Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places
2023-06-21 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
Visions of America HomeEpisodes
PBS Books partnering with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a federal government cultural grant-making agency, to produce “Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places,” a digital-first series of videos and conversations that explores our nation with a renewed interest in the places, people, and stories that have contributed to the America we live in today.
PBS Books is proud to present an interview with IMLS Director Crosby Kemper in anticipation of “Visions of America,” which airs on PBS fall 2023. PBS Books host Heather Montilla sits down with Kemper to discuss America 250 and the importance of museums and libraries as places for the freedom of exchanging ideas and their essential roles in elevating American citizenry.
In addition, there are two additional virtual conversations available, which provide an opportunity for Americans to celebrate America250, the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding.
Also available on Facebook and Youtube.

America250 is a multiyear effort to commemorate the semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary, of the U.S. This effort is being led at the national level by the non-partisan U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, created by Congress, and its supporting nonprofit America250 Foundation. The commemoration period began in 2020, culminates on July 4, 2026, and officially concludes in 2027.
PBS Books host Heather Montilla sits down with Kemper to discuss America 250 and the importance of museums and libraries as places for the freedom of exchanging ideas and their essential roles in elevating American citizenry.
Beginning in fall 2023, IMLS Director Crosby Kemper will lead a video tour through three lesser-known historical sites that symbolize an aspect of the spirit of America’s independence. The half-hour episodes include notable historians and authors who will share the tales and themes that reverberate inside the walls of these institutions. Viewers will explore the cities these organizations call home to showcase what makes each of these communities so important to America’s identity.
Kemper is the sixth director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. He was commissioned by the White House on January 24, 2020, following his confirmation by the United States Senate. IMLS, an independent government agency, is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s museums and libraries.
Kemper is a dedicated advocate for education and learning for people of all ages and backgrounds. He came to IMLS from the Kansas City Public Library, where as director, he established the library as one of the city’s leading cultural destinations and a hub of community engagement. Kemper also served as chair of the board of directors of the Schools, Health, & Libraries Broadband Coalition, which supports open, affordable broadband connections for local community organizations.
Beginning his IMLS tenure at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kemper provided exceptional support and leadership to communities by elevating issues of pandemic impact, poverty, race, and the digital divide as part of the IMLS grantmaking process. Understanding the urgent need, Kemper delivered American Rescue Plan Act and CARES Act monies to grantees quickly and efficiently, with a focus on community impact in a time of extreme dislocation. Under his leadership, IMLS also created the REALM (REopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums) project using CARES Act funds, a partnership to directly respond to the lack of information on the virus specifically for library and museum materials and spaces, as well as to research protocols and procedures for reopening.
Along with leaders of fellow cultural agencies the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Kemper is a member of the re-established President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, as well as the congressionally mandated Information Literacy Taskforce.
He is an ex officio member of the US Semiquincentennial Commission. As such, he has engaged museum, library, and arts leaders in deep conversations about American history and the Semiquincentennial. He also launched IMLS’s 250 initiative, “IMLS 250: All Stories. All People. All Places.”
Kemper’s full biography is available on the IMLS website.

Iconic America: Reading Challenge #1 - DAVID RUBENSTEIN
2023-06-28 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
PBS Books, in collaboration with WETA, is honored to present “Iconic America’s” Host and Executive Producer David M. Rubenstein, author of “The American Experiment.” This book is part of the Iconic America Summer Reading Challenge and has been designated as recommended reading for June.

Join PBS Books to learn about “The American Experiment” and Rubenstein’s extraordinary work to explore America’s democracy, culture, innovation, and ideas. He will also share special insights into his series, “Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories.” This series challenges us as individuals to think about our nation’s enduring symbols that speak to what a society values and how people see themselves.

Also available on Facebook and Youtube.

ABOUT THE BOOK: “THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT”

“The American Experiment” is the capstone book in a trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of “How to Lead” and “The American Story” and features some of our nation’s greatest minds who explore the inspiring story of America as a grand experiment and democracy, culture, innovation and ideas including American icons and historians such as Ken Burns, Madeleine Albright, Wynton Marsalis, Billie Jean King, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and many more.
Exploring the diverse make-up of our country’s DNA through interviews with Pulitzer Prize–winning historians, diplomats, music legends, and sports giants, “The American Experiment” captures the dynamic arc of a young country reinventing itself in real-time. Through these enlightening conversations, the American spirit comes alive, revealing the setbacks, suffering, invention, ingenuity, and social movements that continue to shape our vision of what America is—and what it can be.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: DAVID RUBENSTEIN
Rubenstein is the Host and Executive Producer of “Iconic America: Our Stories and Symbols” and Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm. He is also Chairman of the Boards of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Gallery of Art, the Economic Club of Washington, and the University of Chicago.

As a philanthropist, Rubenstein has made transformative gifts for the restoration or repair of the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Monticello, Montpelier, Mount Vernon, Arlington House, Iwo Jima Memorial, the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, the National Archives, the National Zoo, the Library of Congress, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

He is an original signer of The Giving Pledge; the host of “The David Rubenstein Show” and “Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein;” and author of the notable books “The American Story,” “How to Lead,” “The American Experiment,” and “How to Invest.”

ABOUT ICONIC AMERICA
Iconic America: Our Stories and Symbols with David Rubenstein premiered earlier this spring. It explores American history through a close examination of iconic national symbols: indelible artifacts, places, and archetypes. As host, Rubenstein engages in conversation with historical thinkers, community members, and subject matter experts. Together, they dive deeply into each symbol’s history and how its meaning has changed over time, using these symbols as a gateway to understanding America’s past and present. The series focuses on eight American icons: The subjects of the series’ eight episodes are: Fenway Park, the Hollywood Sign, the Gadsden Flag, the American Cowboy, the Statue of Liberty, the American Bald Eagle, Stone Mountain, and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Grantchester Filmmaker Talk: Daisy Coulam
2023-07-05 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
The Magic of Masterpiece
PBS Books, in collaboration with MASTERPIECE, is pleased to host a conversation with creator, writer and executive producer of Grantchester Daisy Coulam discussing the much anticipated Season 8 of Grantchester.

Originally based on a series of books by James Runcie, Grantchester has become a summer viewing staple. Grantchester Season 8 will air on MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS, beginning on Sunday, July 9 at 9pm ET. Set in Cambridgeshire, vicar Will Davenport and detective Geordie Keating continue to solve mysteries and fight crime. Gain insights into Daisy's writing process and the riveting 8th season of Grantchester.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Daisy Coulam
Daisy Coulam is creator, writer and executive producer of Grantchester– now in its eigth season. Daisy also wrote and created Deadwater Fell, a 4–part psychological thriller starring David Tennant – and has written for numerous other shows including Humans and Death in Paradise."

ABOUT THE SHOW: Grantchester
There's no shortage of murder, mystery, and mayhem in the Cambridgeshire village of Grantchester — but Detective Geordie Keating (Robson Green) and motorcycle riding vicar Will Davenport (Tom Brittney) are always on the case.
In Grantchester Season 8, premiering Sunday, July 9, 2023, 9/8c on MASTERPIECE, Will is happy, and Geordie and Cathy content in their relationship. But an accident and shocking announcements threaten the stability and happiness found by Grantchester's vicar and police detective duo. Exploring faith, forgiveness, and redemption, this explosive season of Grantchester tests Will and Geordie to the limit.

