PBS Books

PBS Books Readers Club - Allison Pataki
2024-03-27 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Detroit)
Readers Club HomeEpisodes
Episode Description:
Join the PBS Books Readers Club as we chat with New York Times bestselling author Allison Pataki about her latest book “Finding Margaret Fuller.” In this virtual discussion we’ll dive into this fascinating historical fiction read about the adventures of Margaret Fuller, a renowned writer, journalist, and trailblazing women’s rights advocate whose story has too often gone untold.
This work is a book-lovers dream, telling the story of Fuller’s thrilling adventures and relationships with notable literary figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thorough, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allen Poe. Pataki’s captivating storytelling will transport you back in time to the 19th century, where Fuller’s intellect and passion for social change made her a force to be reckoned with. So, grab a cup of tea, cozy up in your favorite reading nook, and get ready to embark on a literary journey with Allison Pataki and the PBS Books Readers Club. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to connect with fellow book lovers and learn more about one of history’s most inspiring women.
About the Book:
Get the E-BookDONATE NOW and download your e-book copy.
In 1836, when young, brazen, beautiful, and unapologetically brilliant Margaret Fuller accepts an invitation from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the celebrated “Sage of Concord,” to stay in Concord, MA, she finds her intellectual equals among his coterie of enlightened friends. She becomes a role model to young Louisa May Alcott, an inspiration to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s character of Hester Prynne and the scandalous Scarlet Letter, a friend to Henry David Thoreau as he ventures into the woods of Walden Pond…and a muse to Emerson himself. But as love triangles and interpersonal drama threaten her ambitions, Margaret finds her restless soul in need of new challenges and adventure and decides she must venture into the broader world.
And so she charts a singular course against a backdrop of dizzying historical drama: From Boston, where she hosts a women-only literary salon for students like Elizabeth Cady Stanton; to Harvard’s campus, where she is the first woman permitted to study within its walls; to her role as the first female foreign news correspondent, mingling with luminaries like Frederic Chopin; and to Rome where she finds a world of passion, romance, and revolution, taking a Roman count as a lover amid a revolution that would result in Italy’s unification.
With a star-studded cast and epic sweep of historical events, this is a story of an inspiring trailblazer, a woman who loved big and lived even bigger—a fierce adventurer who transcended the rigid roles ascribed to women, and changed history for millions, all on her own terms.
Guest Biography:
Allison Pataki
Allison Pataki is the New York Times bestselling author of The Traitor’s Wife, The Accidental Empress, Sisi, The Queen’s Fortune, and The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post. She is also the author of the nonfiction memoir Beauty in the Broken Places and the children’s books, Nelly Takes New York and Poppy Takes Paris. Her novels have been translated into more than 20 languages around the world; she has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, Good Day New York, and MSNBC’s Morning Joe among other outlets.
She has several screenplay adaptations of her novels currently in development for film and television. Pataki graduated cum laude from Yale University and is a former news writer and producer, having written for The New York Times, USA Today, and other outlets. A member of The Historical Novel Society and a certified Yoga instructor, she lives in New York with her husband and family.
Readers Club Hosts:
Heather Marie Montilla
Heather-Marie Montilla, a dynamic integrative leader, is an educator and nonprofit manager. She has worked in the nonprofit sector and libraries for over two decades, making a positive impact in arts, cultural, educational, and community-building arenas.
Having joined the PBS Books team as their Library Bureau Chief in Fall 2018, Montilla is now the National Director of PBS Books and has interviewed more than 150 writers. In addition, she is a faculty member at Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University for their Arts and Cultural/Entertainment Management Programs. Having been an Executive Director for 8 years, Heather has a wide range of experience in management, finance, strategic planning, marketing, and fundraising. Heather holds a MPA From Columbia University, a MLIS from Wayne State University, and a bachelor’s from Duke University. She lives in Chicagoland, and is married with four children, a dog, and a bird.
Princess Weekes
Princess Weekes is an award winning writer and video essayist who works at breaking down the intersections between race, gender, and pop culture. Formally an Assistant Editor at The Mary Sue, co-host of Netflix’s The Geeked Podcast, and co-host and co-writer on the PBS Digital Series It’s Lit. On weekends she works as a bookseller at a local bookstore. When not reading or writing she can be found playing TTRPGs of cuddling with her cat, Lola.
Lauren Smith
Executive Producer and host of national PBS programming at Detroit Public TV, Lauren develops content for PBS and other distributors of public media for broadcast, streaming, and other digital channels and has executive-produced and/or produced over 60 national broadcast and programs. Her passion is to develop inspiring, entertaining, and educational content alongside the best national and international talent, and to engage important content with communities across the country. Lauren loves to read and has worked to develop and produce PBS Books content for nearly ten years!
Fred Nahhat
Fred Nahhat is an Emmy Award-winning producer, host, and presenter for Detroit’s PBS station, where he serves as Sr. VP of Production. A 30-year broadcast veteran, Fred has hosted and produced numerous programs for Public TV – including music specials from Il Volo, Celtic Gold and the New Divas – as well as other series and specials “New Year’s Eve with the DSO”, “The Detroit Dream Cruise,” “The PBS Books Readers Club” and “Get Up, Get Out,” among others.
He is a graduate of Wayne State University and a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Michigan Chapter, USA Hockey, and Leadership Detroit.

CW&T | The Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series
2024-03-29 20:00 - 21:00
This speaker event was recorded live on Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 5:30 pm at the Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI.
CW&T is the recipient of the 2022 National Design Award for Product Design from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. CW&T started as and remains the two-person design practice of Che-Wei Wang and Taylor Levy. With backgrounds in Architecture, Film and Computer Science, the duo met at NYU ITP where they began their scale- and medium-agnostic approach to design.
Since 2009, CW&T’s work has spanned from interactive software to human-scaled tools that enhance their relationships to work, life, and time. Their practice centers around an iterative process of sketching, prototyping, testing, writing code, machining parts, and building each edition themselves to assess their intuitions around improving their everyday experiences. Their projects have included devices that alter our perception of time, an electronics curriculum for artists, an astrological compass for space travelers, and objects engineered to last multiple generations.
Sharing their process with their community is essential to their practice. CW&T cultivates an ethos of openness through teaching and open source software and hardware. Their pedagogy extends into the home/​studio where they host office hours to lend a hand, or offer insight to anyone interested in figuring out how to make something themselves.
Learn More>>

The Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series Spring 2024 Season
This spring, 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

An Evening with Kara Swisher & Mary Barra
2024-04-01 20:00 - 21:00
Program Description:
Join PBS Books as we offer a special evening with best-selling author, Kara Swisher, and General Motors Chair and CEO Mary Barra, which is being presented by the University of Michigan’s Wallace House Center for Journalists and the Gerald R. Ford of Public Policy, as part of the university’s continuing series: “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.”
Award-winning journalist, author, and podcaster, Kara Swisher has interviewed nearly every consequential innovator and tech entrepreneur working today. Her new memoir, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story, is an insider’s tale of success, failure, hubris, and optimism. As the electric vehicle revolution becomes a predominate topic in this country, Swisher sits down with Mary Barra, Chair and CEO of General Motors, to discuss her new book and explore the dynamic interplay of legacy companies, innovation, strategic bets on the future and tech’s potential to solve problems and not just create them.
Book Description:
From award-winning journalist Kara Swisher comes a witty, scathing, but fair accounting of the tech industry and its founders who wanted to change the world but broke it instead.
Part memoir, part history, Burn Book is a necessary chronicle of tech’s most powerful players. From “the queen of all media” (Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal), this is the inside story we’ve all been waiting for about modern Silicon Valley and the biggest boom in wealth creation in the history of the world.
About Wallace House:
Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan is committed to fostering excellence in journalism. It is home to programs that recognize, sustain and elevate the careers of journalists to address the challenges of journalism today, foster civic engagement and uphold the role of a free press in a democratic society. It believes in the fundamental mission of journalism to document, interpret, analyze and investigate the forces shaping society.
Guest Biographies:
Kara Swisher, Award-Winning Journalist
Kara Swisher is the host of the podcast, “On with Kara Swisher,” and the cohost of the “Pivot” podcast with Scott Galloway, both distributed by New York magazine. She was the co-founder and editor-at-large of Recode, host of the “Recode Decode” podcast and co-executive producer of the Code conference. She was a former contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and host of its “Sway” podcast and has also worked for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story” is her third book.
Mary Barra, General Motors Chair & CEO
Mary Barra is Chair and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Under Barra’s leadership, GM envisions a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion. Prior to becoming CEO, Barra served as GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, and as senior vice president, Global Product Development. In these roles, Barra and her teams were responsible for the design, engineering and quality of GM vehicle launches worldwide.

The Wright Conversations with Poet Nikki Giovanni
2024-04-03 20:00 - 21:00
Program Description:
As part of its Wright Conversations series, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History presents Nikki Giovanni, one of this country’s most widely read poets and one of America’s most renowned poets worldwide. Her poem, “Knoxville, Tennessee,” is arguably the single literary work most often associated with that city. Giovanni has received numerous awards in the course of her career, including seven Image Awards from the N.A.A.C.P., more than two-dozen honorary degrees, the first Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award, the Langston Hughes Medal for Poetry, and the Carl Sandburg Literary Award; additionally, Oprah Winfrey recognized her in 2005 as one of twenty-five “Living Legends.” She continues to teach, write, and publish books. Her most recent collection, “Make Me Rain,” was released in October of 2020.
Guest Biography:
Nikki Giovanni, Poet
Poet Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943. Although she grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, she and her sister returned to Knoxville each summer to visit their grandparents. Nikki graduated with honors in history from her grandfather’s alma mater, Fisk University. Since 1987, she has been on the faculty at Virginia Tech, where she is a University Distinguished Professor. She has been nominated for a Grammy and a finalist for the National Book Award. She has authored three New York Times and Los Angeles Times best-sellers, highly unusual for a poet. For more information in the words of the poet herself, visit here.

Lynn Hershman Leeson | The Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series
2024-04-05 20:00 - 21:00
This speaker event was recorded live on Thursday, March 28, 2024 at 5:30 pm at the Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI.
As part of the 62nd Ann Arbor Film Festival, this special program will showcase a curated selection of Lynn Hershman Leeson’s short films, followed by a conversation. Filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson will join remotely, and curator Julia Yezbick will interview her from the Michigan Theater’s stage.
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s work cannot be contained by any one medium. Her practice is voracious; consuming both traditional artistic media (installation, painting, and video) as well as interactive LaserDiscs and synthetic DNA. Responding to the social and scientific technologies of the day, Hershman Leeson’s work anticipates the quandaries into which we will be collectively thrown. Her performance piece as Roberta Breitmore (1973) underscored the gendered contours of personhood as defined by the state, laying bare the ways in which we reproduce ourselves as ephemeral simulacra according to these superstructures. She was working with chatbots (Agent Ruby, 1998 – 2002) downloadable to a Palm Pilot decades before chatGPT had broken into public consciousness, questioning the role that artificial intelligences will play in our lives. This program of her short film and video works highlights her long-held fascination with reality, selfhood, and technological reproduction, prompting us to question whether it is at all possible to disambiguate ourselves from our tech-saturated worlds. Her short films shown here distill the impetus of her decades-long work: a quest for freedom from the many constraints imposed on us by society and the potentialities as well as the pitfalls presented by the ongoing technological augmentation of our lives.
Julia Yezbick is a filmmaker, artist, programmer, and anthropologist. She received her PhD in Media Anthropology and Critical Media Practice from Harvard University. Her audio and video works have been exhibited at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the New York Library for Performing Arts, Station Arts Space (Beirut), the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Broad Underground Film series (Lansing), the AgX Film Collective, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit. Yezbick’s works of experimental nonfiction are grounded in feminist responses to social issues such as housing and urban transformations as well as commentaries on gendered labor, identity, and movement and the body. She is a 2018 Kresge Artist Fellow for film, the founding Editor of Sensate: a journal for experiments in critical media practice, and co-directs Mothlight Microcinema in Detroit. Yezbick is currently an Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Learn More>>

The Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series Spring 2024 Season
This spring, 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

"You Are Here" Author Talk with Ada Limón
2024-04-10 20:00 - 21:00
Program Description:
PBS Books is thrilled to celebrate Poetry Month and Earth Month with Ada Limón, the 24th Poet Laurette of the United States. National Director of PBS Books, Heather-Marie Montilla and Ada Limón discuss her recently published anthology You Are Here: Poetry In The Natural World, a collection of fifty poems that reflect on our relationship to the natural world by contemporary writers. Collaboratively published by Milkweed Editions and the Library of Congress, this anthology depicts the ever-changing poetic landscape. Ada Limón provides a new foundation on how we can explore and enjoy poetry in our own unique way and discusses her important work as the first Latina US Poet Laurette, making poetry more accessible for all Americans. Highlights include her collaboration with the National Park Service and NASA on exciting projects.
You Are Here
Published in association with the Library of Congress and edited by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States, a singular collection of fifty poems reflecting on our relationship to the natural world by our most celebrated contemporary writers.
For many years, “nature poetry” has evoked images of Romantic poets standing on mountain tops. But our poetic landscape has changed dramatically, and so has our planet. Edited and introduced by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States, Ada Limón, this book challenges what we think we know about “nature poetry,” illuminating the myriad ways our landscapes—both literal and literary—are changing.
You Are Here features fifty previously unpublished poems from some of the nation’s most accomplished poets, including Joy Harjo, Diane Seuss, Rigoberto González, Jericho Brown, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Paul Tran, and more. Each poem engages with its author’s local landscape—be it the breathtaking variety of flora in a national park, or a lone tree flowering persistently by a bus stop—offering an intimate model of how we relate to the world around us and a beautifully diverse range of voices from across the United States.
Read More by Ada Limón:
The Carrying
The Carrying by Ada Limón
Vulnerable, tender, acute, these are serious poems, brave poems, exploring with honesty the ambiguous moment between the rapture of youth and the grace of acceptance. A daughter tends to aging parents. A woman struggles with infertility—“What if, instead of carrying / a child, I am supposed to carry grief?”—and a body seized by pain and vertigo as well as ecstasy. A nation convulses: “Every song of this country / has an unsung third stanza, something brutal.” And still Limón shows us, as ever, the persistence of hunger, love, and joy, the dizzying fullness of our too-short lives. “Fine then, / I’ll take it,” she writes. “I’ll take it all.”
In Bright Dead Things, Limón showed us a heart “giant with power, heavy with blood”—“the huge beating genius machine / that thinks, no, it knows, / it’s going to come in first.” In her follow-up collection, that heart is on full display—even as The Carrying continues further and deeper into the bloodstream, following the hard-won truth of what it means to live in an imperfect world.
The Hurting Kind
The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón
“I have always been too sensitive, a weeper / from a long line of weepers,” writes Limón. “I am the hurting kind.” What does it mean to be the hurting kind? To be sensitive not only to the world’s pain and joys, but to the meanings that bend in the scrim between the natural world and the human world? To divine the relationships between us all? To perceive ourselves in other beings—and to know that those beings are resolutely their own, that they “do not / care to be seen as symbols”?
With Limón’s remarkable ability to trace thought, The Hurting Kind explores those questions—incorporating others’ stories and ways of knowing, making surprising turns, and always reaching a place of startling insight. These poems slip through the seasons, teeming with horses and kingfishers and the gleaming eyes of fish. And they honor parents, stepparents, and grandparents: the sacrifices made, the separate lives lived, the tendernesses extended to a hurting child; the abundance, in retrospect, of having two families.
Along the way, we glimpse loss. There are flashes of the pandemic, ghosts whose presence manifests in unexpected memories and the mysterious behavior of pets left behind. But The Hurting Kind is filled, above all, with connection and the delight of being in the world. “Slippery and waddle thieving my tomatoes still / green in the morning’s shade,” writes Limón of a groundhog in her garden, “she is doing what she can to survive.”
Lucky Wreck
Lucky Wreck by Ada Limón
The poems in Lucky Wreck trace the excitement of plans and the necessary swerving detours we must take when those plans fail. Looking to shipwrecks on the television, road trips ending in traffic accidents, and homes that become sites of infestation, Ada Limón finds threads of hope amid an array of small tragedies and significant setbacks. Open, honest, and grounded, the poems in this collection seek answers to familiar questions and teach us ways to cope with the pain of many losses with earnestness and humor. Through the wrecks, these poems continue to offer assurance.
Celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of Limón’s award-winning debut, this edition includes a new introduction by the poet that reflects on the book and on how her writing practice has developed over time.

