LibGuides: Virtual Displays: International Literacy Day 2022

YouTube video by UNESCO

What is International Literacy Day?

"Since 1967, International Literacy Day (ILD) celebrations have taken place annually around the world to remind the public of the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights, and to advance the literacy agenda towards a more literate and sustainable society. Despite progress made, literacy challenges persist with 771 million illiterate people around the world, most of whom women, who still lack basic reading and writing skills and are faced with increased vulnerability.

Rapidly changing global context took a new meaning over the past years, hampering the progress of global literary efforts. In the aftermath of the pandemic, nearly 24 million learners might never return to formal education, out of which, 11 million are projected to be girls and young women. To ensure no one is left behind, we need to enrich and transform the existing learning spaces through an integrated approach and enable literacy learning in the perspective of lifelong learning."

--UNESCO International Literacy Day 2022 Event Information

Black Ink by Stephanie Stokes Oliver (Editor); Nikki Giovanni (Foreword by)
Call Number: 810.8054 B629
ISBN: 9781501154287
Publication Date: 2018-01-30
Spanning over 250 years of history, Black Ink traces black literature in America from Frederick Douglass to Ta-Nehisi Coates in this masterful collection of twenty-five illustrious and moving essays on the power of the written word. Throughout American history black people are the only group of people to have been forbidden by law to learn to read. This unique collection seeks to shed light on that injustice and subjugation, as well as the hard-won literary progress made, putting some of America's most cherished voices in a conversation in one magnificent volume that presents reading as an act of resistance.
Books As Partners by Lesley Colabucci; Mary Napoli
Call Number: 372.64 C683
ISBN: 9781475847352
Publication Date: 2020-09-30
How can diverse literature be woven throughout the early childhood curriculum? What kind of learning opportunities do high quality diverse books offer young children? Diverse books in the early childhood classroom can facilitate dialogue and understanding about differences, diversity, and respect. Books as Partners incorporates research from literacy, early childhood education, and multicultural education to support educators in their daily work with K-3 students. This professional resource provides research-based evidence for incorporating diverse literature in the early childhood classroom and features annotated bibliographies with a critical analysis based on knowledge of child development and best practices in literacy education.
Critical Literacy for Information Professionals by Sarah McNicol (Editor)
Call Number: 025.524 C934 OR eBook
ISBN: 9781783300822
Publication Date: 2016-05-31
This edited collection explores critical literacy theory and provides practical guidance to how it can be taught and applied in libraries. Critical literacy asks fundamental questions about our understanding of knowledge. Unlike more conventional approaches to literacy and resource evaluation, with critical literacy there is no single 'correct' way to read and respond to a text or resource. A commitment to equity and social justice sets critical literacy apart from many other types of literacy and links it to wider societal debates, such as internationalization, community cohesion and responses to disability.
Early Childhood Education by Moncrieff Cochran (Editor); Rebecca S. New (Editor)
Call Number: Ref 372.2103 E12
ISBN: 9780313331008
Publication Date: 2007-01-30
Early childhood education has reached a level of unprecedented national and international focus. Parents, policy makers, and politicians have opinions as well as new questions about what, how, when, and where young children should learn. Teachers and program administrators now find curriculum discussions linked to dramatic new understandings about children's early learning and brain development. Early childhood education is also a major topic of concern internationally, as social policy analysts point to its role in a nation's future economic outlook. As a groundbreaking contribution to its field, this four-volume handbook discusses key historical and contemporary issues, research, theoretical perspectives, national policies, and practices.
Information Literacy: International Perspectives by Jesús Lau (Compiled by)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9783598440946
Publication Date: 2008-08-27
This book provides a comprehensive update on the status of information literacy activities around the world, particularly from countries where no related literature in English has been published. In these collected papers, ranging from the practical to the theoretical, knowledgeable librarians report on their efforts to establish and develop information literacy programmes. A tool for evaluating all forms of information literacy, this publication is a must-read for anyone who shares an interest in this field.
International Collaborations in Literacy Research and Practice by Cynthia B. Leung (Editor); Janet C. Richards (Editor); Cynthia A. Lassonde (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781623965679
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Researchers and educators are currently involved in exciting international literacy projects. However, many in the field are not aware of these initiatives. In compiling this edited volume, our intent is to provide a resource book for university instructors and research faculty with examples of international literacy projects and what was learned from the projects. Chapter contributors offer stories of real people who collaborate across nations to exchange ideas, promote literacy development, and increase global understandings. The literacy initiatives presented in this book show how literacy colleagues have provided opportunities for students and educators of different countries to communicate in meaningful ways. Through international literacy projects and research, participants work to forge relationships based on mutual respect, despite their differing cultures and languages. They see their work as based on the mutual connectedness to the human community.
The Right to Literacy in Secondary Schools by Suzanne Plaut (Editor)
Call Number: 428.40712 R571
ISBN: 9780807749180
Publication Date: 2008-10-30
This inspirational resource challenges educators to view adolescent literacy as a 'civil right' that enables students to understand essential content and to develop as independent learners. Edited by the Vice President of Education at the Public Education & Business Coalition (PEBC), a nonprofit that is nationally regarded for its expertise in literacy and professional development, the book is a call to action and a practical guide for reform-minded schools and districts, and for teachers seeking to help all adolescent learners achieve at high levels.

Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian writer, poet, and critic who is considered to be a dominate figure of modern African literature.

Below you can find some of his works that we have access to at the Fr. Leonard Alvey Library.

(Photo from The Paris Review)

Chinua Achebe by Jago Morrison
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781526110718
Publication Date: 2016-05-16
Chinua Achebe has long been regarded as Africa's foremost writer. In this major new study, Jago Morrison offers a comprehensive reassessment of his work as an author, broadcaster, editor and political thinker. With new, historically contextualised readings of all of his major works, this is the first study to view Achebe's oeuvre in its entirety, from Things Fall Apart and the early novels, through the revolutionary Ahiara Declaration - previously attributed to Emeka Ojukwu - to the revealing final works The Education of a British Educated Child and There Was a Country. Contesting previous interpretations which align Achebe too easily with this or that nationalist programme, the book reveals Achebe as a much more troubled figure than critics have habitually assumed. Authoritative and wide-ranging, this book will be essential reading for scholars and students of Achebe's work in the twenty-first century.
Chinua Achebe's Legacy by James Ogude (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780798304924
Publication Date: 2015-12-01
Chinua Achebe's novels and essays have always drawn our attention to issues of memory, the story, history and our own obligation to history as Africans. Achebe constantly goes back to the authority of narrative - the story; and as the subsequent generations of African writers like Chimamanda Adichie keep returning to, to celebrate Africa's many stories, its moments of failure and triumph. Achebe, more than any other writer on this continent, has inspired many, and hopefully the African story tellers of the coming centuries, irrespective of their location will continue to be inspired by him. This collection of essays is an enduring tribute to this rich legacy of Achebe.
A Man of the People: A Novel by Chinua Achebe; Ken Post
Call Number: 823.914 A177m
Publication Date: 1967
By the renowned author of Things Fall Apart, this novel foreshadows the Nigerian coups of 1966 and shows the color and vivacity as well as the violence and corruption of a society making its own way between the two worlds.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Call Number: 823.914 A177
ISBN: 9780385474542
Publication Date: 1994-09-01
"A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world." --Barack Obama "African literature is incomplete and unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe." --Toni Morrison Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe's critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order. With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer whose works have largely drawn from the Biafran war in Nigeria during the 1960s.

Below you can find some of her works that we have access to at the Fr. Leonard Alvey Library.

(Photo from the BBC)