Filmmaker Talk: Southern Storytellers with Craig Renaud
2023-07-12 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
PBS Books, in collaboration with Arkansas PBS and PBS, is pleased to host this conversation with award-winning filmmaker Craig Renaud with inspirational comments by Arkansas PBS Executive Director and CEO Courtney Pledger to discuss SOUTHERN STORYTELLERS, which celebrates Southern identity through the eyes of contemporary creators of literature, music, TV and film.
This documentary series features: authors Angie Thomas, Michael Twitty, Jesmyn Ward and David Joy, poets Jericho Brown and Natasha Trethewey, musicians Lyle Lovett, Amanda Shires, Jason Isbell, Adia Victoria, Thao Nguyen and Justin Moore, actress-turned-songwriter Mary Steenburgen, screenwriter/songwriter Billy Bob Thornton and screenwriters Qui Nguyen and Michael Waldron. Gain insights into the series before you tune in on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, Tuesday, July 25, 2023, and Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023 at 9/8pm CT. Check your local listing.
Explore the Southern Storytellers Booklist
ABOUT THE FILM: SOUTHERN STORYTELLERS
SOUTHERN STORYTELLERS, a new three-episode series from PBS, Arkansas PBS and award-winning filmmaker Craig Renaud, follows some of the region’s most compelling and influential contemporary creators to the places they call home – the communities that fertilize the stories they tell in books, songs, poems, plays and on screens large and small. The documentary series premieres July 18 on PBS stations nationwide.
SOUTHERN STORYTELLERS traverses the south, from the mountains of Appalachia to the Gulf of Mexico, revealing a vivid patchwork of diverse American stories that celebrate the resilience and joy of Southern people – and the magnitude of gifts from the region’s writers. Our journey across the South builds on themes of American identity, community and culture from the perspectives of creators born and bred in communities across the American South.
In addition to the three-part broadcast series, SOUTHERN STORYTELLERS includes a six-part (10-minute episodes) series on PBS Digital Studios – SOUTHERN SOUNDS – that explores the powerful role of place in the lyrics of Southern songwriters.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: CRAIG RENAUD
Craig Renaud is the series creator, producer, director, executive producer of Southern Storytellers. He is known for character-driven, cinema verité filmmaking. His work has aired on PBS, HBO, NBC, The Discovery Channel, The New York Times, ESPN and VICE. Renaud has won a Peabody Award, two Columbia DuPont Awards, two Overseas Press Club Awards, an IDA Award, a Webby, an Edward R Murrow Award, an Emmy Award, a DGA nomination, and multiple Emmy nominations.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: COURTNEY PLEDGER
Courtney Pledger is the series co-creator and executive producer of Southern Storytellers. She currently serves as CEO of statewide public broadcaster Arkansas PBS. Prior to entering public media, Pledger worked as a producer and senior film and television executive in Los Angeles and London where she shepherded or produced multiple award-winning projects. She served as executive director of Oscar-qualifying Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and is a recipient of the Women in Film Lillian Gish Producing Award.

Our Founding Documents | Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places
2023-07-19 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
Visions of America HomeEpisodes
PBS Books, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), hosts the virtual program: “Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places” focusing on Our Founding Documents.
Led by IMLS Director Crosby Kemper, scholars Danielle Allen, Ph.D. and Yuval Levin, Ph.D. engage in a conversation exploring America’s founding documents, its promises, American society and our crucial citizen responsibilities. Both authors of outstanding books, Allen and Levin are considered to be among the foremost thinkers about American history, especially the Constitution, as it relates to contemporary society.
Also available on Facebook and Youtube.

ABOUT “Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places” SERIES
“Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places” is a digital-first series of videos and conversations that explores our nation with a renewed interest in the places, people, and stories that have contributed to the America we live in today.
Beginning in fall 2023, IMLS Director Crosby Kemper will lead a video tour through three lesser-known historical sites that symbolize an aspect of the spirit of America’s independence. The half-hour episodes include notable historians and authors who will share the tales and themes that reverberate inside the walls of these institutions. Viewers will explore the cities these organizations call home to showcase what makes each of these communities so important to America’s identity.
ABOUT THE FEATURED GUEST: Danielle Allen, PH.D.
Danielle Allen is the James Bryant Conant University Professor and director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. She was a recipient of a MacArthur fellowship in 2001 and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009. In 2020, she won the Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity, administered by the Library of Congress, that recognizes work in disciplines not covered by the Nobel Prizes. Her many books include the widely acclaimed Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality and Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.
ABOUT THE FEATURED GUEST: Yuval Levin, PH.D.
Yuval Levin is the director of social, cultural and constitutional studies at the American Enterprise Institute, the editor in chief of National Affairs and a contributing Opinion writer at The New York Times. He served as a member of the White House domestic policy staff under George W. Bush and as a congressional staff member. He is the author, most recently, of “A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream.”
ABOUT THE MODERATOR: Crosby Kemper
Crosby Kemper is the sixth director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. He was commissioned by the White House on January 24, 2020, following his confirmation by the United States Senate. IMLS, an independent government agency, is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s museums and libraries.
Kemper is a dedicated advocate for education and learning for people of all ages and backgrounds. He came to IMLS from the Kansas City Public Library, where as director, he established the library as one of the city’s leading cultural destinations and a hub of community engagement. Beginning his IMLS tenure at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kemper provided exceptional support and leadership to communities by elevating issues of pandemic impact, poverty, race, and the digital divide as part of the IMLS grantmaking process.
Along with leaders of fellow cultural agencies the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Kemper is a member of the re-established President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, as well as the congressionally mandated Information Literacy Taskforce. He is an ex officio member of the US Semiquincentennial Commission. As such, he has engaged museum, library, and arts leaders in deep conversations about American history and the Semiquincentennial. He also launched IMLS’s 250 initiative, “IMLS 250: All Stories. All People. All Places.”

LOC National Book Festival - Claribel A. Ortega
2023-07-20 08:00 - 17:00 (America/Halifax)
PBS Books, in collaboration with The WNET Group in New York, hosts Claribel A. Ortega, a New York Times bestselling and award-winning author who writes middle grade and young adult fantasy novels inspired by her Dominican heritage.
Every year, in the magical town of Ravenskill, Witchlings who participate in the Black Moon Ceremony are placed into covens and come into their powers as full-fledged witches.

And twelve-year-old Seven Salazar can’t wait to be placed in the most powerful coven with her best friend! But on the night of the ceremony, in front of the entire town, Seven isn’t placed in one of the five covens. She’s a Spare!

Spare covens have fewer witches, are less powerful, and are looked down on by everyone. Even worse, when Seven and the other two Spares perform the magic circle to seal their coven and cement themselves as sisters, it doesn’t work! They’re stuck as Witchlings—and will never be able to perform powerful magic.

Seven invokes her only option: the impossible task. The three Spares will be assigned an impossible task: If they work together and succeed at it, their coven will be sealed and they’ll gain their full powers. If they fail… Well, the last coven to make the attempt ended up being turned into toads. Forever.

But maybe friendship can be the most powerful magic of all…

With action-packed adventure, a coven of quirky witchlings, Claribel A. Ortega’s signature humor and girl-power vibes, this middle grade Latine witch story is truly a modern classic.

Also available on Facebook and Youtube.
Explore the 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival Virtual Author Talks

About Claribel A. Ortega
Claribel A. Ortega is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning author who writes middle grade and young adult fantasy novels inspired by her Dominican heritage. She co-hosts the “Bad Author Book Club” podcast and is a contributing author for Marvel. Ortega’s work has been featured in BuzzFeed, Bustle and Deadline. Her debut middle grade novel, “Ghost Squad,” is being adapted into a feature film. Ortega’s graphic novel “Frizzy,” illustrated by Rose Bousamra, won the 2023 Pura Belpré Children’s Author Award. Ortega’s new sequel to “Witchlings,” “The Golden Frog Games,” will be featured at the 2023 National Book Festival.

