager’s Calendar.

The feminist author discusses her fears for free speech, older women, and her latest book, Outrages, a study of the persecution of gay men by the legal system in Victorian Britain

When Naomi Wolf tells me that she’s finished with writing about herself – something she says more than once in the hour we spend together – it’s hard to know what to think. Such news is likely to be treated with a certain amount of scepticism in some quarters. Readers will recall her last book, Vagina: A New Biography – in which she described the way that her then lover was able to give her orgasms so powerful they made the leaves on the trees outside her bedroom glow in Wizard of Oz Technicolor – and wonder if she is truly capable of giving up the over-sharing that has so often been her stock in trade. Then again, having read her new book, Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalisation of Love, I also know that her declaration is perfectly true – for the time being, at least.

At one point, admittedly, she does try to evoke what it feels like to hold a particular 19th-century manuscript in her hands (its almost furry pages give off, she fancies, the scent of a time when “people read and wrote by gaslight”). Mostly, though, its author is entirely absent from its pages. Outrages comes over as precisely what it is: a PhD thesis, reworked for a wider readership, which examines the effect of the Obscene Publications Act of 1857 and some other notable laws – the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861, which authorised the forcible medical examination of homosexual men for signs of sexual activity; the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, which extended laws against sodomy to include acts of “gross indecency” between men whether committed in public or private – on the lives and work of various Victorian poets. Highly serious and at times a little dusty, it could not be less personal if it tried.

Her new novel reimagines Frankenstein for the AI era. The Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit author talks immortality, anger and why she’s still an evangelist

Researching Frankissstein, her 11th novel, led Jeanette Winterson down some unlikely digital paths. “I did worry about that. Watching guys have sex with bots,” she announces cheerfully, attacking dessert in a smart London restaurant. Female sex dolls start at “around $2,000 for a really crap one”, she says, and it was no surprise to learn that they are “entirely fantasy. They’ve got huge tits and small waists and long legs”. A mother and daughter are celebrating a birthday with afternoon tea at the next table. “But of course what they haven’t got, and never will have, is a clitoris. They don’t have to worry about that!”

The novel looks back 200 years to Mary Shelley and the industrial revolution and takes us into the present day revolution of artificial intelligence, sexbots and cryogenics. Declaring its literary genesis in neon pink on the cover, Frankissstein is subtitled “a love story”, because all Winterson’s novels are love stories. She is a romantic, with capitals and without: “Love comes in and out of fashion and I’m sticking to it,” she says. “Because everything is relational, everything is about our interaction with something else.”

James Ellroy is a crime fiction writer, best known for books such as The Black Dahlia, LA Confidential and American Tabloid, which are often set in mid-20th-century Los Angeles. His preoccupation with crime began as a child when his mother was killed in LA in what remains an unsolved murder. His new novel, This Storm, is set in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor and is a frenetic mix of intrigue, corruption and racism, featuring a cast of Nazis, communists, rogue cops and, of course, murder.

This Storm is the second part of your second LA Quartet. Why do you write in trilogies and quartets?
I love everything big. I love a big movie. I love big pieces of symphonic music. And I like large novels. Since my early childhood, I have always lived in the past. Most often the recent past of America, this historical past, it’s what I love, it’s what I am, it’s what I do. My intent with readers is to uproot them from their daily lives and force-feed large swathes of American history and more specifically Los Angeles history. It’s a love of size and scope and density and big emotion, big police investigations, big conspiracies. Everything big.

The Pulitzer-winning author of eco-novel The Overstory on Extinction Rebellion, his many alter egos and the brilliance of Robert Macfarlane

There was something fitting about hearing the news that Richard Powers’s The Overstory had been awarded the Pulitzer prize just as Extinction Rebellion activists took to the streets of London. Powers’s richly layered novel engages profoundly with questions of protest and conservation. It’s a book about the intricacy and beauty of trees, and about nine characters who are drawn into deep relationships with these trees. The novel takes a radical approach to time, seeking to present the lives of its “sentinel” trees alongside those of its human characters, intertwining normal narratological time with life “at the speed of wood”. The Overstory is Powers’s 12th novel and yet, until his Pulitzer win, he was often referred to as “the best writer you’ve never heard of”.

You’ve written novels about genetics, chemical engineering, neuroscience and now environmentalism. I wondered if you wrote about things because you already knew a lot about them, or if novels are your way of learning more about the things that interest you?
I feel like I don’t know a great deal about anything, but the books become the way of getting that first orientation into a way of seeing the world, a way of knowing the world that would otherwise have remained alien to me without making that narrative journey. What was really lovely about doing the research this time was that it didn’t feel like research. It felt like literally a walk in the woods. I did end up reading copiously. I read more than 120 single-volume books about trees, but unlike many of the other topics I’ve written about in the past, I was able to do a lot of the emotional research for the book just by being in the forest, in the woods.

In 2015 the two-year-old daughter of New Yorkers Jayson Greene and his wife, Stacy, was killed in a freak accident.
Greene tried retreats and spiritualism, but it was writing that proved the best therapy

Grief is a bottomless emotion whose unforgiving depths have been explored by many fine writers. But few have ventured into its most harrowing corner with such unblinking reportorial awareness as Jayson Greene, author of the extraordinary memoir Once More We Saw Stars.

On the morning of 17 May 2015, Greene and his wife, Stacy, awoke in their Brooklyn apartment from a much-needed long sleep. In a rare case of respite, it had been uninterrupted by Greta, their energetic two-year-old, whose eagerness to start the day usually began at 4.30am. She was staying with her grandmother in Manhattan.

Fresh from winning the Wellcome prize last week, the novelist talks about creativity, frustration and finding inspiration in the code breaker Alan Turing

Since its publication in 2018, Will Eaves’s fifth novel, Murmur, has been gradually accruing prize nominations – longlisted for the Rathbones Folio, shortlisted for the Goldsmiths, co-winner of the Republic of Consciousness award for small presses. This run of success culminated last week in victory with the Wellcome prize, worth £30,000, which celebrates books on the topic of health and medicine. “This is absolutely terra incognita for me,” says 51-year-old Eaves in his south London kitchen. “My books normally sell four and a half copies.”

But the Wellcome is an apt prize for an author who has long been fascinated by the intersection between science and literature (his current project, The Neuromantics, is a podcast focusing on fiction’s links with neuroscientific research). And Murmur is an extraordinary piece of work; dense, allusive and humane, it riddles away at the mysteries of consciousness, artificial intelligence and language itself. It was inspired by the experience of mathematician and world war two code breaker Alan Turing, who was forced to undergo chemical castration treatment as an alternative to jail after being prosecuted for homosexuality in 1952, and died two years later from cyanide poisoning: the inquest ruled it was suicide.

Intriguingly attuned to modern science, this acid-spotted Arcadia comes complete with blight, bugs and bad weather

Twickenham Garden
Blasted with sighs, and surrounded with tears,
Hither I come to seek the spring,
And at mine eyes, and at mine ears,
Receive such balms as else cure every thing.
But O! self-traitor, I do bring
The spider Love, which transubstantiates all,
And can convert manna to gall;
And that this place may thoroughly be thought
True paradise, I have the serpent brought.

’Twere wholesomer for me that winter did
Benight the glory of this place,
And that a grave frost did forbid
These trees to laugh and mock me to my face ;
But that I may not this disgrace
Endure, nor yet leave loving, Love, let me
Some senseless piece of this place be;
Make me a mandrake, so I may grow here,
Or a stone fountain weeping out my year.

Hither with crystal phials, lovers, come,
And take my tears, which are love’s wine,
And try your mistress’ tears at home,
For all are false, that taste not just like mine.
Alas! hearts do not in eyes shine,
Nor can you more judge women’s thoughts by tears,
Than by her shadow what she wears.
O perverse sex, where none is true but she,
Who’s therefore true, because her truth kills me.

Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them

• Are you on Instagram? Then you can be featured here by tagging your books-related posts with #GuardianBooks
• Scroll down for our favourite literary links
• Read more Tips, links and suggestions blogs

Welcome to this week’s blogpost. Here’s our roundup of your comments and photos from last week.

Let’s start big. “I recently finished The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte,” says EsIstGeschlossen:

Q: Are there any children’s books dealing with grief and, specifically, losing a parent? My niece and nephew, aged 11 and seven, are likely to lose their mum due to illness and I am wondering what may be of help.
Anonymous, 38

A: Kate Kellaway, Observer writer and critic, writes:
The first thing to say is that there is a gap where the perfect book should be. I’ve been to bookshops to inquire (a book was thrust into my hands in which a mother is in a car crash but survives). I’ve searched online and, with premature triumph, ordered Still Here With Me: Teenagers and Children on Losing a Parent, edited by a Swedish writer, Suzanne Sjöqvist. But the book’s first-person accounts seem more depressing than consoling (double-check – you’ll know what is right for your niece and nephew).

