2020 Festival Videos

Presenters included Madeleine Albright, Jenna Bush Hager, John Grisham, Colson Whitehead, Melinda Gates, Leigh Bardugo, Ann Druyan, Haben Girma, James McBride, Kate DiCamillo, Ann Patchett, Jason Reynolds, Salman Rushdie, Gene Luen Yang, Tomi Adeyemi, Sarah M. Broom, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Joy Harjo, Robert Pinsky, Tracy K. Smith, Juan Felipe Herrera, Walter Isaacson, Sandra Cisneros, Amy Tan and Jon Meacham.

  • Film, Video
    N.K. Jemisin: National Book Festival 2020 "The City We Became" (Orbit) is a story of culture, identity, magic and myths in contemporary New York City by Hugo Award winner and bestselling author N.K. Jemisin. In it, five New Yorkers must come together to defend their city from an ancient evil that has citizens in its grip.
    • Contributor: Jemisin, N.K.
    • Date: 2020-09-26
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    Bruce Feiler: National Book Festival 2020 From the bestselling author of "The Secrets of Happy Families" and "The Council of Dads," Bruce Feiler's "Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age" (Penguin) is a pioneering investigation into how the stories we tell ourselves about our lives can imprison or empower us, and a step-by-step guide for how to transform and reinvent ourselves in times of transition.
    • Contributor: Feiler, Bruce
    • Date: 2020-09-26
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    I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar: National Book Festival 2020 Gail Collins, "No Stopping Us Now: The Adventures of Older Women in American History" (Little, Brown), appears in conversation with Megan Twohey, "She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement" (Penguin). Collins, a columnist and the first woman editorial page editor of The New York Times, gives us a lively, eye-opening look at women and aging in America, while Twohey...
    • Contributor: Twohey, Megan - Laymon, Anna - Collins, Gail
    • Date: 2020-09-26
  • Film, Video
    Parenting for Success: National Book Festival 2020 Judith Warner, "And Then They Stopped Talking to Me: Making Sense of Middle School" (Crown), appears in conversation with Esther Wojcicki, "How to Raise Successful People: Simple Lessons for Radical Results" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Wojcicki, the "Godmother of Silicon Valley," legendary teacher and mother of a "Super Family," shares her tried-and-tested methods for raising happy, healthy, successful children, while Warner reveals why a child's...
    • Contributor: Wojcicki, Esther - Warner, Judith - Potter, Lee Ann
    • Date: 2020-09-26
  • Film, Video
    Juan Felipe Herrera: National Book Festival 2020 Juan Felipe Herrera was the 21st United States Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017 and the first Hispanic poet to serve in the position. His newest poetry collection, which is launching at this festival, is "Every Day We Get More Illegal" (City Lights). He reads from it here in the poem "Color Tense (a fracture of power and paradigm)."
    • Contributor: Herrera, Juan Felipe
    • Date: 2020-09-26
  • Film, Video
    Emily St. John Mandel: National Book Festival 2020 From the award-winning author of "Station Eleven," Emily St. John Mandel's "The Glass Hotel" (Knopf) is an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events: a massive Ponzi scheme collapse and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea.
    • Contributor: St. John Mandel, Emily
    • Date: 2020-09-26
  • Film, Video
    Robert M. Gates: National Book Festival 2020 From the former secretary of defense and author of the acclaimed bestselling memoir "Duty," Robert M. Gates' "Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War World" (Knopf) is a candid, sweeping examination of power in all its manifestations and how it has been exercised, for good and bad, by American presidents in the post-Cold War world. Interview...
    • Contributor: Rubenstein, David - Gates, Robert M.
    • Date: 2020-09-26
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    Mario Livio: National Book Festival 2020 In "Galileo: And the Science Deniers" (Simon & Schuster), astrophysicist and successful popularizer of science and mathematics Mario Livio offers a fresh interpretation of the life of Galileo Galilei, one of history's great and most fascinating scientists, shedding new light on Galileo's discoveries and recounting the challenges he faced from science deniers.
    • Contributor: Livio, Mario
    • Date: 2020-09-26
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    Poetry on the Air: National Book Festival 2020 Franny Choi, "Soft Science: Poems" (Alice James), joins the youngest-ever winner of the prestigious Forward Prize, Danez Smith, "Homie: Poems" (Graywolf), to give a behind-the-scenes look at their podcast series "Vs." as well as discuss the enduring power of poetry. Moderated by Ydalmi Noriega, community and foundation relations director at the Poetry Foundation.
    • Contributor: Choi, Franny - Smith, Danez
    • Date: 2020-09-26
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    Poetry Out Loud: National Book Festival 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Mary Anne Carter hosts a program celebrating Poetry Out Loud, the popular poetry recitation contest for high school students, which since 2005 has grown to reach more than 4 million students and 65,000 teachers from 16,000 schools. Featuring 2020 Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown and poet Adrian Matejka as well as 2019 Poetry Out Loud national winners and...
    • Contributor: Brown, Jericho - Matejka, Adrian - Carter, Mary Anne
    • Date: 2020-09-26
  • Film, Video
    Poets Laureate on Connection: National Book Festival 2020 Rita Dove, "Collected Poems: 1974-2004" (Norton) speaks with Joy Harjo, "An American Sunrise: Poems" (Norton). Dove was the first African American Poet Laureate of the United States (1993-1995), and Harjo is the current U.S. Poet Laureate and the first Native American to serve in the position. Here they share remembrances of their time as students together and discuss changes in our culture and literature...