The Importance of Artful Lives: Supporting Healthy Individuals and Communities Through the Arts
2023-07-21 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
“The Importance of Artful Lives: Supporting Healthy Individuals and Communities Through the Arts,” features Omari Rush, Executive Director of CultureSource, and Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. Together, they will delve into the transformative power of the arts and its impact on personal well-being and community development in metro-Detroit and beyond. Viewers will gain valuable insights into living artfully, integrating creativity into daily life, and understanding the intrinsic value of the arts. The discussion will explore how the arts foster empathy, personal growth, and social change, ultimately supporting healthier individuals and building vibrant communities. It promises to be an enlightening experience that highlights the profound role of art in our lives and its potential to create positive impacts on individuals and communities.

Iconic America: Reading Challenge #2 - Jack Davis
2023-07-26 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
In The Bald Eagle, Jack E. Davis pays magnificent tribute to the national symbol, weaving a richly layered story that spans the centuries and bridges patriotism, Native spirituality, environment carnage and, against all odds, ecological redemption that brought the eagle back to America’s skies.
Also available on Facebook and Youtube.

LOC National Book Festival - Shelby Van Pelt
2023-07-27 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.

Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.

Also available on Facebook and Youtube.

Explore the 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival Virtual Author Talks

About Shelby van Pelt
Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel, REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES, will be published by Ecco/HarperCollins (US) and Bloomsbury (UK) in Spring 2022. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, she’s now missing the mountains in the Chicago area with her husband and children.

LOC National Book Festival - Tananarive Due
2023-08-02 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
PBS Books, in collaboration with GPB in Atlanta, hosts Tananarive Due, an award-winning author who teaches Black horror and Afrofuturism at the University of California.
PBS Books presents an exclusive conversation with award-winning author Tananarive Due, a leading innovator in Black horror and Afrofuturism. Her new collection, “The Wishing Pool and Other Stories,” showcases her mastery of the genre. With tales of horror, science fiction, and suspense, Due creates an atmosphere of creeping dread and tackles important themes like racism and the human psyche. From classic horror to post-apocalyptic futures, her stories are a testament to her versatility and skill. Join us as Due shares her creative process and discusses the power of storytelling. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with a visionary author redefining the boundaries of terrifying tales.
These tales of fright are both intellectually keen and psychologically bloodcurdling, no surprise from an award-winning writer whose command of the Black horror aesthetic rivals Jordan Peele’s in originality and sheer bravado. The opening salvo, “The Wishing Pool,” takes a universal familial worry and paints it with shades of “The Monkey’s Paw.” The hairbreadth between acute tragedy and the blackest of humor are child’s play for the author in “Haint in the Window,” which masterfully nods to Octavia E. Butler in the story of a bookseller facing elements out of his control. The five tales in The Gracetown Stories give a sense of Stephen King’s fictional Derry or Jerusalem’s Lot: It’s just a bad patch of ground ripe with horrors ranging from Cthulhu-like abominations in “Suppertime” to demonic possession in “Migration,” in which a friend helpfully asks, “Is that thing acting up again?” Another pair of stories visits a woman named Nayima whose post-apocalyptic endeavors include some light stand-up comedy in “One Day Only” and, much later, the necessity to protect and school her young charge even as her own mind fails in “Attachment Disorder.” A final triptych of stories labeled “Future Shock” wouldn’t go amiss as episodes of The Twilight Zone. Although the tales vary greatly in length and style, it’s the Hitchcock-ian, Black Mirror–tinged reveals and existential questions that stand out—a dying man’s final vow, a teeth-grinding amount of child endangerment, or the awful, pedestrian confession, “I broke my daughter’s arm.” Even in a far-off future, Due finds that big questions endure: “Was it better to die free?”
Also available on Facebook and Youtube.
Explore the 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival Virtual Author Talks
About Tananarive Due
Tananarive Due is an award-winning author who teaches Black horror and Afrofuturism at University of California, Los Angeles. A leading voice in Black speculative fiction for many years, Due has received an American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award and a British Fantasy Award, and her writing has been included in best-of-the-year anthologies. Her stories have been featured on the “LeVar Burton Reads” podcast and by the Realm audio entertainment company. Due and her husband/collaborator, Steven Barnes, wrote for Jordan Peele’s “The Twilight Zone” and for Shudder’s anthology film “Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror.” They also co-wrote the Black horror graphic novel “The Keeper,” illustrated by Marco Finnegan. Due and Barnes co-host a podcast, “Lifewriting: Write for Your Life!” Her latest work, “The Wishing Pool and Other Stories,” will be featured at the 2023 National Book Festival.

LOC National Book Festival - SA Cosby
2023-08-03 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
PBS Books, in collaboration with WHRO in Virginia, presents S.A. Cosby, an Anthony, Barry, and Macavity Award-winning writer from southeastern Virginia.
Titus Crowne is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County. A former FBI agent and security expert, Titus came home to take care of his father and look out for his troubled younger brother. He ran for Sheriff to make a difference, especially in the Black community, which has so often been treated unfairly by the police.
But a year to the day after his election, a school shooting rocks the town. A beloved teacher is killed by a former student, and as Titus attempts to deescalate and get the boy to surrender, his deputies fire a fatal shot.
In the investigation, it becomes clear that the student they shot had been abused by the dead teacher, as well as by unidentified perpetrators. The trail leads to buried bodies—and secrets. While Titus tries to track down a killer hiding in plain sight, while balancing daily duties like protecting Confederate pride marchers, he must face what it means to be a Black man wearing a police uniform in the American South.
Also available on Facebook and Youtube.
Explore the 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival Virtual Author Talks

About SA Cosby
S. A. Cosby is an Anthony, Barry, and Macavity Award-winning writer from southeastern Virginia. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Razorblade Tears,” which was recommended on Barack Obama’s summer reading list and named a best book of the year by NPR, The Washington Post, TIME and more. His novel “Blacktop Wasteland” won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was named a best book of the year by NPR, The Guardian and Library Journal. Both books have been optioned for film. Cosby’s short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. When not writing, he is an avid hiker and chess player. Cosby’s newest work, “All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel,” will be featured at the 2023 National Book Festival.

LOC National Book Festival - Luis Alberto Urrea
2023-08-09 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
PBS Books, in collaboration with MPT in Maryland, hosts Luis Alberto Urrea, bestselling author of works of nonfiction, poetry and fiction, including “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” and “The House of Broken Angels.”
In 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fiancé in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military vehicles called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head into battle.
After D-Day, these two intrepid friends join the Allied soldiers streaming into France. Their time in Europe will see them embroiled in danger, from the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of Buchenwald. Through her friendship with Dorothy, and a love affair with a courageous American fighter pilot named Hans, Irene learns to trust again. Her most fervent hope, which becomes more precarious by the day, is for all three of them to survive the war intact.
Taking as inspiration his mother’s own Red Cross service, Luis Alberto Urrea has delivered an overlooked story of women’s heroism in World War II. With its affecting and uplifting portrait of friendship and valor in harrowing circumstances, Good Night, Irene powerfully demonstrates yet again that Urrea’s “gifts as a storyteller are prodigious”.

Also available on Facebook and Youtube.