Bright Dead Things
Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón
A book of bravado and introspection, of 21st century feminist swagger and harrowing terror and loss, this fourth collection considers how we build our identities out of place and human contact—tracing in intimate detail the various ways the speaker’s sense of self both shifts and perseveres as she moves from New York City to rural Kentucky, loses a dear parent, ages past the capriciousness of youth, and falls in love.

Guest Biography:
Ada Limón, Poet
Ada Limón the author of six books of poetry, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her book Bright Dead Things was nominated for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Her most recent book of poetry, The Hurting Kind, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and wrote a poem that will be engraved on NASA’s Europa Clipper Spacecraft that will be launched to the second moon of Jupiter in October 2024. As the 24th Poet Laureate of The United States, her signature project is called You Are Here and focuses on how poetry can help connect us to the natural world. She will serve as Poet Laureate until the spring of 2025. In October of 2023 she was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.

PBS Books Readers Club - Scott Alexander Howard
2024-04-24 20:00 - 21:00
Readers Club HomeEpisodes
Episode Description:
Join the PBS Books Readers Club as we plumb the depths of Scott Alexander Howard’s debut novel, The Other Valley. Fans of the PBS series A Brief History Of The Future and books like Never Let Me Go and The Giver will enjoy this book about an isolated town neighbored by its own past and future.
The Other Valley tells the story of Odile, an awkward, quiet girl vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decide who may cross her town’s heavily guarded borders. On the other side, it’s the same valley, the same town. Except to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness. This thrilling page-turner will make readers ask the question: would you want to know your future if you could? And what would you risk to change it? The Other Valley is a Simon & Schuster Top Shelf Pick, a Goodreads Most Anticipated Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror Book of 2024, and is soon to be a TV series.
So don’t miss this chance to join the PBS Books Readers Club in conversation with Scott Alexander Howard about this pick that Booklist calls “Beautifully written… a triumph.”
About the Book:
Get the E-BookDONATE NOW and download your e-book copy.
Sixteen-year-old Odile is an awkward, quiet girl vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decide who may cross her town’s heavily guarded borders. On the other side, it’s the same valley, the same town. Except to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness. When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he’s still alive in Odile’s present. Edme––who is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly see Odile––is about to die. Sworn to secrecy in order to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the Conseil’s top candidate. Yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, imperiling her entire future.
Guest Biography:
Scott Alexander Howard
Scott Alexander Howard lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Toronto and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, where his work focused on the relationship between memory, emotion, and literature. The Other Valley is his first novel. Connect with him at ScottAlexanderHoward.com.
Readers Club Hosts:
Heather Marie Montilla
Heather-Marie Montilla, a dynamic integrative leader, is an educator and nonprofit manager. She has worked in the nonprofit sector and libraries for over two decades, making a positive impact in arts, cultural, educational, and community-building arenas.
Having joined the PBS Books team as their Library Bureau Chief in Fall 2018, Montilla is now the National Director of PBS Books and has interviewed more than 150 writers. In addition, she is a faculty member at Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University for their Arts and Cultural/Entertainment Management Programs. Having been an Executive Director for 8 years, Heather has a wide range of experience in management, finance, strategic planning, marketing, and fundraising. Heather holds a MPA From Columbia University, a MLIS from Wayne State University, and a bachelor’s from Duke University. She lives in Chicagoland, and is married with four children, a dog, and a bird.
Princess Weekes
Princess Weekes is an award winning writer and video essayist who works at breaking down the intersections between race, gender, and pop culture. Formally an Assistant Editor at The Mary Sue, co-host of Netflix’s The Geeked Podcast, and co-host and co-writer on the PBS Digital Series It’s Lit. On weekends she works as a bookseller at a local bookstore. When not reading or writing she can be found playing TTRPGs of cuddling with her cat, Lola.
Lauren Smith
Executive Producer and host of national PBS programming at Detroit Public TV, Lauren develops content for PBS and other distributors of public media for broadcast, streaming, and other digital channels and has executive-produced and/or produced over 60 national broadcast and programs. Her passion is to develop inspiring, entertaining, and educational content alongside the best national and international talent, and to engage important content with communities across the country. Lauren loves to read and has worked to develop and produce PBS Books content for nearly ten years!
Fred Nahhat
Fred Nahhat is an Emmy Award-winning producer, host, and presenter for Detroit’s PBS station, where he serves as Sr. VP of Production. A 30-year broadcast veteran, Fred has hosted and produced numerous programs for Public TV – including music specials from Il Volo, Celtic Gold and the New Divas – as well as other series and specials “New Year’s Eve with the DSO”, “The Detroit Dream Cruise,” “The PBS Books Readers Club” and “Get Up, Get Out,” among others.
He is a graduate of Wayne State University and a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Michigan Chapter, USA Hockey, and Leadership Detroit.

Visions of America: Voices of Arab American Experiences - Exploring the Arab American National Museum
2024-04-25 20:00 - 21:00
Visions of America HomeEpisodesProgram Description:
Join VISIONS OF AMERICA: All the Stories, People & Places as we highlight Arab Americans stories and communities through our episode Voices of Arab-American Experiences, Exploring the Arab American National Museum. VISIONS OF AMERICA is a collaboration between PBS Books and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) that highlights cultural institutions and captures first-person experiences to celebrate the diverse tapestry of America, as we approach the American’s semiquincentennial.
IMLS Deputy Director Laura Huerta Migus talks with the Director of the Arab American National Museum Diana Abouali, Ph.D. about her important institution, its cultural and community significance, and some exciting museum projects. IMLS Acting Deputy Director of Library Services Anthony Smith discusses with librarian and scholar Kaoukab Cherbaro about her work, Arab American culture, heritage, and preservation, while highlighting her recent exhibit Science, Nature and Beauty: Harmony and Cosmological Perspectives in Islamic Science.
More to discover with Visions of America:

Discover more with Dr. Kaoukab Chebaro who has spent her career championing for the preservation of the individual history of Arabs across the globe. Her work within these institutions has brought first person storytelling center stage. Hear more about the important work being done to amplify the Arab American story through incredible archive efforts across the areas of math, science, poetry, language, culture and more.
Exhibits & Projects:
Arab American National Museum – Museum Website
Science, Nature and Beauty: Harmony and Cosmological Perspectives in Islamic Science – Exhibit Brochure, Learn More About the Exhibit
The Muslim World Project – Muslim World Project, What Can Manuscripts Teach Us?
Palestinian Oral History Archive – Archive
Islamic Science Exhibit Catalog – Exhibit Brochure, Learn More About the Exhibit
Sam Hamod, Poet – Dying With the Wrong Name, About Sam Hamod
Dunya Mikhail, Poet – About Dunya
Guest Biographies:
Diana Abouali – Director of the Arab American National Museum
Diana Abouali is the director of the Arab American National Museum (AANM). She has worked in higher education and in the museum and cultural heritage sectors in the United States, Palestine and Jordan. Diana joined ACCESS in 2019.
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Born in Toronto, Canada to Palestinian parents, Diana completed her secondary education in Kuwait. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and received an MA in Middle Eastern Studies (1995) and a PhD in History and Middle Eastern Studies (2004) from Harvard University. From 2005 to 2012, Diana was an assistant professor at Dartmouth College, teaching courses in Arab-Islamic civilization, gender studies and the social and cultural history of the Middle East.
From 2012 to 2013, Diana worked as Head of Research and Collections at the newly established Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, Palestine. Relocating to Amman, Jordan in 2014, she worked as Director of Education, Outreach and Awareness at the Petra National Trust. She was Project Manager at Tiraz: Widad Kawar Home for Arab Dress on an AHRC-ESRC Global Challenges Fund (UK) project, in cooperation with Plymouth University and the Information and Research Center-King Hussein Foundation. In that position and as part of a larger study of resilience among male Syrian artisan refugees in Jordan, she co-produced a training program and toolkit in social-enterprise creation to preserve cultural heritage. Diana has organized and delivered cultural heritage education workshops to Syrian children and women in the Azraq and Zaatari refugee camps, and occasionally teaches college-level courses in the U.S. and Jordan. Diana is a member of the general assembly of Taawon-Welfare Association, the largest Palestinian NGO that provides development and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory and Lebanon. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of ArteEast (NYC) and CultureSource (MI) and serves on the Citizens Advisory Committee at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. She is a graduate of Leadership Detroit XLI.
Kaoukab Chebaro – Head, Global Studies, Columbia University
Kaoukab Chebaro currently serves as the Head of Global Studies at the Columbia University Libraries. She previously served as Associate University Librarian for Archives and Special Collections at the Libraries of the American University of Beirut, and as the Islamic and Middle East Studies Librarian at the Columbia University Libraries.
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Kaoukab has served on numerous Library, archives and cultural heritage committees in or about the region. She has also served as the PI for the NEH-funded Palestinian Oral History Archive (2016-19). Kaoukab is interested in oral history as a tool at the service of expanding the politics of knowledge production and representation, specifically around the Global South, the Middle East, and human rights.

Contemporary American Authors Lecture Series (CAALS) 35th Bauder Lecture with Tracy K. Smith
2024-04-26 20:00 - 21:00
Program Description:
The Marygrove Conservancy has partnered with PBS Books to present the 35th Contemporary American Authors Lecture Series (CAALS). Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, former poet laureate of the United States, and professor of English and African and African American Studies at Harvard, Tracy K. Smith, will read from her award-winning work followed by discussion lead by Nandi Comer, the Michigan Poet Laureate to discover more about Prof. Smith’s work and legacy.
Established in 1989, CAALS is an annual event bringing a nationally known African American author to our campus for a public lecture and class session or conversation. Through generous support the series has remained free and accessible to the community. To date, over 10,000 people have attended the Friday night public readings to hear outstanding writers share their work, and thousands of Detroit area high school and college students as well as others in the Detroit community have studied these works and attended class sessions with guest authors in the series.
Sponsorship of this program has been brought to you by: The Lillian and Don Bauder Foundation, Michigan Arts and Culture Council, The National Endowment for the Arts, and The Kresge Foundation & AARP of Michigan.
About the book:
To Free the Captives touches down in Sunflower, Alabama, the red-dirt town where Smith’s father’s family comes from, and where her grandfather returned after World War Iwith a hero’s record but difficult prospects as a Black man. Smith considers his life and the life of her father through the lens of history. Hoping to connect with their strength and continuance, she assembles a new terminology of American life.
Bearing courageous witness to the terms of Freedom afforded her as a Black woman, a mother, and an educator in the twenty-first century, Smith etches a portrait of where we find ourselves four hundred years into the American experiment. Weaving in an account of her growing spiritual practice, she argues that the soul is not merely a private site of respite or transcendence, but a tool for fulfilling our duties to each other, and a sounding board for our most pressing collective questions: Where are we going as a nation? Where have we been?
About the Author:
Tracy K. Smith
22nd United States Poet Laureate (2017-2019) & Professor of English and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and a Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute
Tracy K. Smith is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, memoirist, editor, translator and librettist. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017-19, during which time she spearheaded American Conversations: Celebrating Poetry in Rural Communities with the Library of Congress, created the American Public Media podcast The Slowdown, and edited the anthology American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time.
Smith is the author of five poetry collections: Such Color: New and Selected Poems, which won the 2022 New England Book Award; Wade in the Water, which was awarded the 2018 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; Life on Mars, which won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize; Duende, winner of the 2006 James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets; and The Body’s Question, which received the 2003 Cave Canem Prize. Her memoir, Ordinary Light, was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in nonfiction. She is the co-translator (with Changtai Bi) of My Name Will Grow Wide like a Tree: Selected Poems of Yi Lei, which was a finalist for the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize; and co-editor (with John Freeman) of There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis. Her memoir-manifesto, To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul, was a Time magazine and Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.
Among Smith’s other honors are the Academy Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets, the Harvard Arts Medal, the Columbia Medal for Excellence, a Smithsonian Ingenuity Award and an Essence Literary Award. She is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Philosophical Society.
She is a Professor of English and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and a Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute.

"Memory Piece" Author Talk with Lisa Ko
2024-05-01 20:00 - 21:00
Program Description:
In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, PBS Books is thrilled to have a bestselling author, Lisa Ko, join us to discuss her highly anticipated book Memory Piece. Lisa takes us on a road trip through time with Giselle (artist), Jackie (internet tech expert) & Ellen (activist), three lifelong friends whose lives as children growing up in the 80s shaped their prospects as adults at the turn of the millennia. We discuss the stories, people, and cultural events spanning the past four decades that inspired this story, and the outlook based on current events that shaped the book’s dystopian landscape four decades in the future. This visionary book will have you remembering and reflecting on the past, give you a glimpse of life not driven by technology, and leave you questioning what the future looks like. Join us to get special insights into this provocative book.
Memory Piece

In the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are three teenagers drawn together by their shared sense of alienation and desire for something different. “Allied in the weirdest parts of themselves,” they envision each other as artistic collaborators and embark on a future defined by freedom and creativity.By the time they are adults, their dreams are murkier. As a performance artist, Giselle must navigate an elite social world she never conceived of. As a coder thrilled by the internet’s early egalitarian promise, Jackie must contend with its more sinister shift toward monetization and surveillance. And as a community activist, Ellen confronts the increasing gentrification and policing overwhelming her New York City neighborhood. Over time their friendship matures and changes, their definitions of success become complicated, and their sense of what matters evolves.Moving from the predigital 1980s to the art and tech subcultures of the 1990s to a strikingly imagined portrait of the 2040s, Memory Piece is an innovative and audacious story of three lifelong friends as they strive to build satisfying lives in a world that turns out to be radically different from the one they were promised.

