National Book Award Winner Jesmyn Ward stressed the importance of dialogue both locally and nationally during two Arlington Reads 2015 appearances April 8. 

Speaking first to students at Marymount University, Ward said “hope” was the key to confronting each new day despite the weight of the latest tragic headlines stemming from the issues of race and poverty she has written so much about.

The theme of Arlington Reads 2015 is “#BlackLivesMatter: Two Remarkable Writers on Being Black in America.”

Addressing an evening standing-room only crowd at Central Library, Ward said she had at one point considered abandoning her writing for a career in nursing but found that the process of sharing her thoughts and stories helped her as much as it reached others.

At Ms. Ward’s request, her presentations were not recorded but readers are encouraged to watch Ward’s 2013 PBS NewsHour interview that led to her “Men We Reaped” being chosen for Arlington Reads.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urNJGdtc1Sg[/youtube]

Arlington Reads 2015 presents featured fiction author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on May 7 at Central Library.

National Book Award Winner Will Visit Central Library April 8

Jesmyn Ward will discuss her memoir “Men We Reaped” on Wednesday, April 8, 7 p.m. for Arlington Reads 2015, “#Blacklivesmatter: Two Remarkable Writers on Being Black in America.” 

Ward’s acclaimed 2013 memoir focuses on five young black men lost to drugs, accidents, murder and suicide in her small hometown of DeLisle, Miss. The dead include her younger brother, killed by a drunk driver.

“Time” magazine says “Men We Reaped” is [l]avishly endowed with literary craft and hard-earned wisdom. Ward, an English professor at Tulane University, won the 2011 National Book Award for her novel “Salvage the Bones.”

 

Now you can win a copy of “Men We Reaped.”

Use the comments space below to tell us in a few sentences what books best speak to you on race and the African American experience.

Winners will be contacted by March 18 20. Winning copies will be available for pick-up at Central Library.

On Thursday, May 7, 7 p.m., Arlington Reads 2015 featured fiction writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speaks at Central Library on her funny, powerful “Americanah,” named one of the Ten Best Books of 2013 by the New York Times.

Admission and parking are free for Arlington Reads events. Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. Copies of the authors’ books will also be sold the night of their appearances, courtesy of Barnes & Noble, Clarendon.

 

Arlington Reads is made possible through the generous support of the Friends of the Arlington Public Library.

 

Two Remarkable Young Writers on Being Black in America

This year, Arlington Public Library’s annual one-theme, one-community read focuses on race in America, as seen through the works of Jesmyn Ward and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – one born in the United States and the other who still calls Africa home.

On Wednesday, April 8, Ward, a National Book Award winner, will discuss her acclaimed “Men We Reaped” at Central Library.

The 2013 memoir focuses on five young black men lost to drugs, accidents, murder and suicide in her small hometown of DeLisle, Miss. The dead include her younger brother, killed by a drunk driver. “Time” magazine says “Men We Reaped” is “[l]avishly endowed with literary craft and hard-earned wisdom.” Ward is an English professor at Tulane University.

On Thursday, May 7, MacArthur Fellow and featured fiction writer Adichie discusses her third novel, the funny, intergenerational “Americanah” at Central Library.

It’s the story of a Nigerian college student who rises to blogger fame describing what she calls the “Racial Disorder Syndrome” of her new American life. The New York Times named “Americanah” one of the Ten Best Books of 2013 and the Boston Globe called it “utterly transfixing… [u]nforgettable.” Adichie can be heard reading her essay “We Should All Be Feminists” on the recent Beyoncé track, “Flawless.”

Following news headlines from Ferguson, Mo., New York, Cleveland and other cities in 2014, the social media hashtag “#Blacklivesmatter” was named Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society.

 

Arlington Reads 2015 author events are free and begin at 7 p.m. in Arlington Central Library Auditorium, 1015 N. Quincy St., Arlington, Va. Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis.

 

Dazed and Confused: Two Great Writers on Boomer Angst

Arlington Reads 2014 takes on a complicated generation with “Dazed and Confused: Two Great Writers on Boomer Angst,” featuring two authors noted for an economy of words and a keen realism.

This spring Arlington Public Library’s annual one-theme, one-community initiative will focus on novels by Ann Beattie and Richard Ford, authors who explore seemingly unremarkable situations with characters who share an underlying ambivalence about commitments, careers, relationships and themselves.

Irony and disappointment may never be far off but the storytelling is always compassionate, always intelligent, always inspiring.

• Thursday, April 10, 7:00 p.m. – Ann Beattie will speak at Central Library
• Thursday, April 24, 7:00 p.m. – Richard Ford will speak at Central Library

 

New Yorker Stories

Ann Beattie’s “The New Yorker Stories” collects legendary works from the previous four decades for which she won the PEN/Malamud Award for achievement in the short story form and the Rea Award for the Short Story.

The New York Times Book Review calls Beattie “a national treasure, the author of short stories that will endure and continue to inspire.”

She will be on stage for a conversation with Library Director Diane Kresh at Central Library Auditorium the evening of April 10 at 7 p.m.

 

 

The Sportwriter

Richard Ford has published seven novels and four collections of stories. His “Independence Day” was the first book ever awarded both the Pulitzer Prize and the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction. His Arlington Reads featured title, “The Sportswriter,” established and shared with “Independence Day” the yearning, anguished “everyman” character Frank Bascombe for an eventual trilogy. Time named “The Sportswriter” one of the 100 best novels published since the magazine’s founding.

Richard Ford will be interviewed at Central Library Auditorium by Jeffrey Brown of the “PBS NewsHour” the evening of April 24 at 7 p.m.

 

 

Arlington Reads is made possible through the generous support of the Friends of the Arlington Public Library.

 

Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz captivated not one but two packed audiences as he brought Arlington Reads 2013 to a close with frank, vibrant talk of his life as a writer and immigrant in 21st century America.

In the afternoon, Díaz spoke to Marymount University and Arlington high school students:

That evening, he filled the Central Library Auditorium, inviting members of the overflow crowd to find space on the stage with him:

Díaz, who compared his success to winning a lottery, said the best art can only be created for itself and not as a commodity and he told admiring readers that he is willing to spend years refining an unpublished work if that’s what it deserves.

At Mr. Díaz’s request, his appearances in Arlington were not recorded and will not be available on the Library website. We do have a number of photographs available.