Explore the 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival Virtual Author Talks

About Luis Alberto Urrea
Luis Alberto Urrea is the bestselling author of many works of nonfiction, poetry and fiction, including “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” and “The House of Broken Angels,” a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his landmark work of nonfiction “The Devil’s Highway,” now in its 34th paperback printing. Urrea is recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, among many other honors. He lives outside Chicago and teaches at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Urrea’s newest release, “Good Night, Irene: A Novel,” will be featured at the 2023 National Book Festival.

LOC National Book Festival - Beverly Gage
2023-08-10 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
PBS Books, in collaboration with WETA in Washington D.C., interviews Beverly Gage, a professor of 20th-century American history at Yale University and author of “The Day Wall Street Exploded.”
We remember him as a bulldog–squat frame, bulging wide-set eyes, fearsome jowls–but in 1924, when he became director of the FBI, he had been the trim, dazzling wunderkind of the administrative state, buzzing with energy and big ideas for reform. He transformed a failing law-enforcement backwater, riddled with scandal, into a modern machine. He believed in the power of the federal government to do great things for the nation and its citizens. He also believed that certain people–many of them communists or racial minorities or both– did not deserve to be included in that American project. Hoover rose to power and then stayed there, decade after decade, using the tools of state to create a personal fiefdom unrivaled in U.S. history.

Beverly Gage’s monumental work explores the full sweep of Hoover’s life and career, from his birth in 1895 to a modest Washington civil-service family through his death in 1972. In her nuanced and definitive portrait, Gage shows how Hoover was more than a one-dimensional tyrant and schemer who strong-armed the rest of the country into submission. As FBI director from 1924 through his death in 1972, he was a confidant, counselor, and adversary to eight U.S. presidents, four Republicans and four Democrats. Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson did the most to empower him, yet his closest friend among the eight was fellow anticommunist warrior Richard Nixon. Hoover was not above blackmail and intimidation, but he also embodied conservative values ranging from anticommunism to white supremacy to a crusading and politicized interpretation of Christianity. This garnered him the admiration of millions of Americans. He stayed in office for so long because many people, from the highest reaches of government down to the grassroots, wanted him there and supported what he was doing, thus creating the template that the political right has followed to transform its party.

G-Man places Hoover back where he once stood in American political history–not at the fringes, but at the center–and uses his story to explain the trajectories of governance, policing, race, ideology, political culture, and federal power as they evolved over the course of the 20th century.
Also available on Facebook and Youtube.
Explore the 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival Virtual Author Talks
About Beverly Gage
Beverly Gage is a professor of 20th-century American history at Yale University. She is the author of “The Day Wall Street Exploded,” which examined the history of terrorism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Gage writes frequently for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker, among other publications. Her new biography, “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century,” will be featured at the 2023 National Book Festival.

Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places | Part 3
2023-08-16 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
Visions of America HomeEpisodes
PBS Books, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), hosts the third installment of their virtual program entitled: “Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places” commemorating the 75th anniversary of the desegregation of the Armed Forces. This conversation is part of the America250 celebration.
Led by IMLS Director Crosby Kemper, scholars Matthew Delmont, Ph.D. and Jeffrey Sammons, Ph.D. and Brigadier General Terry V. Williams engage in a conversation exploring the role people of color played in the armed forces from the Revolutionary War through the passage of President Harry Truman’s Executive Order 9981, which created the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services and beyond. Connecting to our earlier conversations about our country’s promises and obligations, this program highlights the important role of African Americans and people of color in our country’s history and wars, which has often been overlooked.
Also available on Facebook and Youtube.

Continue the conversation.
Watch our additional virtual conversations featuring authors Jeffery Sammons and Matthew Delmont.
Additional Conversation with Jeffery Sammons
Additional Conversation with Matthew Delmont
ABOUT “Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places” SERIES
“Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places” is a digital-first series of videos and conversations that explores our nation with a renewed interest in the places, people, and stories that have contributed to the America we live in today. Also available on Facebook and Youtube. Beginning in fall 2023, IMLS Director Crosby Kemper will lead a video tour through three lesser-known historical sites that symbolize an aspect of the spirit of America’s independence. The half-hour episodes include notable historians and authors who will share the tales and themes that reverberate inside the walls of these institutions. Viewers will explore the cities these organizations call home to showcase what makes each of these communities so important to America’s identity.
Beginning in fall 2023, IMLS Director Crosby Kemper will lead a video tour through three lesser-known historical sites that symbolize an aspect of the spirit of America’s independence. The half-hour episodes include notable historians and authors who will share the tales and themes that reverberate inside the walls of these institutions. Viewers will explore the cities these organizations call home to showcase what makes each of these communities so important to America’s identity.
ABOUT THE FEATURED GUEST: Matthew F. Delmont, PH.D.
Matthew F. Delmont is the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth College. A Guggenheim Fellow and expert on African American history and the history of civil rights, he is the author of the new book, Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad (Viking, 2022), which was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. He is also the author of four previous books: Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African American Newspapers (Stanford University Press, 2019); Why Busing Failed: Race, Media, and the National Resistance to School Desegregation (University of California Press, 2016); Making Roots: A Nation Captivated (UC Press, 2016); and The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950s Philadelphia (UC Press, 2012). His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and on NPR. Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Delmont earned his BA from Harvard University and his MA and PhD from Brown University.
ABOUT THE FEATURED GUEST: Jeffrey T. Sammons, PH.D.
Jeffrey T. Sammons is professor emeritus of history at New York University where he taught for 33 years. His first book is Beyond the Ring: The Role of Boxing in American Society. He is coauthor of Harlem’s Rattlers and the Great War: The Undaunted 369th Regiment and the African American Quest for Equality. He was a History Adviser to the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission, and a founding member of its Valor Medal Review Task Force. He currently serves on the Medal of Honor Museum’s Advisory Panel.
ABOUT THE FEATURED GUEST: Brigadier General Terry V. Williams
Brigadier General Terry V. Williams is a dynamic and accomplished leader currently serving as the Senior Vice President, Global Fixed Assets at PenFed Credit Union. Prior to joining PenFed, Terry founded Van Williams LLC, a successful consulting company specializing in Facilities Management, Logistics Innovation, Disaster Preparedness & Resiliency, and Executive Coaching.
Before his ventures in the corporate world, Terry’s distinguished career spanned over three decades in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he achieved the prestigious rank of Brigadier General. His military service shaped him into a versatile leader, equipped with expertise in logistics, city management, strategic communication, and resource management. Terry’s remarkable background in leading multifunctional, highly complex organizations makes him an invaluable asset in optimizing efficiency and effectiveness across PenFed’s global fixed assets. Terry earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the esteemed University of California, Los Angeles, and Master’s Degrees in National Security from both the Naval War College and the National War College.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR: Crosby Kemper
Crosby Kemper is the sixth director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. He was commissioned by the White House on January 24, 2020, following his confirmation by the United States Senate. IMLS, an independent government agency, is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s museums and libraries.
Kemper is a dedicated advocate for education and learning for people of all ages and backgrounds. He came to IMLS from the Kansas City Public Library, where as director, he established the library as one of the city’s leading cultural destinations and a hub of community engagement. Beginning his IMLS tenure at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kemper provided exceptional support and leadership to communities by elevating issues of pandemic impact, poverty, race, and the digital divide as part of the IMLS grantmaking process.
Along with leaders of fellow cultural agencies the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Kemper is a member of the re-established President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, as well as the congressionally mandated Information Literacy Taskforce. He is an ex officio member of the US Semiquincentennial Commission. As such, he has engaged museum, library, and arts leaders in deep conversations about American history and the Semiquincentennial. He also launched IMLS’s 250 initiative, “IMLS 250: All Stories. All People. All Places.”

