Official Center for the Book for the State of New York
You can now donate to support the Empire State Center for the Book Online: Click HERE .
You are invited to join
Marilyn Hacker, Alice McDermott, Walter Mosley, and Calvin Trillin
as they are inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame together with
James Fenimore Cooper, Countee Cullen, Miguel Piñero, and Maurice Sendak.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
The Princeton Club of New York
15 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036
For more information click here.
To make your reservation, click here.
Center Chooses Next Stop Grand Central to Represent New York at National Book Festival
The Empire State Center for the Book has selected Maira Kalman’s Next Stop Grand Central (Penguin) to represent New York State at the 2013 National Book Festival in Washington DC. The book is the state’s selection for the National Book Festival’s “Discover Great Places Through Reading Map”. Each state selects one title of fiction or non-fiction, a book about the state or by an author from the state, that is a good read for children or young adults. The map is distributed at the Pavilion of the States at the Festival and listed in “Great Reads About Great Places”.
“From wailing tots to dogs on leashes to parting lovers to streaking commuters, all the familiar and eccentric sorts are represented, with great originality and in brilliant color,” wrote the New York Times when the book was first released in 1999. Penguin Young Readers Group has reissued it in celebration of the 100 Anniversary of Grand Central Terminal.
The selection will be formally recognized at the New York State Writers Hall of Fame Induction on June 4th where Alice McDermott, Marilyn Hacker, Walter Mosley, Calvin Trillin, and Maurice Sendak, among others, will be inducted during a gala dinner held at the Princeton Club of New York.
The National Book Festival will be held on the National Mall on September 21 & 22, 2013. It will feature award-winning authors, poets, and illustrators in several pavilions dedicated to categories of literature. Festivalgoers can meet and hear firsthand from their favorite authors, get books signed, have photos taken with mascots and storybook characters, and participate in a variety of learning activities. The Pavilion of the States will represent reading and library promotion programs and literary events in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. trusts and territories.
2013 Inductees into the NYS Writers Hall of Fame Announced
Noted writers Marilyn Hacker, Alice McDermott, Walter Mosley, and Calvin Trillin are among the eight members of the 2013 Class of Inductees into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. The four will be in attendance at the induction on Tuesday, June 4, 2013, at the Princeton Club of New York. The announcement of the 2013 inductees was made on February 26, 2013, at the Forbes Gallery in New York City, by Robert L. Forbes, who serves on the board of the Empire State Center for the Book. The Center for the Book is the organization that oversees the Hall of Fame. In addition, four deceased writers, James Fenimore Cooper, Countee Cullen, Miguel Pinero, and Maurice Sendak will also be inducted. “This year’s list of inductees has poets, novelists, and journalists whose work spans from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries” said Rocco Staino, the Center for the Book Director. “I hope that the public will take time to revisit the works of all our inductees.”
The nominees into the NYS Writers Hall of Fame were chosen by a selection committee comprised of Harold Augenbraum, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation; Jeffrey Cannell, Deputy Commissioner for Cultural Education of the New York State Education Department; Barbara Genco, retired librarian from Brooklyn Public Library and Editor of Collection Management at Media Source; Brian Kenney, Director of the White Plains Public Library; Brian McCarthy, Associate Publisher of the Library of America; Kathleen Masterson, Director of the Literature Program at the New York State Council on the Arts; Bertha Rogers, Executive Director of Bright Hill Press & creator of the New York State Literary website and map; Rocco Staino, Director of the Empire State Center for the Book; and Hong Yao, Associate Coordinator of Collection Development at Queens Library.
We are thrilled that the NYS Writers Hall of Fame plaque for Hart Crane has a home at the Brooklyn Heights Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. It was presented to the library after Langdon Hammer, editor of Hart Crane: Complete Poetry and Selected Letters (Library of America, 2006), spoke about the poet.
Brooklyn Heights Branch Librarian, Paula Menzies; President of the Friends, Kathy Miller; and Crane Scholar, Langdon Hammer
Click here for a photo slideshow of the event on Flickr.
New York Cathedral to be Named Literary Landmark
The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine will be dedicated a Literary Landmark on Thursday, November 29 th to recognize the church’s connection with the legendary children’s author, Madeleine L’Engle. The author of the children’s literary classic A Wrinkle in Time (FSG, 1962) served as the church’s librarian for more than 40 years. The event, which is open to the public, is scheduled for 4 p.m. in the Cathedral, followed by Evensong and a reception. During the dedication Leonard S. Marcus, children’s literature historian and author of Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L’Engle in Many Voices (FSG, 2012), will speak about L’Engle and her connection to the Cathedral.
The Empire State Center for the Book , The Children’s Book Council and Farrar Straus Giroux , an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group are the sponsors of the landmark for L’Engle, who was an author of many works of fiction and nonfiction. “It is very appropriate that we dedicate this landmark on November 29 th because it would have been L’Engle’s 94 th birthday,” said Rocco Staino, director of the Empire State Center for the Book.
The sponsors proposed this year for the memorial because it marks the 50 th anniversary of the publication of A Wrinkle in Time ,for which L’Engle received the prestigious Newbery Medal. In 2011 the author was inducted posthumously into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame , a project of the Empire State Center for the Book.
The Literary Landmarks is a program of United for Libraries (formerly Friends of Libraries USA). Other landmarks in New York City include the Algonquin Hotel , The Little Red Lighthouse and Pete’s Tavern .
Media inquiries: Rocco Staino (914) 475-3857 or Lisa Schubert 212 316-7541
Empire State Center for the Book Takes to the Road
Spring was a busy time for the Empire State Center for the Book with the induction of fourteen authors into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. The center was honored to have E.L. Doctorow, Pete Hamill, Toni Morrison and Joyce Carol Oates, this year’s living inductees, attend the June 5 th event at the Princeton Club in New York City.
You can read the induction remarks about some of this year’s honorees at the Library of America’s Readers Almanac:
- Mary McCarthy
- Henry James
- E.L. Doctorow
- Joyce Carol Oates
- Washington Irving
- Marianne Moore
- Barbara Tuchman
- Hart Crane
In September, you will find the Empire State Center for the Book at the Pavilion of States at the National Book Festival in Washington DC. If you are in our nation’s capitol for the festival (September 22nd-23rd) stop by the New York State table and mention you are a NYLA member to receive a special gift. On the evening of Saturday, September 22 nd the Center will be hosting Literary New York Comes to DC . The event is cosponsored by the New York State Society of DC , and the American Women’s Writers National Museum will bring together the New York State authors who are in Washington for the festival and New Yorkers, former New Yorkers, and others in a social gathering. The event is from 6-8 pm at the Army Navy Club. Those wishing to attend can contact Rocco Stain, rocco.staino@gmail.com
Remember to like the Empire State Center for the Book on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @EmpireStateBook
2012 Living Hall of Fame Inductees
Read the story in the NY Daily News here .
Noted authors Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, E.L. Doctorow, and Pete Hamill are among the 14 writers in the 2012 Class of Inductees into the NYS Writers Hall of Fame. The four will be in attendance at the induction on June 5, 2012, at the Princeton Club of New York . The announcement was made at an event at the Forbes Gallery in New York City by Robert L. Forbes, who serves on the board of the Empire State Center for the Book. The Center for the Book is the organization that oversees the Hall of Fame. Ten deceased writers including Kurt Vonnegut, Washington Irving, and Marianne Moore will also be inducted.
2012 NYS Letters About Literature winners announced
