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A Preliminary View of The American Writers Museum™

This is an exciting time to become involved with helping us envision The American Writers Museum. Here are a few of the ideas currently under consideration:

Permanent Exhibits: Core exhibits will provide a chronological overview of the history of American literature. This will be the intellectual foundation of the museum.

Special Exhibits: Rotating exhibits will be the lifeblood of the museum and the range of topic areas is limitless. Here are just a few possibilities:

  • Nobel Laureates
  • Censorship: Banned Books
  • Villains in American Literature
  • Great Characters in American Literature
  • The Lost Generation
  • Coming of Age – on the Page
  • Revolutionary Writing
  • The Poetry of Revolution
  • The Short Story
  • Bestsellers
  • First Novels that Rocked the World
  • Beat Poets
  • Rare Books
  • American Writers as Cultural Ambassadors
  • Regional Writing
  • The Agony and the Ecstasy – Love Poetry
  • Writers on Writers
  • American Plays and Playwrights
  • American Humorists from Mark Twain to the Present
  • American Literary Critics
  • Storytelling: Narrative Art in a Variety of Genres
  • The Immigrant Experience
  • The Native American Experience
  • Children’s Literature
  • From Page to Screen (Turning Books into Films)
  • The Art of Book-Making
  • Ethnic Literature
  • Literature & the Visual Arts

Ideas for Other Exhibits? Send them to general@AmericanWritersMuseum.org

  • Hall of Honor: Winners of major literary prizes, such as the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and The PEN/Faulkner will be featured in the Writers’ Hall of Honor.
  • Poetry Pavilion: Both the written word and the spoken word will be featured in this section of the museum.
  • Art and Photography Exhibits: Portraits of authors, books and reading in art. book illustrations, dust cover art—all have a place in the museum.
  • Children’s Center: Fairytales, imagination, fantasy, enchantment, fun will be featured in a special place where children can read, listen, and experience interactive exhibits celebrating the joys of storytelling and reading.
  • Writing Center: Classrooms where writing and reading skills can be taught may well have a place in the American Writers Museum
  • Lecture Hall: The acoustically-designed lecture hall will feature readings by poets, playwrights, and novelists as well as presentations by scholars, panel discussions, and literary debates.
  • Theatre: A jewel-box theatre will feature movies and movie clips based on novels and short stories. Theatrical scenes from popular plays by noted writers, past and present, will also be performed.
  • Garden of Reflection: The Garden will link literature to nature. Like the Emily Dickinson exhibition at the N.Y. Botanical Gardens in the Bronx, The Poetry of Flowers, the garden will be designed with a poetic theme. It will serve as a quiet oasis for contemplation and inspiration.
  • Scribblers Café will be the ultimate literary café, featuring famous dishes mentioned in novels, plays, and poems, served in a cozy, comfortable indoor café. Additional casual patio dining will be available adjacent to the Garden.
  • Book Club Nook: A quiet corner of the museum for hosting community book club get-togethers.
  • Archives: While the museum is not intended to be either an archival institution or a research facility, there will be a need for facilities that can house limited quantities of artifacts in climate-controlled facilities that meet American Association of Museums (AAM) standards.
  • Administrative Offices: Administrative staff of the Museum and the Museum Foundation will be housed within the main museum building, or in an adjacent building specially designed for such purposes.

Guiding Principles for The American Writers Museum

The American Writers Museum will complement, rather than compete with, other literary institutions.

Among our guiding principles:

  • The American Writers Museum will not duplicate the work of other institutions.
  • The American Writers Museum will not give awards to writers.
  • The American Writers Museum will not be a research institution.
  • The American Writers Museum will not be an archival institution.
  • The American Writers Museum will not populate the Museum’s website with literary content.

We believe instead that The American Writers Museum must:

  • Bring the works of American writers to life through a full spectrum of compelling interactive exhibitions, programs and activities that engage, provoke thought, inspire dialogue, surprise, delight, inspire, educate and enrich

Writers Museums in Other Countries

  • China: A writers museum in Beijing opened in the 1980s in one of the largest buildings in the world dedicated solely to celebrating literature
  • Germany: The new Museum of Modern Literature opened in 2006 in a building which has won numerous architectural awards
  • Korea: Young-In Literary Museum.
  • Scotland: The Writers Museum, Edinburgh.
  • Brazil: The Portuguese Language Museum honors its writers and is said to be the most visited museum in Brazil — and in South America.
  • Ireland: The Dublin Writers Museum was the original inspiration for the movement to establish a writers museum in the United States