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Volume 2, Number 3
Learn more about plans to establish The American Writers Museum™
See what other people are saying about The American Writers Museum
Learn more about the Executive Planning Team and National Advisory Council
Fill out our online survey and tell us what you want to see in The American Writers Museum
Add your name to our mailing list and receive updates about The American Writers Museum
The mission of the American Writers Museum Foundation is to establish the first national museum in the United States dedicated to engaging the public in celebrating American writers and exploring their influence on our history, our identity, our culture and our daily lives.
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"Books contain keystones. They speak through their words, their covers, their pages, and their history. The American Writers Museum will enshrine these objects and their gloriously individual creators. I look forward to the realization of this much-needed enterprise." -Robert H. Jackson, Rare Books Collector and Scholar
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 Tomassi to Moderate AWM Panel on Immigrant Voices in American Literature at 2012 Writers' Conference
A panel discussion sponsored by AWM will be featured at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, February 29-March 3, 2012 in Chicago. The session, titled Finding Home: Immigrant Voices in American Literature, will focus on the impact of immigrant writings on American literature and culture during the past fifty years. Moderated by Noreen Tomassi, Executive Director of the Center for Fiction in New York, panelists will include acclaimed authors Stuart Dybek, Aleksandar Hemon, and Nami Mun. Dybek, distinguished writer in residence at Northwestern University, is a recipient of the Pen/Malamud Prize, a Lannan Award, and fellowships from the NEA, the Guggenheim Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Hemon is the author of The Lazarus Project, a finalist for the National Book Award, The National Book Critics Circle Award, and New York Magazine's No. 1 Book of the Year. Mun's first book, Miles from Nowhere, received a Whiting Award and a Pushcart Prize, and was shortlisted for both the Orange Prize for New Writers and the Asian American Literary Award. Early bird registration for the conference ends October 31. http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/2012reg.php |
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Connecting Directors and Curators of American Authors' Homes and Museums
The AWMF is in the process of creating a forum to facilitate networking among directors and curators of author museums and homes in the U.S. Early response to the concept has been very positive, and a growing number of museum directors are working with the AWM leadership to explore this much-needed opportunity to discuss programming ideas, fundraising strategies, curating challenges, and ways in which directors can be mutually supportive. The formation of a new association is being considered. This activity is in keeping with the AWM Foundation's plans to work collaboratively with directors of American authors' homes and museums for special exhibits and author-specific galleries in the future American Writers Museum. For more information, contact AWM Executive Planning Team member Regis DelMontagne at rdelmontagne@verizon.net. |
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Look What's New at the AWM Website
Please visit www.americanwritersmuseum.org to see our latest offerings under Literary Links:
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Obamas to Chair National Book Festival September 24 in Washington, D.C.
 The 11th annual National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, will take place Saturday, Sept. 24 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 25 from 1:00 to 5:30 p.m. on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are honorary chairs for the event. The festival, which is free and open to the public, will feature dozens of nationally renowned authors and is expected to draw up to 150,000 visitors. Nobel and Pulitzer prize winner Toni Morrison will be this year's recipient of the Library of Congress National Book Festival Creative Achievement Award. The Library of Congress's Center for the Books Director Dr. John Y. Cole (who is also on AWM's Executive Planning Team) is again coordinating the Festival's author program. Marie Arana, Writer-at-Large at The Washington Post and a member of AWM's National Advisory Council, has also been instrumental in planning the festival. http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/
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Spotlight on an AWM Friend: The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
 Sixty years before the Ransom Center was officially established in 1957, the University of Texas began collecting the private libraries and manuscripts that would eventually form the Center's backbone. Today, the Harry Ransom Center is known as one of the preeminent cultural institutions in the world, with a major emphasis on the literature and culture of America, Great Britain, and France. Among its collections are 36 million manuscripts, 1 million rare books, 5 million photographs, 100,000 works of art and design, and major collections relating to the performing arts and film. Tom Staley, Director of the Harry Ransom Center, is a member of the AWM National Advisory Council. Collections acquired during his tenure include the archives of Norman Mailer, Don DeLillo, David Foster Wallace, Robert De Niro, Tom Stoppard, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Doris Lessing. Staley has written and spoken widely in the United States and Europe on literary subjects, libraries, the state of the humanities in contemporary culture, and the building of modern library collections. Learn more at http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/.
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AWM's Name the Author Contest. Win a $25 Amazon.com Gift Certificate Question: Can you name this Author and Novel?
This author was a general in the Civil War and served as a judge in the trial of Lincoln's assassins. His father was Governor of Indiana and he was Governor of New Mexico and served as Ambassador to Turkey. He made and played his own violins and was an accomplished painter. His novel has never been out of print since it was published in 1880. He is the only author honored in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. The 1959 film adaptation of his novel won 11 Academy Awards in 1960.
Send your answer (name of author and novel) in the subject line of an email to general@americanwritersmuseum.org. We'll have a drawing of all those who submit the correct answers and the winner of the drawing will win a $25 Amazon.com e-gift certificate . |
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Follow Us on Twitter!
Please follow @AmerWriteMuseum to stay up-to-date on news about The American Writers Museum. We will also be posting links to other sites, quoting American writers, and sharing other literary items of interest. We look forward to learning more about you!
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The American Writers Museum Foundation (AWMF) was just informed by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) that the NEH has approved a grant to be used by AWMF for the funding of a series of charettes (brainstorming sessions) which will aid in the development of a detailed conceptual plan for the museum. Based on this grant and some matching funds, AWMF will organize four sessions with museum and exhibition designers, writers, scholars, and other members of the literary and educational communities. This marks the start of an exciting new phase in the development of the museum. More than 50 experts will be tapped to participate in the charettes, which will likely take place within the next few months.