Learn more about Memory Piece:
Learn more about Artist On Kawara:
Dive into Lisa’s Time Capsule:
Learn more about performance artist Tehching Hsieh:
Guest Biography:
Lisa Ko, Author
LISA KO is the author of the nationally bestselling novel The Leavers, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Ko’s short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories and her essays and nonfiction have been published in The New York Times and The Believer.

Author Talk with Kelly Yang
2024-05-15 20:00 - 21:00
Program Description:
Join PBS Books National Director Heather-Marie Montilla for an update from bestselling author, Kelly Yang. Since our last conversation with Kelly, she has released seven new titles for her middle-grade readers to enjoy, including two additions to her beloved series The Front Desk. We’ll discover more behind these novels and find out what’s next for Kelly Yang on this episode of PBS Books.
Front Desk Series
Front Desk
Front Desk by Kelly Yang
Inside Out and Back Again meets Millicent Min, Girl Genius in this timely, hopeful middle-grade novel with a contemporary Chinese twist.
Mia Tang has a lot of secrets:
Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests.
Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they’ve been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed.
Number 3: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language?
It will take all of Mia’s courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and go for her dreams?
Three Keys
Three Keys by Kelly Yang
The story of Mia and her family and friends at the Calivista Motel continues in this powerful, hilarious, and resonant sequel to the award-winning novel Front Desk.
Mia Tang thinks she’s going to have the best year ever. She and her parents are the proud owners of the Calivista Motel, Mia gets to run the front desk with her best friend, Lupe, and she’s finally getting somewhere with her writing! But as it turns out, sixth grade is no picnic…
1. Mia’s new teacher doesn’t think her writing is all that great. And her entire class finds out she lives and works in a motel!
2. The motel is struggling, and Mia has to answer to the Calivista’s many, many worried investors.
3. A new immigration law is looming and if it passes, it will threaten everything — and everyone — in Mia’s life.
It’s a roller coaster of challenges, and Mia needs all of her determination to hang on tight. But if anyone can find the key to getting through turbulent times, it’s Mia Tang!
Room to Dream
Room to Dream by Kelly Yang
Mia Tang is going for her dreams!
After years of hard work, Mia Tang finally gets to go on vacation with her family — to China! A total dream come true! Mia can’t wait to see all her cousins and grandparents again, especially her cousin Shen. As she roams around Beijing, witnessing some of the big changes China’s going through, Mia thinks about the changes in her own life, like . . .
1. Lupe’s taking classes at the high school! And Mia’s own plans to be a big writer are . . . stuck.
2. Something happened with Jason and Mia has no idea what to do about it.
3. New buildings are popping up all around the motel, and small businesses are disappearing.
Can the Calivista survive? Buckle up! Mia is more determined than ever to get through the turbulence, now that she finally has . . . room to dream!
Key Player
Key Player by Kelly Yang
Mia Tang is play to win!
The Women’s World Cup is coming to Southern California, and everyone has soccer fever―especially Mia Tang! The U.S. team is playing China in the finals, and Mia feels like her two identities are finally coming together. But when her P.E. teacher gives her a C, Mia tries to pull up her grade by scoring interviews with the championship teams. It’s not so easy when . . .
1. The two teams are hunkered down in secret hotels in Pasadena and not taking any media requests.
2. Mr. Yao is back at the motel―as a co-owner! Jason is sure his dad deserves a second chance. Mia is not so sure.
3. Mia’s parents are trying to buy a house of their very own, which turns out to be a LOT harder than they thought!
As Mia aims for her goals, she’ll have to face strikers from all corners, as well as her own fears. But if anyone can find a way to win big, it’s Mia Tang!

Top Story
Top Story by Kelly Yang
Mia Tang is at the top of her game!
She’s spending winter break with Mom, Lupe, Jason, and Hank in San Francisco’s Chinatown! Rich with history and hilarious aunties and uncles, it’s the place to find a great story―one she hopes to publish while attending journalism camp at the Tribune. But this trip has as many bumps as the hills of San Francisco . . .
1. Mia’s camp is full of older kids, with famous relatives, fancy laptops, and major connections! Can she compete with just her pen and passion?
2. Lupe’s thinking about skipping ahead to college! Will Mia ever get a chance to just chill with her best friend?
3. Jason’s crushing hard on a new girl. For the first time ever, Mia is speechless…and jealous. Can she find the courage to tell Jason―gulp―that she has a crush on him?
Even for the best writers, it’s not always easy to find the right words. But if anyone can tell a top story, it’s Mia Tang!
Other Great Reads by Kelly Yang
Parachutes
Parachutes by Kelly Yang
They’re called parachutes: teenagers dropped off to live in private homes and study in the United States while their wealthy parents remain in Asia. Claire Wang never thought she’d be one of them, until her parents pluck her from her privileged life in Shanghai and enroll her at a high school in California.
Suddenly she finds herself living in a stranger’s house, with no one to tell her what to do for the first time in her life. She soon embraces her newfound freedom, especially when the hottest and most eligible parachute, Jay, asks her out.
Dani De La Cruz, Claire’s new host sister, couldn’t be less thrilled that her mom rented out a room to Claire. An academic and debate team star, Dani is determined to earn her way into Yale, even if it means competing with privileged kids who are buying their way to the top. But Dani’s game plan veers unexpectedly off course when her debate coach starts working with her privately.
As they steer their own distinct paths, Dani and Claire keep crashing into one another, setting a course that will change their lives forever.
New From Here
New From Here by Kelly Yang
When the coronavirus hits Hong Kong, ten-year-old Knox Wei-Evans’s mom makes the last-minute decision to move him and his siblings back to California, where they think they will be safe. Suddenly, Knox has two days to prepare for an international move—and for leaving his dad, who has to stay for work.
At his new school in California, Knox struggles with being the new kid. His classmates think that because he’s from Asia, he must have brought over the virus. At home, Mom just got fired and is panicking over the loss of health insurance, and Dad doesn’t even know when he’ll see them again, since the flights have been cancelled. And everyone struggles with Knox’s blurting-things-out problem.
As racism skyrockets during COVID-19, Knox tries to stand up to hate, while finding his place in his new country. Can you belong if you’re feared; can you protect if you’re new? And how do you keep a family together when you’re oceans apart? Sometimes when the world is spinning out of control, the best way to get through it is to embrace our own lovable uniqueness.
Finally Heard
Finally Heard by Kelly Yang
When ten-year-old Lina Gao sees her mom’s video on social media take off, she’s captivated by the potential to be seen and heard! Maybe online she can finally find the confidence she craves. Whereas in real life she’s growing so fast, she feels like microwave popcorn, bursting out of her skin!
With the help of her two best friends, Carla and Finn, and her little sister, Millie, Lina sets off to go viral. Except there’s a lot more to social media than Lina ever imagined, like:
1. Seeing inside her classmates’ lives! Is she really the only person on the planet who doesn’t have a walk-in closet?
2. Group chats! Disappearing videos! What is everyone talking about in the secret chats? And how can she join?
3. A bazillion stories about what to eat, wear, and put on her face. Could they all be telling the truth? Everyone sounds so sure of what they’re saying!
As Lina descends deeper and deeper into social media, it will take all her strength to break free from the likes and find the courage to be her authentic self in this fast-paced world.
Finally Seen
Finally Seen by Kelly Yang
My sister got to grow up with my parents. Me? I grew up with postcards from my parents.
When ten-year-old Lina Gao steps off the plane in Los Angeles, it’s her first time in America and the first time seeing her parents and her little sister in five years! She’s been waiting for this moment every day while she lived with her grandmother in Beijing, getting teased by kids at school who called her “left behind girl.” Finally, her parents are ready for her to join their fabulous life in America! Except, it’s not exactly like in the postcards:
1. School’s a lot harder than she thought. When she mispronounces some words in English on the first day, she decides she simply won’t talk. Ever again.
2. Her chatty little sister has no problem with English. And seems to do everything better than Lina, including knowing exactly the way to her parents’ hearts.
3. They live in an apartment, not a house like in Mom’s letters, and they owe a lot of back rent from the pandemic. And Mom’s plan to pay it back sounds more like a hobby than a moneymaker.
As she reckons with her hurt, Lina tries to keep a lid on her feelings, both at home and at school. When her teacher starts facing challenges for her latest book selection, a book that deeply resonates with Lina, it will take all of Lina’s courage and resilience to get over her fear and choose a future where she’s finally seen.
Private Label
Private Label by Kelly Yang
Serene dreams of making couture dresses even more stunning than her mom’s, but for now she’s an intern at her mom’s fashion label. When her mom receives a sudden diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, all that changes. Serene has to take over her mother’s business overnight while trying to figure out what happened with her dad in Beijing. He left before she was born, and Serene wants to find him, even if it means going against her mom’s one request—never look back.
Lian Chen moved from China to Serene’s mostly white Southern California beach town a year ago. He doesn’t fit in at school, where kids mispronounce his name. His parents don’t care about what he wants to do—comedy—and push him toward going to MIT engineering early. Lian thinks there’s nothing to stick around for until one day he starts a Chinese Club after school . . . and Serene walks in.
Worlds apart in the high school hierarchy, Serene and Lian soon find refuge in each other, falling in love as they navigate life-changing storms.
Yes We Will: Asian Americans Who Shaped History
Yes We Will: Asian Americans Who Shaped History by Kelly Yang
From creating beautiful music like Yo-Yo Ma to flying to outer space like Franklin Chang-Díaz; from standing up to injustice like Fred Korematsu to becoming the first Asian American, Black and female vice president of the United States like Kamala Harris, this book illuminates the power of Asian Americans all over the country, in all sorts of fields.
Each spread is illustrated by a different renowned Asian American or Asian artist. Alongside the poetic main text, Yes We Will includes one-line biographies of the person or historical moment featured on the page, with extended biographies at the end. Readers of different ages and needs can use the book in different ways, from classroom discussions to bedtime readalouds and more.
Yes We Will answers the question, can we accomplish whatever we dream? With love, courage, determination, and lots of imagination, we can—and we will!
Guest Biography:
Kelly Yang, Author
KELLY YANG is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of FINALLY SEEN, NEW FROM HERE, the FRONT DESK series (“One of the 30 Most Influential Children’s Books Of All Time” -BookRiot), including FRONT DESK, THREE KEYS, and ROOM TO DREAM, KEY PLAYER, and TOP STORY, YES WE WILL, and young adult novels PARACHUTES and PRIVATE LABEL. FRONT DESK is Kelly’s award-winning middle grade debut novel about a 10 year old Chinese American immigrant girl who manages the front desk of a motel while her parents clean the rooms. FRONT DESK was awarded the 2019 Asian Pacific American Award for Literature, the Parents’ Choice Gold Medal, was the 2019 Global Read Aloud, and was named an Amazon Best Book of the Year, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a NPR Best Book of the Year, and a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year.
Kelly immigrated to America when she was 6 years old and grew up in Southern California, where she and her parents worked in three different motels. She overcame poverty to go to college at the age of 13 and law school at the age of 17. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley, where she majored in Political Science, and Harvard Law School. After law school, she gave up law to pursue her passion of writing and teaching children writing. She is the founder of The Kelly Yang Project (kellyyang.edu.hk), a leading writing and debating program for kids in Asia. As a writing teacher for 13 years, Kelly helped thousands of children find their voice and become better writers and more powerful speakers. Before turning to fiction, she was also a columnist for the South China Morning Post for many years. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. She is the Honorary Chair of the American Library Association for National Library Week. She has three children and lives in Los Angeles.

