Finding Your Roots Family Album: Series Highlights with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
2023-04-12 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Halifax)
Behind-the-scenes stories from Season Nine and the series archive.
Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. joins CeCe Moore – Genetic Genealogist and Finding Your Roots Producer Natalia Warchol as they share behind-the-scenes stories about the show with Family Pictures USA Creator Thomas Allen Harris!
Catch up with the last few episodes of Season 9 here or watch ALL episodes on-demand with DPTV Passport!

MASTERPIECE: TOM JONES featuring Gwyneth Hughes
2023-04-19 20:00 - 21:00
The Magic of Masterpiece
PBS Books, in collaboration with GBH, is pleased to host a conversation with Executive Producer and Writer of “Tom Jones” Gwyneth Hughes. “Tom Jones” will premiere on MASTERPIECE on PBS stations across the country on Sunday, April 30 at 9pm. Join us and learn about this eighteenth century classic story still resonate today with humorous elements through an interview with Gwyneth Hughes. We’ll hear her about her work and her favorite elements.
ABOUT THE MASTERPIECE SHOW: “TOM JONES”
This four-part television miniseries reimagines “The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling”, Henry Fielding’s classic novel. A picaresque story of the title character’s complicated journey to find real love, “Tom Jones” has delighted and scandalized readers since it was originally published in 1749. Solly McLeod (“The Rising”) stars as the hero Tom, alongside Sophie Wilde (“You Don’t Know Me”) as the heroine Sophia Western. Written by Gwyneth Hughes (“Vanity Fair,” “Miss Austen Regrets”), “Tom Jones” is directed by Georgia Parris (“Mari”) and produced by Benjamin Greenacre. For more information visit: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/shows/tom-jones/
ABOUT THE WRITER & EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Gwyneth Hughes was born in London. She studied Russian at Sussex University, becoming a newspaper reporter on the Sheffield Morning Telegraph. Gwyn’s first job in television was on the Yorkshire Television regional newsdesk.
From there she became a Bafta-nominated documentary director specializing in history and true crime, and began her move from factual into drama on episodes. Her original thriller mini-series “Five Days,” and her Tippi Hedren biopic “The Girl,” were both nominated for the Baftas and the Golden Globes. Her classic dramatizations include “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” “Vanity Fair,” and “Miss Austen Regrets.” Gwyn is currently writing about the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history, affecting the lives of hundreds of village postmasters. She lives with her husband in North Yorkshire.

Celebrating Earth Month with Author Victoria Kann
2023-04-26 20:00 - 21:00
PBS Books, in collaboration with GBH, is pleased to present a conversation to celebrate Earth Month with New York Times Best-Selling author and illustrator Victoria Kann, who is also the Co-Executive and Co-Executive Producer of the hit PBS Kids series, “Pinkalicious & Peterrific.” Join us as Victoria Kann reads “Emeraldalicious” and discusses the importance of Pinkalicious and Peter taking care of their park. Our program will be fun for all as we explore the power of rhyming, kindness, and imagination. Plus we’ll discuss ways to get started recycling…Because together we can make a difference for our environment for the earth. Don’t miss this special program!
ABOUT THE BOOK: “EMERALDALICIOUS”
“Emeraldalicious: A Springtime Book For Kids” follows Pinkalicious and Peter on their visit to their favorite park, but on the way Pinkalicious’s wand breaks. She isn’t worried at all, because she knows just what to do. She takes a stick, some vines, and a very special flower to make a magical wand. When Pinkalicious and Peter finally arrive at the park it’s covered in stinky trash! But never fear, Pinkalicious is here with her magical wand, lots of love, and pinktastic rhymes to turn the trash into an Emeraldalicious paradise. Pinkalicious combines magic, love, and imagination to turn an ordinary place into an Emeraldalicious world.
ABOUT THE SHOW: “PINKALICIOUS & PETERRIFIC”
Launched February 2018, “Pinkalicious & Peterrific” has five seasons and seventy episodes. It is the go-to children’s series for creativity and arts. Pinkalicious Pinkerton is unique, one of a kind, and pinkatastic (an original word by an original kid)! Together with their friends and neighbors in Pinkville, Pinkalicious and her younger brother Peter get into all kinds of artful adventures. Based on Victoria Kann’s best-selling picture book series, “Pinkalicious and Peterrific,” for kids ages 3 to 6, models the power of teamwork and creative thinking to solve problems — and very cool, often unexpected things occur when these colorful characters join forces.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: VICTORIA KANN
Victoria Kann is the award-winning illustrator and author of the picture book series featuring the whimsical and effervescent “Pinkalicious,” and the Co-Executive Producer of the hit PBS Kids series, “Pinkalicious & Peterrific. “She wrote and illustrated The New York Times number-one bestsellers “Goldilicious,” “Silverlicious” and “Emeraldalicious;” she also co authored and illustrated the first two books in the series, “Pinkalicious” and “Purplicious,” as well as “Pinkalicious: the Musical,” which premiered in New York to sold-out audiences and continues to be performed across the country. Before that, Victoria was commissioned to illustrate for magazines and newspapers including “Time,” “Business Week,” “Harper’s Magazine,” “The Washington Post” and “The New York Times.” She is a graduate of The Rhode Island School of Design and has taught at RISD, Parson’s and The School of Visual Arts.