The novelist on a 1940s bestseller that deserves wider attention and how the ancient Greeks have inspired her work

The book I am currently reading
Brother by David Chariandy. I am only halfway through and I am stunned by the strength and beauty of his words.

The book that changed my life
I could divide my life into before and after Beloved by Toni Morrison. I was about 19 when I read it. I hate to use such a chilly word to describe an experience that was spiritual, emotional and intellectual, but Beloved made me feel contextualised. That is the only way I can explain it.

From a Japanese masterpiece to a gothic horror set in Baghdad … which novels to read following the Man Booker International prize

Translations make up only a tiny proportion of the literary fiction published in the UK, but as a survey revealed in 2016, they punch well above their weight in sales. The boom driven by writers such as Elena Ferrante and Haruki Murakami continues as pub-lishers and readers embrace foreign literature.

If the Man Booker International – awarded this week to Omani author Jokha Alharthi and her translator Marilyn Booth for Celestial Bodies – has inspired you to broaden your horizons, there are plenty of recent gems to be discovered. You could start with Leïla Slimani’s Prix Goncourt-winning Lullaby, a chilling thriller that dissects class and motherhood in France, translated by Sam Taylor. Or Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori – an odd story about a woman who works in a 24-hour shop.

Stories of female rage were for centuries often stifled or spun. From Euripides to Jean Rhys, Stephen King to Gillian Flynn, here are some of the exceptions

We are angry. If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that. There’s a quiet rage, simmering and unspoken, among women – an anger that’s been encoded in our private conversations, the words we choose and looks we exchange; a language that only we know how to use.

While I was working on my novel, The Furies – a book about obsession, witchcraft, and murder – I hadn’t quite realised the extent of it. But it was unavoidable: the young women at the core of my book were simmering with a desire to take revenge on the men who wronged them. To feel the power they knew they had, if only they could seize it.

After two years of careful reading, moving backwards through time, Robert McCrum has concluded his selection of the 100 greatest nonfiction books. Take a quick look at five centuries of great writing

• Robert McCrum reflects on his 100 greatest nonfiction books list
• The 100 best novels written in English: the full list
• What did Robert miss? Leave your thoughts in the comments

1. The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert (2014)
An engrossing account of the looming catastrophe caused by ecology’s “neighbours from hell” – mankind.

2. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (2005)
This steely and devastating examination of the author’s grief following the sudden death of her husband changed the nature of writing about bereavement.

After two years of careful consideration, Robert McCrum has reached a verdict on his selection of the 100 greatest novels written in English. Take a look at his list

• Robert McCrum reflects on his choices
• One in five doesn’t represent over 300 years of women in literature: a response
• What is missing: readers’ alternative list
• The world’s 100 greatest novels of all time (2003)

1. The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (1678)

A story of a man in search of truth told with the simple clarity and beauty of Bunyan’s prose make this the ultimate English classic.

The Goldfinch takes flight in cinemas, Robert Macfarlane goes underground and Margaret Atwood continues The Handmaid’s Tale … what to look forward to in the world of books

1 Centenary of the birth of The Catcher in the Rye author JD Salinger.
7 Winners of Costa category awards announced.
11 Release of the biopic Colette, starring Keira Knightley.
12 50th anniversary of the publication of Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint.
14 TS Eliot prize for poetry awarded.
29 Costa prize-giving with book of the year revealed. Germaine Greer turns 80.

Festival Lineup on Aug. 31 Features José Andrés, Barbara Kingsolver, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Among Dozens of Authors

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be among the featured speakers at the 2019 Library of Congress National Book Festival, along with dozens of best-selling authors, novelists, historians, poets and children’s writers, the Library announced today. This year’s festival will be held Saturday, Aug. 31, from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

Ginsburg will discuss her book “My Own Words,” a collection of writings and speeches from throughout her life, discussing gender equality, the workings of the Supreme Court, interpreting the U.S. Constitution, being Jewish, and the law and lawyers in opera. The book, written with her authorized biographers, was Ginsburg’s first book since becoming a Supreme Court justice in 1993. It’s been called witty, engaging, serious and playful.

The 2019 festival will invite visitors to Explore America’s Changemakers, part of a yearlong initiative coinciding with a series of exhibitions, events and programs at the Library. Exhibitions opening this year will explore the fight for women’s voting rights and Rosa Parks’ groundbreaking role in civil rights history. Changemakers are everywhere. Everyday citizens become trailblazers and history makers, shaping America.

Among numerous festival programs dedicated to the theme of Changemakers, a special panel will feature new books on Winston Churchill by Andrew Roberts, Frederick Douglass by David Blight and visionary women including Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall and Alice Waters, by Andrea Barnet.

Click here for more information.

The Library of Congress will present a conversation with Singaporean American novelist and changemaker Kevin Kwan, known for his satirical novels “Crazy Rich Asians,” “China Rich Girlfriend” and “Rich People Problems,” who seeks to introduce contemporary Asian culture to an American audience. This event is presented as part of the Library’s Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month programming. 

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

Upcoming next week at the Library...

Monday, April 29
10 a.m.
SPECIAL EVENT
To recognize and promote this new Digital Collection as well as Children’s Book Week, local authors and illustrators will each read a select book from the historical collection out loud.

Tuesday, April 30
10 a.m.
Research Orientation 
Designed as a basic introduction for researchers and staff.  Tour the reading room and learn about our favorite databases.

This course is taught by our reference specialists and is designed as a basic introduction for researchers using the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room's collections and resources. Each hour-long session includes a tour of the N&CPR Reading Room, procedures on how to locate and request materials, and using various equipment such as microfilm machines and scanners. 

Register by phone: (202) 707-5690 or online loc.gov/rr/news/classes.html.

11:30 a.m.
Science Talk
Dr. Noah Petro will discuss re-evaluating those samples in a local and regional context which provides improved understanding for what those samples represent. The lecture will celebrate "Appollo at 50" and is being presented part of the annual Earth and Space Science lecture series, now in its fourteenth year. The series is presented in partnership with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Science, Technology, and Business Division at the Library of Congress. The talk will take place in the Pickford Theater, James Madison Memorial Building. 
Contact: (202) 707-1192. 

Wednesday, May 1
1:30 p.m. 
Law Day Event 
Join Law Librarian Jane Sánchez in a conversation with American Bar Association President, Bob Carlson on this year’s Law Day topic. The 2019 Law Day theme—Free Speech, Free Press, Free Society—focuses on these cornerstones of representative government and calls on us to understand and protect these rights to ensure, as the U.S. Constitution proposes, “the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.” 

This event will take place in room LJ119, Thomas Jefferson Building. Contact: (202) 707-1990. 

Friday, May 3
1 p.m.
ART SHOWCASE
A display and workshop with Chicano Artist Mario Torero. A political activist and muralist from the San Diego area, Torero has taught at several schools and colleges and his work has been exhibited around the world. He is the co-founder of the San Diego Commission of Arts and Culture, el Centro Cultural de la Raza, the Chicano Park Murals Outdoor Museum.  San Diego's Chicano Park, which contains a number of Torero's murals, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2016.  The Library of Congress has acquired more than 20 prints, drawings and posters by the artist dating from 1967 - 2016. 

Activities will take place inside the Hispanic Reading Room. Contact: (202) 707-5397. 

9 p.m. 
YOU CAN WATCH!

EMILIO & GLORIA ESTEFAN: THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS GERSHWIN PRIZE FOR POPULAR SONG, a PBS music special honoring Emilio and Gloria Estefan’s receipt of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, will premiere nationwide Friday, May 3, 2019 at 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS, and on PBS.org and the PBS Video App (check local listings). The program will also be broadcast at a later date via the American Forces Network to American service men and women and civilians at U.S. Department of Defense locations around the world. This is the first time the Gershwin Prize has been awarded to a married couple or to musicians-songwriters of Hispanic descent.

Saturday, May 4
2 p.m.
Baseball Talk 
A conversation between Baseball Americana curator Susan Reyburn and Bill James, the baseball analyst who coined the term and popularized “sabermetrics,” the method of statistical analysis that has revolutionized Major League baseball. The talk will take place in room LJ119, Thomas Jefferson Building. 

Tickets are recommended but not required, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact: (202) 707-8000. 

6:30 p.m.
Pre-concert Lecture
A conversation with David Plylar, PhD, Music Division. Tickets are not required. Contact: (202) 707-5502. 

8 p.m.
Concert
The dynamic sibling duo of Tanja and Christian Tetzlaff is joined by pianist Lars Vogt to form a superstar trio. Tickets are required via Eventbrite.