What to Read this Summer with Booklist Reader
2024-05-22 20:00 - 21:00
Program Description:
Join PBS Books and the American Library Association’s Booklist Reader teams as we dive into all the must-read adult fiction books this summer. Whether you’re on the hunt for a quick weekend read, looking for a new series, or thinking about re-discovering a favorite author, there will be no shortage of great picks in this can’t-miss episode. So, grab a pen as we help you create your Summer Reading List!
What to Read this Summer (2024)James
James by Percival Everett
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.
Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.
State of Paradise
State of Paradise by Laura van den Berg
A heart-racing fun house of uncanniness hidden in Florida’s underbelly, from a reality-warping storyteller.
Along with her husband, a ghostwriter for a famous thriller author returns to her mother’s house in the Florida town where she grew up. As the summer heat sets in, she wrestles with family secrets and memories of her own troubled youth. Her mercurial sister, who lives next door, spends a growing amount of time using MIND’S EYE, a virtual reality device provided to citizens of the town by ELECTRA, a tech company in South Florida, during the doldrums of a recent pandemic. But it’s not just the ominous cats, her mother’s burgeoning cult, or the fact that her belly button has become an increasingly deep cavern―something is off in the town, and it probably has to do with the posters of missing citizens spread throughout the streets.
During a violent rainstorm, the writer’s sister goes missing for several days. When she returns, sprawled on their mother’s lawn and speaking of another dimension, the writer is forced to investigate not only what happened to her sister and the other missing people but also the uncanny connections between ELECTRA, the famous author, and reality itself.
A sticky, rain-soaked reckoning with the elusive nature of storytelling, Laura van den Berg’s Florida Diary is an interlocking and page-turning whirlwind. With inimitable control and thrilling style, she reaches deep into the void and returns with a story far stranger than either reality or fiction.
Villa E
Villa E by Jane Alison
From the author of Meander, Spiral, Explode, an astounding novel inspired by the collision of Irish designer Eileen Gray and famed Swiss architect Le Corbusier.
Along the glittering coast of southern France, a white villa sits atop an earthen terrace—a site of artistic genius, now subject to bitter dispute. Eileen, a new architect known for her elegant chair designs, poured the concrete herself; she built it as a haven for her and her lover, and called it E-1027. When the hulking Le G, a founder of modernist architecture, laid eyes on the house in 1929, he could see his influence in the sleek lines—and he would not be outdone. Impassioned, he took a paintbrush to the clean, white walls. . . .
Thirty years later, Eileen has not returned to Villa E and Le G has never left—his summers spent aging in a cabin just feet away. Mining the psyches of two brilliant, complex artists and the extrordinary place that bound them, Jane Alison boldly reimagines a now-legendary act of vandalism into a lushly poetic and mesmerizing novel of power, predation, and obsession.
Catalina
Catalina by Carla Cornejo Villavicencio
When Catalina is admitted to Harvard, it feels like the fulfillment of destiny: a miracle child escapes death in Latin America, moves to Queens to be raised by her undocumented grandparents, and becomes one of the chosen. But nothing is simple for Catalina, least of all her own complicated, contradictory, ruthlessly probing mind. Now a senior, she faces graduation to a world that has no place for the undocumented; her sense of doom intensifies her curiosities and desires. She infiltrates the school’s elite subcultures—internships and literary journals, posh parties and secret societies—which she observes with the eye of an anthropologist and an interloper’s skepticism: she is both fascinated and repulsed. Craving a great romance, Catalina finds herself drawn to a fellow student, an actual budding anthropologist eager to teach her about the Latin American world she was born into but never knew, even as her life back in Queens begins to unravel. And every day, the clock ticks closer to the abyss of life after graduation. Can she save her family? Can she save herself? What does it mean to be saved?
Brash and daring, part campus novel, part hagiography, part pop song, Catalina is unlike any coming-of-age novel you’ve ever read—and Catalina, bright and tragic, circled by a nimbus of chaotic energy, driven by a wild heart, is a character you will never forget.
One of Our Kind
One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon
The Stepford Wives meets Get Out in Nicola Yoon’s first adult novel, a terrifying and thought-provoking look at what it means to be truly free in America.
When Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California, they hope to find a community of like-minded people, a place where their growing family can thrive. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world’s troubles.
Jasmyn’s only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by Liberty’s outlook, a frustration that turns to dread when their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life. As Jasmyn learns more about Liberty and its founders, she discovers a terrible secret that threatens to destroy her world in ways she never could have imagined.
This Strange Eventful History
This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud
An immersive, masterful story of a family born on the wrong side of history, from one of our finest contemporary novelists.
Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the pieds-noirs Cassars live in an itinerant state―separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all. This Strange Eventful History, told with historical sweep, is above all a family story: of patriarch Gaston and his wife Lucienne, whose myth of perfect love sustains them and stifles their children; of François and Denise, devoted siblings connected by their family’s strangeness; of François’s union with Barbara, a woman so culturally different they can barely comprehend one another; of Chloe, the result of that union, who believes that telling these buried stories will bring them all peace.
Inspired in part by long-ago stories from her own family’s history, Claire Messud animates her characters’ rich interior lives amid the social and political upheaval of the recent past. As profoundly intimate as it is expansive, This Strange Eventful History is “a tour de force…one of those rare novels that a reader doesn’t merely read but lives through with the characters” (Yiyun Li).
Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame
Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford
Nothing could be more out of character, but after fifty-nine years of marriage, as her husband Bernard’s health declines, and her friends’ lives become focused on their grandchildren—which Jenny never had—Jenny decides she wants a little something for herself. So she secretly applies to be a contestant on the prime-time TV show Britain Bakes.
Whisked into an unfamiliar world of cameras and timed challenges, Jenny delights in a new-found independence. But that independence, and the stress of the competition, starts to unearth memories buried decades ago. Chocolate teacakes remind her of a furtive errand involving a wedding ring; sugared doughnuts call up a stranger’s kind act; a simple cottage loaf brings back the moment her life changed forever.
With her baking star rising, Jenny struggles to keep a lid on that first secret—a long-concealed deceit that threatens to shatter the very foundations of her marriage. It’s the only time in six decades that she’s kept something from Bernard. By putting herself in the limelight, has Jenny created a recipe for disaster?
The Hunter
The Hunter by Tana French
It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die.
Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or less: he’s built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he’s gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But then Trey’s long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn’t want protecting. What she wants is revenge.
From the writer who is “in a class by herself,” (The New York Times), a nuanced, atmospheric tale that explores what we’ll do for our loved ones, what we’ll do for revenge, and what we sacrifice when the two collide.
skin & bones
skin & bones by Renée Watson
At 40, Lena Baker is at a steady and stable moment in life—between wine nights with her two best friends and her wedding just weeks away, she’s happy in love and in friendship until a confession on her wedding day shifts her world.
Unmoored and grieving a major loss, Lena finds herself trying to teach her daughter self-love while struggling to do so herself. Lena questions everything she’s learned about dating, friendship, and motherhood, and through it all, she works tirelessly to bring the oft-forgotten Black history of Oregon to the masses, sidestepping her well-meaning co-workers that don’t understand that their good intentions are often offensive and hurtful.
Through Watson’s poetic voice, skin & bones is a stirring exploration of who society makes space for and is ultimately a story of heartbreak and healing.
You Are Here
You Are Here by David Nicholls
Marnie is stuck.
Stuck working alone in her London flat, stuck battling the long afternoons and a life that often feels like it’s passing her by.
Michael is coming undone.
Reeling from his wife’s departure, increasingly reclusive, taking himself on long, solitary walks across the moors and fells.
When a persistent mutual friend and some very English weather conspire to bring them together, Marnie and Michael suddenly find themselves alone on the most epic of walks and on the precipice of a new friendship.
But can they survive the journey?
A new love story by beloved bestseller David Nicholls, You Are Here is a novel of first encounters, second chances and finding the way home.
One of Us Knows
One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole
Years after a breakdown and a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder derailed her historical preservationist career, Kenetria Nash and her alters have been given a second chance they can’t refuse: a position as resident caretaker of a historic home. Having been dormant for years, Ken has no idea what led them to this isolated Hudson River island, but she’s determined not to ruin their opportunity.
Then a surprise visit from the home’s conservation trust just as a Nor’easter bears down on the island disrupts her newfound life, leaving Ken trapped with a group of possibly dangerous strangers—including the man who brought her life tumbling down years earlier. When he turns up dead, Ken is the prime suspect.
Caught in a web of secrets and in a race against time, Ken and her alters must band together to prove their innocence and discover the truth of Kavanaugh Island—and their own past—or they risk losing not only their future, but their life.
Ocean's Godori
Ocean’s Godori by Elaine U. Cho
Ocean Yoon has never felt very Korean, even if she is descended from a long line of haenyeo, Jeju Island’s beloved female divers. She doesn’t like soju, constantly misses cultural references, and despite her love of the game, people still say that she doesn’t play Hwatu like a Korean. Ocean’s also persona non grata at the Alliance, Korea’s solar system–dominating space agency, since a mission went awry and she earned a reputation for being a little too quick with her gun.
When her best friend, Teo, second son of the Anand Tech empire, is framed for murdering his family, Ocean and her misfit crewmates are pushed to the forefront of a high-stakes ideological conflict. But dodging bullets and winning space chases may be the easiest part of what comes next.
A thrilling adventure across the solar that delivers hyperkinetic action sequences and irresistible will-they-won’t-they romance alongside its nuanced exploration of colonialism and capitalism, Ocean’s Godori ultimately asks: What do we owe our past? How do we navigate our present while honoring the complicated facets of our identity? What can our future hold?

PBS Books Readers Club - Rachel Khong
2024-05-29 20:00 - 21:00
Readers Club HomeEpisodes
Episode Description:
Read along with the PBS Books Readers Club this May for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. We’ll dive into Real Americans, the highly anticipated novel by Rachel Khong, author of Goodbye, Vitamin. Rachel Khong joins the PBS Books Readers Club to discuss this sweeping family drama that tells the story of three generations of Chinese Americans, raising questions about identity and what it means to be Real Americans.
Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster, and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn’t be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.
In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can’t shake the sense she’s hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers.
About the Book:
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Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster, and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn’t be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.
In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can’t shake the sense she’s hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers.
In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.
Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made? And if we are made, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?
Guest Biography:
Rachel Khong
RACHEL KHONG is the author of Goodbye, Vitamin, winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction, and named a Best Book of the Year by NPR; O, The Oprah Magazine; Vogue; and Esquire. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Cut, The Guardian, The Paris Review, and Tin House. In 2018, she founded The Ruby, a work and event space for women and nonbinary writers and artists in San Francisco’s Mission District. She lives in California.
Readers Club Hosts:
Heather Marie Montilla
Heather-Marie Montilla, a dynamic integrative leader, is an educator and nonprofit manager. She has worked in the nonprofit sector and libraries for over two decades, making a positive impact in arts, cultural, educational, and community-building arenas.
Having joined the PBS Books team as their Library Bureau Chief in Fall 2018, Montilla is now the National Director of PBS Books and has interviewed more than 150 writers. In addition, she is a faculty member at Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University for their Arts and Cultural/Entertainment Management Programs. Having been an Executive Director for 8 years, Heather has a wide range of experience in management, finance, strategic planning, marketing, and fundraising. Heather holds a MPA From Columbia University, a MLIS from Wayne State University, and a bachelor’s from Duke University. She lives in Chicagoland, and is married with four children, a dog, and a bird.
Princess Weekes
Princess Weekes is an award winning writer and video essayist who works at breaking down the intersections between race, gender, and pop culture. Formally an Assistant Editor at The Mary Sue, co-host of Netflix’s The Geeked Podcast, and co-host and co-writer on the PBS Digital Series It’s Lit. On weekends she works as a bookseller at a local bookstore. When not reading or writing she can be found playing TTRPGs of cuddling with her cat, Lola.
Lauren Smith
Executive Producer and host of national PBS programming at Detroit Public TV, Lauren develops content for PBS and other distributors of public media for broadcast, streaming, and other digital channels and has executive-produced and/or produced over 60 national broadcast and programs. Her passion is to develop inspiring, entertaining, and educational content alongside the best national and international talent, and to engage important content with communities across the country. Lauren loves to read and has worked to develop and produce PBS Books content for nearly ten years!
Fred Nahhat
Fred Nahhat is an Emmy Award-winning producer, host, and presenter for Detroit’s PBS station, where he serves as Sr. VP of Production. A 30-year broadcast veteran, Fred has hosted and produced numerous programs for Public TV – including music specials from Il Volo, Celtic Gold and the New Divas – as well as other series and specials “New Year’s Eve with the DSO”, “The Detroit Dream Cruise,” “The PBS Books Readers Club” and “Get Up, Get Out,” among others.
He is a graduate of Wayne State University and a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Michigan Chapter, USA Hockey, and Leadership Detroit.

Visions of America: A Journey to the Freedom Tower - Stories of Cuban Migration to Miami
2024-06-05 20:00 - 20:30
Visions of America HomeEpisodes

Este programa está disponible con subtítulos en español con opcion de titulos cerrados en el canal YouTube de libros PBS.
Description:
The Freedom Tower (or Torre de la Libertad) in Miami has graced the city’s skyline for nearly a century, but it wasn’t until it played a crucial role in hosting Cuban refugees who fled their home country in the wake of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 that it became an important national landmark. Join host and Institute of Museum and Library Services Director Crosby Kemper as he explores the interior of the Freedom Tower with Miami Dade College President Madeline Pumariega.
Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ada Ferrer, author of Cuba: An American History, shares about the Cuban-immigrant experience in the United States. Then, Crosby ventures to Little Havana to enjoy the sounds of its rich and vibrant culture and have a discussion, along with Cuban cuisine at Miami’s famous Versailles, with community members Alberto Ibargüen, Aida Levitan, Sam Verdeja and A.J. D’Amico. They have a lively conversation about Miami’s growth and change.
Visiones de América: Un viaje a la Torre de la Libertad – Historias de migración cubana a Miami
Descripción en español:
La Torre de la Libertad en Miami ha adornado el horizonte de la ciudad durante casi un siglo, pero no fue hasta que desempeñó un papel crucial en la acogida de refugiados cubanos huyendo de su país de origen a raíz de la Revolución Cubana en 1959 que se convirtió en un importante hito nacional. Únase al anfitrión y director del Instituto de Servicios de Museos y Bibliotecas, Crosby Kemper, mientras explora el interior de la Torre de la Libertad con la presidenta de Miami Dade College, Madeline Pumariega.
La historiadora y escritora ganadora del Premio Pulitzer Ada Ferrer, autora de Cuba: An American History, comparte sobre la experiencia de los inmigrantes cubanos en los Estados Unidos. Luego, Crosby se aventura a la Pequeña Habana para disfrutar de los sonidos de su rica y vibrante cultura y tener una discusión, junto con la cocina cubana en el famoso Versalles de Miami, con los miembros de la comunidad Alberto Ibargüen, Aida Levitan, Sam Verdeja y A.J. D’Amico. Tienen una conversación animada sobre el crecimiento y el cambio de Miami.

About Visions of America
Visions of America – All Stories, All People, All Places, hosted by Institute of Museum and Library Services Director Crosby Kemper, explores our great nation and uses its diverse collection of museums, libraries and historians both familiar and new to tell some of the lesser-known stories that have flown under the radar in our shared legacy of American Independents. Over the course of 3 half-hour episodes in its first season, the program journeys to different historical sites throughout the nation for conversations that will tell the engaging but sometimes hidden stories that resonate with where we are at as a nation today. and maybe give some insight and inspiration on how we got here. But history doesn’t just exist in a museum. Each episode will also venture out into the cities these institutions call home to delve further into what makes each of these communities so important to our national identity, all with the help of local historians who know the stories of their community better than anyone.