African women writers and the politics of gender by Sadia Zulfiqar
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781443812771
Publication Date: 2016
This work examines the work of a group of African women writers who have emerged over the last forty years. While figures such as Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri and Wole Soyinka are likely to be the chief focus of discussions of African writing, female authors have been at the forefront of fictional interrogations of identity formation and history.
My Father’s Kidnapping. by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Call Number: Digital Article
Publication Date: 2015
"My father was kidnapped in Nigeria on a Saturday morning in early May. My brother called to tell me, and suddenly there was not enough breathable air in the world. My father is 83 years old. A small, calm, contented man, with a quietly mischievous humor and a luminous faith in God, his beautiful dark skin unlined, his hair in sparse silvery tufts, his life shaped by that stoic, dignified responsibility of being an Igbo first son....."
A New Generation of African Writers by Brenda Cooper
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781846156656
Publication Date: 2008-11-20
There is a new interest among publishers in New York and London in books by writers of African origin. These authors have often grown up or passed their early adult years out of Africa. The Orange Prize for Fiction was awarded inLondon 2007 to Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun, and the Caine Prize for African Writing has introduced new writers such as Leila Aboulela, Biyi Bandele and Chimamanda Adichie herself to agents and publishers. This examination of the extraordinary work which has recently appeared is therefore very timely. Migration is a central theme of much African fiction written in English. Here, Brenda Cooper tracks the journeys undertakenby a new generation of African writers, their protagonists and the solid objects that populate their fiction, to depict the material realities of their multiple worlds and languages.
The World Is Waiting for You by Tara Grove (Editor); Isabel Ostrer (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781620970911
Publication Date: 2011-05-10
Inspiring commencement speeches from Wynton Marsalis, Toni Morrison, Gloria Steinem, and others: "The perfect gift for grads-to-be" (O, The Oprah Magazine). "The voices of conformity speak so loudly. Don't listen to them," acclaimed author and award-winning journalist Anna Quindlen cautioned graduates of Grinnell College. Jazz virtuoso and educator Wynton Marsalis advised new Connecticut College alums not to worry about being on time, but rather to be in time--because "time is actually your friend. He don't come back because he never goes away." And renowned physician and humanitarian Paul Farmer revealed at the University of Delaware his remarkable discovery--the new disease Empathy Deficit Disorder--and assured the commencers it could be cured. The prescient, fiery feminism of Gloria Steinem sits parallel to that of celebrated writer Ursula K. Le Guin, who asks, "What if I talked like a woman right here in public?" Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison sagaciously ponders how people centuries from now will perceive our current times, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Kingsolver asks those born into the Age of Irony to "imagine getting caught with your Optimism hanging out" and implores us always to act and speak the truth. With eighteen rousing graduation speeches, The World Is Waiting for You speaks to anyone who might take to heart the advice of Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards--"life as an activist, troublemaker, or agitator is a tremendous option and one I highly recommend"--and is the perfect gift for all who are ready to move their tassels to the left.

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Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-American writer, former physician, and UNHCR goodwill ambassador.

Below you can find some of his works that we have access to at the Fr. Leonard Alvey Library.

(Photo from Hosseini's Twitter profile)

Afghanistan: Reasons for Optimism by Khaled Hosseini
Call Number: Digital Article
Publication Date: 2007
The author reflects on the social and political situation in Afghanistan in the fall of 2007. The author states that his first visit to Kabul in 2003 was like seeing a war zone, however in September 2007 he reports that many neighborhoods were rebuilt, cultural landmarks had been renovated, and uniformed children walked to school. The author argues that it is too early to be pessimistic or optimistic about a country that is still recovering from almost 30 years of war. (provided via EBSCO)
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Call Number: 813.6 H829
ISBN: 9781573222457
Publication Date: 2003-06-02
The #1 New York Times bestselling novel beloved by millions of readers the world over. "A vivid and engaging story that reminds us how long his people [of Afghanistan] have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence--forces that continue to threaten them even today." -New York Times Book Review The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, caught in the tragic sweep of history, The Kite Runner transports readers to Afghanistan at a tense and crucial moment of change and destruction. A powerful story of friendship, it is also about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons--their love, their sacrifices, their lies. Since its publication in 2003 Kite Runner has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic of contemporary literature, touching millions of readers, and launching the career of one of America's most treasured writers.
The Kite Runner (DVD) by William Horberg(Producer)Walter F Parkes(Producer)Rebecca Yeldham 1976-(Producer)E Bennett Walsh(Producer)David Benioff(Screenwriter)Marc Forster 1969-(Director)
Call Number: DVD 791.4372 K62
ISBN: 9781415738542
Publication Date: 2008
In a divided country on the verge of war, two childhood friends, Amir and Hassan, are about to be torn apart forever. It's a glorious afternoon in Kabul and the skies are bursting with the exhilarating joy of a kite-fighting tournament. But in the aftermath of the day's victory, one boy's fearful act of betrayal will mark their lives forever and set in motion an epic quest for redemption. Now, after twenty years of living in America, Amir returns to a perilous Afghanistan under the Taliban's iron-fisted rule to face the secrets that still haunt him and take one last daring chance to set things right.
Syria's Lost Generation by Khaled Hosseini
Call Number: Digital Article
Publication Date: 2014
SOMETHING about the boy was not right. He seemed disoriented, detached from his surroundings. He barely spoke, and when he did, it was in flat monosyllables, his eyes unfocused and downcast, as if too heavy to roll up from the weight of all they had seen. He was the picture of quiet devastation, of a childhood forever splintered.
He was 14 years old, a Syrian refugee, sitting with his family in a small room in the registration building of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Erbil, northern Iraq.....
Those We Leave Behind by Khaled Hosseini
Call Number: Digital Article
Publication Date: 2015
The article discusses a refugee camp set up in Jordan to house Syrian refugees who have fled their country because of the civil war that began in 2011. Topics discussed include the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), also known as the UN Refugee Agency, the conditions for children in the camp, and the lack of funding for the camp and those like it.

Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs was an American-Canadian journalist, writer, and activist whose studies focused on urban studies, sociology, and economics.

Below you can find some of her works that we have access to at the Fr. Leonard Alvey Library.

(Photo from Wikipedia)

Cities and the Wealth of Nations by Jane Jacobs; Jane Jacobs
Call Number: 330.9173 J17
ISBN: 9780394729114
Publication Date: 1985-03-12
In this eye-opening work of economic theory, Jane Jacobs argues that it is cities-not nations-that are the drivers of wealth. Challenging centuries of economic orthodoxy, in Cities and the Wealth of Nations the beloved author contends that healthy cities are constantly evolving to replace imported goods with locally-produced alternatives, spurring a cycle of vibrant economic growth. Intelligently argued and drawing on examples from around the world and across the ages, here Jacobs radically changes the way we view our cities-and our entire economy.
Feminist Postcolonial Theory by Reina Lewis (Editor); Sara Mills (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781136785207
Publication Date: 2003-07-29
Feminism and postcolonialism are allies, and the impressive selection of writings brought together in this volume demonstrate how fruitful that alliance can be. Reina Lewis and Sara Mills have assembled a brilliant selection of thinkers, organizing them into six categories: "Gendering Colonialism and Postcolonialism/Radicalizing Feminism," "Rethink
Jane Jacobs and Paradigm Shifts in Urban Planning and Urban Redevelopment by Dirk Schubert
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781472410054
Publication Date: 2014-03-26
Based on cross-disciplinary and transnational approaches, this book offers new insights into Jane Jacobs's complex and often contrarian way of thinking. Now, more than 50 years after the initial publication of her famous book 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities' (1961) in a period of rapid globalisation and deregulated approaches in planning, new challenges have arisen. The contributors in this book argue that it is not possible simply to follow Jane Jacobs's ideas to the letter, but instead it is necessary to contextualize them and consider how they might be updated.
Visionary Women by Andrea Barnet
Call Number: 305.40922 B262
ISBN: 9780062310729
Publication Date: 2018-03-13
A Finalist for the PEN/Bograd Weld Prize for Biography Four influential women we thought we knew well--Jane Jacobs, Rachel Carson, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters--and how they spearheaded the modern progressive movement This is the story of four visionaries who profoundly shaped the world we live in today. Together, these women--linked not by friendship or field, but by their choice to break with convention--showed what one person speaking truth to power can do. Jane Jacobs fought for livable cities and strong communities; Rachel Carson warned us about poisoning the environment; Jane Goodall demonstrated the indelible kinship between humans and animals; and Alice Waters urged us to reconsider what and how we eat.
Writing New York by Phillip Lopate (Editor)
Call Number: 810.8 W956
ISBN: 9781883011628
Publication Date: 1998-10-01
In wholly original and startling ways, the authors of this inspired volume capture New York's spirit -- on the streets and in the subways, in the shops, hotels, and eating houses, at riots, in newspapers, on bridges and in parks, in sweat shops, and in some of its denizens' diaries.An expansive range of more than one hundred brilliant voices includes Mary McCarthy, Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, Djuna Barnes, Langston Hughes, Henry James, Zora Neale Hurston, Marianne Moore, Gay Talese, E.B. White, Allen Ginsberg, O.Henry, Alfred Kazin, Edna St. Vincent Millay, William Carlos Williams, and John Cheever, among many, many others.

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Clarice Lispector

Clarice Lispector was a Ukrainian-born Brazilian writer most known internationally for her novels and short stories, and she is often recognized as a prominent Jewish author.

(Photo from the Jewish Women's Archive)