LOC National Book Festival - Matthew Desmond
2023-08-24 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
PBS Books, in collaboration with WTTW in Chicago, hosts Matthew Desmond, a professor of sociology at Princeton University to discuss his latest release “Poverty, by America.”
The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?

In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.

Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.

Also available on Facebook and Youtube.
Explore the 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival Virtual Author Talks
About Matthew Desmond
Matthew Desmond is the Maurice P. During professor of sociology at Princeton University and the founding director of the Eviction Lab, a lab that studies housing insecurity and evictions in the United States. His previous book, “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,” won a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Critics Circle Award and a PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, among others. The recipient of a MacArthur fellowship, Desmond is also a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. His latest release, “Poverty, by America,” will be featured at the 2023 National Book Festival.

LOC National Book Festival - TJ Klune
2023-08-25 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
PBS Books, in collaboration with South Florida PBS, presents TJ Klune, the bestselling author of “The House in the Cerulean Sea,” “Into This River I Drown” and “Under the Whispering Door.”
In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots—fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe.

The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans.

When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.

Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?

Also available on Facebook and Youtube.
Explore the 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival Virtual Author Talks
About TJ Klune
TJ Klune is the bestselling author of “The House in the Cerulean Sea,” “Into This River I Drown” and “Under the Whispering Door.” He is also the author of multiple fantasy series, including Green Creek and Tales from Verania, as well as the young adult series The Extraordinaries. Klune has won a Lambda Literary Award and an Alex Award, and has been nominated for a Locus Award. Being queer himself, Klune believes it’s important—now more than ever—to have accurate, positive queer representation in stories. His latest novel, “In the Lives of Puppets,” will be featured in the 2023 National Book Festival.

Richard Florida: Exploring American Cities
2023-08-28 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
PBS Books, in collaboration with DPTV, is pleased to host a program with best-selling New York Times author Richard Florida in conversation with journalist Zoe Clark. Florida discusses the importance of cities and Urbanism trends in the 21st century post-pandemic. Join us to gain important insights into the future of American cities and how creativity and innovation drives urban growth.
Also available on Facebook and Youtube.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Richard Florida
He is a researcher and professor, serving as University Professor at University of Toronto’s School of Cities and Rotman School of Management, and a Distinguished Fellow at NYU’s Schack School of Real Estate.
Richard Florida is a writer and journalist, having penned several global best sellers, including the award winning The Rise of the Creative Class and his most recent book, The New Urban Crisis. He is co-founder of CityLab, the leading publication devoted to cities and urbanism.
He is an entrepreneur, as founder of the Creative Class Group which works closely with companies and governments worldwide.

LOC National Book Festival - Héctor Tobar
2023-08-30 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
PBS Books, in collaboration with PBS SoCal, interviews Héctor Tobar, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and novelist. Tobar is the author of the critically-acclaimed bestseller “Deep Down Dark” as well as “The Barbarian Nurseries,” “Translation Nation” and “The Tattooed Soldier.”
“Latino” is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States. Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino” assembles the Pulitzer Prize winner Héctor Tobar’s personal experiences as the son of Guatemalan immigrants and the stories told to him by his Latinx students to offer a spirited rebuke to racist ideas about Latino people. Our Migrant Souls decodes the meaning of “Latino” as a racial and ethnic identity in the modern United States, and seeks to give voice to the angst and anger of young Latino people who have seen latinidad transformed into hateful tropes about “illegals” and have faced insults, harassment, and division based on white insecurities and economic exploitation.

Also available on Facebook and Youtube.
Explore the 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival Virtual Author Talks
About Héctor Tobar
Héctor Tobar is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and novelist. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed bestseller “Deep Down Dark” as well as “The Barbarian Nurseries,” “Translation Nation” and “The Tattooed Soldier.” Tobar is also a contributing writer for the New York Times opinion pages and an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine. He has written for The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times and other publications. Tobar’s short fiction has appeared in the Best American Short Stories anthology series, “Los Angeles Noir,” Zyzzyva and Slate. The son of Guatemalan immigrants, he is a native of Los Angeles, where he currently lives with his family. His newest release, “Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of ‘Latino,’” will be featured at the 2023 National Book Festival.

Angeline Boulley and Trang Thanh Tran
2023-08-31 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
PBS Books, in collaboration with Kansas City PBS and KERA in Dallas, Texas, interviews Angeline Boulley followed by Trang Thanh Tran.
Also available on Facebook and Youtube.
Explore the 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival Virtual Author Talks
About “Warrior Girl Unearthed”
Perry Firekeeper-Birch has always known who she is – the laidback twin, the troublemaker, the best fisher on Sugar Island. Her aspirations won’t ever take her far from home, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. But as the rising number of missing Indigenous women starts circling closer to home, as her family becomes embroiled in a high-profile murder investigation, and as greedy grave robbers seek to profit off of what belongs to her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry begins to question everything.
In order to reclaim this inheritance for her people, Perry has no choice but to take matters into her own hands. She can only count on her friends and allies, including her overachieving twin and a charming new boy in town with unwavering morals. Old rivalries, sister secrets, and botched heists cannot – will not – stop her from uncovering the mystery before the ancestors and missing women are lost forever.

About “She Is a Haunting”
When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She’s always lied to fit in, so if she’s straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised.
But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound, while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don’t belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can’t ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves her cryptic warnings: Don’t eat.

Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house—the home her family has always wanted—will not rest until it destroys them. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. As she roots out the house’s rot, she must also face the truth of who she is and who she must become to save them all.
About Angeline Boulley
Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She is a former director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Boulley lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island, Michigan. Her debut novel, “Firekeeper’s Daughter,” received many awards, including a Michael L. Printz Award, William C. Morris Award, Walter Dean Myers Award and an American Indian Youth Literature Honor. Her newest release, “Warrior Girl Unearthed,” will be featured at the 2023 National Book Festival.
About Trang Thanh Tran
Trang Thanh Tran is a Vietnamese-American author who writes emotional, speculative stories that highlight food, belonging and the Vietnamese diaspora. They’re an alum of the Writing Barn’s Rainbow Weekend and Tin House’s Young Adult Fiction Workshop. When not writing, they are busy trying new food and watching zombie movies. Tran’s debut novel, “She Is a Haunting,” will be featured at the 2023 National Book Festival.