Author Talk: Heather Raffo with Special Guest Laith Nakli
2023-04-27 20:00 - 21:00
PBS Books celebrates Arab-American Heritage Month in conversation with award-winning actor and playwright Heather Raffo, author of “Iraq Plays: The Things That Can’t Be Said: 9 Parts of Desire; Fallujah; Noura” and British-Syrian actor and producer Laith Nakli. Join us to learn about Heather Raffo’s important work about the lives of Iraqi women as she returns to the subject on film and through a distinctly American lens, setting a new version in Michigan after the U.S. invaded Iraq 20 years ago.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Heather Raffo
Heather Raffo is a singular and outstanding voice in the American theater whose work has been championed by the New Yorker as “an example of how art can remake the world”. Having helped forge a new genre of Middle Eastern American theater, she’s spent her career writing and embodying stories of Iraq: from the lives and dreams of Iraqi women in her seminal work 9 Parts of Desire (2003), to the suicidal ideation of an Iraq war veteran in the opera Fallujah (2012), to the restless longings of an Iraqi refugee architect, in Noura (2018).
A multi award-winning writer and actor, she’s toured nationally and internationally: from The Kennedy Center to The Aspen Ideas Festival and from London’s House of Commons to the U.S. Islamic World Forum. Her newly released anthology, HeatherRaffo’s Iraq Plays: The Things That Can’t Be Said, brings together two decades of her most groundbreaking contributions to the American theater and speaks to the bravery required to be at the forefront of a movement. Her latest Migration Play Cycle: A New Theatrical Platform, of which the play Tomorrow Will Be Sunday is a part (Kennedy Center River Run festival, Creative Capital Grant, UN Sustainable Development Goal) is her most ambitious theatrical imagining in scale and scope, and situates themes around migration and the global economy. Being raised in the Midwest and the daughter of an Iraqi immigrant, Raffo has committed her artistic practice to working across all kinds of borders: on mainstages and in rural communities; with the military and in the Middle East; in swing states and in refugee facilities. She is uniquely positioned to explore what migration means for an ever-evolving American and global identity.
ABOUT THE BOOK/PLAY
The Things That Can’t Be Said: Three Plays About Iraq is a trilogy of plays by renowned Iraqi American playwright/performer Heather Raffo including 9 Parts of Desire, Fallujah: The First Opera about the Iraq War, and Noura.
In these three works Raffo explores the indelible effects of war on Iraqis, Americans, and the refugees caught between the two cultures. When considered together, these three works give voice to nearly two decades of rarely examined traumas that have reshaped cultural and national identity for both Americans and Iraqis since the events of 9/11.
Heather Raffo is a renowned playwright and performer whose work has been described by The New Yorker as an example of “how art can remake the world.” An American with Iraqi heritage, her work is seen as a rare bridge between western and eastern cultures.
With ongoing debates about the legacy of America’s foreign wars and future role in the Middle East, this volume offers a uniquely historical and deeply human perspective on the political issues of our time. Spanning a decade and a half, together these works form a mosaic of untold stories that were ground breaking in their time and continue to profoundly impact communities and classrooms internationally.
9 Parts of Desire (2003): “First Choice/The Best Shows in London” by The Times, and as one of the “Five Best Plays” in London by The Independent. Its award winning, Off-Broadway premiere ran for nine sold out months and was a critics pick of the The New York Times, Time Out, and Village Voice. The play then received productions in nearly every major regional theatre market in American before being translated for international productions in Brazil, Greece, Sweden, Hungary, India, Turkey, Malta, France, Iraq, Egypt, and Israel. It was the first commercial hit on a national and international stage by an Arab American playwright helping to birth a new genre of Middle Eastern American Theatre.
Fallujah (2016) received its world premiere at Long Beach Opera before transferring to NYC Opera. The first ever opera about the Iraq War it tells a U.S. Marine’s account of the battle of Fallujah it focuses on moral injury and veteran suicide.
Noura (2018) won the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award and was hailed “The Most Ambitious Premiere” of the Women’s Voices Theatre Festival by The Washington Post and “stirringly powerful” by The New York Times. Told from inside the marriage of an Iraqi family, the play explores the lingering cost of exile for both recent refugees and more established American immigrants. Drawing inspiration from Ibsen’s A Doll’s Hous and championed as a first of its kind feminist refugee narrative, it is already being included in university curriculum both in America and abroad.