Planning Your Visit 

The Library of Congress is open Monday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

https://www.loc.gov/visit/ 

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

Upcoming next week at the Library...

Tuesday, April 23
10 a.m.
Research Orientation 
Designed as a basic introduction for researchers and staff.  Tour the reading room and learn about our favorite databases.

This course is taught by our reference specialists and is designed as a basic introduction for researchers using the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room's collections and resources. Each hour-long session includes a tour of the N&CPR Reading Room, procedures on how to locate and request materials, and using various equipment such as microfilm machines and scanners. 

Register by phone: (202) 707-5690 or online loc.gov/rr/news/classes.html.

4 p.m.
Lecture 
Join Bruce Clarke, Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, as he moderates a discussion on the rich cultural impact of the photo on the US space program and the environmental movement. "Earthrise: Celebrating the Photograph that Changed (How we View) the World" will take place in room LJ119. The event is free, but tickets are required, and there may be special restrictions. Click here for more information and to secure your ticket. Contact: (202) 707-3302. 

Wednesday, April 24
Noon
Folklife Talk
In his talk, folklorist and ethnomusicologist Langston Collin Wilkins will discuss how "screw" and "slab" combine form a unique local tradition that has affirmed and empowered working class Black Houstonians across several generations."Street Folk: Hip Hop, Car Culture, and Black Life in Houston, TX" will take place in the Whittall Pavilion. Contact: (202) 707-1743. 

5 p.m. 
Lecture 
Author and diplomat James Ford Cooper worked at the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki during the Cold War, first as Political Counselor and later as Deputy Chief of Mission. He was subsequently Director of the State Department Office of Northern European Affairs. Mr. Cooper’s discussion about Finland and the Cold War is on an important topic given the current international political situation. "On the Finland Watch: An American Diplomat in Finland during the Cold War" will take place in the Whittall Pavilion. Contact: tspi@loc.gov.

Thursday, April 25
2 p.m. 
Symposium 
The U.S. Copyright Office will celebrate World Intellectual Property Day with a special event. This year’s theme, as announced by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), is “Reach for Gold: IP and Sports.”

The Copyright Office’s program will explore the unique and sometimes surprising relationship between sports and copyright. We will look at different points at which sports and copyright intersect, including how people watch games from home, the various ways athletes work with copyright to develop merchandise and more, and the burgeoning world of esports.

Featured speakers include Derrick Heggans, founder and CEO of Global Sports and Entertainment Business Academy (GSB Academy); Delara Derakhshani, counsel, tech policy, Entertainment Software Association; and Robert Garrett, senior counsel, Arnold & Porter.

The event will also be live-streamed on the Copyright Office YouTube site (with captions) at youtube.com/uscopyrightoffice.

“Reach for Gold: IP and Sports” will take place in the Coolidge Auditorium. Contact: (202) 707-0956. 

4 p.m.
Lecture 
Stephen Houston, Dupee Family Professor of Social Science, Brown University, and Library of Congress Kislak Chair for the Study of the History and Cultures of the Early Americas, will discuss ancient Maya warfare and the meanings of conflict and its aftermath.

Drawing on recent explorations, Prof. Houston will showcase the lidar technology now revolutionizing the study of Pre-Columbian civilizations.

"Flint, Shield, and Fire: Exploring Ancient Maya Warfare" will take place in room LJ119. The event is free, but tickets are required, and there may be special restrictions. Click here for more information and to secure your ticket.

A reception will follow. Guests are also invited to visit the “Exploring the Early Americas” exhibit, which displays artifacts from the Jay I. Kislak Collection at the Library of Congress. View the collection online here.

Contact: (202) 707-3302. 

Friday, April 26
1 p.m.
Gallery Talk
Join members of the Library's Preservation Directorate as they discuss conservation and preservation techniques that have been used to restore, refresh and provide long-term access to unmatched collections by evaluating, managing, and responding to the risks and challenges associated with the wide variety of baseball-related materials in the Library’s care.

Experts will be on hand to provide tips on caring for your artifacts and ephemera. Presented part of the Library's 2019 Preservation Week activities. 

"Preserving the Game" will be held inside the Baseball Americana exhibition. Contact: (202) 707-1120.

Saturday, April 27
10:30 a.m.
Led by Young Reader's Center volunteers and staff, the Story Time will focus on books such as My Pen by Christopher Myers, I Have an Idea! by Herve Tullet, The Dot by Peter Reynolds, and Niko Draws a Feeling by Bob Raczka, all of which center on kids taking their ideas and making them into creative works. A puppet show will feature characters working together to create something, debating on who owns the work (children will interactively take sides), and then resolving the conflict through joint ownership and sharing. Songs will be on the themes of writing, drawing, and making ideas into creative products.

This event is great for families with children from 5 to 10 years old. Taking place inside the Library's Young Readers Center. 

This event is an adjunct to the Copyright Matters lecture that will be held April 25, the Copyright Office’s official recognition of World Intellectual Property Day. 

The event is free, but due to expected demand, tickets are recommended, and there may be special restrictions. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here for more information and to secure your ticket. Entry is not guaranteed. Contact: (202) 707-1950. 

2 p.m.
It is exceptionally rare that we have the opportunity to hear a previously unknown work by a major composer, but that is precisely what the Library will offer in its presentation of the piano/vocal version of Franz Liszt’s Sardanapalo. 

The concert is free, but tickets are required, and there may be special restrictions. Click here for more information and to secure your ticket.

Pre-Concert Lecture will be held at 12:30 p.m. in the Whittall Pavilion. Tickets are not required. 

Contact: (202) 707-5502. 

Planning Your Visit 

The Library of Congress is open Monday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

https://www.loc.gov/visit/ 

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

]

Award-winning author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o presents his recently released publication titled, “Minutes of Glory And Other Stories” at the Library of Congress.

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

Walt Whitman in his younger years, as shown in this 1854 engraving by Samuel Hollyer used in the 1855 first edition of "Leaves of Grass." Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The Library of Congress will celebrate the 200^thanniversary of American poet and changemaker Walt Whitman’s birthday in spring 2019 with a series of exhibits, public programs and a digital crowdsourcing campaign to showcase the Library’s unparalleled collections of Whitman’s writings and artifacts.

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

Upcoming next week at the Library...

For a complete list of events happening next week, visit the Library's Public Event Calendar. 

Planning Your Visit 

The Library of Congress is open Monday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

https://www.loc.gov/visit/ 

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

Photo Credit: Benda, Wladyslaw T. (Wladyslaw Theodore), 1873-1948., artist

This month, the Library of Congress will kick off the annual Earth and Space Science lecture series, now in its fourteenth year. The series is presented in partnership with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Science, Technology, and Business Division at the Library of Congress.

The first lecture of the series will be held on Tuesday, April 30 and will celebrate the 50 year anniversary of the Apollo mission.

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress invites the public to attend two events hosted by its renowned scholars in residence in April.

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

Upcoming next week at the Library...

CLOSING NOTICE
Tuesday, April 9

The Library's Thomas Jefferson Building will be closed to the public for a special event. Credentialed researchers may access the Jefferson reading rooms normally, as they will be open during regular hours of service. 

For more information: https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-19-A01/?loclr=eaue 

Monday, April 8
5 p.m. 
Poetry Reading and Conversation 
Portuguese poet Ana Luísa Amaral will participate in a conversation and reading from her new book of poems What’s in a name?. Amaral is one of Portugal’s most exciting poets whose work has been described as “small hypnotic miracles […] reminiscent of Szymborska and of Emily Dickinson”. Hispanic Reading Room, Thomas Jefferson Building. 

Tuesday, April 9
11 a.m.
Hispanic Reading Room Research Orientation 
Sign up for our research orientation and learn about the Hispanic Reading Room services and collections. Orientations are offered to the public the second Tuesday of every month from 11:00am-12:00pm. Those attending should obtain a Library of Congress Reader Identification Card prior to the session. For more information about reader's cards, see: http://www.loc.gov/rr/readerregistration.html. 

Noon
Emergence of the Comic Strip in the 19th Century 
Swann Foundation Fellow Joshua Abraham Kopin will present “Comics in Nineteenth Century Time and Space.” West Dining Room, James Madison Memorial Building. 

Thursday, April 11
Noon
I Spy a Spy: Social Anxiety and Farce in North Korea Comedy Film

This presentation plays out against a ghostly landscape of North Korean society, much of which is tragic: the Korean War, economic crises, tensions along the DMZ, and famine. North Korean comedy films are both a response to the grief and a salve for the wound.

This talk will be presented by Dr. Immanuel Kim, professor of Korean literature and culture studies in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at George Washington University. Dr. Kim is a specialist in North Korean literature and cinema.