American Experience: The Busing Battleground
2023-09-06 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
PBS Books hosts a program with award winning directors Sharon Grimberg and Cyndee Readdean, to discuss their AMERICAN EXPERIENCE’s THE BUSING BATTLEGROUND: THE DECADE-LONG ROAD TO SCHOOL DESEGREGATION on PBS.
In September 2023, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE premieres two new documentaries by Executive Producer Cameo George, that examine the deeply mixed legacy of America’s efforts to racially integrate public schools.
THE BUSING BATTLEGROUND tells the story of the bitter struggle to integrate Boston’s school and captures the class tensions and racial violence that ensued when Black and white students in Boston were bused for the first time between neighborhoods to comply with a federal desegregation order. It premieres on September 11 at 9pm ET; check your local listing. It is streamable for free at pbs.org.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Sharon Grimberg: Writer, Producer, Director for THE BUSING BATTLEGROUND
Sharon Grimberg is an award-winning filmmaker with 25 years of experience working for public television. According to The Baltimore Sun, her latest film McCarthy, about the infamous Wisconsin senator, met “the highest hopes that the most enlightened founders of public broadcasting had for the medium.” Her previous project, a mini-series on the history of the circus, garnered a Writer’s Guild nomination and was on The Wall Street Journal’s list of the best television of 2018. Grimberg was the executive producer of The Abolitionists, which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy and of the multi-platform mini-series We Shall Remain, which retold US history from a Native perspective. According to The Washington Post, the project “shifted the focus and the weight of history.” From 2003-2015, Grimberg was the senior producer of American Experience where, she played a key role in the origination, development, acquisition, and editorial oversight of more than 130 films.
Cyndee Readdean: Producer and Director
Cyndee Readdean (Producer and Director) is an award-winning director, producer, and writer. Her films have appeared on PBS, ABC, MSNBC and EPIX. Readdean directed and produced episode two of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning series Reconstruction: America after the Civil War and the Emmy-nominated film The FBI & the Panther. She served as the series producer on the four-hour series By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem. Her producer credits include Freedom Summer, the 2014 American Experience film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the George Foster Peabody Award; the Emmy-nominated Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities, which also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; and the two-hour premiere episode of the OBAMA series. Readdean is a member of DGA, PGA and WGA.
This event is also available on Facebook and Youtube.

American Experience: The Harvest | Filmmaker Talk
2023-09-13 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
THE HARVEST Filmmaker Talk streams on PBS Books Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023, 8 p.m. ET
THE HARVEST premieres Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023, 9-11 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS App.

PBS Books hosts a program with award winning filmmakers Sam Pollard and Douglas A. Blackmon, to discuss part two of the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE “The School Integration” series, THE HARVEST: Integrating Mississippi’s Schools” on PBS.
In September 2023, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE premieres two new documentaries by Emmy Award-winning producer, writer and journalist Cameo George, that examines the deeply mixed legacy of America’s efforts to racially integrate public schools; she is the Executive Producer for both of these films.
THE HARVEST The film narrated by Blackmon, himself one of the Leland students, is a personal and powerful look at Leland, Mississippi’s attempts to desegregate its schools. The film follows Blackmon and his fellow classmates through their early experiences, exploring deep friendships, awkward separations, in classrooms and playgrounds, in plays and athletics, at homecoming and graduation. 50 years later, many members of that first class have returned to Leland, committed to giving back to their community.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
SAM POLLARD, Producer of THE HARVEST
Sam Pollard is an accomplished feature film and television video editor, and documentary producer/director. 2022 and 2023 have been very productive years for Pollard. In December 2022 Peacock began streaming Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power, a film Pollard co-directed with Gandbhir, which tells the story of the courageous campaign of citizens and activists who faced violence and oppression in the struggle for the right to vote.
Pollard’s two-part documentary, Bill Russell: Legend, about legendary Boston Celtic and civil rights icon premiered on Netflix on February 8.
Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes, a film that Pollard co-directed with Ben Shapiro, had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival on March 12.
South to Black Power, inspired by New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s book, The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto, was co-directed by Pollard and Llewellyn Smith and will premiere on HBO in Fall 2023.
DOUGLAS A. BLACKMON, Producer and Writer of THE HARVEST
Douglas A. Blackmon (Writer & Producer) is a Pulitzer-Prize winning author, journalist, and filmmaker. His bestselling first book, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009. He was co-executive producer of the acclaimed documentary film based on Slavery by Another Name, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012 and continues to be regularly rebroadcasted. As a journalist, Blackmon has witnessed some of the most important events of our time, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, multiple presidential elections, Hurricane Katrina, post-Apartheid South Africa, and war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. He is a Gerald Loeb Award winner and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2011. A native of the Mississippi Delta, he directs the Narrating Justice Project and teaches in the Creative Media Industries Institute at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

Unforgotten | Masterpiece Filmmaker Talk with Chris Lang
2023-09-20 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
The Magic of Masterpiece
PBS Books, in collaboration with MASTERPIECE, presents a conversation with creator, writer and executive producer of UNFORGOTTEN Chris Lang, discussing the much-anticipated Season 5.
Unforgotten Season 5 – Preview

UNFORGOTTEN Season 5 airs on MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS, beginning Sunday, SEPT. 3 at 9pm ET. Watch Here!
Set in London, DCI Jessica James joins DI Sunny Khan to investigate the discovery of human remains in a newly renovated antique home in West London. While referencing the loss of DCI Cassie Stuart, strains on interpersonal relationships are front and center throughout this season.
Hear from creator, writer and executive producer of "Unforgotten", Chris Lang, about the themes and plot in Season 5, the challenges and opportunities with developing a new main character, and more. Don't miss special behind-the-scenes insights!

Chris Lang – Creator, Writer and Executive Producer , “Unforgotten”
Chris Lang is the writer and producer of over 120 hours of prime-time British drama. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, leaving in 1983 to work at Nottingham Playhouse for six months. There he met fellow actor Hugh Grant, and the two of them formed a comedy writing partnership (later joined by fellow RADA student Andy Taylor) called The Jockeys of Norfolk, who enjoyed great success at the Edinburgh Festival, and who went on to star in their own TV comedy showcase.
Lang then moved in to writing for other comedians, including Jack Dee, Jonathan Ross, David Frost and Smith & Jones before turning to drama in the early 90’s. Since then, he has written and created over 85 hours of original prime time drama, including “Torn” (nominated for an RTS award), “Amnesia” (nominated for an Edgar Award) and “A Mother’s Son” (nominated for a Broadcast Award). He created, wrote and executive produced “Unforgotten” starring Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar. In 2018, the series premiered on MASTERPIECE on PBS to much critical acclaim and quickly became a fan favorite. The show’s fifth season saw the addition of new cast member Sinéad Keenan and is currently airing in the fall of 2023.

We Are Each Other with Sonya Clark | The Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series
2023-09-29 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
This speaker event is recorded live on Thursday, September 21, 2023 at 5:30 pm in the Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI.
Sonya Clark is an artist and educator who creates installations and objects rooted in craft’s legacy. She employs the language of textiles and politics of hair to celebrate Blackness, reclaim freedoms, and interrogate historical and contemporary injustices. The work is grounded in the exchange of stories and the transmission of craft techniques between individuals, communities, and generations.
“Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other,” currently on view at Cranbrook Art Museum through September 26, is a traveling mid-career survey focusing on Clark’s community-centered and participatory projects created over the past 25 years. Among them are the Hair Craft Project (a collaboration with 12 hairstylists), The Healing Memorial (created with thousands from the Detroit community as a salve for pandemic grief), Monumental Cloth: the flag we should know ( a series of interactive works that bring to light the little-known cloth that ended the Civil War), and Finding Freedom (a 1500 square foot canopy created in part by incarcerated individuals). Her work has been exhibited in over 500 venues worldwide. ​“Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other” marks her 60th solo exhibit.
Clark is the Winifred Arms Professor of Arts and Humanities at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Previously, she held the title of Commonwealth Professor and was a Distinguished Research Fellow in the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has received awards from many organizations, including United States Artists, Pollock-Krasner, Art Prize, and Anonymous Was a Woman.
Learn More>>

The Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series Fall 2023 Season
This winter, the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series brings respected leaders and innovators from a broad spectrum of creative fields to Ann Arbor’s historic Michigan Theater for weekly in-person events.
Detroit Public Television and PBS Books, in partnership with the Stamps School, will stream each week’s event Fridays at 8pm.
See the full schedule of events livestreamed by PBS Books here.
Some programs may not be available online, depending on artist requests. Interested in receiving notifications before online videos go live? Sign up to receive a reminder before each event begins streaming.
Watch Past Penny Stamps Episodes

Policy Talks @ the Ford School: U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo
2023-10-02 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Detroit)
Policy Talks @ The Ford School
Talk streams on Monday, Oct. 2 at 8:00 PM EDT
Policy Talks @ the Ford School presents U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo. Secretary Raimondo will reflect on economic growth, innovation, and American competitiveness in conversation with Professor Betsey Stevenson.