Guest Biographies:
President Madeline Pumariega, Miami Dade College
Madeline Pumariega is the first female president appointed to lead one of the nation’s largest educational institutions, Miami Dade College (MDC). Adding to the historic nature of this appointment is the fact that Pumariega is an alumna of MDC.
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A Trailblazer In Academia
Pumariega’s love for academics and service excellence began as a student at MDC and continued during her 20 years of service at the College in positions of ascending responsibility, culminating in her role as Wolfson Campus president. Prior to becoming MDC’s president, Pumariega was appointed the first female and Hispanic chancellor of the Florida College System (FCS). In that role, she designed and implemented strategies to keep college accessible and affordable for Floridians, especially for those entering high-demand job fields. During her tenure, several of the FCS’s 28 colleges –– which serve 800,000 students –– rose in the rankings of U.S. News & World Report as well as by other national measures. Florida was also named No. 1 in higher education by U.S. News.
In 2019, Pumariega became the executive vice president and provost of Tallahassee Community College, where her innovative approaches advanced the College’s three core divisions: academic affairs, student affairs and workforce development. Pumariega helped lead the school during the unprecedented response to the COVID-19 pandemic and pivoted the college’s infrastructure to support virtual classroom instruction and student-teacher interaction. She also serves as affiliate professor of leadership at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
A Champion for Youth
Serving the community outside of higher education, she was also previously the President and CEO of Take Stock in Children, a statewide nonprofit focused on breaking the cycle of poverty by helping students complete their high school education and advance into post-secondary education and careers. It was here that Pumariega pursued her passion for ensuring that students have a pathway toward upward economic mobility through educational opportunities.
A Catalyst For Transformation
In her new role as MDC president, Pumariega has championed a new strategic plan for the College developed with input from more than 1,000 stakeholders. The plan focuses on five key priorities: reimagining for student success; accelerating academic excellence and innovation; valuing a culture of care to advance student outcomes; fueling the talent needs of a global economy; and securing the future of the College.
She has now engaged hundreds of leaders and volunteers around these five key priorities, and this transformational work is well on its way at MDC.
Pumariega has also prioritized working with business partners to identify the skills needed by key industries and tailoring higher education programs to match those needs. This intentional forming of strategic alliances and job pathways between companies and MDC students accelerates each graduate’s ability to enter the workforce immediately.
Driving her relentless pursuit is the passion to develop leaders and build thriving communities. Pumariega clearly recognizes higher education’s role in transforming lives and communities, and is designing her presidency at MDC to position the College to deliver on its mission in a post-pandemic, technology-enabled world.
Ada Ferrer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cuba and professor of History and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University
Ada Ferrer, who is originally from Havana and grew up in a Cuban community in New Jersey, is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Cuba: An American History. The book chronicles more than five hundred years of Cuban history and its relations with the United States.
She is also the author of Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898, which won the Berkshire Book Prize for the best first book by a woman in any field of history, and Freedom's Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution, which won the Frederick Douglass Book Prize from the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale University as well as the Frederick Katz, Wesley Logan, and James A. Rawley prizes from the American Historical Association.
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Ferrer has been traveling to and conducting research in Cuba since 1990, occasionally accompanied by her husband and daughters. She was on the island when Barack Obama visited in 2016 and traveled back with her parents that same year. Her essay “My Brother’s Keeper,” published by The New Yorker, tells the story of her and her family’s relationship with the Cuban Revolution. In her lectures and keynote talks, Ferrer discusses Cuba’s past and its complex ties with the United States, giving audiences unexpected insights into the history of both countries and helping them to imagine a new relationship with Cuba.
Ferrer graduated from Vassar College with an AB degree in English. She holds a Master’s in History from University of Texas at Austin and a PhD in History from the University of Michigan. She has taught at New York University since 1995, where she is currently the Julius Silver Professor of History and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She was a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow and has received support for her research from organizations including the Dorothy and Lewis Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Commission, and more. She is also the co-curator of “Visionary Aponte: Art and Black Freedom,” an exhibit on carpenter and artist José Antonio Aponte, that has been housed at NYU, Duke University and Havana’s Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales.
In addition to her books, Ferrer is a frequent public speaker, appearing at colleges and universities, libraries, historical societies, and more. She has written for The New Yorker and The Washington Post, among others, and appeared on CNN and NPR. She lives in New York City with her family.
Full Length Conversation with Ada Ferrer
Crosby Kemper's full conversation with Ada Ferrer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cuba and professor of History and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University.
Alberto Ibargüen, President and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
He is the former publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. During his tenure, the Miami Herald won three Pulitzer Prizes and El Nuevo Herald won Spain’s Ortega y Gasset Prize for excellence in journalism.
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He graduated from Wesleyan University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Between college and law school, he served in the Peace Corps in Venezuela’s Amazon Territory and was the Peace Corps Programming and Training Officer in Colombia, based in Bogotá. After law school, he practiced law in Hartford, Connecticut, until he joined the Hartford Courant, then Newsday in New York, before moving to Miami.
Ibargüen is a member of the boards of the Paley Center for Media and the National Museum of the American Latino, and formerly the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Wesleyan University, Smith College, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and ProPublica, as well as the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board and the Citizen Advisory Committee of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
Ibargüen served on the boards of American Airlines, PepsiCo, AOL and Norwegian Cruise Lines. He is a former board chair of PBS, the Newseum and the World Wide Web Foundation, founded by web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee to promote a free and universal web.
Ibargüen is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and a member of the American Philosophical Society and the Council on Foreign Relations. For his work to protect journalists in Latin America, Ibargüen received a Maria Moors Cabot citation from Columbia University. He has been awarded honorary degrees by several universities, including Wesleyan University, The George Washington University and the University of Miami.
Aida Levitan, Ph.D.
Aida Levitan, Ph.D. is a member of the Board and immediate past Chair of USCB Financial Holdings (2017-2021). During her tenure as Chairman, Dr. Levitan was the only Cuban-American female to chair a commercial community bank board in the U.S. Because of this achievement, Forbes Magazine named her to the 50Over50 list (Money category) in 2022.
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A nationally recognized Hispanic advertising and public relations pioneer, she founded the strategic marketing firm The Levitan Group, Inc. in 2006. From 2004 to 2005, she served as Vice Chairperson/President of Bromley Communications, which she helped transform into the number one U.S. Hispanic advertising agency (as per Advertising Age, 2004). In 1986 she co-founded Sanchez & Levitan and sold the agency to Publicis Groupe by 2003. Under her leadership as Co-Chairman/CEO, Publicis Sanchez & Levitan became one of the top ten U.S. Hispanic advertising agencies (Advertising Age). In 2004 she served as President of the national Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies.
Dr. Levitan served as trustee and is currently a Trustee Emerita of the Perez Art Museum Miami. In 2019 she was Chair of FACE (Facts About Cuban Exiles) and of the University of Miami Cuban Heritage Collection Amigos Board. In 1995 she founded ArtesMiami, Inc., a nonprofit organization, and still serves as its President and principal donor. She was elected to the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations in 2015. President Obama and the U.S. Congress named her to the National Museum of the American Latino Commission in 2010 and, in 2012, she was elected Vice Chair of the Smithsonian Latino Center National Board. Dr. Levitan has served on the corporate board of The Art Institutes and, as chairman, on the Aetna Latino Advisory Council.
A Cuban-American who came to Miami in 1961 as an unaccompanied child (as part of Operación Pedro Pan), Aida Levitan obtained her Ph.D. with a specialty in Spanish Literature, from Emory University and a B.A. from the University of Miami. She is an avid art collector of Latin-American and U.S. Hispanic art and a writer of travel articles. Her son, Alex Fumero, is a film producer in Los Angeles. She is married to architect Fernando Petit.
Alessandro "A.J." D'Amico
Alessandro "A.J." D'Amico currently serves the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as its Director of Media & Democracy. In that role, A.J. writes and manages grants aimed at translating cutting-edge research on the role of media and technology on our democracy into actionable policy options and encourages the furtherance of the Knight Foundation's mission to build more informed and engaged communities.
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He brings extensive government and legal experience collaborating with government officials, community organizations, and interest groups in the policymaking, advocacy, and litigation processes.
Before joining the Knight Foundation, A.J. was an associate at two pre-eminent Miami law firms, where he represented clients foreign and domestic in a diverse array of litigation matters, spanning from complex commercial disputes and class actions to constitutional civil rights cases. A.J. also served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Paul C. Huck in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Prior to his legal career, A.J. served as a legislative assistant in the Florida Senate and an intern in the United States House of Representatives for two Cuban American elected officials representing Miami-Dade County.
A.J. earned a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and Economics from Florida State University as well as a Juris Doctor from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he graduated with honors and served as the Editor in Chief of the Florida Law Review. The son of a Cuban exile, A.J. was raised in Miami Lakes and Hialeah, Florida. He currently resides in Little Havana.
Dean Magda Castineyra, Miami Dade College
Magda is the Director of the Honors College Dual Language Program at Miami Dade College Eduardo J. Padron Campus with 20+ years of experience in assisting young adults, families and adult students’ access higher education; starting with her undergraduate work study job within an Undergraduate Admission Office.
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Out of graduate school she directed a city wide dropout prevention program, in Worcester Massachusetts, for public school students from 8th to 12th grade. At the conclusion of the program, eligible graduates received a 4 year college scholarship from one of various Worcester Consortium of Higher Education institutions. The experience was life changing for everyone involved and solidified Magda’s commitment to higher education.
As an admission professional she has traveled domestically and internationally, introducing eligible students to the options within our higher education system. She has opened new territories, served as a liaison with public school systems, managed scholarship programs for high achieving students, served as a student organization advisor, and coordinated the Orientation and advising of FTIC students; including programing for parents.
As a seasoned community college administrator, she has coordinated the intake process, testing, workforce programs, campus events, and ongoing staff development. Magda is familiar with the registration crunch at the beginning of each term and works hard to provide a calm, comfortable environment for students and a supportive environment for staff.
Magda is originally from Cuba, Miami has been her home for many years – she is a big fan of the South Florida area. She completed her BA in English at St Thomas University in Miami, FL, her EdM. in administration, planning and social policy from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, MA, and is currently a PhD candidate in Higher Education Leadership at Barry University in Miami Shores, FL.
Magda is a strong believer in professional development for her staff and herself. Consequently, during the past few years she has been active in and presented at conferences/meetings for the National Association of College Admissions (NACA), the Southern Association of College Admissions (SACA), and the National Association of Catholic College Admissions (NACCA) and the National Collegiate Honors College Council (NCHC). . She is also an active supporter of the arts and works toward having their presence visible on campus and available to students and student groups.
Full Length Conversation at Versailles
Crosby Kemper's full conversation, along with Cuban cuisine at Miami's famous Versailles, with community members; Alberto Ibargüen, Aida Levitan, Alessandro "A.J." D'Amico & Sam Verdeja.