Dining Room A, James Madison Memorial Building.
Registration via Eventbrite is encouraged but not required.

Friday, April 12
8 p.m. 
JerusalemQuartet 
The Jerusalem Quartet deploys a strong sense of drama and a striking range of tonal color to create “an extraordinary unity of sound and purpose” (New York Times). 

The event is free, but tickets are required, and there may be special restrictions. Click the "Get Tickets" link below for more information and to secure your ticket. Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building. 

GET TICKETS

Pre-concert lecture: 6:30 p.m. Tickets are not required. 

7:30 p.m. 
"Nothing But a Man" (Cinema V, 1964)
A groundbreaking work filmed during the tumult of the mounting civil rights movement, this independent film tells the story of Duff Anderson (Ivan Dixon), a proud railroad worker from the wrong side of the tracks who marries a preacher’s genteel schoolteacher daughter Josie (Abbey Lincoln). Packard Campus Theater. 

Saturday, April 13
2 p.m. 
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s ORCHKIDS
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s ORCHKIDSensemble performs with BSO Music DirectorMARIN ALSOPin this special family-friendly matinée concert, a tribute to Scott Joplin’s groundbreaking operaTreemonisha and the birth of jazz. Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building. 

Registration via Eventbrite is encouraged but not required.

Planning Your Visit 

The Library of Congress is open Monday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

https://www.loc.gov/visit/ 

COMING...

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

Part of the 2018-2019 Concerts from the Library series, the Music Division is hosting a series highlighting music compositions and the historical significance and progression video game scores. The video game collection as it now stands consists of about 5,000 games for a wide variety of platforms, 3,000 strategy guides and 1,100 game related periodicals. Additionally the collection includes descriptive documentation that comes through Copyright with the games and about 100 examples of gameplay footage on VHS or DVD. 

In a series of public events over the course of three days, a gathering of composers, designers, performers curators and educators will explore the music of this vital cultural phenomenon through film, lectures, discussions, performance and interactive displays.

Also being presented part of the Augmented Realities Mini- Fest is #LOCArcade. For one day only visitors can experience #LOCArcade. Over 40 years of video game nostalgia at the Library of Congress. Classic Super Mario gaming to Star Wars virtual reality. Game on! Tickets are recommended but not required. For tickets and more information on the arcade, visit http://locarcade.eventbrite.com/.

Click here for more information on the entire mini-fest..

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

The Library of Congress and "We Need Diverse Books" present “On Writing, Voice, and Courage: A Conversation with Walter Honorees,” a symposium on diverse children’s literature. 

Newbery Medalist and bestselling author Linda Sue Park will serve as the ceremony’s emcee. Christopher Myers, honored guest and son of the late Walter Dean Myers, will speak. Pura Belpré Award-winning author Meg Medina will act as Symposium Moderator.

The 2019 Walter Awards Ceremony will immediately follow the symposium.

The program is being streamed LIVE NOW!

Watch LIVE on YouTube

Caption: Comic strip by R. F. Outcault showing Buster Brown, his friend Mary Jane and dog Tige meeting up with the Yellow Kid, published in the New York American, July 7, 1907.

Swann Foundation Fellow Joshua Abraham Kopin will give an illustrated lecture at the Library of Congress discussing the cultural and technological contexts surrounding the rise of the comic strip in late nineteenth century America.   

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

Upcoming next week at the Library...

Wednesday, March 27
Noon
Alash Ensemble 
Tuvan traditional music and throat-singing trio. Alash Ensemble is a trio of master throat singers (xöömeizhi) from Tuva, a tiny republic in the heart of Central Asia. The ancient art of throat singing (xöömei) developed among the nomadic herdsmen of this region. Alash remains grounded in this tradition, while expanding its musical vocabulary with new ideas from the West. Performance will take place in the Coolidge Auditorium. Tickets are not required. 

Friday, March 29
Beginning at 9 a.m.
We Need Diverse Books Walter Dean Myers Awards Ceremony and Symposium

Newbery​ ​Medalist​ ​and​ ​bestselling​ ​author​ ​Linda​ ​Sue​ ​Park ​will​ ​serve​ ​as​ ​the​ ​Awards Ceremony’s​ ​Emcee​.​  Also, honored guest Christopher Myers, son of the late Walter Dean Myers, will speak.

A morning symposium, titled​ ​“On Writing, Voice and Courage:  A Conversation with Walter Honorees,”​ ​will​ ​precede​ ​the​ ​Awards​ ​Ceremony.​ Pura Belpré Award-winning author Meg Medina​ ​will​ ​act​ ​as​ ​symposium​ ​Moderator. 

The event will take place inside the Coolidge Auditorium. 

The event will also be live-streamed on the Library’s Facebook page at facebook.com/libraryofcongress and its YouTube site (with captions) at youtube.com/LOC.

11 a.m.
Gallery Talk
In honor of Women’s History Month and Major League Baseball’s Opening Day, Music Division specialist Susan Clermont will examine the feminist origins of the baseball classic Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Gallery talk will take place inside the Baseball Americana exhibition. 

Planning Your Visit 

The Library of Congress is open Monday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

https://www.loc.gov/visit/ 

COMING...

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

The American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress will bring traditional music and dance drawn from communities across and beyond the United States to the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium stage for mid-day cultural concerts throughout the summer.

The “Homegrown: The Music of America” concert series is presented by AFC in cooperation with the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the Folklore Society of Greater Washington. The series brings the multicultural richness of American folk arts from around the country — and a few artists from further afield — to the nation’s capital.

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

The Library of Congress will honor Tracy K. Smith, who is concluding her two terms as the nation’s poet laureate, with an event exploring her outreach to rural communities and the roles of state, city and county poets laureate across the country.

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

Upcoming next week at the Library...

Monday, March 11
7:30 p.m.
The Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in conversation with Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song honoree Emilio Estefan regarding his experience as a music mogul, his success in entrepreneurship and the art of cultivating talent. A 19-time Grammy Award winner, Estefan is a musician, songwriter, record and television producer, best-selling author, filmmaker and cultural ambassador. Event will take place inside the Coolidge Auditorium. 

The conversation is being presented as part of the Library’s 2019 initiative Explore America’s Changemakers. You can follow and join in on the #Changemakers conversation via Twitter.

Contact: (202) 707-5503.

Thursday, March 14
Noon
A reading and interview about the writers country of origin, as well as a question and answer session with the audience. Kenyan writer Onjerika is the winner of the 2018 Caine Prize for African Writing. Event will take place in the Pickford Theater. Contact: (202) 707-1982.

Friday, March 15
Beginning at 8 p.m.
Ensemble Signal charts a fresh path at the Library in a program a century in the making. Event will take place inside the Coolidge Auditorium. Tickets are required. Pre-concert lecture will be at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are not required for the pre-performance lecture. Contact: (202) 707-5502.

Visit Eventbrite for concert ticket information. 

Saturday, March 16
Beginning at 10 a.m.
Please join us in the Hispanic Reading Room at the Library of Congress to honor influential Latin American, Caribbean, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latinx women by editing or adding content and quality references to already existing Wikipedia entries. The event will take place in the Hispanic Reading Room. 

Please bring your own laptop, or reserve one of two provided by Wikimedia in an e-mail to info@wikimediadc.org. 

Visit this website for registration. 

Sponsored by the Hispanic Division in collaboration with WikimediaDC. Registration required. 
Contact: (202) 707-5397. 

10 – 11:30 a.m.
The Music Division will be conducting a focused research orientation on film music materials in our holdings. The orientation will be in LJ-139B. Contact: (202) 707-5507. 

COMING...

Thursday, March 21
Noon
Vishten is a powerful trio of Acadian singers and multi-instruments who perform Canadian music with French and Celtic roots and rock energy. Acadians are the descendants of French settlers of Canada’s Atlantic provinces. Tickets are not required. Presented as part of the Homegrown Music of America Concert Series. Contact: (202) 707-1743. 

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

The Library of Congress will host several events throughout March that celebrate the contributions of women to American history and culture. All of the following events are free and open to the public.

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

The Library of Congress will honor the lifetime achievement of novelist Annie Proulx, winner of the Library’s Prize for American Fiction, in a program exploring the role of writers and the intersection between literature and the environment.

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden will host a conversation with world-renowned music, television and film producer Emilio Estefan on Monday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Library's Coolidge Auditorium.

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

In honor of the annual celebration of Japan’s 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees, the Library of Congress announced that it will host two cultural events during the 2019 National Cherry Blossom Festival, the nation’s most celebrated springtime festivity. 

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

A new exhibition, “Art in Action: Herblock and Fellow Artists Respond to Their Times,” pairs original drawings by editorial cartoonist Herblock with historical and contemporary artists’ prints, drawings and posters that respond to major issues from the 17^th century to the present day.