Celebrating Mental Health Awareness Month: Self-Love with Vashti Harrison
2023-05-03 20:00 - 21:00
PBS Books is pleased to host a conversation with New York Times bestselling author and award-winning creator Vashti Harrison, who recently wrote and illustrated “BIG.” This program is offered to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month, promoting self-love, self-acceptance, and self-empowerment for the young and the young-at-heart. Join us to learn about the story and Vashti’s creative process, hear Vashti read an excerpt of her book, and learn about the importance of self-love.
AUTHOR: VASHTI HARRISON
Vashti Harrison is the #1 New York Times bestselling creator of Little Leaders, Little Dreamers, and Little Legends and the illustrator of Lupita Nyong’o’s Sulwe, Matthew Cherry’s Hair Love, Andrea Beaty’s I Love You Like Yellow, and Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic’s Hello, Star, among others. She earned her BA in studio art and media studies from the University of Virginia and her MFA in film/video from CalArts, where she rekindled a love for drawing and painting. Vashti lives in Brooklyn, New York, and invites you to visit her at vashtiharrison.com or on Instagram and Twitter @vashtiharrison.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Vashti is the #1 New York Times bestselling creator of Little Leaders, Little Dreamers, and Little Legends and the illustrator of Lupita Nyong’o’s Sulwe, Matthew Cherry’s Hair Love, Andrea Beaty’s I Love You Like Yellow, and Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic’s Hello, Star, among others. BIG was named one of BookPage’s Most Anticipated children’s book of the season and has received three starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and The Horn Book. Vashti recently graced the cover of Publishers Weekly and CBS Saturday Morning profiled Vashti to celebrate her work, Black History Month, and preview BIG.
This is a deeply personal story for Vashti—rooted in her own experiences as a child sitting in the crosshairs of adultification bias and anti-fat bias, struggling to find self-acceptance. She writes in her author note, “In childhood, big is good. Big is impressive, aspirational. But somewhere along the way, the world begins to tell us something different: That big is bad. That being big is undesirable…My size indicated to adults that I was big enough to know better, even though I was still just a kid. I learned that day that my body did not fit. It did not belong. And adults no longer saw me as a little girl who could make innocent mistakes.” There is a dual message within this text: first, this is a story about size, yes, but not just in the body-image context; it also addresses how “big” kids—especially Black children—are often treated as if they are older than they are. And then beyond size, it shows how words affect young children and can shape their image of themselves before they’ve even had a chance to figure out who they are.
Filled with truth, beauty, joy, and acceptance, this is a tour de force. Vashti traces a child’s journey to self-love and shows the power of words to both hurt and heal. With spare text and exquisite illustrations, this emotional exploration of being big in a world that prizes small is a tender portrayal of how you can stand out and feel invisible at the same time. A story whose seeds are from Vashti’s own childhood, this will be an important book for so many—anyone who is misunderstood as well as any adult who wants to understand how to be truly accepting and supportive. While it will resonate with many, young Black girls will especially find a story and character they might see themselves in.