Exploring Bipartisanship with Judy Woodruff and Western Governors
2024-06-10 16:30 - 18:00
Description:
PBS Books presents a conversation live from the Western Governors’ Association annual meeting. Eight current and former governors will join in discussion with former PBS Newshour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff. The WGA is celebrating 40 years of bipartisan cooperation around issues important to the American West.
Governors from nineteen states and three U.S. territories west of the Mississippi make up the membership of the Western Governors’ Association. For 40 years, the WGA has been convening its members to find solutions to pressing issues facing the western United States. From decarbonizing the west to protecting threatened species to imaging a new rural future, the range of issues addressed by the WGA is immense.
Eight current and former governors will take the stage with Judy Woodruff, former anchor and managing editor of the PBS Newshour. They are expected to discuss the WGA’s long history of bipartisan collaboration and solution-seeking, as well as areas where agreement remains elusive.
PBS Books will provide a live feed from this historic event, focusing on the unique challenges facing Western governors, such as water, land use, and native rights directly impact neighboring states, and the roaming wildlife on public lands know no boundaries at all. Many Native American sovereign nations prominent in American culture also make their home in the west. In recent years, nearly all western states have experienced unprecedented growth, challenging traditions and creating new issues for every state.
Current WGA Chair Mark Gordon, the Republican Governor of Wyoming will lead the meeting, wrapping up a full year of investigating how western states can reduce their carbon footprint. At the end of the meeting, he will turn over the gavel to New Mexico’s Democratic Governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, who will announce her chair policy initiative for the coming year.
PBS Books is presenting this conversation as part of a series of public affairs programming exploring the state of civic discourse in the United States and highlighting places where bipartisan conversations take center stage.
This presentation is made possible with the financial support of Western Governors University and a partnership with the Bipartisan Leadership Project of Washington D.C.
About Western Governors Leadership Institute
The Western Governors’ Leadership Institute is a program of the Western Governors’ Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Western Governors’ Association. The program is designed to recognize, promote and reward the effective exercise of leadership by young people in the west.
Every year the foundation selects young adults to represent their states, territories, and tribes as institute delegates. Delegates attend the annual meeting of the Western Governors’ Association, as well as a one-day leadership development forum featuring state governors, former governors, and other national thought leaders. The foundation covers all expenses associated with delegate participation.
About Western Governors University
Founded by 19 U.S. governors in 1997, Western Governors University is a non-profit, accredited online university offering more than sixty bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in the high-demand fields of business, IT, teacher education, and healthcare. WGU is recognized for its competency-based approach, which allows students to study at their own pace, making it possible for many to accelerate their studies and finish faster. Learn more at wgu.edu.
The Bipartisan Leadership Project:
The mission of the Bipartisan Leadership Project (BLP) is to initiate and guide organizations in providing leadership development that equips leaders with skills necessary to lead in the polarized environment. Leaders of the BLP have initiated political leadership programs at Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and at George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. These programs bring together politically, ethnically, and geographically diverse people to learn together. The program uniquely focuses on the development of conflict resolution and leadership skills for this political environment. Participants build trust, tolerance, and the ability to listen to each other in finding workable solutions to the serious problems we face. With the involvement of scholars, leaders, practitioners, and the robust interaction of participants, these programs are producing amazing results. The BLP also helped develop a leadership program for high school students at John Lewis High School to increase the pipeline for the next generation of leaders.
Interested in Learning More?
WGA 40th Anniversary Website: https://westgov.org/40th-anniversary
· WGA Governors: https://westgov.org/40th-anniversary
· WGA Issues: https://westgov.org/key-issues
Books:
· Rick Perry: A Political Life by Brandon Rottinghaus (https://a.co/d/2wxHpCW)
· Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner (https://a.co/d/19owz2B)
· Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne
Learning to Disagree
Are you discouraged by our divided, angry culture, where even listening to a different perspective sometimes feels impossible? If so, you’re not alone, and it doesn’t have to be this way. Learning to Disagree reveals the surprising path to learning how to disagree in ways that build new bridges with our neighbors, coworkers, and loved ones–and help us find better ways to live joyfully in a complex society.
In a tense cultural climate, is it possible to disagree productively and respectfully without compromising our convictions? Spanning a range of challenging issues–including critical race theory, sexual assault, campus protests, and clashes over religious freedom–highly regarded thought leader and law professor John Inazu helps us engage honestly and empathetically with people whose viewpoints we find strange, wrong, or even dangerous.
As a constitutional scholar, legal expert, and former litigator, John has spent his career learning how to disagree well with other people. In Learning to Disagree, John shares memorable stories and draws on the practices that legal training imparts–seeing the complexity in every issue and inhabiting the mindset of an opposing point of view–to help us handle daily encounters and lifelong relationships with those who see life very differently than we do.
This groundbreaking, poignant, and highly practical book equips us to:
Understand what holds us back from healthy disagreement
Learn specific, start-today strategies for dialoguing clearly and authentically
Move from stuck, broken disagreements to mature, healthy disagreements
Cultivate empathy as a core skill for our personal lives and our whole society
If you are feeling exhausted from the tattered state of dialogue in your social media feed, around the country, and in daily conversations, you’re not alone. Discover a more connected life while still maintaining the strength of your convictions through this unique, often-humorous, thought-provoking, and ultimately life-changing exploration of the best way to disagree.
How to Know a Person
As David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.”
And yet we humans don’t do this well. All around us are people who feel invisible, unseen, misunderstood. In How to Know a Person, Brooks sets out to help us do better, posing questions that are essential for all of us: If you want to know a person, what kind of attention should you cast on them? What kind of conversations should you have? What parts of a person’s story should you pay attention to?
Driven by his trademark sense of curiosity and his determination to grow as a person, Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience and from the worlds of theater, philosophy, history, and education to present a welcoming, hopeful, integrated approach to human connection. How to Know a Person helps readers become more understanding and considerate toward others, and to find the joy that comes from being seen. Along the way it offers a possible remedy for a society that is riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception.
The act of seeing another person, Brooks argues, is profoundly creative: How can we look somebody in the eye and see something large in them, and in turn, see something larger in ourselves? How to Know a Person is for anyone searching for connection, and yearning to be understood.
High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out
When we are baffled by the insanity of the “other side”—in our politics, at work, or at home—it’s because we aren’t seeing how the conflict itself has taken over.
That’s what “high conflict” does. It’s the invisible hand of our time. And it’s different from the useful friction of healthy conflict. That’s good conflict, and it’s a necessary force that pushes us to be better people.
High conflict, by contrast, is what happens when discord distills into a good-versus-evil kind of feud, the kind with an us and a them. In this state, the normal rules of engagement no longer apply. The brain behaves differently. We feel increasingly certain of our own superiority and, at the same time, more and more mystified by the other side.
New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley investigates how good people get captured by high conflict—and how they break free.
Our journey begins in California, where a world-renowned conflict expert struggles to extract himself from a political feud. Then we meet a Chicago gang leader who dedicates his life to a vendetta—only to find himself working beside the man who killed his childhood idol. Next, we travel to Colombia, to find out whether thousands of people can be nudged out of high conflict at scale.
Finally, we return to America to see what happens when a group of liberal Manhattan Jews and conservative Michigan corrections officers choose to stay in each other’s homes in order to understand one another better.
All these people, in dramatically different situations, were drawn into high conflict by similar forces, including conflict entrepreneurs, humiliation, and false binaries. But ultimately, all of them found ways to transform high conflict into something good, something that made them better people. They rehumanized and recategorized their opponents, and they revived curiosity and wonder, even as they continued to fight for what they knew was right.
People do escape high conflict. Individuals—even entire communities—can short-circuit the feedback loops of outrage and blame, if they want to. This is a mind-opening new way to think about conflict that will transform how we move through the world.
Host Biography:
Judy Woodruff, Senior Correspondent, Former Anchor & Managing Editor, PBS NewsHour
Judy Woodruff is a senior correspondent and the former anchor and managing editor of the PBS NewsHour. She has covered politics and other news for five decades at NBC, CNN and PBS.
At PBS from 1983 to 1993, she was the chief Washington correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. From 1984 – 1990, she also anchored PBS’ award-winning documentary series, “Frontline with Judy Woodruff.” Moving to CNN in 1993, she served as anchor and senior correspondent for 12 years; among other duties, she anchored the weekday program “Inside Politics.” She returned to the NewsHour in 2007, and in 2013, she and the late Gwen Ifill were named the first two women to co-anchor a national news broadcast. After Ifill’s death, Woodruff was named sole anchor.
In 2011, Judy was the anchor and reporter for the PBS documentary “Nancy Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime.” And in 2007, she completed an extensive project on the views of young Americans, titled “Generation Next: Speak Up. Be Heard.” Two hour-long documentaries aired on PBS, along with a series of reports on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, NPR, in USA Today and on Yahoo News.
From 2006 – 2013, Judy anchored a monthly program for Bloomberg Television, “Conversations with Judy Woodruff.” In 2006, she was a visiting professor at Duke University’s Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. In 2005, she was a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
At NBC News, Woodruff was White House correspondent from 1977 to 1982. For one year after that she served as NBC’s Today Show chief Washington correspondent. She wrote the book, This is Judy Woodruff at the White House, published in 1982 by Addison-Wesley. Her reporting career began in Atlanta, Georgia, where she covered state and local government.
Woodruff is a founding co-chair of the International Women’s Media Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting and encouraging women in journalism and communication industries worldwide. She serves on the boards of trustee of the Freedom Forum, The Duke Endowment and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and is a director of Public Radio International and the National Association to End Homelessness. She is a former member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, a former director of the National Museum of American History and a former trustee of the Urban Institute.
Judy is a graduate of Duke University, where she is a trustee emerita.
She is the recent recipient of an Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the Radcliffe Medal, the Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism, the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism from Arizona State University.
She is the recipient of more than 25 honorary degrees.
Judy lives in Washington, DC, with her husband, journalist Al Hunt, and they are the parents of three children: Jeffrey, Benjamin and Lauren.
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Visions of America: Discovering 18th & Vine in Kansas City - Stories of African American History and Culture
2024-06-12 20:00 - 20:30
Visions of America HomeEpisodes
Program Description:
18th & Vine has been the heart and soul of the African American community in Kansas City, bolstering the American dream of freedom and equality. A vibrant center of African American culture, it is the home to important historic sites like the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) and the American Jazz Museum.
NLBM was founded to keep the stories alive of its players and how they fought the barriers of segregation in Major League Baseball, including Jackie Robinson. Learning about the important role of the Negro Leagues Baseball in our nation’s favorite pastime, explore the museum and hear insights about renowned players like Satchel Paige and others. Next, visit the American Jazz Museum, highlighting the remarkable role of jazz in Kansas City fostering a thriving community as the art form matured.
Institute of Museum and Library Services Crosby Kemper leads conversations discussing the importance of this vibrant center for Black history and culture with NLBM President Bob Kendrick, American Jazz Museum’s Muriel Boyd, and authors and experts Joe Posnanski, Arnold Rampersad, and Chuck Haddix.
Lastly, Crosby visits Gates Bar-B-Q for some quintessential Kansas City food and talks to owner Ollie Gates, Sr. and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver about 18th & Vine and its recent comeback.
About Visions of America
Visions of America – All Stories, All People, All Places, hosted by Institute of Museum and Library Services Director Crosby Kemper, explores our great nation and uses its diverse collection of museums, libraries and historians both familiar and new to tell some of the lesser-known stories that have flown under the radar in our shared legacy of American Independents. Over the course of 3 half-hour episodes in its first season, the program journeys to different historical sites throughout the nation for conversations that will tell the engaging but sometimes hidden stories that resonate with where we are at as a nation today. and maybe give some insight and inspiration on how we got here. But history doesn’t just exist in a museum. Each episode will also venture out into the cities these institutions call home to delve further into what makes each of these communities so important to our national identity, all with the help of local historians who know the stories of their community better than anyone.
Guest Biographies:
Arnold Rampersad, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University
Arnold Rampersad is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English at Stanford University. He has published several essays and books, including the two-volume Life of Langston Hughes; Jackie Robinson: A Biography; and Ralph Ellison: A Biography. A former MacArthur Foundation fellow, he is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
Chuck Haddix, Director of Marr Sound Archives
Chuck Haddix is the director of the Marr Sound Archives, a collection of 350,000 historic sound recordings housed in the Miller Nichols Library at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. Haddix also teaches Kansas City jazz history at the Kansas City Art Institute. Over the years, Haddix has contributed to a wide variety of theatrical, recording, video and film projects including “Cronkite Remembers” a biography of Walter Cronkite, Robert Altman’s “Kansas City” and Merchant-Ivory’s “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge.” He is the coauthor of Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop–A History for Oxford University Press and author of Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker for the University of Illinois Press.
Muriel Boyd, Humanitarian
Muriel Boyd is a passionate person who seeks to see the best in the lives of everyone around her. Over the years, this passion has led Boyd to a number of paid and voluntary positions in the Kansas City region and internationally, such as BSF International and with patrons and visitors at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art and the American Jazz Museum. Upon Boyd’s retirement with the Social Security Administrative Office, she was directed to dedicate her time and skills to humanitarian work in Bangladesh for 8 years, as well as twice to Brazil and to other service opportunities stateside.
Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
Bob Kendrick was named President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) in March 2011. Kendrick is responsible for the museum’s day-to-day operations and the development and implementation of strategies to advance the mission of the 501 c3, not-for-profit organization. Kendrick has been responsible for the creation of several signature museum educational programs and events including the Hall of Game which annually honors former Major League Baseball greats who played the game in the spirit and signature style of the Negro Leagues. And while he doesn’t fashion himself to be a historian, Kendrick has become one of the leading authorities on the topic of Negro Leagues Baseball history and its connection to issues relating to sports, race and diversity. He has been a contributing writer for “Ebony Magazine” and the national Urban League’s “Opportunity Magazine.”
Joe Posnanski, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
Joe Posnanski is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including bestsellers “Why We Love Baseball”, “The Baseball 100” and “Paterno”. He has been named National Sportswriter of the Year by five different organizations. He writes at JoePosnanski.com and currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his family.
Full Length Conversation with Joe Posnanski
Crosby Kemper full conversation with New York Times bestselling author Joe Posnanski as they dive deeper into the Negro League Baseball League and its iconic players.
Ollie Gates, Sr., Owner of Gates Bar-B-Q
Ollie Gates, Sr. is a Black businessman and restauranteur, known widely for the Gates Bar-B-Q restaurants that have contributed to Kansas City’s reputation for quality barbecue. After graduating from Lincoln High School in 1949, Gates first attended Maryland State College before returning to Lincoln University and earning a degree in engineering. After serving two years in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, he was discharged as a 1st Lieutenant. After his father’s death in 1960, Gates took over the running of the family barbecue business, expanding to several locations across the Kansas City metro area. He is also credited with a strong push to modernize the restaurant, standardizing customer service and kitchen practices, even starting a barbecue university he named “Rib Tech”. Gates Bar-B-Q eventually became one of Kansas City’s most famous barbecue restaurants. In 2021 Gates was inducted into the American Royal Barbecue Hall of Fame.
Emanuel Cleaver II, Congressman, Missouri’s Fifth District
Emanuel Cleaver II is now serving his tenth term representing Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District, the home district of President Harry Truman. He is a member of the House Committee on Financial Services; Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance; member of Subcommittee on Capital Markets; and member of the U.S. Helsinki Commission. Having served for twelve years on the city council of Missouri’s largest municipality, Kansas City, Cleaver was elected as the city’s first African American Mayor in 1991. During his eight-year stint in the Office of the Mayor, Cleaver distinguished himself as an economic development activist and an unapologetic redevelopment craftsman. Additionally, his municipal stewardship includes the 18th and Vine Redevelopment, a new American Royal, the establishment of a Family Division of the Municipal Court, and the reconstruction and beautification of Brush Creek.
Full Length Conversation at Gates BBQ
Crosby Kemper full conversation at legendary Gates Bar-B-Q in Kansas City food where he talks with owner Ollie Gates, Sr. and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver about 18th & Vine and its recent comeback.
Full Length Jazz Roundtable Discussion
Crosby Kemper full conversation discussing the importance of this vibrant center for Black history and culture with NLBM President Bob Kendrick, American Jazz Museum's Muriel Boyd, and authors and experts Joe Posnanski, Arnold Rampersad, and Chuck Haddix.

Visions of America: Voices from the Heard Museum in Phoenix - Stories of First Americans
2024-06-19 20:00 - 20:30
Visions of America HomeEpisodes
Program Description:
The Heard Museum in Phoenix highlights Indigenous creativity from traditional artworks to contemporary creations. This episode celebrates Native American history, culture, and present-day policy, with a focus on amplifying under heard stories. It explores Indigenous stories of arts, culture, and sports, Native American citizenship and tribal sovereignty, and the changing (and important) place of Native Americans in history.
IMLS Director Crosby Kemper tours the Heard Museum with its Director and CEO David Roche to discuss the museum’s role as a central asset in telling and preserving American Indian history and culture.
Next, Crosby sits down with Walter Echo-Hawk (Pawnee), who is a Native American attorney, tribal judge, author, activist, and law professor, at the Heard Museum for a conversation to discuss Indigenous knowledge and traditions, tribal engagement, and the unique relationship of Native American tribes to our history.
Lastly, Philip J. Deloria (Dakota), who is the Leverette Saltonstall Professor of History at Harvard University, will join virtually to examine Indigenous contributions to the United States.
Both Echo-Hawk and Deloria are authors, whose work highlights lesser-known stories about Native Americans, who have triumphed over injustice in a quest to achieve the American dream.
Learn More:
Our friends at The Heard museum are committed to connecting Indigenous creativity to the world by presenting the voice and vision of American Indian artists. Learn more about their collections, events, and educational experiences at https://heard.org/
Since 1992 the Heard Museum has been home to the World Championship Hoop Dance contest, a competition that intensifies every year as dancers continue to add increasingly difficult movements to their routines integrating difficult manipulations of the hoops. Dancers’ scores are based on five judging categories: precision, timing, rhythm, showmanship, creativity and speed. February 2024 The Heard hosts the 34th Annual World Championship Hoop Dance Contest. In this program, we learn more about the history of this event. Click here to learn more.
About Visions of America
Visions of America – All Stories, All People, All Places, hosted by Institute of Museum and Library Services Director Crosby Kemper, explores our great nation and uses its diverse collection of museums, libraries and historians both familiar and new to tell some of the lesser-known stories that have flown under the radar in our shared legacy of American Independents. Over the course of 3 half-hour episodes in its first season, the program journeys to different historical sites throughout the nation for conversations that will tell the engaging but sometimes hidden stories that resonate with where we are at as a nation today. and maybe give some insight and inspiration on how we got here. But history doesn’t just exist in a museum. Each episode will also venture out into the cities these institutions call home to delve further into what makes each of these communities so important to our national identity, all with the help of local historians who know the stories of their community better than anyone.
Guest Biographies:
David M. Roche is a recognized national and international leader in the field of American Indian art. In 2015, he became the Director and CEO of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, the largest private museum in the world dedicated to American Indian art and culture.
Full Length Conversation with David Roche
Crosby Kemper meets with David Roche to discuss the museum's role as a central asset in telling and preserving American Indian history and culture.
Walter Echo-Hawk is past President, Pawnee Nation Business Council (2020-2023), an author, attorney, jurist, and legal scholar. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2023. He authored The Sea of Grass (2018); In The Light Of Justice (2013); In the Courts of the Conqueror (2010); and Battlefields and Burial Grounds (1994).
Full Length Conversation with Walter Echohawk
Crosby Kemper sits down with Walter Echo-Hawk (Pawnee) for a conversation about Indigenous knowledge and traditions, tribal engagement, and the unique relationship of Native American tribes to our history.
Philip J. Deloria is Professor of History at Harvard University, where his research and teaching focus on the social, cultural and political histories of the relations among American Indian peoples and the United States, as well as the comparative and connective histories of indigenous peoples in a global context.
Full Length Conversation with Phillip Deloria
Crosby Kemper has a conversation with Philip J. Deloria (Dakota) about Indigenous contributions to the foundation of the United States.