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

Twice each year, the Library of Congress opens its magnificent Main Reading Room to share information about how the public can access the Library’s resources year-round. The Main Reading Room will be open to the public on the federal Presidents Day holiday, Monday, February 18, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Main Reading Room is located on the first floor of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C.   American Sign Language interpreters will be available during the open house.

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

The Library of Congress will host several events throughout February that celebrate African Americans and their contributions to the fabric of American culture and history.  

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

The Law Library of Congress and the Supreme Court Fellows Program will present a conversation with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Thursday, Feb. 14 at 3:30 p.m. in the Library of Congress Coolidge Auditorium in the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C.

Click here for more information.

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

The Library of Congress Web Archiving Program has updated the United States Elections Web Archive to release content archived during the 2016 U.S. Elections, as well as some campaign websites from special elections in 2015 and 2017. As with prior election releases, this release contains campaign sites archived weekly prior to the elections, documenting sites associated with presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial elections. The sites archived in this collection typically include social media channels as well, in order to provide a fuller representation of how candidates presented themselves via the Internet to the electorate.

Just in time for the 100^th anniversary of Children’s Book Week, Children's Book Selections brings together a sampling of digitized children’s books, including rare and beloved titles, that reflect three general themes: Learning to Read, Reading to Learn, and Reading for Fun. The presentation includes both classic works that are still read by children today, and lesser-known treasures drawn from the Library’s extensive collection of historically significant children’s books. It is accompanied by a new guide to help researchers find historical children’s materials on the Library’s web site: Children's Book Selections: Resource Guide

In celebration of the Persian New Year, also known as Nowruz, the Library of Congress has digitized and made available online for the first time the Rare Persian-Language Manuscript Collection, which sheds light on scientific, religious, philosophical and literary topics that are highly valued in the Persian speaking lands.

This collection, including 150 manuscripts with some dating back to the 13^th century, also reflects the diversity of religious and confessional traditions within the Persian culture.

From the 10^th century to the present, Persian became the cultural language for a large region stretching from West Asia to Central and South Asia. Today, Persian is the native language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and some regions of Central and South Asia and the Caucasus.

Click here for more information.

The papers of suffragist and political strategist Carrie Chapman Catt, including her time as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, have been digitized and are now available online for the first time from the Library of Congress.

The collection includes about 9,500 items dating primarily from 1890 to 1920 as Catt helped lead the fight for a federal suffrage amendment. The Catt Papers are online at: loc.gov/collections/carrie-chapman-catt-papers/about-this-collection/.

Click here for more information.

Women's Suffrage in Sheet Music

The Library of Congress just released Women's Suffrage in Sheet Music, a selection of more than 200 pieces of sheet music spanning the years 1838-1923, over half of which highlight women's emerging voices and suffrage efforts. The collection includes published rally songs and songsters written and compiled by notable composers and suffragists, as well as music manuscripts submitted for copyright deposit by everyday citizens. Anti-suffragists raised voices in song as well, and popular music of the era echoed anti-suffrage sentiments of the day with specific references to the movement. Read more and browse the entire collection or take a quick look at the fascinating cover art. 

Joe Smith Collection

The Joe Smith Collection provides recordings of interviews conducted by Smith, a retired music executive, between 1986 and 1988, with musicians, producers, and other music industry icons. He spoke with everyone from Aerosmith to Yoko Ono about different genres of music, the industry, and how it had changed. The contributors are a virtual who’s who from the mid-to-late 20th century and the discussions provide a glimpse behind the curtain.

Lowell Folklife Project

The Lowell Folklife Project from the American Folklife Center (AFC) is the fifth of AFC’s ethnographic field projects to be digitized in full and presented online. The collection is the result of a year-long study conducted between 1987-1988 by AFC fieldworkers. The collection documents contemporary ethnic neighborhoods, occupations, and community life related to the history of industrialization in Lowell, Massachusetts. So much rich material: French, Portuguese, Puerto Rican, Greek, Cambodian, Irish, Polish, Laotian, Vietnamese and Italian communities; work, weddings, sports, parades and festivals; music, winemaking, teens hanging out, and Jack Kerouac’s birthplace are all here.

The Library of Congress has acquired and made available online the Omar Ibn Said Collection, which includes the only known surviving slave narrative written in Arabic in the United States. In 1831, Omar Ibn Said, a wealthy and highly educated man who was captured in West Africa and brought to the United States as a slave, wrote a 15-page autobiography describing his experiences.

Read more about the extraordinary Omar Ibn Said Collection.

Happy New Year! We have new collections and resources to tell you about in this update. 

Occupational Folklife Project

The Occupational Folklife Project began in 2010 as a multi-year project to document the culture of contemporary American workers during an era of economic and social transition. To date, fieldworkers have recorded more than 600 interviews with workers in many areas. The interviews feature workers discussing their current jobs and formative work experiences, training, challenges, rewards, and aspirations. The latest set of interviews added to the site features home health care workers. For example, Nargiza Turanova describes her experiences as a home care worker, what caregivers discuss when they talk to each other, and her job satisfaction.

Nargiza Turanova, home health care worker.

Federal Theatre Project

This collection for theater lovers is now available in a much improved format and features stage and costume designs, photographs, posters, playbills, and playscripts from 1935-1939 including productions of Macbeth and The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus as staged by Orson Welles. 

   
Costume designs from Macbeth and A Christmas Carol.

116th Congress

Did you know that the Library of Congress manages Congress.gov, the official site for U.S. legislation? On this site you can track legislation and find current members of Congress.

Thanks for reading and happy browsing!

The Library’s resolution for 2019 is to offer more opportunities to engage lifelong learners like you with our unique treasures and programs. Make your gift before we close the books on 2018!

Your gift supports FREE exhibitions, events, programs, and activities that connect millions of people across the nation and around the world with our unique collections, experts, and services.

The Library of Congress is your library, your gateway to understanding the world. There is so much to discover, not only the nation’s memory, but the world’s—information from all corners of the earth, in more than 470 languages. With millions of items available online, you can access the Library’s treasures from anywhere and connect with us in ways that are personally relevant and valuable.

The Library’s resolution for 2019 is to offer more opportunities to engage lifelong learners like you with our unique treasures and programs. Make your gift before we close the books on 2018!

Your gift can:

• Inspire curiosity in children to read more books and reflect on the power of books to change their lives
• Ignite thoughtful conversation among current and future generations of students and scholars
• Illuminate the minds of people like you who use the resources of the nation's Library here in Washington or via the Internet in their own homes and communities

With the help of supporters like you, we can spark the imagination of people of all ages with programs that open the Library’s doors wide to all.

Join us TODAY by making your 2018 tax-deductible donation, and together we’ll spark a lifelong adventure of learning.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today the annual selection of 25 of America’s most influential motion pictures to be inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress because of their cultural, historic and aesthetic importance to the nation’s film heritage. These films range from Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” and Paul Newman’s unforgettable “Hud” to the opulent musical “My Fair Lady” and the rocking sounds of “Monterey Pop.” Selection to the registry will help ensure that these films will be preserved for all time.

Read more about this year's selections and find out how we're celebrating the 30th year of the National Film Registry!

Watch Dr. Hayden introduce the 2018 registry and see film clips on our YouTube channel.

Hello subscribers! We have a few quick updates for your weekend browsing. 

Watch: A Conversation with Rod Serling

In our last update we announced the National Screening Room which makes rare movies available on the Library's website and on our YouTube channel. We are still discovering treasures from this collection like this conversation with Rod Serling from 1968 in which he discusses television as a medium for literary writers and artists. Check it out.

In related film news, on Wednesday, December 12, we will announce the 2018 National Film Registry selections. We've been highlighting films previously added to the registry as we get ready for the big reveal! 

World War I: 400 Volumes of WWI Newspaper Content are Now Online

Read all about this extraordinary collection of newspaper front pages, illustrated feature articles, editorial cartoons, and more in a post from our Headlines & Heroes blog. You can also go straight to the collection and start exploring yourself. 

Thanks for reading! Let us know if you have any feedback at news@loc.gov. 

The day has arrived—#GivingTuesday—a day when your gift makes a difference and a statement.

The Library of Congress depends on donations from people like you to produce exhibitions, events, programs, and activities that connect millions of people across the nation and around the world with our unique collections, experts, and services.

Gifts bring the Library to life with music, dance, film, sound, culture, scholarship, research, discussions and ideas. Your gift, no matter the size, will support diverse programs that are entirely FREE for everyone to enjoy, and will make the Library’s treasures and services more accessible.