Celebrating Short Story Month: Zora Neale Hurston with Filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain
2023-05-10 20:00 - 21:00
PBS Books, in collaboration with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), is pleased to host a program with award winning Filmmaker, Tracy Heather Strain, who is the Director of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE’s ZORA NEALE HURSTON: Claiming A Space on PBS. A celebrated novelist, anthropologist, essayist, and central figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Zora Neale Hurston wrote numerous short stories and novels, which were greatly influenced by her anthropological work. Join us to meet filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain and to learn about AMERICAN EXPERIENCE’s ZORA NEALE HURSTON: Claiming A Space, her process to create the work, and gain insights into Zora Neale Hurston. The film is streamable at pbs.org
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: TRACY HEATHER STRAIN
Tracy Heather Strain, a two-time Peabody Award-winning, Emmy-nominated director, producer, writer and researcher, is a recipient of the 2022 Chicken & Egg Award. Her film “Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart,” which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and broadcast on American Masters, won Strain an NAACP Image Award for Motion Picture Directing and the American Historical Association’s John E. O’Connor Film Award.
Her additional directing credits include; “American Oz” and “Building the Alaska Highway” for American Experience, “The Stories We Tell” for Race: The Power of an Illusion, “When the Bough Breaks” for Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? and “Bright Like a Sun” and “The Dream Keepers” for Blackside’s six-part series I’ll Make Me a World: A Century of African American Arts.
Co-founder and president of The Film Posse, Strain also serves as the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies at Wesleyan University’s College of Film and the Moving Image.
ABOUT THE SHOW: ZORA NEALE HURSTON: CLAIMING A SPACE
Raised in the small all-Black Florida town of Eatonville, Zora Neale Hurston studied at Howard University before arriving in New York in 1925. She would soon become a key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, best remembered for her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. But even as she gained renown in the Harlem literary circles, Hurston was also discovering anthropology at Barnard College with the renowned Franz Boas. She would make several trips to the American South and the Caribbean, documenting the lives of rural Black people and collecting their stories. She studied her own people, an unusual practice at the time, and during her lifetime became known as the foremost authority on Black folklore.
Directed by Tracy Heather Strain, produced by Randall MacLowry and executive produced by Cameo George, Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space is an in-depth biography of the influential author whose groundbreaking anthropological work would challenge assumptions about race, gender and cultural superiority that had long defined the field in the 19th century.

Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
2023-05-17 20:00 - 21:00
In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, PBS Books is pleased to share an important conversation with award-winning author Paula Yoo, who published “From A Whisper To A Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement”. The book is a groundbreaking portrait of Vincent Chin and the case that took America’s Asian American community to the streets in protest of injustice.
While Paula Yoo’s book was written for a YA audience after significant research, it has captivated audiences of all ages. She has crafted a suspenseful, nuanced, and authoritative portrait of a pivotal moment in Civil Rights history, and a man who became a symbol against hatred and racism. In this current climate of civil unrest and a country confronting a history of deeply rooted systemic racism, the story of Vincent Chin is as important now as ever. Asian American history is often overlooked and undertaught in schools, and Vincent Chin’s name remains relatively unknown despite making national and international headlines at the time. Now, almost 40 years later, it’s time to remember Vincent Chin and the significant role his case played in American history.
Paula Yoo will be interviewed by Zosette Guir, Manager of Detroit Public TV’s One Detroit initiative.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Paula Yoo
Paula Yoo is an award-winning author of children’s books, a former journalist, and current screenwriter who has merged her talents to create a thoroughly researched and reported nonfiction book, but with the intensity of a suspense movie thriller, and the intimate emotional character journey of a novel. As a Korean American who’s specialized in multicultural Asian-American themed children’s books and having lived in Detroit working as a journalist for The Detroit News, Yoo is able to examine the controversial racial issues behind the Vincent Chin story with sensitivity, authority and grace. “From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry” is her debut YA nonfiction book. She lives in Los Angeles.

Well Beings Town Hall | LGBTQIA+ Youth: Finding Wellbeing and Community
2023-05-23 20:00 - 21:00
LGBTQIA+ youth make invaluable contributions to our society today. Unfortunately, staggering statistics show that LGBTQIA+ youth are especially vulnerable to mental health struggles. According to The Trevor Project, more than 1.8 million LGBTQIA+ youth seriously consider suicide each year in the U.S.—and at least one attempts suicide every 45 seconds. Recent increases in violence against trans people, especially trans women of color, and heightened politicalization and stigmatization of Queer people in the news cycle can cause significant harm to mental health. Despite this adversity, many LGBTQIA+ youth demonstrate exceptional resilience, finding well being and creating communities of support.

