Speaker @ the Center – W. Eric Emerson

If you missed the last Speaker @ the Center which featured W. Eric Emerson discussing Faith, Valor, and Devotion: The Civil War Letters of Williams Porcher DuBose, you can watch an excerpt of his talk here.

Speaker @ the Center – W. Eric Emerson from SC Center for the Book on Vimeo.

SC Academy of Authors Induction to be Held March 18, 2011

The South Carolina Academy of Authors (SCAA) is pleased to announce the 2011 inductees, who will be celebrated on March 18, in Aiken, SC.

The Washington Post has called Percival Everett “one of the most adventurously experimental of modern American novelists.” To date, he has written 22 books, including 17 novels, 3 short story collections, and 2 volumes of poetry. Some critics have called Everett’s fiction “genre-ambidextrous” because of its sheer variety in both subject matter and form, including his retelling of Greek myth (For Her Dark Skin, 1990), his exploring the limits of absurdist narrative (American Desert, 2004) and his reinventing the Western (God’s Country, 1994 and Wounded, 2005).

Everett grew up in Columbia, but for years, he has made California his home. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of English at the “Other USC,” the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

With the 2002 publication of her first novel The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd took up residence on the best seller lists. Although she had already carved for herself an enviable reputation as a memoirist with such books as When the Heart Waits (1990) and The Dance of the Dissident Daughter (1996), her venture into fiction firmly established her literary credentials. Following the success of The Secret Life of Bees, which is now widely taught in high school and college classrooms, Kidd published The Mermaid Chair (2005) and Traveling with Pomegranates (2009), a dual memoir with her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor.

A Georgia native, Kidd currently lives on the Gulf Coast of Florida, but Charleston serves as the backdrop of her next book, a historical novel set in the nineteenth century.

Gamel Woolsey (1895-1968) left her native South Carolina to pursue a career as an actress in New York City.  A series of turbulent love affairs, however, brought her eventually to England and Spain, where she established herself as a poet, novelist, and memoirist.  Her verse collection entitled Middle Earth (1931) was inspired, in part, by her long-standing extramarital relationship with British novelist Llewellyn Powys.  Due to its candid treatment of sexuality, her novel One Way of Love was published posthumously in 1987.  Malaga Burning, her memoir of the Spanish Civil War, written while she shared a life with journalist Gerald Brennan, was published in its first American edition by Pythia Press in 1998.
Woolsey’s birthplace, Breeze Hill Plantation, just outside of Aiken, is still owned by members of the family.

The SCAA encourages academic and public libraries statewide to promote reading through highlighting the works of the 2011 SCAA Inductees: Percival Everett, Sue Monk Kidd, and Gamel Woolsey.  The SCAA encourages libraries to display the works of these noted authors during the month of March to celebrate their achievements.

The SCAA will be hosting its annual induction ceremony in Aiken. During this gala ceremony, Sue Monk Kidd, Percival Everett, and the late Gamel Woolsey will be inducted in the state’s literary hall of fame.  Advance reservations for this event can be made by sending a check for $35 per person (payable to the SC Academy of Authors) to Dr. Tom Mack, English Department, USCA, Aiken, SC 29801.   For more information, contact Dr. Mack at tomm@usca.edu or visit www.scacademyofauthors.org.

South Carolina Book Award Nominees Announced

On behalf of the South Carolina Association of School Librarians and the South Carolina Book Award Program, we are pleased to announce the nominees for the 2011-2012 Picture, Children’s, Junior, and Young Adult Book Awards.

Picture Book Award Nominees

14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy

About Penguins: A Guide for Children by Cathryn P. Sill

All the World by Elizabeth Garton Scanlon

Back of the Bus by Aaron Reynolds

Bridget’s Beret by Tom Lichtenheld

Frankie Works the Night Shift by Lisa Westberg Peters

The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Hallelujah Flight by Phil Bildner

Hot Rod Hamster! by Cynthia Lord

Jackson & Bud’s Bumpy Ride by Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff

Let’s Do Nothing! by Tony Fucile

LMNO Peas by Keith Baker

Miss Brooks Loves Books (and I Don’t) by Barbara Bottner

My Garden by Kevin Henkes

Panda Kindergarten by Joanne Ryder

Ready for Anything! by Keiko Kasza

Sophie Peterman Tells the Truth! by Sarah Weeks

Testing the Ice: A True Story About Jackie Robinson by Sharon Robinson

Under the Snow by Melissa Stewart

We’re All in the Same Boat by Zachary Shapiro

Children’s Book Award Nominees

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass

Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy US Marshal by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

Captain Nobody by Dean Pitchford

The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett

The Christmas Genie by Dan Gutman

Everything for a Dog by Ann M. Martin

Extra Credit by Andrew Clements

January’s Sparrow by Patricia Polacco

Justin Case: School, Drool and Other Daily Disasters by Rachel Vail

Letters to a Soldier by David Falvey

Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick

Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me by Nan Marino

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

The Small Adventures of Popeye and Elvis by Barbara O’Connor

Tango: The Tale of an Island Dog by Eileen Beha

Touchdown Trouble by Fred Bowen

We Can’t All Be Rattlesnakes by Patrick Jennings

Wild River by P.J. Petersen

Junior Book Award Nominees

All the Broken Pieces: A Novel in Verse by Ann E. Burg

Also Known As Harper by Ann Haywood Leal

Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Bystander by James Preller

Callie’s Rules by Naomi Flink Zucker

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

Faith, Hope and Ivy June by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry

If the Witness Lied by Caroline B. Cooney

The Indigo Notebook by Laura Resau

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Lifting the Sky by Mackie D’Arge

Marching for Freedom by Elizabeth Partridge

Mission Control, This Is Apollo by Andrew Chaikin

Operation Redwood by Susannah T. French

The Potato Chip Puzzles by Eric Berlin

Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman

Slob by Ellen Potter

A Taste for Red by Lewis Harris

War Games: A Novel Based on a True Story by Audrey Couloumbis

Young Adult Book Award Nominees

Angry Management by Chris Crutcher

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Brutal by Michael B. Harmon

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

Diary of a Witness by Carol Ryan Hyde

Dirty Little Secrets by Cynthia Jaynes Omololu

The Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI by Ryan Smithson

Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines

Gray Baby: A Novel by Scott Loring Sanders

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Hold Still by Nina LaCour

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern

King of the Screwups by K.L. Going

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Muchacho: A Novel by LouAnne Johnson

Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough

Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick

Rock ‘n’ Roll Soldier: A Memoir by Dean Ellis Kohler

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Unsigned Hype: A Novel by Booker T. Mattison

The purposes of the South Carolina book awards are to encourage our students to read good quality contemporary literature and to honor the authors of the books annually chosen the favorites by student vote. The book award medals will be awarded to the winning authors the following year at the annual conference of the South Carolina Association of School Librarians.

If you have any questions or would like more information about this program, please contact Jennifer Kauffman or Kelly Knight, South Carolina Book Award Program Co-Chairs.

USC Union to Host Literary Events!

Plans are in place for USC Union to partner with Friends of the Library and the Union County Arts Council in the coming months to provide a cultural first for Union.

The university will host a two-day literary festival featuring well-known writers from a variety of genres. The guest writers will speak, read and perform, as well as spend time meeting, greeting and signing autographs for festival goers.

“This is the first time something like this has been done here at the university,” said event coordinator Randy Ivey.

The event — slated for March 11-12 — will take place during USC Union spring break, which will allow for more parking during the festival. Admission to the festival will be free and open to the public.

Read the full article at the Union Daily Times.