Guest Biographies
Gina M. Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce
Department of Commerce
Gina M. Raimondo serves as the 40th U.S. Secretary of Commerce and was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on March 3, 2021.
As Secretary of Commerce, she is focused on a simple but vital mission — to spur good-paying jobs, empower entrepreneurs to innovate and grow, and help American workers and businesses compete.
Secretary Raimondo was formerly the 75th Governor of Rhode Island and its first woman governor. She grew up in Smithfield in a tight-knit Italian American family. Her family history and her childhood experiences shaped her core beliefs in hard work, opportunity for all, and the importance of financial security.
She graduated with honors from Harvard, where she was recognized as the top economics student in her class. She won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where she earned a doctorate and met her future husband, Andy Moffit. She later graduated from Yale Law School. Secretary Raimondo clerked for US District Judge Kimba Wood and served as founding employee and senior vice president at Village Ventures.
Wanting to start her own business and be close to family, she returned home to Rhode Island and founded Point Judith Capital, a venture capital firm. In November 2010, Secretary Raimondo was elected to serve as General Treasurer of Rhode Island, receiving the largest number of votes of any statewide candidate. When she took office as General Treasurer, she tackled the state’s $7 billion unfunded pension liability. Secretary Raimondo was sworn into office as Governor in January 2015 and won a second term in 2018. During her time as Governor, Secretary Raimondo kick-started the state’s economy and made record investments in infrastructure, education, and job training. She focused on creating economic opportunities and good-paying jobs for all Rhode Islanders. Early in her administration, she launched an innovative workforce development program that develops business-led partnerships to address unique workforce challenges.
She also served as chair of the Democratic Governors’ Association in 2019.
Betsey Stevenson, Professor of Public Policy and Economics
Stevenson is a labor economist who publishes widely about the labor market and the impact of public policies on outcomes both in the labor market and for families.
Her research explores women’s labor market experiences, the economic forces shaping the modern family, and how these experiences and forces influence each other. She served as the chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor from 2010 to 2011, participating as the secretary’s deputy to the White House economic team.

2023 Hispanic Heritage Month - Author Highlights
2023-10-04 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Detroit)
Streams on Wed., Oct. 4, 8 pm ET | 5 pm PT
Over the years, PBS Books has interviewed numerous talented Hispanic authors who write across various genres and for ages. In Honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, PBS Books pays tribute to the generations of Hispanic Americans who have positively impacted and enriched our nation and society. To celebrate US Latinos and their culture and history, PBS Books will feature moments of our conversations with Hector Tobar, Maria Hinijosa, Kelly Lytle Hernández, Juliet Menendez, Claribel Oretega, Meg Medina and many more.
To see the full PBS Books Library of Author Talks and our suggested booklist, go to pbsbooks.org/hispanicheritage.
Featured Authors
Hector Tobar
Maria Hinijosa
Kelly Lytle Hernández
Juliet Menéndez
Claribel Ortega
Meg Medina

The Land of the Sun and the River of Spirits with Carolina Caycedo, David de Rozas, and Juan Macias Somi Se’k | The Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series
2023-10-06 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
This speaker event is recorded live on Thursday, September 28, 2023, at 5:30 pm at the Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI.
Somi Se’k (The Land of the Sun-La tierra del Sol) is how the Estok Gna, the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, refer to the lands on both sides of the River of Spirits (Rio Grande), comprising the Chihuahuan Desert, the Rio Grande Valley, and its delta. Somi Se’k, is not just a name, nor a neutral place, but a multilayered net of universes where the region’s present, past, and future are still in conversation. Caycedo, de Rozas, and Mancias’s talk will focus on Texas’ native people’s philosophy, their profound knowledge and relationship to the land, and their continuous struggle to maintain their culture and lifeways against ongoing forms of colonization, erasure, and extraction.
Learn More>>

The Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series Fall 2023 Season
This winter, the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series brings respected leaders and innovators from a broad spectrum of creative fields to Ann Arbor’s historic Michigan Theater for weekly in-person events.
Detroit Public Television and PBS Books, in partnership with the Stamps School, will stream each week’s event Fridays at 8pm.
See the full schedule of events livestreamed by PBS Books here.
Some programs may not be available online, depending on artist requests. Interested in receiving notifications before online videos go live? Sign up to receive a reminder before each event begins streaming.
Watch Past Penny Stamps Episodes