"Mãe é para isso": Gender, Writing and English-Language Translation in Clarice Lispector by Tace Hedrick; Clarice Lispector
Call Number: Digital Article
Publication Date: 2005
Examines the use of gender-related themes and the English language translation of the works of Brazilian author Clarice Lispector. Views of the author on the importance of writing; Risks in translating the works of Lispector from Portuguese to English; Books written by Lispector.
Armando Nogueira, Soccer, and Me (Poor Thing) by Clarice Lispector; Richard V McGehee
Call Number: Digital Article
Publication Date: 2011
An essay is presented about Brazilian sports journalist Armando Nogueira. The author presents a description of her experience with and understanding of soccer, especially regarding the Rio de Janeiro soccer team Botafogo. She offers a personal challenge to Nogueira to write a column about what soccer means to him personally and suggests that his writing transcends the topic of soccer.
Clandestine Happiness by Clarice Lispector; Rachel Klein
Call Number: Digital Article
Publication Date: 2013
She was fat, short, freckled and with sort of reddish excessively frizzy hair. She had an enormous bust, while all
of us were still flat chested. As if that weren't enough, she filled the two pockets of her blouse, above her bust, with caramels. But she possessed what any child who devoured books dreamed of: a father who owned a bookstore...
Masterpieces of Latino Literature by Frank N. Magill (Editor)
Call Number: Ref 860.998 M423
ISBN: 9780062701060
Publication Date: 1994-09-01
"Masterpieces of Latino Literature features critical summaries and descriptions of the greatest works of literature by Latino authors. All the important facts and dates of authorship, along with analyses of characters, settings, themes, and plots are included for works in every genre, including: autobiographies, novels, poetry, plays, essays, and short stories." "Containing works by authors of Latin heritage living in South, Central, and North America, this book covers everything from Jorge Amado's Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands to Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman, from Carlos Castaneda's The Teachings of Don Juan to Julio Cortezar's Hopscotch, as well as works by many lesser-known writers." "The only reference of its kind, Masterpieces of Latino Literature is an indispensable guide for students and anyone interested in Latino history and culture."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Oy, Caramba! by Ilan Stavans (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780826354969
Publication Date: 2016-09-01
"Writers from Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Guatemala, Mexico, and other countries represent an ethnically diverse culture with roots in eastern Europe as well as Spain... The anthology includes tales by such masters as Alberto Gerchunoff,.. a large number of innovative women writers, and some authors more familiar to English-speaking readers."--Library Journal "Reminds us that society south of the border is just as multicultural as in the US, and that Jews have played an important role in it since the time of the Spanish conquest."--Publishers Weekly Jewish identity and magical realism are the themes of the tales of adventure and cultural alienation collected here by the leading authority on Jewish Latin American literature. First published in 1994 as Tropical Synagogues: Short Stories by Jewish-Latin American Writers, Ilan Stavans's classic anthology is expanded and updated in this new edition.

Gabriel García Márquez

Gabriel García Márquez was a Colombian writer, screenwriter, and journalist known as Gabo or Gabito throughout Latin America.

Below you can find some of his works that we have access to at the Fr. Leonard Alvey Library.

(Photo from The Evanston Public Library)

Collected Stories by Gabriel García Márquez; Gregory Rabassa (Translator); S. J. Bernstein (Translator)
Call Number: 863.993 G216c
ISBN: 9780060913069
Publication Date: 1900-01-01
Collected here are twenty-six of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's most brilliant and enchanting short stories, presented in the chronological order of their publication in Spanish from three volumes: Eyes of a Blue Dog, Big Mama's Funeral, and The Incredible and Sad Tale of lnnocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother. Combining mysticism, history, and humor, the stories in this collection span more than two decades, illuminating the development of Marquez's prose and exhibiting the themes of family, poverty, and death that resound throughout his fiction.
Masterpieces of Latino Literature by Frank N. Magill (Editor)
Call Number: 860.998 M423
ISBN: 9780062701060
Publication Date: 1994-09-01
"Masterpieces of Latino Literature features critical summaries and descriptions of the greatest works of literature by Latino authors. All the important facts and dates of authorship, along with analyses of characters, settings, themes, and plots are included for works in every genre, including: autobiographies, novels, poetry, plays, essays, and short stories." "Containing works by authors of Latin heritage living in South, Central, and North America, this book covers everything from Jorge Amado's Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands to Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman, from Carlos Castaneda's The Teachings of Don Juan to Julio Cortezar's Hopscotch, as well as works by many lesser-known writers." "The only reference of its kind, Masterpieces of Latino Literature is an indispensable guide for students and anyone interested in Latino history and culture."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Call Number: 863.993 G216
ISBN: 9780060883287
Publication Date: 2006-02-21
Tells the story of the Buendia family, set against the background of the evolution and eventual decadence of a small South American town. "One Hundred Years of Solitude is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race. . . . Mr. Garcia Marquez has done nothing less than to create in the reader a sense of all that is profound, meaningful, and meaningless in life." --William Kennedy, New York Times Book Review; One of the most influential literary works of our time.
Telling Tales by Nadine Gordimer (Editor)
Call Number: 808.83 T276
ISBN: 9780312424046
Publication Date: 2004-12-01
An extraordinary story collection selected by Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer, from which all proceeds will be donated to the fight against AIDS Rarely have writers of such variety and distinction appeared together in the same anthology. Their stories capture the range of emotions and situations of our human universe: tragedy, comedy, fantasy, satire, dramas of sexual love and of war in different continents and cultures. They are not about HIV / AIDS. But all twenty-one writers have given their stories--chosen by themselves as representing some of the best of their lifetime work as storytellers--without any fee or royalty. This collection includes five Nobel Prize winners: Nadine Gordimer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jose Saramago, Kenzaburo Oe, and Gunter Grass; along with other world-class writers such as Arthur Miller, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Attwood, Chinua Achebe, and Susan Sontag. Telling Tales is being published in more than twelve countries.

