Tag Archives: new york

76th National Book Awards

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Smiling with Ibi Zoboi and Amber McBride

The event happened on a cold Tuesday night.

I took the wrong train and got off on the right stop. I walked into the auditorium after stopping by the table shifted book store.

I now carried 3 hardcover books plus the books I had in my bag to read on the train. I stood at the back of the auditorium and kept my bags and coat ready to make an exit at the end of the event.

But if course, I didn’t leave immediately.

Hannah V. Sawyerr, Author of Truth Is

Each author that shared, must have picked the best part of their book because I wanted to buy more. And I did!

I picked up two books from Young People’s Literature:

Ibi Zoboi’s (S)kin, and Amber McBride’s The Leaving Room.

Celebrating Professor Patricia Smith
Professor Patricia Smith reading poetry

After listening to Patricia Smith talk about her father and Mississippi, I just had to purchase her book of poetry, The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems. Her storytelling was sweet with sadness.

The nonfiction genre was difficult to pick from. I knew I wanted something but went back and forth between Jordan Thomas When it all Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World and Claudia Rowe’s Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care. After listening to the finalists I decided that I wanted to hear more of the voice of Yiyun Li in Things in Nature Merely Grow. Her voice was pure grief but the writing technique sounded new.

Lastly for fiction, I bought A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar.

I have Books for You!

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There is no honor like an older brother going through his extensive library to hand you two books he doesn’t have time to read!

In July Tyriek saw me on my way to get lunch and in the hot sun asked me what I was reading. It was a conversation that was both annoying and frustrating because he caught me in the heat – reading the best part of the plot.

I am reading James, by Percival Everett. I told him while quickening my pace. His long legs caught up with my gait.

What’s it’s about?

Ugh! Really?

Yeah, I want to know. He kept his cool to my deep annoyance.

It’s a spin on Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. We get to meet Jim, the Black character, and know of his story.

Tyriek crossed the street with me to the restaurant and for sheer big brother bothersome held the door for me while asking me more questions about the book. To which I closed the book and said,

Please, it’s extremely hot and I’m starving. Plus I want to finish.

Okay, but next time I see you I’mma give you something more to read.

To this I rolled my eyes and gave him an incredulous smile. Even though we talk about books all the time, I never saw him with a book in his hand! As a matter of fact, he doesn’t even walk with a phone!

But he did stick to his promise.

I was on my way to the library and with perfect timing, he met me in the nearby park with not just any books but Bartolome De Las Casa’s The Devastation of the Indies (a translated copy) and Leonard W. Ingraham’s Slavery in the United States.

I didn’t even try to hide the fact that he made a big impression.

Where did you find these? I asked smiling.

You don’t even want to know. Seeing that I was impressed, he started talking with his hands.

You want them back? I wanted to see how connected he was to his books…

Yeah, I want you to also tell me what you thought about them.

Gosh, he wants them back! I thought. So much for giving me books! Instead of showing him that he may not indeed get them back, I questioned him about the assignment part-

So, are you also giving me homework?! I looked at him in disbelief. He never told me about the homework part. He just said he was giving me books! (Books that now he wanted back!)

I need to know about them but I don’t have time to read them.

What are you looking for? What about them do you want to know?

I can’t tell you until you read them.

Really?! Tell me exactly what you are looking for-

I want to know if they are lying about enslavement. Here he went on a rant about the transatlantic slave trade and the movement of the people before the trade even began.

Instead of asking him the big question- What in the world are you doing that you can’t read?! I replied, Well, I’m only reading them because they are closely related to my studies.

I have more.

This time I smiled at him.

Tell me, how big is your library? And I do want to know where you got these.

This time I had all the time in the world to listen to him. He rambled on about the state of Black folks in America reminding me of my brother Jahlil over in Westchester. And I find my books all over the city, I don’t buy any of my books. I find all of them.

I shook my head in full agreement because I also find books. Especially books associated with Black history. I once found a rare Elise Greenfield book that’s worth hundreds of dollars in a pile of unwanted books.

Tyriek I’ll read and pass it back to you with notes. Can you look in your library and pull out more books? I’m looking for writings about Black children and schooling in New York City.

I got you!