Help spread the word today and encourage your friends and family to make a gift to the nation’s library, your gateway to understanding the world!

#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration.

This year is the second year the Library of Congress is participating in #GivingTuesday—a global giving movement. On Tuesday, November 27, we are asking you to make a gift to spark a lifelong adventure of learning.

Your gift supports FREE exhibitions, events, programs, and activities that connect millions of people across the nation and around the world with our unique collections, experts, and services.

The Library of Congress is your library, your gateway to understanding the world. There is so much to discover, not only the nation’s memory, but the world’s—information from all corners of the earth, in more than 470 languages. With millions of items available online, you can access the Library’s treasures from anywhere and connect with us in ways that are personally relevant and valuable.

Save the Date to Make Your Gift!

Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.

Hello subscribers. We have big news to share with you in this update!

crowd.loc.gov

We recently launched crowd.loc.gov, an exciting new crowdsourcing project. Volunteer to transcribe, tag, or review documents to make them searchable for everyone and get a front row seat to history while you’re at it. Choose which project to work on -- letters sent to Abraham Lincoln or Clara Barton's diaries among others. If you’re a baseball fan you can examine Branch Rickey’s scouting reports to see how he sized up players. Who knows what you’ll discover? Follow the project on Twitter at Crowd_LOC.  

Watch Live on Nov. 19 at 10 a.m. ET: Tune in for a livestreamed event to commemorate the 155^th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address and to kick off the #LettersToLincoln transcription challenge. Watch the #LettersToLincoln event on YouTube or on loc.gov.

Watch Movies on loc.gov in the National Screening Room

The National Screening Room showcases the riches of the Library’s moving image collection and makes otherwise unavailable movies, both copyrighted and in the public domain, freely accessible to viewers worldwide. The films range from fiction and non-fiction to home movies to newsreels, covering a period of more than a hundred years. More content will be added every month. Watch home movies from George and Ira Gershwin to get started!

Personal Snapshots: Picturing the Vietnam War

The Library’s Veterans History Project (VHP) just launched “Personal Snapshots: Picturing the Vietnam War.” This curated presentation features images of the Vietnam War from those who served in it. One of the collections is from G. Mike Mabe, a self-described “low-rank infantryman” who served with the 101st Airborne Division. Mabe’s photographs depict scenes of his everyday life in Vietnam: pulling kitchen patrol duty, interactions with Vietnamese civilians and eating c-rations on the hood of his jeep.

Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories

This collection is now available in a new and improved format. These extraordinary recordings of former slaves took place between 1932 and 1975 in nine states. Twenty-three interviewees discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom. The individuals documented in this presentation have much to say about living as African Americans from the 1870s to the 1930s, and beyond.

Mary Church Terrell Papers

The papers of educator, lecturer, suffragist, and civil rights activist Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954) are now online! The collection consists of approximately 13,000 documents and includes diaries, correspondence, speeches and writings primarily focusing on Terrell's career as an advocate of women's rights and equal treatment of African Americans. You can explore Mary Church Terrell's life and work further by helping to transcribe her papers in our new crowdsourcing project!

What would you like to see in these "New on the Web" updates? Let us know at news@loc.gov.

Ever wanted to explore the Library’s collections but didn't know where to start? Join us and Library of Congress Innovator-in-Residence Jer Thorp in a Twitter takeover as he takes a #SerendipityRun through the collections on our Twitter account from 1-4 PM ET, Thursday, November 8.

What’s a #SerendipityRun? Click here to find out – and join us this Thursday!

The largest collection of the papers of President Theodore Roosevelt, documenting his extraordinary career in the White House and as vice president, governor of New York, and as a naturalist, writer and reformer, has been digitized and is now available online from the Library of Congress.

The digitization of the massive collection comes just before the 160^th anniversary of Roosevelt’s birthday. The nation’s 26^th president was born Oct. 27, 1858, and died nearly 100 years ago on Jan. 6, 1919.

The Roosevelt papers are one of the largest presidential collections held by the Library, consisting of about 276,000 documents and comprising about 461,000 images. It includes letters, speeches, executive orders, scrapbooks, diaries, White House reception records and press releases of his administration, as well as family records.

Click here for more information.

Reports from the Library’s Congressional Research Service — objective information on policy, regulation & important issues before Congress — are now available to the public online.

Click here for more information.

The Veterans History Project (VHP) in the Library of Congress today launched a website feature, titled “Cold War Dispatches: Service Stories from 1947-1991,” as part of its “Experiencing War” online series. The feature highlights the stories of veterans who served in non-combatant roles within the military between 1947 and 1991, commonly referred to as the Cold War era.

Click here for more information.

Writings and personal records of the founder of American landscape architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted, known for his work on New York’s Central Park, the U.S. Capitol grounds in Washington, the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina and many other landscapes, have been digitized and are now available online from the Library of Congress. The archive was digitized to serve as a resource in advance of the bicentennial of Olmsted’s birth, which will be celebrated with partner organizations in 2022.

Click here for more information.

Home to one of the most prominent North Korean collections in the Western Hemisphere, the Library of Congress has rolled out the North Korean Serials Database, an online indexing tool that offers researchers enhanced access to periodicals and articles published as far back as the 1940s.

Click here for more information.

Attention subscriber to bulletin services from the Library of Congress:

As you may be aware, on May 25, 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation EU (2016)/679 (GDPR) came into force in all EU member states. The GDPR applies to “personal data,” meaning any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified by reference to an identifier. It requires that personal data be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner, and that personal data be collected for specified and legitimate purposes.

For those who subscribe to the Library’s email and RSS bulletins, the Library of Congress collects email addresses which can include personal data. The Library of Congress relies on its legitimate interests to process this data so that we can keep you up to date with developments for the topics to which you subscribe. The Library does not make any other use of this data.

The Library respects your personal data and takes care to maintain its confidentiality. You have the right to unsubscribe from the Library’s e-mail newsletters and alerts at any time. You can manage your subscriptions by clicking “Subscriber Preferences” in the box at the bottom of this email.

If you have any questions about the Library’s data privacy policy, please email the Library: ogc@loc.gov

The papers of President Woodrow Wilson, from his time in the White House and as a scholar and governor of New Jersey, have been digitized and are now available online from the Library of Congress 100 years after his presidency.

Click here for more information.

The Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project (VHP) today launched an online “Experiencing War” website feature, titled “Equality of Treatment and Opportunity: Executive Order 9981,” marking the 70^th anniversary of the landmark order that abolished racial discrimination in the U.S. armed forces.

Click here for more information.

The Library of Congress has launched three new online interactive applications that highlight creative ways to facilitate the accessibility of thousands of collections, using the Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based tool Story Maps.

Click here for more information.

The papers of American scientist, statesman and diplomat Benjamin Franklin have been digitized and are now available online for the first time from the Library of Congress. The Library announced the digitization today in remembrance of the anniversary of Franklin’s death on April 17, 1790.

Click here for more information.

A poem by Linda Gregg from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by R. S. Gwynn from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Richard Brautigan from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Mary TallMountain from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Tomas Tranströmer from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Naomi Shihab Nye from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Julie Lechevsky from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Timothy Murphy from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by William Matthews from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Eamon Grennan from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by James Valvis from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by William Matthews from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Doug Dorph from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Donald Hall from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Julie Lechevsky from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Dorothy Porter from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Kevin Young from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Mac Hammond from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Tony Wallace from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Mark Halliday from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Gerald Stern from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Brandon Kreitler from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Jane Kenyon from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Denver Butson from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

A poem by Jody Gladding from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

Monday, June 3, 2:30 PM - 5:00 PM
WALT WHITMAN OPEN HOUSE

To celebrate the 200th birthday of Walt Whitman, the Library of Congress will present an open house featuring rarely seen collection items including draft poems, artistic renderings, and rare editions of Leaves of Grass. Filmmaker Haydn Reiss will also screen the short film “Walt Whitman: Citizen Poet,” featuring 22nd U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith and 8th U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass. Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Music Division, Prints and Photographs Division, Serials and General Collections Division, and presented in partnership with Zinc Films, the Poetry Foundation, and the Whitman 200 Festival.  

Location: LJ-119, first floor, Thomas Jefferson Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Saturday, June 8, 1:00 PM
RHYMING THE ARCHIVES: YOUTH POETRY SLAM

Members of the Washington, D.C. Youth Slam Team will perform poems inspired by recordings, photographs, and field notes from the American Folklife Center archive. Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress American Folklife Center and presented in partnership with Split This Rock.

Location: LJ-119, first floor, Thomas Jefferson Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Tuesday, May 14, 7:00 PM
LIFE OF A POET: DIANE SEUSS

Poet Diane Seuss will discuss her work with Ron Charles, book critic at The Washington Post. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required. Co-sponsored by the Hill Center and The Washington Post.

