Events for December 4 - October 20

Join PBS Books and the Library of Congress as we hit the road on American Stories: A Reading Road Trip. Our next stop…the Buckeye State! The episode premieres October 15 at 8 PM ET on the PBS Books Facebook page, YouTube channel, and the PBS app. This episode shines a spotlight on Ohio’s powerful role in shaping American literature—from Pulitzer Prize-winning poets like Mary Oliver (Devotions), Paul Laurence Dunbar (Sympathy), and Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye) to the young Cleveland creators who gave the world Superman and changed comics forever. We also revisit barrier-breaking voices such as [...]

Join PBS Books and the Library of Congress as we explore Western literature and Wyoming lore and its influence on writers across America. From the rugged landscapes that inspired Ernest Hemingway as he finished Death in the Afternoon, to the birth of the Western genre in Owen Wister’s The Virginian, Wyoming has shaped the imagination of generations— Including Annie Proulx who drew on her years of ranching here to craft unforgettable works like Close Range and Brokeback Mountain. Hear from celebrated contemporary voices who call Wyoming home and whose stories echo the state’s vast landscapes and cowboy [...]

Hit the gas and join PBS Books and the Library of Congress as we roll into Louisiana on American Stories: A Reading Road Trip! Join us on November 5th at 8pm ET/ 7pm CT for a PBS Books Facebook Live event, or on the PBS Books YouTube channel, the PBS app, or pbs.org. Visit pbsbooks.org/readingroadtrip to learn more. Step into a literary heritage as rich and soulful as a bowl of gumbo. From George Washington Cable’s The Grandissimes and Grace King’s Balcony Stories, which sought to capture Creole life, to Ernest J. Gaines’s powerful reflections in A [...]

Pack your parka and join PBS Books and the Library of Congress as we make the trek to Alaska on American Stories: A Reading Road Trip! Join us on December 3rd at 8pm EST/4pm AKST for a PBS Books Facebook Live event, or on the PBS Books YouTube channel, the PBS app, or pbs.org. Visit pbsbooks.org/readingroadtrip to learn more. Inspired by the shimmering dance of the Northern Lights and the sweeping expanse of its landscape, Alaskans have been weaving stories long before the written word. For centuries, Indigenous peoples have passed these stories down through oral traditions, [...]

Fasten your seatbelt and join PBS Books and the Library of Congress for our next stop in  American Stories: A Reading Road Trip: Indiana! Join us on December 10th at 8pm EST for a PBS Books Facebook Live event, or on the PBS Books YouTube channel, the PBS app, or pbs.org. Visit pbsbooks.org/readingroadtrip to learn more. At the crossroads of America lies Indiana—a state with a literary culture as golden as an ear of corn. The Golden Age of Indiana literature gave us treasures like Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons, James Whitcomb Riley's poetry about Little Orphan [...]