Visions of America: Author Talk with Carlos Eire
2023-10-11 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Detroit)
Visions of America HomeEpisodes
Streams on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023 8pm ET | 5pm PT
Program Description:
PBS Books and Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)  are partnering on "Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places,"   PBS Books premiered "Visions of America: A Journey to the Freedom Tower – Stories of Cuban Migration to Miami" in September. The inspiration for this episode is Carlos Eire's "Waiting for Snow in Havana" and "Learning to Die in Miami". IMLS Director Crosby Kemper speaks with award-winning writer and scholar Carlos Eire to discuss his books, his life, and his experiences as an immigrant, an exile, and an American. Gain personal insights into a Cuban's experience and Pedro Pan, an unaccompanied children's exodus from Cuba. As you celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, don't miss this opportunity to hear a lesser-known American story.
To hear more about "Visions of America: A Journey to the Freedom Tower – Stories of Cuban Migration to Miami" go to visionsofamerica.org.
About the Author: Carlos Eire
Carlos Eire is a historian of late medieval and early modern Europe at Yale University who focuses on the Protestant and Catholic Reformations; the history of popular piety; the history of the supernatural, and the history of death.
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At Yale he has served as chair of the Religious Studies Department and the Renaissance Studies Program. Before joining the Yale faculty in 1996, he taught at St. John’s University in Minnesota and the University of Virginia, and was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton for two years. He is the author of War Against the Idols (1986); From Madrid to Purgatory(1995); A Very Brief History of Eternity (2010); Reformations: The Early Modern World (2016); and The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila: A Biography (2019), and They Flew: A History of the Impossible (2023). He is also co-author of Jews, Christians, Muslims: An Introduction to Monotheistic Religions (1997). In 2003 he won the National Book Award in Nonfiction for his first memoir Waiting for Snow in Havana (2003), which covers the Cuban Revolution and its immediate aftermath and has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
His second memoir, Learning to Die in Miami (2010), explores his early years in exile. His book Reformations won the R.R.Hawkins Prize for Best Book of the Year from the American Publishers Association, as well as the award for Best Book in the Humanities. It was also awarded the Jaroslav Pelikan Prize by Yale University Press. All of his books are banned in Cuba, where he has been proclaimed an enemy of the state – a distinction he regards as the highest of all honors.
“Waiting for Snow in Havana”
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“Waiting for Snow in Havana“ is both an exorcism and an ode to a paradise lost. For the Cuba of Carlos’s youth—with its lizards and turquoise seas and sun-drenched siestas—becomes an island of condemnation once a cigar-smoking guerrilla named Fidel Castro ousts President Batista on January 1, 1959. Suddenly the music in the streets sounds like gunfire. Christmas is made illegal, political dissent leads to imprisonment, and too many of Carlos’s friends are leaving Cuba for a place as far away and unthinkable as the United States. Carlos will end up there, too, and fulfill his mother’s dreams by becoming a modern American man—even if his soul remains in the country he left behind. Narrated with the urgency of a confession, Waiting for Snow in Havana is a eulogy for a native land and a loving testament to the collective spirit of Cubans everywhere.
“Learning to Die in Miami”
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The memoir, “Waiting for Snow in Havana”, won the 2003 National Book Award. Carlos Eire narrates his coming of age in Cuba just before and during the Castro revolution. That book literally ends in midair as eleven-year-old Carlos and his older brother leave Havana on an airplane—along with thousands of other children—to begin their new life in Miami in 1962. It would be years before he would see his mother again. He would never again see his beloved father. “Learning to Die in Miami ” opens as the plane lands and Carlos faces, with trepidation and excitement, his new life. He quickly realizes that in order for his new American self to emerge, his Cuban self must “die.” And so, with great enterprise and purpose, he begins his journey. We follow Carlos as he adjusts to life in his new home. Faced with learning English, attending American schools, and an uncertain future, young Carlos confronts the age-old immigrant’s plight: being surrounded by American bounty, but not able to partake right away. The abundance America has to offer excites him and, regardless of how grim his living situation becomes, he eagerly forges ahead with his own personal assimilation program, shedding the vestiges of his old life almost immediately, even changing his name to Charles. Cuba becomes a remote and vague idea in the back of his mind, something he used to know well, but now it “had ceased to be part of the world.”
About the Moderator: Crosby Kemper
Crosby Kemper is the sixth director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. He was commissioned by the White House on January 24, 2020, following his confirmation by the United States Senate. IMLS, an independent government agency, is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s museums and libraries.
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Kemper is a dedicated advocate for education and learning for people of all ages and backgrounds. He came to IMLS from the Kansas City Public Library, where as director, he established the library as one of the city’s leading cultural destinations and a hub of community engagement. Kemper also served as chair of the board of directors of the Schools, Health, & Libraries Broadband Coalition, which supports open, affordable broadband connections for local community organizations.
Beginning his IMLS tenure at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kemper provided exceptional support and leadership to communities by elevating issues of pandemic impact, poverty, race, and the digital divide as part of the IMLS grantmaking process. Understanding the urgent need, Kemper delivered American Rescue Plan Act and CARES Act monies to grantees quickly and efficiently, with a focus on community impact in a time of extreme dislocation. Under his leadership, IMLS also created the REALM (REopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums) project using CARES Act funds, a partnership to directly respond to the lack of information on the virus specifically for library and museum materials and spaces, as well as to research protocols and procedures for reopening.
Along with leaders of fellow cultural agencies the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Kemper is a member of the re-established President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, as well as the congressionally mandated Information Literacy Taskforce.
He is an ex officio member of the US Semiquincentennial Commission. As such, he has engaged museum, library, and arts leaders in deep conversations about American history and the Semiquincentennial. He also launched IMLS’s 250 initiative, “IMLS 250: All Stories. All People. All Places.”

Recover Faster: Building Resilience in Uncert(AI)n Times with John Maeda | The Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series
2023-10-15 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
This speaker event is recorded live on Thursday, October 5, 2023, at 5:30 pm in the Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI.
Life is a series of hurdles, and setbacks are inevitable. Join John Maeda as he explores the art of recovering faster and developing resilience in the face of adversity. In this talk, Maeda shares practical strategies for overcoming obstacles, bouncing back from failures, and navigating the many uncertainties in life. And given that we have entered a new era of disruptive AI technologies, Maeda also walks through how to deal with the new breed of uncert(AI)nties coming our way.
John Maeda (MBA, PhD) is a Vice President of Design and Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft. He is an American technologist and designer whose work explores where business, design, and technology merge to make space for the ​“humanist technologist.”
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The Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series Fall 2023 Season
This winter, the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series brings respected leaders and innovators from a broad spectrum of creative fields to Ann Arbor’s historic Michigan Theater for weekly in-person events.
Detroit Public Television and PBS Books, in partnership with the Stamps School, will stream each week’s event Fridays at 8pm.
See the full schedule of events livestreamed by PBS Books here.
Some programs may not be available online, depending on artist requests. Interested in receiving notifications before online videos go live? Sign up to receive a reminder before each event begins streaming.
Watch Past Penny Stamps Episodes

Climate Conversation with Author Ben Goldfarb
2023-10-18 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Detroit)
Streams live on Wed. October 18, 2023 at 8pm ET | 5pm PT
Program Description:
PBS Books talks with award-winning journalist and author Ben Goldfarb to discuss his latest book “CROSSING: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet” and his Award-winning book “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter”. This program is offered in conjunction with the new PBS initiative to explore the environmental and climate impacts on the country and planet; PBS Books is committed to highlighting the environment and its impacts on history and society.
Ben discusses the science of how roads and transportation infrastructure have shaped our natural world, the importance of habitat connectivity that can impair wildlife access to resources needed for survival, and the efforts to balance how humans and nature can co-exist in this ever-changing world. Ben also talks about the importance of re-introducing North America’s greatest architect, the beaver, who can help bring back much of the North American natural landscape.
PBS is committed to bringing together the very best in science, history, and news programming. PBS is proud to offer a broad slate of programs, building on more than 200 hours of climate and environmental content currently available on its various platforms. The programs explore climate change from a diversity of perspectives and include new productions such as “Human Footprint“; Season Two of  “America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston” , “NOVA” and “Nature“;  ”Weathered“, a digital-first series from PBS Digital Studios; and more.
About the Author:
Ben Goldfarb, Award-Winning Conservation Journalist & Author
Ben Goldfarb is an environmental journalist whose work has appeared in publications including National Geographic, the Atlantic, and the New York Times. He is the author of “Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet” and “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter”, winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. He lives in Colorado with his wife, Elise, and his dog, Kit — which is, of course, what you call a baby beaver.
About the Book:
“CROSSING: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet”
An eye-opening account of the global ecological transformations wrought by roads, from the award-winning author of Eager. Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience.
While roads are so ubiquitous they're practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. In "Crossings", environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb travels throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet. A million animals are killed by cars each day in the U.S. alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roadkill. This book explores these impacts.

His Final Presentation with Chris Van Allsburg | The Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series
2023-10-20 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
This speaker event was recorded live on Thursday, October 12, 2023, at 5:30 pm in the Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI.
Chris Van Allsburg is one of America’s most innovative picture book creators. Since 1979, his books have blurred the line between fantasy and reality. His illustrations are provocative and eerie, often hinting at an alternate reality lurking behind the next page. His book Jumanji and its sequel Zathura became a series of Hollywood films. His most recognized book, The Polar Express, was also adapted for the big screen and is one of the bestselling children’s books of all time.
Van Allsburg has written and/​or illustrated 21 books. He was awarded the Caldecott Medal for Jumanji and The Polar Express and received a Caldecott Honor for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. He has received the Regina Medal for lifetime achievement in children’s literature, a National Book Award, and has been inducted into The Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, among many other honors. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts.
Learn More>>

The Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series Fall 2023 Season
This winter, the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series brings respected leaders and innovators from a broad spectrum of creative fields to Ann Arbor’s historic Michigan Theater for weekly in-person events.
Detroit Public Television and PBS Books, in partnership with the Stamps School, will stream each week’s event Fridays at 8pm.
See the full schedule of events livestreamed by PBS Books here.
Some programs may not be available online, depending on artist requests. Interested in receiving notifications before online videos go live? Sign up to receive a reminder before each event begins streaming.
Watch Past Penny Stamps Episodes