PBS Books Readers Club - Olivia Ford
2024-06-26 20:00 - 21:00
Readers Club HomeEpisodes
About the Book:
Get the E-BookDONATE NOW and download your e-book copy.
Nothing could be more out of character, but after fifty-nine years of marriage, as her husband Bernard’s health declines, and her friends’ lives become focused on their grandchildren—which Jenny never had—Jenny decides she wants a little something for herself. So she secretly applies to be a contestant on the prime-time TV show Britain Bakes.
Whisked into an unfamiliar world of cameras and timed challenges, Jenny delights in a new-found independence. But that independence, and the stress of the competition, starts to unearth memories buried decades ago. Chocolate teacakes remind her of a furtive errand involving a wedding ring; sugared doughnuts call up a stranger’s kind act; a simple cottage loaf brings back the moment her life changed forever.
With her baking star rising, Jenny struggles to keep a lid on that first secret—a long-concealed deceit that threatens to shatter the very foundations of her marriage. It’s the only time in six decades that she’s kept something from Bernard. By putting herself in the limelight, has Jenny created a recipe for disaster?
Guest Biography:
Olivia Ford
Olivia Ford has spent a decade in entertainment TV, including Made in Chelsea and Love Island. Olivia is a graduate of the Faber Academy, where she wrote the beginnings of Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame, which was long-listed for the 2021 Women’s Prize Trust’s Discoveries Prize. Raised in Lincolnshire, Olivia now lives in London.
Readers Club Hosts:
Heather Marie Montilla
Heather-Marie Montilla, a dynamic integrative leader, is an educator and nonprofit manager. She has worked in the nonprofit sector and libraries for over two decades, making a positive impact in arts, cultural, educational, and community-building arenas.
Having joined the PBS Books team as their Library Bureau Chief in Fall 2018, Montilla is now the National Director of PBS Books and has interviewed more than 150 writers. In addition, she is a faculty member at Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University for their Arts and Cultural/Entertainment Management Programs. Having been an Executive Director for 8 years, Heather has a wide range of experience in management, finance, strategic planning, marketing, and fundraising. Heather holds a MPA From Columbia University, a MLIS from Wayne State University, and a bachelor’s from Duke University. She lives in Chicagoland, and is married with four children, a dog, and a bird.
Princess Weekes
Princess Weekes is an award winning writer and video essayist who works at breaking down the intersections between race, gender, and pop culture. Formally an Assistant Editor at The Mary Sue, co-host of Netflix’s The Geeked Podcast, and co-host and co-writer on the PBS Digital Series It’s Lit. On weekends she works as a bookseller at a local bookstore. When not reading or writing she can be found playing TTRPGs of cuddling with her cat, Lola.
Lauren Smith
Executive Producer and host of national PBS programming at Detroit Public TV, Lauren develops content for PBS and other distributors of public media for broadcast, streaming, and other digital channels and has executive-produced and/or produced over 60 national broadcast and programs. Her passion is to develop inspiring, entertaining, and educational content alongside the best national and international talent, and to engage important content with communities across the country. Lauren loves to read and has worked to develop and produce PBS Books content for nearly ten years!
Fred Nahhat
Fred Nahhat is an Emmy Award-winning producer, host, and presenter for Detroit’s PBS station, where he serves as Sr. VP of Production. A 30-year broadcast veteran, Fred has hosted and produced numerous programs for Public TV – including music specials from Il Volo, Celtic Gold and the New Divas – as well as other series and specials “New Year’s Eve with the DSO”, “The Detroit Dream Cruise,” “The PBS Books Readers Club” and “Get Up, Get Out,” among others.
He is a graduate of Wayne State University and a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Michigan Chapter, USA Hockey, and Leadership Detroit.

Celebrate Visions of America
2024-06-27 20:00 - 21:00
Visions of America HomeEpisodes
Program Description:
Come celebrate Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places as we consider the significance of this nation’s 250th anniversary and what it means for our nation. We will examine the founding documents and the intentions underlying the work our ancestors accomplished. We’ll look at the struggles faced by the people who, as the epitome of the American spirit, never gave up on their quest for freedom in the face of hardship and visit the nation’s most revered institutions, which preserve the distinctively American tales from the first-person point of view that shape our collective history.

"The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros - Library of Congress National Book Festival 2024
2024-07-10 20:00 - 21:00
LOC National Book Festival 2024
Episode Description:
In partnership with WTTW and other local PBS stations, PBS Books Heather-Marie Montilla is joined by Sandra Cisneros to discuss the release of the 40th Anniversary Edition of The House on Mango Street as the 2024 Library of Congress National Book Festival author featured this week by PBS Books.
“The House on Mango Street” is one of the most cherished novels of the last 50 years. Readers from all walks of life have fallen for the voice of Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago and inventing for herself who and what she will become. “In English my name means hope,” she says. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting.”
The 24th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, August 24, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
About the Book:
The House on Mango Street is featured at the 2024 National Book Festival for a special celebration of the 40th anniversary.
The House on Mango Street is one of the most cherished novels of the last fifty years. Readers from all walks of life have fallen for the voice of Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago and inventing for herself who and what she will become. “In English my name means hope,” she says. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting.”
Told in a series of vignettes—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous—Cisneros’s masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery and one of the greatest neighborhood novels of all time. Like Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street or Toni Morrison’s Sula, it makes a world through people and their voices, and it does so in language that is poetic and direct. This gorgeous coming-of-age novel is a celebration of the power of telling one’s story and of being proud of where you’re from.
Guest Biography:
Sandra Cisneros
Sandra Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist and essayist whose work explores the lives of the working class. Her numerous awards include National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in both poetry and fiction, the Texas Medal of the Arts, a MacArthur fellowship, the PEN/Nabokov Award for International Literature, the National Medal of Arts, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award from the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation. A new collection of poetry and its Spanish translation, “Woman Without Shame,” Cisneros’s first in 28 years, was published in 2022. Her novel The House on Mango Street has sold over seven million copies, has been translated into over 25 languages, and is required reading in elementary, high school and universities across the nation.

"Goodnight Thoughts" by Max Greenfield - Library of Congress National Book Festival 2024
2024-07-17 20:00 - 21:00
LOC National Book Festival 2024
Episode Description:
In partnership with PBS SoCal and other local PBS stations, PBS Books presents a conversation hosted by PBS SoCal’s Maria Hall-Brown with author Max Greenfield to discuss his latest book “Good Night Thoughts” as the 2024 Library of Congress National Book Festival author featured this week by PBS Books.
This lovely picture book is a simple but complex message about acknowledging anxiety without succumbing to it that will appeal to so many little ones (and adults) out there who find that nighttime is when their thoughts carry the most weight.
The 24th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, August 24, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
About the Book:
Written by Max Greenfield, Illustrated by James Serafino
What do we do when we can’t fall asleep? The child in this story has racing thoughts–funny, silly, and scary–that are running on a cycle they can’t stop. It’s only when they begin to think to themselves: Do any of these thoughts have merit? Am I in any danger right here and now? that they are finally able to settle down.
This lovely picture book is a simple but complex message about acknowledging anxiety without succumbing to it that will appeal to so many little ones (and adults) out there who find that nighttime is when their thoughts carry the most weight.
Guest Biography:
Max Greenfield
Max Greenfield is an American actor and author of several illustrated children’s books. He is known for his roles as Schmidt in “New Girl” and Dave Johnson in “The Neighborhood.” In the past three years, he has published the picture books “I Don’t Want to Read This Book,” “This Book Is Not a Present” and “I Don’t Want to Read This Book Aloud.” Featured at the 2024 National Book Festival, Greenfield’s new picture book, “Good Night Thoughts,” is a bedtime story about acknowledging anxiety.

"the year of the buttered cat" by Susan & Lexi Haas - Library of Congress National Book Festival 2024
2024-07-24 20:00 - 21:00
LOC National Book Festival 2024
Episode Description:
In partnership with Kansas City PBS and other local PBS stations, PBS Books Heather-Marie Montilla is joined by Authors Susan & Lexi Haas to discuss their book the year of the buttered cat as the 2024 Library of Congress National Book Festival authors featured this week by PBS Books.
the year of the buttered cat is based on the real-life story of Lexi Haas. In the spirit of “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio and “Out of My Mind” by Sharon M. Draper, the year of the buttered cat offers powerful messages of friendship, family, loss and the art of redefining ourselves.
The 24th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, August 24, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
About the Book:
Thirteen years ago, when she was just a tiny baby, something terrible happened to Lexi Haas. Something criminal. It left her with an out-of-control body and without a voice. Now, as a precocious, superhero-obsessed teen, Lexi is counting down the final 24 hours to a risky brain surgery that might help her talk or–dare she dream it?–to walk and use her hands. As surgery grows closer, Lexi finds an urgent, relentless need to share the story of the year in her life she calls The Year of the Buttered Cat. That year, on the verge of shutting out the rest of the world, Lexi began a gutsy and solitary quest to find her “missing” body. After the family cat went missing, too, and a mysterious letter appeared, Lexi reluctantly enlisted two budding friends to aid her search. But when these friends also disappeared, Lexi had to learn new ways to reach out to the world to save her friendships and uncover the truth about what happened to her as a baby. the year of the buttered cat is based on the real-life story of Lexi Haas. In the spirit of Wonder by R.J. Palacio and Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper, the year of the buttered cat offers empowering powerful messages of friendship, family, loss and the art of redefining ourselves.
Guest Biographies:
Susan Haas
Susan Haas is a disability advocate and mother of Lexi Haas. Together, they form a writing team focusing on disability education. Lexi has a rare and severe form of cerebral palsy. While she can’t walk or talk, she was reading by 10 months old, has an impressive memory, a keen sense of humor and an invincible spirit. Recognizing her young daughter’s gift for words, Susan began writing with Lexi to help foster independence and develop communication. She soon learned that Lexi’s fresh perspective needed to be shared with others. In addition to writing together, Susan and Lexi also enjoy presenting to schools and organizations around the world, helping others learn about disability from a first-person narrative. “The Year of the Buttered Cat: A Mostly True Story,” the duo’s first book, is featured at the 2024 National Book Festival.
Lexi Haas
Lexi Haas is a disability advocate and daughter of Susan Haas. Together, they form a writing team focusing on disability education and advocacy. Lexi has a rare and severe form of cerebral palsy. While she can’t walk or talk, she was reading by 10 months old, has an impressive memory, a keen sense of humor and an invincible spirit. Recognizing her young daughter’s gift for words, Susan began writing with Lexi to help foster independence and develop communication. She soon learned that Lexi’s fresh perspective needed to be shared with others. In addition to writing together, Susan and Lexi also enjoy presenting to schools and organizations around the world, helping others learn about disability from a first-person narrative. “The Year of the Buttered Cat: A Mostly True Story,” the duo’s first book, is featured at the 2024 National Book Festival.

PBS Books Readers Club - "James" by Percival Everett
2024-07-31 20:00 - 21:00
Readers Club HomeEpisodes
Episode Description:
Literary Icon Percival Everett Joins the PBS Books Readers Club to Discuss James—Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by Time, NPR, The Seattle Times, Elle, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Oprah Daily
“To call James a retelling would be an injustice. Everett sends Mark Twain’s classic through the looking glass. What emerges is no longer a children’s book, but a blood-soaked historical novel stripped of all ornament. . . Genius.”
—The Atlantic
This month’s PBS Books Readers Club pick is James—the instant New York Times bestseller and highly acclaimed novel by distinguished Professor Percival Everett, that puts a transformative spin on the canonical work Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In James, Everett places Jim, the enslaved character from Twain’s novel, front and center in this powerful narrative, giving voice to his untold story. Brimming with humor while delivering biting observations on themes of race and freedom, James is a provocative and unforgettable page turner that will forever alter our perception of American literature.
Says Everett, “I have to say I didn’t write this as a corrective to Twain’s novel. He was telling the story of the adolescent white boy. And I’m telling the story of a full-grown black man who has a family and a life.”
Don’t miss the PBS Books Readers Club as eminent author Percival Everett shares his vision behind this remarkable novel destined to become a modern classic.
About the Book:
Get the E-BookDONATE NOW and download your e-book copy.
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.
Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.
Guest Biography:
Percival Everett
Percival Everett is the author of over thirty books, including So Much Blue, Telephone, Dr No and The Trees, which was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and won the 2022 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. He has received the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the PEN Center USA Award for Fiction, has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. His novel Erasure has now been adapted into the major film American Fiction. He lives in Los Angeles.
Readers Club Hosts:
Heather Marie Montilla
Heather-Marie Montilla, a dynamic integrative leader, is an educator and nonprofit manager. She has worked in the nonprofit sector and libraries for over two decades, making a positive impact in arts, cultural, educational, and community-building arenas.
Having joined the PBS Books team as their Library Bureau Chief in Fall 2018, Montilla is now the National Director of PBS Books and has interviewed more than 150 writers. In addition, she is a faculty member at Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University for their Arts and Cultural/Entertainment Management Programs. Having been an Executive Director for 8 years, Heather has a wide range of experience in management, finance, strategic planning, marketing, and fundraising. Heather holds a MPA From Columbia University, a MLIS from Wayne State University, and a bachelor’s from Duke University. She lives in Chicagoland, and is married with four children, a dog, and a bird.
Princess Weekes
Princess Weekes is an award winning writer and video essayist who works at breaking down the intersections between race, gender, and pop culture. Formally an Assistant Editor at The Mary Sue, co-host of Netflix’s The Geeked Podcast, and co-host and co-writer on the PBS Digital Series It’s Lit. On weekends she works as a bookseller at a local bookstore. When not reading or writing she can be found playing TTRPGs of cuddling with her cat, Lola.
Lauren Smith
Executive Producer and host of national PBS programming at Detroit Public TV, Lauren develops content for PBS and other distributors of public media for broadcast, streaming, and other digital channels and has executive-produced and/or produced over 60 national broadcast and programs. Her passion is to develop inspiring, entertaining, and educational content alongside the best national and international talent, and to engage important content with communities across the country. Lauren loves to read and has worked to develop and produce PBS Books content for nearly ten years!
Fred Nahhat
Fred Nahhat is an Emmy Award-winning producer, host, and presenter for Detroit’s PBS station, where he serves as Sr. VP of Production. A 30-year broadcast veteran, Fred has hosted and produced numerous programs for Public TV – including music specials from Il Volo, Celtic Gold and the New Divas – as well as other series and specials “New Year’s Eve with the DSO”, “The Detroit Dream Cruise,” “The PBS Books Readers Club” and “Get Up, Get Out,” among others.
He is a graduate of Wayne State University and a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Michigan Chapter, USA Hockey, and Leadership Detroit.

"The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store" by James McBride - Library of Congress National Book Festival 2024
2024-08-01 20:00 - 21:00
LOC National Book Festival 2024
Episode Description:
In partnership with WHYY and other local PBS stations, PBS Books Heather-Marie Montilla is joined by author James McBride to discuss his latest book The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store as the 2024 Library of Congress National Book Festival author featured this week by PBS Books.
Bringing his masterly storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.
The 24th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, August 24, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
About the Book:
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.
As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.
Bringing his masterly storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride has written a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird.
Guest Biography:
James McBride
James McBride is the author of The New York Times bestseller and Oprah’s Book Club selection Deacon King Kong; The Good Lord Bird, winner of the National Book Award; The Color of Water; Song Yet Sung; the story collection Five-Carat Soul; and the James Brown biography Kill ’Em and Leave. His debut novel, Miracle at St. Anna, was turned into a 2008 film. In 2016, McBride was awarded the National Humanities Medal. He is also a musician, a composer and a current distinguished writer-in-residence at New York University. McBride’s most recent New York Times bestselling novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, is featured at the 2024 National Book Festival.

