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  • Struggling with bills? Check out this guide created to help by the Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative and Black Girl Media. You can also pick up a copy at your local library branch in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County soon.

  • Struggling with bills? Check out this guide created to help by the Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative and Black Girl Media. You can also pick up a copy at your local library branch in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County soon.

  • Queen Elizabeth's funeral service is taking place at Westminster Abbey in London.
  • Renewing the mind, body and spirit is the focus of an upcoming free, fun and holistic community event this holiday season.
  • Join host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. for the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards 2020 - an original one-hour television special presented by ideastream and The Cleveland Foundation.

    For 85 years, the Cleveland-based Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards have recognized literary works that contribute to our understanding of racism and human diversity - writings that open and challenge our minds. 

    Below you can find additional information about the four 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards honorees: historian Eric Foner, poet Ilya Kaminsky, scholar Charles King and novelist Namwali Serpell.


    Eric Foner

    Lifetime Achievement

    Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Lifetime Achievement winner Eric Foner in his office in New York City.

    Eric Foner is a public intellectual who stands among the most important American historians of the past half century. He is the DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University and only the second person to lead all three major professional organizations in his field: the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association and the Society of American Historians. 

    “Eric Foner is the dean of Reconstruction historians, and is one of the most generous, and genuinely passionate, professors of his generation,” said Dr. Gates. “As a scholar and writer, his footprint is vast.” 

    Three of his books are considered canonical: “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men;” “Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877″ and “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.” This last book won a Pulitzer, a Bancroft and a Lincoln prize; Foner is equally proud of his numerous teaching awards.

    He retired from the classroom in 2018, continuing to write and lecture. Foner, 77, lives in New York City and in Connecticut with his wife, Lynn Garafola, a dance historian.

    Read more about Eric Foner and his body of work here.

    Watch Eric Foner's remarks below:


    Ilya Kaminsky

    Poetry

    Ilya Kaminsky is a celebrated poet, editor and translator whose first book, “Dancing in Odessa,” was published in more than 20 languages. He holds the Bourne Chair in Poetry at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

    Born in Odessa in 1977, Ilya’s mumps were misdiagnosed by a Soviet doctor who thought the four-year-old had a cold. The mistake left the poet hard-of-hearing. 

    Amid rising antisemitism, Kaminsky’s family won political asylum from the United States in 1993 and resettled in Rochester, N.Y., where he was fitted with hearing aids. Kaminsky, adept in Russian, Ukranian and English poetry, became a lawyer first. 

    When “Deaf Republic'' arrived, the BBC named Kaminsky “one of the 12 artists that changed the world in 2019.” 

    Anisfield-Wolf Juror Rita Dove said the book haunted her, “a parable that comes to life and refuses to die.” It describes an unnamed country whose citizens can no longer hear one another, set amid political unrest. 

    The book, which contains pictograms of sign language words, became a finalist for the National Book Award. Kaminsky lives with his wife, the poet Katie Farris, in Atlanta.

    Read more about Ilya Kaminksy and his award-winning book, "Deaf Republic," here.

    Watch Ilya Kaminsky's remarks below:


    Charles King

    Nonfiction

    Charles King is the author of seven nonfiction books, including “Midnight at the Pera Palace” and “Odessa,” which won the National Jewish Book Award in 2011. 

    A professor of international affairs and government relations at Georgetown University, King focuses on nationalism, ethnic politics, the transition from authoritarianism and the relationship between history and the social sciences. It is this last category that animates “Gods of the Upper Air,” a history of five anthropologists who upended many of the racist and sexist verities commonplace a century ago. 

    The title derives from a Zora Neale Hurston phrase. She was among the circle of pioneering social scientists. Under the leadership of Franz Boas they fomented, Anisfield-Wolf Juror Steven Pinker said, “nothing less than one of the epochal changes in the history of Western thought.” He praised the book, also a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award, as “gripping and beautifully written.” 