Join Well Beings, PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs, PBS Books, Detroit Public Television and WETA for a Town Hall conversation, led by youth, for youth, that will raise awareness about mental health challenges specific to the LGBTQIA+ community, address stigmatization that can prevent care and support, and create safe space for dialogue and sharing of resources.

SUMMER READING: BEACH READS BOOKLIST READER BOOK CHAT
2023-05-24 20:00 - 21:00
PBS Books is pleased to host a conversation about Summer Reading and Beach Reads with Susan Maguire, who is the Senior Editor, Collection Management and Library Outreach at Booklist. Join us to get special insights into great books to read in an array of genres in the following categories: Big Books, Big-sized Tales, Found Families, Frigid Places, Into the Forest, and Underworld Retellings.
PBS Books is excited to announce its partnership with the American Library Association’s Booklist Reader. American Library Association (ALA) is the foremost national organization providing resources to inspire library and information professionals to transform their communities through essential programs and services. For more than 140 years, ALA has been the trusted voice of libraries, advocating for the profession and the library’s role in enhancing learning and ensuring access to information for all. Booklist is the American Library Association’s nationally distributed book and media review publication. Since 1905, Booklist has been proud to publish thousands of book and audiobook reviews each year, helping library and education workers decide what to buy and how to guide patrons and students of all ages in choosing what to read, view, or listen to. Booklist Reader is a publication for the library patron to provide insights and recommendations into reading.
ABOUT THE FEATURED GUEST: SUSAN MAGUIRE
Susan Maguire is the Senior Editor, Collection Management and Library Outreach at Booklist, the book review magazine of the American Library Association. Before coming to Booklist, she worked in public libraries for a dozen years.
ABOUT BOOKLIST
Booklist is the American Library Association’s nationally distributed book and media review publication. Since 1905, Booklist has been proud to publish thousands of book and audiobook reviews each year, helping library and education workers decide what to buy and how to guide patrons and students of all ages in choosing what to read, view, or listen to.
Booklist Publications includes two print magazines, an extensive website and database, e-newsletters, webinars, podcasts, and other literature-based resources that support librarians in collection development and readers’ advisory. For more information on Booklist Publications, including how to become a Booklist reviewer, visit booklistonline.com.

MASTERPIECE ENDEAVOUR: Producer Charlotte Webber
2023-05-31 20:00 - 21:00
The Magic of Masterpiece
PBS Books is thrilled to host a conversation about MASTERPEICE’s final season of Endeavour with producer Charlotte Webber. Hear insights into the making of the ninth season and about what you can expect to see as the series comes to an end.
With characters from Colin Dexter’s books, Shaun Evans as Endeavour Morse and Roger Allam as Sam Thursday return for the ninth and final season of the critically acclaimed detective drama Endeavour, premiering Sunday, June 18, 2023, 9/8c on MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS. Set in the early 70s in Oxford, the final season finds Endeavour Morse and Fred Thursday entering a new era.
Don’t forget to watch the all-new documentary, Morse and the Last Endeavour, airing June 11, 2023, 9/8c on MASTERPIECE. It will take you back at the nine seasons of the prequel and the history of the Inspector Morse character in this all-new documentary.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: CHARLOTTE WEBBER
Charlotte Webber joined the Mammoth family as Executive Producer in December 2022, having worked with the team in various guises since 2018. Charlotte’s first role with Mammoth Screen was script editing WORLD ON FIRE, and she has since script edited THE PALE HORSE and produced the last ever series of ENDEAVOUR. Before working for Mammoth, Charlotte worked for BBC Drama London and script edited GOOD OMENS for Amazon Prime. As part of her remit as Executive Producer, Charlotte is keen to develop a diverse slate of bold, distinctive projects with a queer focus.

Immigrant Heritage Month: Maria Hinojosa
2023-06-07 20:00 - 21:00
In collaboration with Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), we are honored to host this virtual engagement event with author Maria Hinojosa as part of Immigrant History Month.