Location: Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital (921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE)
Contact: (202) 707-5394

For more information about upcoming events, please visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website.

Saturday, May 11, 4:00 PM
WORDPLAY FESTIVAL: NATASHA TRETHEWEY IN CONVERSATION

19th U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey will discuss her work with Rob Casper, head of the Poetry and Literature Center. Tickets required. Book sales and signing to follow. Presented in partnership with The Loft Wordplay Festival.

Location: Guthrie Theater, Dowling Studio, 818 S 2nd St, Minneapolis, MN 55415
Contact: loft@loft.org

Tuesday, May 14, 7:00 PM
LIFE OF A POET: DIANE SEUSS

Poet Diane Seuss will discuss her work with Ron Charles, book critic at The Washington Post. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required. Co-sponsored by the Hill Center and The Washington Post.

Location: Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital (921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE), Washington, DC 20003 
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website for more information. 

Monday, April 15, 7:00 PM
AMERICAN CELEBRATION: POET LAUREATE CLOSING EVENT

22nd U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith will celebrate the conclusion of her laureateship in a conversation with state, city and county poets laureate Jeanetta Calhoun Mish (Oklahoma), Kealoha (Hawaii), Adrian Matejka (Indiana), Tina Chang (Brooklyn, NY) and Vogue Robinson (Clark County, NV). Conversation will be moderated by Jennifer Benka, president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets. Book sales and signing to follow. Free tickets required. Presented in partnership with the Academy of American Poets.

Location: Coolidge Auditorium, ground floor, Thomas Jefferson Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website for more event information. 

Monday, April 15, 7:00 PM
AMERICAN CELEBRATION: POET LAUREATE CLOSING EVENT

22nd U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith will celebrate the conclusion of her laureateship in a conversation with state, city and county poets laureate Jeanetta Calhoun Mish (Oklahoma), Kealoha (Hawaii), Adrian Matejka (Indiana), Tina Chang (Brooklyn, NY) and Vogue Robinson (Clark County, NV). Conversation will be moderated by Jennifer Benka, president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets. Book sales and signing to follow. Free tickets required. Presented in partnership with the Academy of American Poets.

Location: Coolidge Auditorium, ground floor, Thomas Jefferson Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website for more event information. 

Thursday, April 4, 6:30 PM
NATIONAL YOUTH POET LAUREATE COMMENCEMENT

The 2019 National Youth Poet Laureate will be announced. Regional Youth Poets Laureate Kara Jackson (Chicago, IL), Haviland Nona Gai Whiting (Nashville, TN), Jackson Neal (Houston, TX) Azura Tyabji (Seattle, WA), and Maren Wright-Kerr (Baltimore, MD) will participate. Event will be hosted by Mahogany L. Browne and feature Washington, D.C./Prince George's County Youth Poets Laureate. Book sales and signing to follow. Free tickets required. Presented in partnership with Urban Word.

Location: Mumford Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Monday, April 8, 5:00 PM
INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE: ANA LUÍSA AMARAL

Poet Ana Luísa Amaral will share her work and participate in a moderated discussion with Talía Guzmán-González, Luso-Brazilian Specialist in the Hispanic Division. Book sales and signing to follow. Co-sponsored by the Hispanic Division.

Location: Hispanic Division Reading Room, second floor, Thomas Jefferson Building, LJ-240 <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5397

Monday, April 15, 7:00 PM
AMERICAN CELEBRATION: POET LAUREATE CLOSING EVENT

22nd U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith will celebrate the conclusion of her laureateship in a conversation with state, city and county poets laureate Jeanetta Calhoun Mish (Oklahoma), Kealoha (Hawai'i), Adrian Matejka (Indiana), Tina Chang (Brooklyn, NY), and Vogue Robinson (Clark County, NV). Conversation will be moderated by Jennifer Benka, president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets. Book sales and signing to follow. Free tickets required. Presented in partnership with the Academy of American Poets.

Location: Coolidge Auditorium, ground floor, Thomas Jefferson Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Tuesday, April 23, 7:00 PM
POETRY OFF THE SHELF: NATASHA TRETHEWEY & CHARLES WRIGHT

19th U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey and 20th U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Wright will read and discuss their prize-winning work. Free tickets are first come, first served. Co-sponsored by the Poetry Foundation.

Location: Poetry Foundation, 61 W Superior St, Chicago, IL 60654
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Monday, April 29, 6:30 PM
LIBRARIAN AND LAUREATE: A CONVERSATION

Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Kevin Young will lead a conversation between 22nd U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith and Librarian of Congress Carla D. Hayden. Free tickets are not required but strongly recommended; ticketed guests are given priority. Co-sponsored by Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Location: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Langston Hughes Auditorium (515 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, NY 10037)
Contact: (202) 707-5394; nyplevents@nypl.org

For more information about upcoming events, visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website.

Wednesday, March 20, 7:00 PM
CLIMATE CHANGE, NATURE, AND THE WRITER’S EYE

Science writer Peter Brannen and internationally acclaimed novelist Amitav Ghosh will join 2018 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction winner Annie Proulx to discuss pressing issues of environmental change and a writer’s responsibilities to them. Book sales and signing to follow. Free tickets required.

Location: Coolidge Auditorium, ground floor, Thomas Jefferson Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

For more event information, visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website.

Thursday, March 14, 12:00 PM
CONVERSATIONS WITH AFRICAN POETS AND WRITERS: MAKENA ONJERIKA

Kenyan author and 2018 Caine Prize winner Makena Onjerika will read from her prize-winning short story “Fanta Blackcurrant” and will participate in a moderated discussion with Eve Ferguson, Africa Area Specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division. Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress African and Middle Eastern Division. Presented in partnership with the Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa, the Caine Prize for African Writing, the Center for African Studies at Howard University, the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice, and Department of English at Georgetown University.

Location: Mary Pickford Theater, third floor, James Madison Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Wednesday, March 20, 7:00 PM
CLIMATE CHANGE, NATURE, AND THE WRITER’S EYE

Science writer Peter Brannen and internationally acclaimed novelist Amitav Ghosh will join 2018 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction winner Annie Proulx to discuss pressing issues of environmental change and a writer’s responsibilities to them. Book sales and signing to follow. Free tickets required.

Location: Coolidge Auditorium, ground floor, Thomas Jefferson Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

For more event information, visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website.

Note: Due to a scheduling conflict, Billy-Ray Belcourt is unable to participate in this event as originally announced. Poet Aisha Sasha John has been added to the program. 

Thursday, February 28, 6:30 PM 
US/CA CAPITAL POETRY EXCHANGE

Canadian poets Aisha Sasha John, Brecken Hancock, and Erín Moure will share their work and participate in a moderated discussion with Rob Casper, head of the Poetry and Literature Center. Presented in partnership with the Embassy of Canada, Washington, D.C. and VERSeFest Ottawa.

Location: Mumford Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

For more event information, visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website.

Thursday, February 28, 6:30 PM 
US/CA CAPITAL POETRY EXCHANGE

Canadian poets Billy-Ray Belcourt, Brecken Hancock, and Erín Moure will share their work and participate in a moderated discussion with Rob Casper, head of the Poetry and Literature Center. This event is free and open to the public. Presented in partnership with the Embassy of Canada, Washington, D.C. and VERSeFest Ottawa.

Location: Mumford Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website for more information.

Wednesday, February 6, 7:00 PM
LIFE OF A POET: ROSS GAY

Poet Ross Gay will discuss his work with Ron Charles, book critic at The Washington Post. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required. Co-sponsored by the Hill Center and The Washington Post.

Location: Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital (921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE)
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Tuesday, February 12, 4:00 PM & 7:30 PM
WHAT WAS, WHAT IS, AND WHAT WILL BE: A CROSS-GENRE LOOK AT AFROFUTURISM

• 4:00 PM

Author/playwright Tananarive Due, novelist N.K. Jemisin, and poet Airea D. Matthews will discuss the origins and extensions of Afrofuturism in a conversation moderated by Sheree Renée Thomas. Free tickets recommended, but not required.

Location: Mumford Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building, Library of Congress <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

• 7:30 PM

Tananarive Due, N.K. Jemisin, and Airea D. Matthews will read their work. Tickets required.  

Location: Folger Theatre, Folger Shakespeare Library
Contact: (202) 544-7077

Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress Center for the Book. Presented in partnership with Folger Poetry and PEN/Faulkner Foundation.

For more information about these events, please visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website or call (202) 707-5394.

The following event has been postponed to tomorrow, Wednesday, January 30 at 7:00 PM due to inclement weather. All tickets will be honored. 