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Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan is an English writer and screenwriter who has been featured on many lists recognizing him as one of the most influential British voices.

Below you can find some of his works that we have access to at the Fr. Leonard Alvey Library.

(Photo from Wikipedia)

Atonement by Ian McEwan
Call Number: 823.914 M479
ISBN: 9780385721790
Publication Date: 2003-02-25
A symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness that provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from the acclaimed, Booker Prize-winning, international bestselling author. On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment's flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant and Cecilia's childhood friend. But Briony' s incomplete grasp of adult motives--together with her precocious literary gifts--brings about a crime that will change all their lives. As it follows that crime's repercussions through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century, Atonement engages the reader on every conceivable level, with an ease and authority that mark it as a genuine masterpiece.
Ian McEwan & Antony Gormley: A Conversation about Art and Nature by Ian McEwan
Call Number: Digital Article (Interview)
Publication Date: 2006
Presents a conversation with novelist Antony Gormley related to art and nature. When the author asked Gormley about the consolation that they both are seeking related to elementary world and how do they use in their work. He says that he feels bigger and freer and emphasized that he does not believe in any religion. Gormley says that his confrontation with the elementary world was occurred when he was going to North Yorkshire, England which was totally different from Hempstead Garden. He says that this place was like a suburban landscape of rural architecture.
Ian McEwan to Grads: Defend Free Speech by Ian McEwan
Call Number: Digital Article
Publication Date: 2015
Ian McEwan gave this commencement speech at Dickinson College
Reflections upon childhood and adolescence : intertextual dialogue in The cement garden by Anna Wilczewska, Ian McEwan
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9783954897759
Publication Date: 2015
The thesis is devoted to the intertextual analysis of The Cement Garden, the first novel of a famous postmodern British novelist Ian McEwan. In the following chapters I shall prove that the novel exhibits both intertextual relations with particular works of fiction and also enters into a discourse with the generic archetypes. The first chapter refers to the intertextual relation ‘text-text'and concentrates on the profound interconnectivity between McEwan's The Cement Garden and Golding's Lord of the Flies. The focus is also placed upon depiction of childhood and, in a more general sense, human nature by both authors in relation to the literary tradition.
What We Believe but Cannot Prove by John Brockman
Call Number: 500 W555
ISBN: 9780060841812
Publication Date: 2006-02-28
More than one hundred of the world's leading thinkers write about things they believe in, despite the absence of concrete proof Scientific theory, more often than not, is born of bold assumption, disparate bits of unconnected evidence, and educated leaps of faith. Some of the most potent beliefs among brilliant minds are based on supposition alone -- yet that is enough to push those minds toward making the theory viable. Eminent cultural impresario, editor, and publisher of Edge (www.edge.org), John Brockman asked a group of leading scientists and thinkers to answer the question: What do you believe to be true even though you cannot prove it? This book brings together the very best answers from the most distinguished contributors. Thought-provoking and hugely compelling, this collection of bite-size thought-experiments is a fascinating insight into the instinctive beliefs of some of the most brilliant minds today.

Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is a bestselling Japanese writer whose works have been translated into 50 languages and seen success internationally.

Below you can find some of his works that we have access to at the Fr. Leonard Alvey Library.

