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Dulcé Sloan Photo: Bronson Farr Two decades ago, while Daily Show Senior Correspondent Dulcé Sloan was doing summer shows at a community theater in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, the library was her main hangout spot. In the small town of 9,000 people, it was a place to gather with other young actors—and the only place with internet […]
When poet and writer Hanif Abdurraqib received a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship, the foundation observed that he “is forging a new form of cultural criticism, one that is informed by lived experience and offers incisive social and artistic critiques.” This aptly describes A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance (2021), winner of […]
From left: Filmmakers Trish Adlesic, Nazenet Habtezghi, and Sheila Nevins. The trio codirected The ABCs of Book Banning (MTV Documentary Films). American Libraries spoke with Adlesic and Habtezghi about the nomination and the ongoing fight for intellectual freedom. Photos, from left: Brandi Merolla, Nazenet Habtezghi, Valerie Chiang Book challenges and bans rage on in the […]
Jesús Trejo often has a full plate—literally and figuratively—when it comes to his career. The comedian and author is the host and executive producer of First We Feast’s Tacos Con Todo web series, where he bites into California’s taco scene alongside other comedians. He acts and writes for the Hulu’s This Fool. Last summer, he […]
Antonia Hylton speaks at the 2024 LibLearnX conference in Baltimore on January 20. Photo: EPNAC NBC News and MSNBC correspondent Antonia Hylton says she became obsessed with the story of Crownsville (Md.) State Hospital when she arrived at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a history student. Hylton spent years doing archival research and building […]
Ali Hazelwood Photo: Justin Murphy/Out of the Attic Photography Romance author and doctor of neuroscience Ali Hazelwood saw her 2021 debut, The Love Hypothesis, become a New York Times bestseller and go viral on TikTok. Readers praised the book—derived from a piece of Star Wars fan fiction Hazelwood had written—for its classic tropes and STEM […]
Tracy K. Smith Photo: Andrew Kelly Author, professor, and librettist Tracy K. Smith is as prolific as she is distinguished. She has won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (for 2011’s Life on Mars), earned a National Book Award nomination (for her 2015 memoir, Ordinary Light), and served as 2017–2019 US poet laureate. With To Free […]
LeVar Burton Photo: Sarah Coulter for Paramount+ When asked about the impact libraries have had on his life and work, LeVar Burton answered simply and succinctly: “Better to ask what role sunlight and water plays in the life and work of flowers.” The actor, known for his roles in the iconic series Roots and Star […]
High school senior Da’Taeveyon Daniels has quickly become a passionate leader in advocating for students and intellectual freedom. The 16-year-old from Fort Worth, Texas, is the youngest member of the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Advisory Council, the partnership director for Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), and the leader of Student Advocates for Speech (SAS) […]
Rick Riordan Photo: M. Sharkey Rick Riordan is best known for his Greek mythology–inspired Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, which has since inspired a larger franchise. In May he released The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure (Hachette) with coauthor Mark Oshiro, about the son of Hades and his boyfriend on […]
Idina Menzel (left) and Cara Mentzel Photo: ENPAC When Idina Menzel was contemplating writing a children’s book, her first thought was to join forces with her younger sister. “I wouldn’t have done it any other way,” Menzel—a world-renowned singer and performer best known for her stage and screen roles in Frozen, Rent, and Wicked—said about […]
Ken Jennings Photo: Faith Jennings As a kid growing up during the 1970s and 1980s, record Jeopardy! champion-turned-host Ken Jennings was surrounded by stories about the world’s greatest mysteries: the Bermuda Triangle, UFOs, Bigfoot. But for him, what’s beyond our physical world has always been the biggest and most exciting enigma. Jennings explores the afterlife […]
Photo: Imani Khayyam Soon after Angie Thomas released her debut young adult novel, The Hate U Give, in 2017, the book became a common target for challenges in schools and libraries across the US. But the novel also helped change the landscape of the publishing industry, at a time when authors and readers were calling […]
Kelly Yang Photo: Jessica Sample As a kid, the library was the first place Kelly Yang felt invited to “dream bigger.” Yang, now a bestselling and award-winning middle-grade and YA author, spent her childhood moving from city to city, making it difficult to find her footing. But everywhere she went, she could find familiar stories […]
Ani DiFranco Photo credit: GMD Three When the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt on live music, Grammy Award–winning musician and activist Ani DiFranco found another outlet for her artistry: children’s literature. DiFranco, who released a bestselling memoir in 2019, published her debut children’s book, The Knowing (Penguin Random House), in March. She describes the book […]
Photo: Calvin Gavion Few details go unnoticed by Clint Smith: His child’s first hiccup. The way his grandfather’s house still smells like his late grandmother’s hair. The eroding coastline in his home state of Louisiana. His poetry collection Counting Descent won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the […]
Since the release of his 2019 bestseller How to Be an Antiracist, author and scholar Ibram X. Kendi has adapted his guide for specific audiences, including young children and parents. Now Kendi, working with middle-grade and YA fiction author Nic Stone, is bringing his concepts and research to teens in an effort to help them […]
Rebecca Makkai Photo: Brett Simison Each of Rebecca Makkai’s five books is different in focus and style, and all are enthralling, incisive, and witty. Her 2018 novel The Great Believers won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Stonewall Book Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Makkai is a Guggenheim fellow; […]
Photo: Allison Shelley/NPR In 1971, reporter Nina Totenberg called then–law professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg for help making sense of a legal brief. That conversation launched a decades-spanning friendship and Totenberg’s career. The journalist joined NPR in 1975 and currently serves as the non-profit media organization’s legal correspondent; Justice Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court […]
In their bestselling young adult memoir, All Boys Aren’t Blue (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), author and activist George M. Johnson tells the story of their life growing up Black and queer in the United States, while also addressing topics like racism, gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, and sexual abuse. The book has been […]