    King, 52, lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, the anthropologist and author Maggie Paxson.

    Learn more about Charles King and his award-winning book, "Gods of the Upper Air," here.

    Watch Charles King's remarks below:


    Namwali Serpell

    Fiction

    Namwali Serpell is a literary critic and fiction writer who spent 18 years working, episodically, on her debut novel, “The Old Drift.” She is a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. 

    Born in the Zambian capital Lukasa in 1980, she grew up near its university and in Hull, England and Baltimore. Serpell wrote the opening of “The Old Drift” while a senior at Yale University, and the section about the title settlement along the Zambezi River after she visited the site in 2013. 

    The novel spools out from a fateful collision there in 1904 among a local busboy, an Italian hotelier and a British photographer that Serpell sets reverberating through three generations. The novel romps through Zambian language, politics, history, science and speculative fiction. 

    The novel is “a phenomenal accomplishment, nothing less than a retelling/reimagining of the creation and ‘history’ of Zambia,” observed Anisfield-Wolf Juror Rita Dove. Historian Simon Schama, also a juror, called the book “brave and extraordinarily well done.” 

    Serpell lives in San Francisco, where she is working on a book about her love/hate relationship with the novel “American Psycho.”

    Learn more about Namwali Serpell and her award-winning book, "The Old Drift," here.

    Watch Namwali Serpell read an excerpt of "The Old Drift" below:

     

  • Whether it’s rediscovering an old favorite or engaging with a new title, ideastream encourages YOU to read some, many, or all of the 100 best-loved American novels (as chosen in a national survey) as PBS celebrates the joy of reading and the books we love!

    • Take a quiz to find out how many of the 100 books you have already read
    • Share the GREAT AMERICAN READ book list with fellow bibliophiles, book worms, book clubs, or students.  Why not pick a few titles to read and discuss during June, July, August, and September?
    • Plan viewing parties with your book club or reading friends and family to enjoy the reading frenzy!
    • Use #GreatReadPBS to post pictures of you with your favorite book—on vacation, in your favorite reading spot—the choice is yours!

    Series Schedule

    Tuesday, September 11 | 8 p.m. “Fall Kick Off”—Join host Meredith Vieira in the search for America’s best-loved novel. The voting is underway, and the competition is heating up!

    Tuesday, September 18 | 8 p.m. “Who Am I?”—Explore the ways that America’s best-loved novels answer the age-old question.  From life lessons to spiritual journeys, these books help us understand our own identities and find our place in the world.

    Tuesday, September 25 | 8 p.m.  “Heroes”—Follow the trials and tribulations of some of literature’s favorite heroes. Examine how the everyday hero and the anti-hero find their inner strength, overcome challenges and rise to the occasion.

    Tuesday, October 2 | 8 p.m.  Villains and Monsters”—Learn why literature’s most notorious villains began behaving badly. Many weren’t born evil, but became that way when faced with some of the same choices we make every day. See what these villains can teach us about our own dark impulses.

    Tuesday, October 9 | 8 p.m. “What We Do For Love”—Fall in love with some of literature’s most beautiful romances and explore the many forms of love, from family to passion to the unrequited type.

    Tuesday, October 16 | 8 p.m.  “Other Worlds”—Take a magical journey to another world through some of America’s best-loved novels. From Middle Earth to Lilliput, the trials and tribulations of these alternate universes help us to better understand our own world.

    Tuesday, October 23 | 8 p.m. “Grand Finale”—American’s best loved novel is revealed!

    Young readers can join in the fun, too! PBS KIDS has created a list of books to share with children. Download a copy of the list.

    PBS KIDS know there are many more great books for children, and they would love to share more book recommendations during the summer. You can let them know about your favorites through social media @pbskids #PBSKIDSRead

    Vote For Your Favorites!

    Vote now for your favorite books by clicking on the covers of the books shown below!

     
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