(Photo from his Goodreads profile)

Abandoning a Cat by Haruki Murakami
Call Number: Digital Article
Publication Date: 2019
The author reflects on his memories of his father. He recalls one incident where he and his father have to get rid of a cat and it became their pet. The author also remembers his father reciting Buddhist sutras every morning in front of the butsudan shrine in their home. He explains his father's background and his grandfather's appointment as head priest of the Anyoji Temple in Kyoto, Japan.
In Translation by Esther Allen (Editor); Susan Bernofsky (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780231535021
Publication Date: 2013-05-28
The most comprehensive collection of perspectives on translation to date, this anthology features essays by some of the world's most skillful writers and translators, including Haruki Murakami, Alice Kaplan, Peter Cole, Eliot Weinberger, Forrest Gander, Clare Cavanagh, David Bellos, and Jose; Manuel Prieto. Discussing the process and possibilities of their art, they cast translation as a fine balance between scholarly and creative expression. The volume provides students and professionals with much-needed guidance on technique and style, while affirming for all readers the cultural, political, and aesthetic relevance of translation. These essays focus on a diverse group of languages, including Japanese, Turkish, Arabic, and Hindi, as well as frequently encountered European languages, such as French, Spanish, Italian, German, Polish, and Russian. Contributors speak on craft, aesthetic choices, theoretical approaches, and the politics of global cultural exchange, touching on the concerns and challenges that currently affect translators working in an era of globalization. Responding to the growing popularity of translation programs, literature in translation, and the increasing need to cultivate versatile practitioners, this anthology serves as a definitive resource for those seeking a modern understanding of the craft.
The Wind Cave by Haruki Murakami
Call Number: Digital Article
Publication Date: 2018
"When I was fifteen, my younger sister died. It happened very suddenly. She was twelve then, in her first year of junior high. She had been born with a congenital heart problem, but since her last surgeries, in the upper grades of elementary school, she hadn't shown any more symptoms, and our family had felt reassured, holding on to the faint hope that her life would go on without incident. But, in May of that year, her heartbeat became more irregular....."
With the Beatles by Haruki Murakami
Call Number: Digital Article
Publication Date: 2020
"What I find strange about growing old isn't that I've got older. Not that the youthful me from the past has, without my realizing it, aged. What catches me off guard is, rather, how people from the same generation as me have become elderly, how all the pretty, vivacious girls I used to know are now old enough to have a couple of grandkids. It's a little disconcerting—sad, even. Though I never feel sad at the fact that I have similarly aged..."
The Year of Spaghetti by Haruki Murakami
Call Number: Digital Article
Publication Date: 2021
"Nineteen-seventy-one was the Year of Spaghetti.
In 1971, I cooked spaghetti to live, and lived to cook spaghetti. Steam rising from the pot was my pride and joy, tomato sauce bubbling up in the saucepan my one great hope in life...."

Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Pushkin was a poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic Era generally considered to be the greatest Russian poet and founder of modern Russian literature.

(Photo from Wikipedia)

