The third
National Book Festival arranged by the
Library of Congress (LOC) and hosted by
Laura Bush was held on The Mall in
Washington D.C. on Saturday October 4, 2003.
Unlike the usual antiquarian book fairs held
in major American cities like New York, Los
Angeles or Chicago, this one did not create
a huge book store. The emphasis here was not
on selling books by publishing houses but
putting on display an abundance of themes
and authors. The distinctive feature of this
book festival was a cornucopia of authors
from diverse ethnicities and backgrounds.
More than 80 award-winning authors appeared
in eight separate tents or pavilions
offering thousands of men, women and
children - who turned up in spite of the
threat of rain - a variety of choices. These
tents were capable of accommodating an
audience of two to three hundred people each
and were boldly marked with what they
offered with a huge sign on top: History and
Biography, Fiction and Imagination,
Storytelling, Poetry, Mystery and Thrillers,
Home and Family and Teens and Children.
This annual event begun through the efforts
of Laura Bush in 2001 - perhaps, the only
constructive and humane act of the current
administration - was supported by numerous
sponsors like The Washington Post whose Book
World columnists and editors Jonathan
Yardley, Michael Dirda and Marie Arana
introduced authors to the audience and took
a prominent role in publicizing the book
festival. Other sponsors were the National
Endowment of Arts which offers hundreds of
thousands of dollars each year to talented
and aspiring poets and novelists and several
multinationals like AT&T. Some 600
volunteers helped in organizing and managing
the festival. Cable TV channel C-Span in its
weekly programme called "Book TV" carried
six hours of live broadcast from the
"History and Biography Pavilion".
In a city that has been traumatized by
unhappy events during the last few years,
starting with 9/11 in 2001 and then the
sniper attacks in 2002 in which 10 innocent
human beings were fatally shot
indiscriminately by two insane men, followed
by Hurricane Isabel in September 2003, the
bringing together of thousands of average
Americans - people of all generations and
backgrounds - in their common love and
appreciation of books and authors was a
welcome sight .
Speaking from the "Pavilion of History and
Biography", James Billington, the librarian
of Congress, put this succinctly when he
talked of the 'centrality of books in
Western civilization'. He explained how
working with librarians in six overseas
offices (Cairo, Jakarta, Islamabad, Nairobi,
Delhi and Rio de Janeiro), area specialists
from the Library of Congress acquire very
important and valuable materials from more
than 175 countries.
This enables the various divisions at the
LOC to provide reference service and access
to reading materials and electronic
resources about the cultures, history,
economics, politics, religion, linguistics
and literature of the world. As a result
"this Library is everyman's passage to every
country and region around the globe, with
two thirds of its collection of books and
periodicals written in more than 460
languages".
Among the prominent writers who appeared at
the book festival was the actress Julie
Andrews who is world famous for her
performance in popular movies like "Mary
Poppins" and "The Sound of Music". She is
actually an author of several children's
books under the name of Julie Andrews
Edwards. Her most recent books are Dumpy
and the Firefighters and Simeon's
Gift both co-authored with her daughter.
Julie Andrews' presence in the "Children's
Pavilion" was a great attraction for the
crowd of youngsters.
In the "Biography Pavilion" there were the
ubiquitous Washington D.C. historians
Michael Beschloss, James Brady and Robert
Caro. Wherever you go, there they are! In
much the same way, you had novelists Pat
Conroy and Anita Shreve dominate the
"Pavilion of the Novelists", although, thank
God, the organizers did allow some fresh
faces to appear this time. Prominent among
these was Judith Cofer, a native of Puerto
Rico who has been a recipient of several
awards. Her recent novel The Meaning of
Consuelo explores the dilemmas of
national and ethnic identities in a
multicultural America.
The "Storytelling Pavilion" was the most
creative. It featured a host of storytellers
from different cultures and ethnicities.
There was Nancy Groce a specialist in urban
folklore and American history. Ms Groce is a
frequent commentator on Public Television
and the BBC. She has written Encyclopedia
of New York City as well as Songs of
the City. Then there were the
Scottish-American Norman Kennedy, an
internationally acclaimed folksinger and
storyteller, Djimo Kouyate, a
Senegalese-American musician and
storyteller, who is a descendant of
centuries-old West African tribe of "griots"
(historian/storytellers) and Gayle Ross, a
Native American from the Cherokee Nation of
"Trail of Tears" fame. Her famous book is
The Legend of the Windigo: A Tale from
Native North America and a famous quote
from there is:
Let those among us
Who have left us to die
Know that we only slept
And now
We live again.
The "Poetry Pavilion" featured several
American poets but the ones that impressed
me most were the Indonesian-American,
Li-Young Lee, and the former bohemian who
lived in the Greek islands, David Mason. Lee
fascinated the audience with his readings
from his book of poems The City in Which
I love You His poems were not only
evocative and mysterious but emphasized the
immigrant sensibility. David Mason thrilled
the audience by reading from his books
The Country I Remember and The Buried Houses.
Finally, the "Home and Family Pavilion"
featured the pragmatic nature of American
life. Here the "How to" books prevailed.
Secretary of State Colin Powell's wife
touted a book about youth as America's
Promise and in a bit of a bizarre
presentation, Director of CIA, Tenet's wife
promoted her book on how to repair household
fixtures and appliances "when your husband
is not there to help". I found this advice
hilarious. How the wife of the most powerful
spy in the world could not afford a plumber
or a carpenter to do the job was nothing
short of incredulous. As they say, only in
America.
All in all the book festival was a
resounding success except the conspicuous
absence of any South-Asian-American authors.
It is hoped that in keeping with the
multicultural outlook of the Library of
Congress future Washington Book Festivals
will feature American writers from South
Asia also, several of whom like Anita Desai,
Bharati Mukherjee or Sara Suleri Goodyear
are prominent in mainstream American
literary circles |
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