Do You Teach History? December Spotlight

David Brion Davis, distinguished author and historian, passed away on Sunday, April 14th 2019, at the age of 92. Davis was Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University, and founder and Director Emeritus of Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. Throughout his career, he wrote and edited sixteen

  Congratulations to our Penguin Random House authors and their publishing teams who have been chosen by the respective category judges as “longlisted” semi-finalists–including five of the ten Fiction titles–for the 2018 National Book Awards.     Wednesday, October 10: The “shortlist” of five finalists per category will be announced. Wednesday, November 14: The five winners

With public interest in The Supreme Court percolating, we’re highlighting books about the highest court in the land—its history, landmark cases, personalities and its crucial role in American democracy.

Approaching classic works of literature through the eyes of a modern, thoughtful reader is one way to enhance a reading experience that can otherwise feel musty and dated. Writing for Signature Reads, Jennie Yabroff offers up a list of memoirs written by contemporary authors working their way through five classics.

The United States’ current border issues with Mexico draw attention to the hardships of life there. CNN reports that nearly 35,000 individuals were arrested crossing the southern US border illegally in June. The separation of children from their families created public outcry and nationwide human rights protests. Read on for a selection of books about Mexico and border crossing.

The one-off award, voted for by the public, commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Man Booker prize. The shortlist of five novels was selected by a panel of judges from the 51 previous winners of the Man Booker, which honors the best novels written in English and published in Britain or Ireland. “The English Patient

Israel’s Education Ministry announced that celebrated author, David Grossman, has been awarded the Israel Prize—the country’s highest literary accolade—for this year.   The prize committee, led by Prof. Avner Holtzman, noted that “since the early ’80s, Grossman has taken center stage in the Israeli culture scene. He is one of the most profound, moving and influential

The 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded by the Swedish Academy to the English author Kazuo Ishiguro “who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.”

Jhumpa Lahiri has won the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. She will receive the $5,000 award and give a reading December 8 at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

The 2017 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced on Monday and four Penguin Random House titles received the distinguished medal honoring excellence in Arts and Letters.

Heather Ann Thompson, an historian at the University of Michigan has won the 2017 Bancroft Prize in History for Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy.

The New York City Department of Veterans’ Services and Department of Cultural Affairs named Bryan Doerries, Artistic Director of Theater of War Productions, as their Public Artist in Residence (PAIR).