Tuesday, January 29, 7:00 PM Wednesday, January 30, 7:00 PM
LIFE OF A POET: ADA LIMÓN

Poet Ada Limón will discuss her work with Ron Charles, book critic at The Washington Post. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required. Co-sponsored by the Hill Center and The Washington Post.

Location: Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital (921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE)
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website for more information.

Tuesday, January 29, 7:00 PM
LIFE OF A POET: ADA LIMÓN

Poet Ada Limón will discuss her work with Ron Charles, book critic at The Washington Post. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required. Co-sponsored by the Hill Center and The Washington Post.

Location: Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital (921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE)
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Wednesday, February 6, 7:00 PM
LIFE OF A POET: ROSS GAY

Poet Ross Gay will discuss his work with Ron Charles, book critic at The Washington Post. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required. Co-sponsored by the Hill Center and The Washington Post.

Location: Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital (921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE)
Contact: (202) 707-5394

For more information, please visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website.

The Library’s resolution for 2019 is to offer more opportunities to engage lifelong learners like you with our unique treasures and programs. Make your gift before we close the books on 2018!

Your gift supports FREE exhibitions, events, programs, and activities that connect millions of people across the nation and around the world with our unique collections, experts, and services.

The Library of Congress is your library, your gateway to understanding the world. There is so much to discover, not only the nation’s memory, but the world’s—information from all corners of the earth, in more than 470 languages. With millions of items available online, you can access the Library’s treasures from anywhere and connect with us in ways that are personally relevant and valuable.

The Library’s resolution for 2019 is to offer more opportunities to engage lifelong learners like you with our unique treasures and programs. Make your gift before we close the books on 2018!

Your gift can:

• Inspire curiosity in children to read more books and reflect on the power of books to change their lives
• Ignite thoughtful conversation among current and future generations of students and scholars
• Illuminate the minds of people like you who use the resources of the nation's Library here in Washington or via the Internet in their own homes and communities

With the help of supporters like you, we can spark the imagination of people of all ages with programs that open the Library’s doors wide to all.

Join us TODAY by making your 2018 tax-deductible donation, and together we’ll spark a lifelong adventure of learning.

The day has arrived—#GivingTuesday—a day when your gift makes a difference and a statement.

The Library of Congress depends on donations from people like you to produce exhibitions, events, programs, and activities that connect millions of people across the nation and around the world with our unique collections, experts, and services.

Gifts bring the Library to life with music, dance, film, sound, culture, scholarship, research, discussions and ideas. Your gift, no matter the size, will support diverse programs that are entirely FREE for everyone to enjoy, and will make the Library’s treasures and services more accessible.

Help spread the word today and encourage your friends and family to make a gift to the nation’s library, your gateway to understanding the world!

#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration.

Thursday, December 6, 6:30 PM
BOBBITT PRIZE READING: JORIE GRAHAM

Jorie Graham, winner of the 15th Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, will read selections of Fast. Book sales and signing to follow. Free tickets required.

Location: Mumford Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

For more information, please visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website.

This year is the second year the Library of Congress is participating in #GivingTuesday—a global giving movement. On Tuesday, November 27, we are asking you to make a gift to spark a lifelong adventure of learning.

Your gift supports FREE exhibitions, events, programs, and activities that connect millions of people across the nation and around the world with our unique collections, experts, and services.

The Library of Congress is your library, your gateway to understanding the world. There is so much to discover, not only the nation’s memory, but the world’s—information from all corners of the earth, in more than 470 languages. With millions of items available online, you can access the Library’s treasures from anywhere and connect with us in ways that are personally relevant and valuable.

Save the Date to Make Your Gift!

Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.

The Library of Congress will award the 2018 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry to Jorie Graham for her 2017 book “Fast.” Graham will receive the award and read selections from her work at the Library on 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 6.

Click here for more information.

Friday, November 2, 12:00PM
INTERNATIONAL WRITING PROGRAM: CELEBRATING WOMEN’S VOICES

Program residents Kateryna Babkina (Ukraine), Alisa Ganieva (Russia), and Rumena Bužarovska (Macedonia) will read selections of their work and participate in a moderated discussion with Christopher Merrill, director of the International Writing Program. This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress European Division and presented in partnership with the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State. 

Location: Montpelier Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building, Library of Congress <view map>

Wednesday, November 7, 4:00 PM
INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE: URUGUAYAN POETS

Poet Silvia Guerra will read excerpts of her work and translators Jesse Lee Kercheval, Jeannine Pitas, Anna Deeny, and Seth Michelson will share new translations of Circe Maia, Marosa di Giorgio, Amanda Berenguer, and Melisa Machado. This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress. Presented in collaboration with the Embassy of Uruguay.

Location: Whittall Pavilion, ground floor, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress <view map>

Saturday, November 10, 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
THE ROAD BACK: VETS AND LITERARY WRITING

In honor of Veterans Day, a day-long symposium featuring two panels and a screening of the newly restored film “The Road Back.” All events are free and open to the public. Tickets required for film screening. Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress Exhibits Office and Veterans History Project. Presented in collaboration with Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I exhibit.

11:00 AM - Kristin Windbigler, executive director of the Western Folklife Center; Niyati Dhokai, program manager of the Veterans and the Arts Initiative, Hylton Performing Arts Center; and Mohammed Sheriff, division coordinator of the National Endowment for the Art’s Literature & Arts Education Division will discuss writing and literature as a means of coping with service experience.

Location: LJ-119, first floor, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress <view map>

1:30 PM - Poets Bill Jones, Vess Quinlan, Dave Richmond, and Bruce Weigl will discuss their favorite World War I writers, share selections of their work, and participate in a discussion moderated by Anya Creightney, programs manager of the Poetry and Literature Center.

Location: LJ-119, first floor, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress <view map>

3:00 PM - Film screening of “The Road Back,” sequel to “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Restored by the Library of Congress in association with UCLA Film & Television Archive, Universal Studios, and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by The Film Foundation and the Library of Congress. Screening rights provided by New York University, executor of the Erich Maria Remarque Estate. 

Location: Mary Pickford Theater, third floor, James Madison Building, Library of Congress <view map>

Sunday, November 18, 1:30 PM 
TWO POETS LAUREATE: READING AND CONVERSATION

Former U.S. Poets Laureate Billy Collins and Juan Felipe Herrera will read selections from their recent books and discuss the necessity of poetry with Robert Casper, head of the Poetry and Literature Center.

Location: Miami Dade College - Wolfson Campus, Building 1, second floor, #1261 (300 NE 2nd Ave, Miami, FL 33132) 

For more information about these events, please visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website or call us at (202) 707-5394.

Friday, November 2, 12:00PM
INTERNATIONAL WRITING PROGRAM: CELEBRATING WOMEN’S VOICES

Program residents Kateryna Babkina (Ukraine), Alisa Ganieva (Russia), and Rumena Bužarovska (Macedonia) will read selections of their work and participate in a moderated discussion with Christopher Merrill, director of the International Writing Program. Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress European Division and presented in partnership with the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State. 

Location: Montpelier Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

For more information, please visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website. 

Tuesday, October 30, 6:30 PM
BAGLEY WRIGHT LECTURE: POETS ON CRITICISM

Poet-critics Maureen McLane, Srikanth Reddy, and Matthew Zapruder will discuss the role of criticism in contemporary American poetry in a conversation moderated by Robert Casper, head of the Poetry and Literature Center. This event is free and open to the public. Presented in partnership with the Bagley Wright Lecture Series.

Location: Mumford Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

For more information, please visit the Poetry and Literature Center's website. 

Tuesday, October 16, 4:00 PM
INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE: CRISTINA RIVERA GARZA

Novelist Cristina Rivera Garza will read excerpts of her work and participate in a moderated discussion with her translators Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana. This event is free and open to the public. No tickets required. Co-sponsored by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress. Presented in partnership with the Mexican Cultural Institute.

Location: Whittall Pavilion, ground floor, Thomas Jefferson Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please click here for more information.

Monday, October 1, 7:00 PM
THE LIFE OF A POET: MARILYN CHIN

Poet Marilyn Chin will discuss her work with Ron Charles, editor of The Washington Post's Book World. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required. Co-sponsored by the Hill Center and The Washington Post.

Location: Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital (921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE)
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please click here for more information.

Thursday, September 13, 6:00 PM
ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE TODAY: KUNDIMAN SPOTLIGHT

Kundiman fellows R.O. Kwon and Hieu Minh Nguyen will read excerpts of their work followed by a moderated discussion with poet Gowri K. The event is free and open to the public. Presented in partnership with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, The Asian American Literary Review, and Kundiman.

Location: Mumford Room, sixth floor, James Madison Building <view map>
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Please click here for more information.