"Just for the Summer" by Abby Jimenez - Library of Congress National Book Festival 2024
2024-08-07 20:00 - 21:00
LOC National Book Festival 2024
Episode Description:
In partnership with VPM and other local PBS stations, PBS Books presents a conversation hosted by VPM’s Keyris Manzanares with author Abby Jimenez to discuss her latest book Just for the Summer as the 2024 Library of Congress National Book Festival author featured this week by PBS Books.
Are things too good to be true when a Reddit thread post leads to an intentional quick fling? It’s not long before this couple is suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected — including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?
The 24th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, August 24, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
About the Book:
Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it’s now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They’ll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.
Emma hadn’t planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.
It’s supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma’s toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they’re suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected–including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?
Guest Biography:
Abby Jimenez
Abby Jimenez is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling romance author. Her novels have sold over 1.5 million copies and been translated into 28 languages. She has received a Good Morning America Book Club pick, a Book of the Month’s Book of the Year Award and a Minnesota Book Award. Before her writing career, Jimenez was in the national spotlight as a Cupcake Wars champion and founder of Nadia Cakes bakery, which has gone on to win numerous Food Network competitions and amass an international following. Her latest novel, “Just for the Summer,” is featured at the 2024 National Book Festival.
Host Biography:
Keyris Manzanares, Multimedia Reporter at Virginia Public Media
Keyris Manzanares is a dynamic, bilingual, 2x Emmy-award winning multimedia journalist at VPM, Virginia’s Home for Public Media. Passionate about stories that impact underserved communities, she previously worked at WRIC ABC 8News, where she created and anchored HOY EN RVA to inform Central Virginia’s Latino community. A Virginia Commonwealth University alumna, she’s covered major issues like health disparities, housing, education, immigration, COVID-19, and justice reform. Keyris was born and raised in Virginia.

"Night Flyer" by Tiya Miles - Library of Congress National Book Festival 2024
2024-08-14 20:00 - 21:00
LOC National Book Festival 2024
Episode Description:
In partnership with Maryland Public Television and other local PBS stations, PBS Books Heather-Marie Montilla is joined by author Tiya Miles to discuss her latest book Night Flyer as the 2024 Library of Congress National Book Festival author featured this week by PBS Books.
With her characteristic tenderness and imaginative genius, Miles explores beyond the stock historical grid to weave Tubman’s life into the fabric of her world. Harriet Tubman traversed many boundaries, and thanks to Miles, she becomes an even clearer and sharper signal from the past, one that can help us to find a more just and sustainable path.
The 24th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, August 24, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
About the Book:
Harriet Tubman is among the most famous Americans ever born and soon to be the face of the twenty-dollar bill. Yet often she’s a figure more out of myth than history, almost a comic-book superhero. Despite being barely five feet tall, unable to read, and suffering from a brain injury, she managed to escape from her own enslavement, return again and again to lead others north to freedom without loss of life, speak out powerfully against slavery, and then become the first American woman in history to lead a military raid, freeing some seven hundred people. You could almost say she’s America’s Robin Hood, a miraculous vision, often rightly celebrated but seldom understood.
Tiya Miles’s extraordinary Night Flyer changes all that. With her characteristic tenderness and imaginative genius, Miles explores beyond the stock historical grid to weave Tubman’s life into the fabric of her world. She probes the ecological reality of Tubman’s surroundings and examines her kinship with other enslaved women who similarly passed through a spiritual wilderness and recorded those travels in profound and moving memoirs. What emerges, uncannily, is a human being whose mysticism becomes more palpable the more we understand it—a story that offers us powerful inspiration for our own time of troubles. Harriet Tubman traversed many boundaries, inner and outer. Now, thanks to Tiya Miles, she becomes an even clearer and sharper signal from the past, one that can help us to echolocate a more just and sustainable path.
Guest Biography:
Tiya Miles
TIYA MILES is the Michael Garvey Professor of History at Harvard University, the author of five prize-winning works on the history of slavery and early American race relations, and a 2011 MacArthur Fellowship recipient. She was the founder and director of the Michigan-based ECO Girls program, and she is the author of the National Book Award–winning, New York Times best-selling All That She Carried. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Bozeman, Montana.

"Music and Mind" by Renée Fleming - Library of Congress National Book Festival 2024
2024-08-21 20:00 - 21:00
LOC National Book Festival 2024
Episode Description:
In partnership with WETA and other local PBS stations, PBS Books Heather-Marie Montilla is joined by World-Renowned Soprano and Arts/Health Advocate, Renée Fleming to discuss her latest book “Music and Mind” as the 2024 Library of Congress National Book Festival author featured this week by PBS Books.
A compelling and growing body of research has shown music and arts therapies to be effective tools for addressing a widening array of conditions, including providing pain relief, alleviating anxiety and depression, regaining speech after stroke or traumatic brain injury, and improving mobility for people with disorders that include Parkinson’s disease and MS. “Music and Mind” is a groundbreaking book, the perfect introduction and overview of this exciting new field.
The 24th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, August 24, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
About the Book:
A compelling and growing body of research has shown music and arts therapies to be effective tools for addressing a widening array of conditions, from providing pain relief and alleviating anxiety and depression to regaining speech after stroke or traumatic brain injury, and improving mobility for people with disorders that include Parkinson’s disease and MS.
In Music and Mind Renée Fleming draws upon her own experience as an advocate to showcase the breadth of this booming field, inviting leading experts to share their discoveries. In addition to describing therapeutic benefits, the book explores evolution, brain function, childhood development, and technology as applied to arts and health.
Much of this area of study is relatively new, made possible by recent advances in brain imaging, and supported by the National Institutes of Health, major hospitals, and universities. This work is sparking an explosion of public interest in the arts and health sector.
Fleming has presented on this material in over fifty cities across North America, Europe, and Asia, collaborating with leading researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners. With essays from notable musicians, writers, and artists, as well as leading neuroscientists, Music and Mind is a groundbreaking book, the perfect introduction and overview of this exciting new field.
Guest Biography:
Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming is an acclaimed soprano and health/arts advocate who has performed at events ranging from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Super Bowl. She has received many honors and awards, including five Grammys, the National Medal of Arts and a Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Award. A prominent advocate for research at the intersection of the arts, health and neuroscience, Fleming serves as an artistic advisor to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where she launched the first ongoing collaboration between the Kennedy Center and the National Institutes of Health. She is also a 2023 Kennedy Center Honoree and serves as a World Health Organization goodwill ambassador for arts and health. Fleming is the editor of the new essay collection, “Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness,” which is featured at the 2024 National Book Festival.

PBS Books Readers Club - "The Hunter" by Tana French
2024-08-28 20:00 - 21:00
Readers Club HomeEpisodes
Episode Description:
The PBS Books Readers Club Welcomes Bestselling Irish Crime Fiction Writer Tana French to discuss her books The Searcher and The Hunter.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Searcher and “one of the greatest crime novelists writing today” (VOX), comes a spellbinding new tale set in the Irish countryside.
It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die.
Fans of PBS crime dramas D.I. Ray and Grantchester will be drawn into this nuanced, atmospheric tale that explores what we’ll do for our loved ones, what we’ll do for revenge, and what we sacrifice when the two collide.
Don’t miss the PBS Books Readers Club on August 28 at 8:00 pm (ET) as Tana French shares her inspiration behind her novels, her writing process, favorite books, and more.
About the Books:
Get the E-BookDONATE NOW and download your e-book copy.

“Hailed as the queen of Irish crime fiction, French spins a taut tale of retribution, sacrifice, and family.”—TIME

It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die.
Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or less: he’s built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he’s gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But then Trey’s long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn’t want protecting. What she wants is revenge.
From the writer who is “in a class by herself,” (The New York Times), a nuanced, atmospheric tale that explores what we’ll do for our loved ones, what we’ll do for revenge, and what we sacrifice when the two collide.

Get the E-BookDONATE NOW and download your e-book copy.

“This hushed suspense tale about thwarted dreams of escape may be her best one yet . . . Its own kind of masterpiece.” –Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post
“A new Tana French is always cause for celebration . . . Read it once for the plot; read it again for the beauty and subtlety of French’s writing.” –Sarah Lyall, The New York Times
Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets.
“One of the greatest crime novelists writing today” (Vox) weaves a masterful, atmospheric tale of suspense, asking how to tell right from wrong in a world where neither is simple, and what we stake on that decision.

Guest Biography:
Tana French
Tana French is the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including In the Woods, The Likeness, and The Searcher. Her novels have sold over eight million copies worldwide and won numerous awards, including the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Mystery/Thriller, and the Irish Book Award for Crime Fiction. She lives in Dublin with her family.
Readers Club Hosts:
Heather Marie Montilla
Heather-Marie Montilla, a dynamic integrative leader, is an educator and nonprofit manager. She has worked in the nonprofit sector and libraries for over two decades, making a positive impact in arts, cultural, educational, and community-building arenas.
Having joined the PBS Books team as their Library Bureau Chief in Fall 2018, Montilla is now the National Director of PBS Books and has interviewed more than 150 writers. In addition, she is a faculty member at Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University for their Arts and Cultural/Entertainment Management Programs. Having been an Executive Director for 8 years, Heather has a wide range of experience in management, finance, strategic planning, marketing, and fundraising. Heather holds a MPA From Columbia University, a MLIS from Wayne State University, and a bachelor’s from Duke University. She lives in Chicagoland, and is married with four children, a dog, and a bird.
Princess Weekes
Princess Weekes is an award winning writer and video essayist who works at breaking down the intersections between race, gender, and pop culture. Formally an Assistant Editor at The Mary Sue, co-host of Netflix’s The Geeked Podcast, and co-host and co-writer on the PBS Digital Series It’s Lit. On weekends she works as a bookseller at a local bookstore. When not reading or writing she can be found playing TTRPGs of cuddling with her cat, Lola.
Lauren Smith
Executive Producer and host of national PBS programming at Detroit Public TV, Lauren develops content for PBS and other distributors of public media for broadcast, streaming, and other digital channels and has executive-produced and/or produced over 60 national broadcast and programs. Her passion is to develop inspiring, entertaining, and educational content alongside the best national and international talent, and to engage important content with communities across the country. Lauren loves to read and has worked to develop and produce PBS Books content for nearly ten years!
Fred Nahhat
Fred Nahhat is an Emmy Award-winning producer, host, and presenter for Detroit’s PBS station, where he serves as Sr. VP of Production. A 30-year broadcast veteran, Fred has hosted and produced numerous programs for Public TV – including music specials from Il Volo, Celtic Gold and the New Divas – as well as other series and specials “New Year’s Eve with the DSO”, “The Detroit Dream Cruise,” “The PBS Books Readers Club” and “Get Up, Get Out,” among others.
He is a graduate of Wayne State University and a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Michigan Chapter, USA Hockey, and Leadership Detroit.

Moonflower Murders | Masterpiece Filmmaker Talk
2024-09-11 20:00 - 21:00
Episode Description:
Join PBS Books in conversation with award-winning novelist and screenwriter, Anthony Horowitz to discuss MASTERPIECE Mystery!, Moonflower Murders. This new six-part series sequel continues where the smash hit Magpie Murders left off with editor turned amateur sleuth Susan Ryeland (Manville) and world-famous fictional detective Atticus Pünd (McMullan). Learn fun insights directly from Anthony Horowitz prior to the release of the PBS show!
Moonflower Murders premieres Sunday, September 15th at 9 PM ET | 8PM CT
Before you watch Moonflower Murders, go behind the story of the hit series Magpie Murders on PBS Books! You can watch the full series on the PBS App with your Passport subscription.
About the Show:

The second of Anthony Horowitz’s adaptation of his own bestselling Susan Ryeland/Atticus Pünd series, Moonflower Murders picks up in the aftermath of Magpie Murder’s riveting finale, as book editor-turned-sleuth (turned hotelier) Susan Ryeland is living in Crete with her longtime boyfriend, Andreas. But her idyll is disturbed by the shadow of a murder committed at a British country hotel eight years ago. Alan Conway, Susan’s prima donna former author, visited the hotel and wrote a novel based on what happened there—a novel that later led Cecily Treherne, who helps run the hotel, to believe that the wrong man is behind bars. Now Cecily has disappeared. Can Susan uncover the secret hidden in the book and find Cecily before it’s too late?

Guest Biography:
Anthony Horowitz
Anthony is one of the most prolific and successful writers working in the UK – and is unique for working across so many media.
Anthony’s award-winning novel Magpie Murders was published in 2016 to critical acclaim and he adapted it himself for the screen. It aired on MASTERPIECE Mystery! in 2023 with Lesley Manville in the lead role. The sequel, Moonflower Murders will premiere on MASTERPIECE beginning September 15, 2024 and Leslie Manville is back to reprise her role as editor Susan Ryland.

Highlights - 2024 Library of Congress National Book Festival
2024-09-12 20:00 - 21:00
LOC National Book Festival 2024
Episode Description:
If you missed any of the 2024 Library of Congress National Book Festival or want to learn more behind the books of the over 90 featured authors, poets, and illustrators, join PBS Books in collaboration with the Library of Congress as we highlight the memorable moments of the 2024 Library of Congress National Book Festival.
Featured Speakers, in order of appearance:
“A Confident Cook”
Featuring: Tamron Hall, Lish Steiling, Dr. Carla Hayden
Full DiscussionCelebrating James Baldwin’s Centennial
Featuring: Ayana Mathis, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Eric Deggans
Full DiscussionShhh! Don’t Tell Our Secret About the Couch!
Featuring: Sasha Dowdy, Adam Rubin, Liniers
Full DiscussionMusic is Medicine
Featuring: Renée Fleming, Daniel J. Levitin, Michael Andor Brodeur
Full DiscussionModern Dating: We Love It, We Hate It
Featuring: Abby Jimenez, Casey McQuiston, Megan Labrise
Full DiscussionInvestigating the Algorithm: Our Uneasy Ties to Tech
Featuring: Joy Boulamwini , Kyle Chayka, Regina G. Barber
Full DiscussionLiterature to Life Performs: ‘I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter’
Watch the full performance.
Full Performance‘Romantasy’ Novels
Featuring: Rebecca Yarros, Emily Kwong
Full DiscussionCelebrating the 40th Anniversary of “The House on Mango Street”
Featuring: Sandra Cisneros, Rachel Martin
Full DiscussionFeatured 2024 LOC Virtual Author Interviews from PBS Books:
The House on Mango Street | Sandra Cisneros
WatchGood Night Thoughts | Max Greenfield
Watchthe year of the buttered cat | Susan & Lexi Haas
WatchThe Heaven and Earth Grocery Store | James McBride
WatchJust for the Summer | Abby Jimenez
WatchNight Flyer | Tiya Miles
WatchMusic and Mind |Renée Fleming
Watch
