By TAPINTO MONTCLAIR STAFF
February 8, 2021 at 2:00 PM
Online Book Talk – Deesha Philyaw The Secret Lives of Church Ladies , presented by Succeed2gether s Montclair Literary Festival
Online Book Talk – Deesha Philyaw The Secret Lives of Church Ladies , presented by .
Credits: S2g s Montclair Literary Festival
By TAPINTO MONTCLAIR STAFF
MONTCLAIR, NJ - Succeed2gether will be hosting the Montclair Literary Festival s first event for 2021.
The event will be a conversation with
Deesha Philyaw about her debut short story collection,
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. Her book was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction and for the Story Prize, and just this month was longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
LeVar Burton Named Inaugural PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion By John Maher |
LeVar Burton, the actor and longtime host of
Reading Rainbow, has been named the inaugural PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion, a new annual commendation that will recognize devoted literary advocacy and a commitment to inspiring new generations of readers and writers, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation said in a release. Burton will be honored in a virtual celebration on May 10, when this year’s PEN/Faulkner Award winner its 40th will be announced.
“I come from a family for whom service to others is the highest possible calling,” Burton said. “Whatever efforts I have made toward advancing the cause of literacy, give honor to my mother, Erma Gene Christian, my first teacher and from whom I have inherited my love for books and reading. As we move forward out of a time when alternative facts and mendacious propaganda shaped public opinion, the work you do through the PEN/Faulkner Award, a
The other books to make the list:
“Bestiary” by K-Ming Chang
“Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear” by Matthew Salesses
“The Knockout Queen” by Rufi Thorpe
“Mother Daughter Widow Wife” by Robin Wasserman
“Nine Shiny Objects” by Brian Castleberry
“The Office of Historical Corrections” by Danielle Evans
“Scattered Lights” by Steve Wiegenstein
“Transcendent Kingdom” by Yaa Gyasi
“These extraordinary times have called forth extraordinary art,” said Louis Bayard, PEN/Faulkner’s Awards committee chair, “and the 10 titles chosen for our longlist are a powerful reminder that fiction is as essential as ever.”
This year’s judges Charles Finch, Bernice L. McFadden, and Alexi Zentner considered more than 400 novels and short story collections published in 2020. The judges will choose five finalists from the longlist in March, with the winner announced in April.
Entertainment Weekly
“In much the way that other male American writers, such as Hemingway, Baldwin and Edmund White, have chosen Paris as the place in which their lone protagonist can be tested and changed, Greenwell uses Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, as his cauldron . [He] displays an extraordinary skill at handling time . [The titular story is] an exquisite piece of writing.” Colm Toibin,
The New York Times Book Review
“An electrifying portrait of sex’s power to lacerate and liberate, to make and unmake our deepest selves … [Greenwell] melds an incantatory cadence with the catechistic language of porn, which is ridiculous until you’re ‘lit up with a longing that makes it the most beautiful language in the world.’ … Intimately powerful.”
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CBC Books is counting down the top 10 bestselling Canadian titles of 2020, using data from close to 300 independent Canadian bookstores, courtesy of Bookmanager.
You can listen to the countdown special hosted by Ali Hassan below or keep scrolling to see which books made the cut!
CBC Books54:00CBC Books holiday special: The top 10 Canadian books of 2020Ali Hassan hosts a countdown of the top 10 bestselling Canadian titles of 2020, using data from nearly 300 independent Canadian bookstores, courtesy of Bookmanager.54:00
10.
Souvankham Thammavongsa is a 2020 finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.(Scotiabank Giller Prize, McClelland & Stewart)
How to Pronounce Knife is a collection of idiosyncratic and diverse stories. Capturing the daily lives of immigrants, Souvankham Thammavongsa captures their hopes, disappointments, trauma and acts of defiance. From a young man painting nails in a salon, to a housewife learning English from soap-operas,