America's Favorite Poems by Robert Pinsky (Editor, Introduction by); Maggie Dietz (Editor)
Call Number: 808.81 A513
ISBN: 9780393048209
Publication Date: 1999-11-17
The selections in this anthology were chosen form the personal letters of thousands of Americans who responded to Robert Pinsky's invitation to write to him about their favorite poems. Some poems are memories treasured in the mind since childhood; some crystallize the passion of love or recall the trail of loss and sorrow. The poems and poets in this anthology--from Sappho to Lorca, from Shakespeare and Chaucer to Gwendolyn Brooks, Louise Bluck, and Allen Ginsberg--are poems to be read aloud and memorized, poems to be celebrated as part of our nation's cultural inheritance. Accompanying the poems are comments by people who speak not as professional critics but as passionate readers of various ages, professions and regions. This anthology, in a manner unlike any other, discloses the rich and vigorous presence of poetry in American life at the millennium and provides a portrait of the United States through the lens of poetry.
Boris Godunov and Other Dramatic Works by Alexander Pushkin; James E. Falen
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781435699038
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
James E. Falen's verse translation consists of Boris Godunov, A Scene from Faust, the four Little Tragedies and Rusalka. It is accompanied by a penetrating Introduction by Caryl Emerson on Russia's most cosmopolitan playwright. - ;'The people are silent'. So ends Pushkin's great historical drama Boris Godunov, in which Boris's reign as Tsar witnesses civil strife and intrigue, brutality and misery. Its legacy is an uncertain future for the new Tsar whose inauguration is met with devastating silence by the people. Pushkin's dramatic work displays a scintillating variety of forms, from the histo.
Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin; James E. Falen (Translator)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780191587375
Publication Date: 1995-01-01
Eugene Onegin is the master work of the poet whom Russians regard as the fountainhead of their literature. Set in 1820s imperial Russia, Pushkin's novel in verse follows the emotions and destiny of three men - Onegin the bored fop, Lensky the minor elegiast, and a stylized Pushkin himself - and the fates and affections of three women - Tatyana the provincial beauty, her sister Olga, and Pushkin's mercurial Muse. Engaging, full of suspense, and varied intone, it also portrays a large cast of other characters and offers the reader many literary, philosophical, and autobiographical digressions, often in a highly satirical vein.Eugene Onegin was Pushkin's own favourite work, and it shows him attempting to transform himself from a romantic poet into a realistic novelist. This new translation seeks to retain both the literal sense and the poetic music of the original, and capture the poem's spontaneity and wit. The introduction examines several ways of reading the novel, and text is richly annotated.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
The Little Tragedies by Alexander Pushkin; Nancy K. Anderson (Translator)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780300130461
Publication Date: 2008-10-01
In a major burst of creativity, Russian poet Alexander Pushkin during just three months in 1830 completed Eugene Onegin, composed more than thirty lyric poems, wrote several short stories and folk tales, and penned the four short dramas in verse that comprise the "little tragedies." The "little tragedies" stand among the great masterpieces of Russian literature, yet they were last translated into English a quarter-century ago and have in recent years been out of print entirely. In this outstanding new translation, Nancy K. Anderson preserves the cadence and intensity of Pushkin's work while aligning it with today's poetic practices and freer approach to metrics. In addition she provides critical essays examining each play in depth, a discussion of her approach to translating the plays, and a consideration of the genre of these dramatic pieces and their performability. The four "little tragedies"--Mozart and Salieri, The Miserly Knight, The Stone Guest, and A Feast During the Plague--are extremely compressed dialogues, each dealing with a dominant protagonist whose central internal conflict determines both the plot and structure of the play. Pushkin focuses on human passions and the interplay between free will and fate: though each protagonist could avoid self-ruin, instead he freely chooses it.
Ruslan and Lyudmila by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin 1799-1837,(Author)Roger Clarke 1939-(Translator)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780714545943
Publication Date: 2017
"In order to rescue his beloved Lyudmila, who has been abducted by the evil wizard Chernomor, the warrier Ruslan faces an epic and perilous quest, encountering a multitude of fantastic and terrifying characters along the way. The basis for Glinka's famous opera of the same name, 'Ruslan and Lyudmila' -- Pushkin's second longest poetical work -- is a dramatic and ingenious retelling of Russian folklore, full of humour and irony." -- From the rear cover.

Isabel Wilkerson

Isabel Wilkerson is an American journalist and the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism.

(Photo from Wilkerson's Twitter profile)

Caste (Oprah's Book Club) by Isabel Wilkerson
Call Number: 305.50973 W681
ISBN: 9780593230251
Publication Date: 2020-08-04
The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions. "As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power--which groups have it and which do not." In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward
Call Number: 305.896073 F523
ISBN: 9781501126345
Publication Date: 2016-08-02
The New York Times bestseller, these groundbreaking essays and poems about race--collected by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward and written by the most important voices of her generation--are "thoughtful, searing, and at times, hopeful. The Fire This Time is vivid proof that words are important, because of their power to both cleanse and to clarify" (USA TODAY). In light of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, The Progressive magazine republished one of its most famous pieces: James Baldwin's 1962 "Letter to My Nephew," which was later published in his landmark book, The Fire Next Time. Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward knows that Baldwin's words ring as true as ever today. In response, she has gathered short essays, memoir, and a few essential poems to engage the question of race in the United States. And she has turned to some of her generation's most original thinkers and writers to give voice to their concerns. Baldwin's "fire next time" is now upon us, and it needs to be talked about. Contributors include Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Garnette Cadogan, Edwidge Danticat, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Mitchell S. Jackson, Honoree Jeffers, Kima Jones, Kiese Laymon, Daniel Jose Older, Emily Raboteau, Claudia Rankine, Clint Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Wendy S. Walters, Isabel Wilkerson, and Kevin Young.
Soul survivor. by Isabel Wilkerson
Call Number: Digital Article
Publication Date: 1998
Chronicles the life of civil-rights activist, Kwame Ture, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael. Issues tackled by Ture during his activist days; Role in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); Life in Guinea; Participation in Kwame Nkrumah's pan-Africanist All African people's Revolutionary Party in Guinea; Collaboration with writer Michael Thelwell for his autobiography `Dancing in the Fire.'
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Call Number: 304.80973 W681
ISBN: 9780679763888
Publication Date: 2011-10-04
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. She interviewed more than a thousand individuals, and gained access to new data and offical records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves. - Back cover.In this epic masterwork, Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history-- the decades-long migration of Black citizens who fled the South for Northern and Western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America.