Maria Hinojosa’s nearly thirty-year career as a journalist includes reporting for PBS, CBS, WGBH, WNBC, CNN, NPR, and anchoring and executive producing the Peabody Award–winning show Latino USA, distributed by Futuro Media and PRX. She is a frequent guest on MSNBC, and has won several awards, including four Emmys, the Studs Terkel Community Media Award, two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, and the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club. In 2010, she founded Futuro Media, an independent nonprofit organization with the mission of producing multimedia content from a POC perspective. Through the breadth of her work and as the founding co-anchor of the political podcast In The Thick, Hinojosa has informed millions about the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad. She lives with her family in Harlem in New York City. Follow Maria on Twitter at @Maria_Hinojosa and Facebook at Maria.Hinojosa.718.

Watch this event on Facebook or Youtube.

Annette-Gordon Reed: Juneteenth
2023-06-12 08:00 - 17:00
In collaboration with WETA, PBS Books is honored to rebroadcast this virtual engagement event with author Annette Gordon-Reed.

Also available on Facebook or Youtube.

About Annette Gordon-Reed
Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard. Gordon-Reed won sixteen book prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2009 and the National Book Award in 2008, for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton, 2008). In addition to articles and reviews, her other works include Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy(UVA Press, 1997), Vernon Can Read! A Memoir, a collaboration with Vernon Jordan (PublicAffairs, 2001), Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History (Oxford University Press, 2002), a volume of essays that she edited, Andrew Johnson (Times Books/Henry Holt, 2010) and, with Peter S. Onuf, “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs”: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination (Liveright Publishing, 2016). Her most recent book is On Juneteenth (Liveright Publishing, 2021). Gordon-Reed was the Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at the University of Oxford (Queens College) 2014-2015. Between 2010 and 2015, she was the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. She was the 2018-2019 President of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. She is the current President of the Ames Foundation. A selected list of her honors includes a fellowship from the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, a Guggenheim Fellowship in the humanities, a MacArthur Fellowship, the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Award, the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, the George Washington Book Prize, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. Gordon-Reed served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College from 2010 to 2018. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011 and was a member of the Academy’s Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2019, she was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society.

Pinkalicious - All Together Now with Victoria Kann
2023-06-14 20:00 - 21:00
Celebrate our Earth with New York Times best-selling author and illustrator Victoria Kann, who is also the Co-Executive and Co-Executive Producer of the hit PBS Kids series, “Pinkalicious & Peterrific.”
Also available on Facebook or Youtube.
ABOUT THE SHOW: “PINKALICIOUS & PETERRIFIC”
Launched February 2018, “Pinkalicious & Peterrific” has five seasons and seventy episodes. It is the go-to children’s series for creativity and arts. Pinkalicious Pinkerton is unique, one of a kind, and pinkatastic (an original word by an original kid)! Together with their friends and neighbors in Pinkville, Pinkalicious and her younger brother Peter get into all kinds of artful adventures. Based on Victoria Kann’s best-selling picture book series, “Pinkalicious and Peterrific,” for kids ages 3 to 6, models the power of teamwork and creative thinking to solve problems — and very cool, often unexpected things occur when these colorful characters join forces.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: VICTORIA KANN
Victoria Kann is the award-winning illustrator and author of the picture book series featuring the whimsical and effervescent “Pinkalicious,” and the Co-Executive Producer of the hit PBS Kids series, “Pinkalicious & Peterrific. “She wrote and illustrated The New York Times number-one bestsellers “Goldilicious,” “Silverlicious” and “Emeraldalicious;” she also co authored and illustrated the first two books in the series, “Pinkalicious” and “Purplicious,” as well as “Pinkalicious: the Musical,” which premiered in New York to sold-out audiences and continues to be performed across the country. Before that, Victoria was commissioned to illustrate for magazines and newspapers including “Time,” “Business Week,” “Harper’s Magazine,” “The Washington Post” and “The New York Times.” She is a graduate of The Rhode Island School of Design and has taught at RISD, Parson’s and The School of Visual Arts.

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

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

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

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

Also available on Facebook and Youtube.

ABOUT THE BOOK: “THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Also available on Facebook and Youtube.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Also available on Facebook and Youtube.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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