    • Contributor: Harjo, Joy - Dove, Rita
    • Date: 2020-09-26
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    Robert Pinsky: National Book Festival 2020 Robert Pinsky served an unprecedented three terms as the Poet Laureate. Founder of the Favorite Poem Project, he teaches at Boston University and is the editor, most recently, of the anthology "The Mind Has Cliffs of Fall: Poems at the Extremes of Feeling" (Norton). He here reads "Instrument," a poem from his collection "At the Foundling Hospital."
    • Contributor: Pinsky, Robert
    • Date: 2020-09-26
  • Film, Video
    Sandra Cisneros: National Book Festival 2020 Sandra Cisneros is one of the most celebrated Latino authors of her generation, best known for her first novel, "The House on Mango Street." A poet, essayist, novelist and Chicana activist, she here speaks about the importance of empathy, a writer's need to have an open heart and the many ways that difficult times have spurred her work and imagination. Her recent book is...
    • Contributor: Cisneros, Sandra
    • Date: 2020-09-26
  • Film, Video
    The Examined Self: National Book Festival 2020 Carmen Maria Machado, "In the Dream House: A Memoir" (Graywolf), joins Elizabeth Tallent, "Scratched: A Memoir of Perfectionism" (Harper), in a conversation about their respective memoirs and the experience of delving deep into their pasts to better understand themselves. Machado's memoir is an engrossing and innovative account of a relationship gone bad; Tallent's memoir is equally innovative, dwelling on the ferocious desire for perfection...
    • Contributor: Machado, Carmen Maria - Tallent, Elizabeth
    • Date: 2020-09-26
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    The Virtues of Brevity: National Book Festival 2020 Susan Minot, "Why I Don't Write: And Other Stories" (Knopf), shares experiences with Karen Russell, "Orange World and Other Stories" (Knopf). Two masters of the short story talk about their craft, the ways they work and the enchantments of the briefer form. Minot is the award-winning author of many novels and collections, including "Monkeys," "Lust" and "Thirty Girls." Russell, author of "Vampires in the...
    • Contributor: Russell, Karen - Minot, Susan
    • Date: 2020-09-26
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    Tracy K. Smith: National Book Festival 2020 Tracy K. Smith served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019 and is now chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University. A Pulitzer Prize winner for her 2011 collection, "Life on Mars," she here reads "The United States Welcomes You" from her latest collection of poetry, "Wade in the Water: Poems" (Graywolf). Her recent...
    • Contributor: Smith, Tracy K.
    • Date: 2020-09-26
  • Film, Video
    Confronting Racism and Bigotry: National Book Festival 2020 From Ibram X. Kendi, the National Book Award-winning author of "How to Be an Antiracist" (One World), comes a groundbreaking approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality. From Saeed Jones, winner of the 2019 Kirkus Prize in nonfiction, comes "How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir" (Simon & Schuster), a devastating memoir about power (who has it, how and why we deploy...
    • Contributor: Martin, Michel - Jones, Saeed - Kendi, Ibram X.
    • Date: 2020-09-26
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    Daniel Markovits: National Book Festival 2020 From eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits, "The Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class and Devours the Elite" (Penguin) presents a revolutionary new argument attacking the false promise of meritocracy, the axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort.
    • Contributor: Markovits, Daniel
    • Date: 2020-09-26
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    Richard Haass: National Book Festival 2020 "The World: A Brief Introduction" (Penguin) is an invaluable primer from Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, that is meant to help experts and non-experts alike navigate a time in which many of our biggest challenges come from the world beyond our borders. Interview by David Rubenstein.
    • Contributor: Rubenstein, David - Haass, Richard
    • Date: 2020-09-26
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    Haben Girma: National Book Festival 2020 "Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law" (Twelve) is the incredible life story of Haben Girma, the first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School, and her journey from isolation to extraordinary accomplishment. Girma's advocacy for people with disabilities won her the Helen Keller Achievement Award as well as praise from President Obama, who named her White House Champion of Change.
    • Contributor: Girma, Haben
    • Date: 2020-09-26
  • Film, Video
    Melinda Gates: National Book Festival 2020 For the past 20 years, Melinda Gates has been on a mission to find solutions for people with the most urgent needs, wherever they live. Throughout this journey, one thing has become increasingly clear to her: If you want to lift a society up, you need to stop keeping women down. Her new book is "The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the...
    • Contributor: Gates, Melinda - Rubenstein, David
    • Date: 2020-09-26
  • Film, Video
    Jason Reynolds: National Book Festival 2020 Jason Reynolds, the Library of Congress's National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, talks about "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You" (Little, Brown), the bestselling book that he and African-American studies scholar Ibram X. Kendi have produced to give us a timely, crucial and empowering exploration of racism -- and antiracism -- in America.
    • Contributor: Reynolds, Jason
    • Date: 2020-09-26
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    Reinventing the Festival: National Book Festival 2020 To talk about the ways this book festival and so many others are having to reimagine themselves in the age of COVID-19 and the virtual world, Marie Arana (literary director of the Library of Congress and the National Book Festival) joins Peter Florence (founder of the Hay Festival), Cristina Fuentes La Roche (executive director of the Hay Festival), Mitchell Kaplan (co-founder of the Miami...
    • Contributor: Kaplan, Mitch - Florence, Peter - Fuentes La Roche, Cristina - Arana, Marie - Kim, Lois
    • Date: 2020-09-26
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    How Liberty Flourishes: National Book Festival 2020 Jared Diamond, "Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis" (Little, Brown), appears in conversation with James A. Robinson, "The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies and the Fate of Liberty" (Penguin). Diamond's book centers on why some nations recover from trauma and others don't, positing a more contemporary version of his bestselling "Guns, Germs and Steel." Robinson's book (co-authored with Daron Acemoglu) answers the question of...
    • Contributor: Diamond, Jared - Robinson, James A. - Shourie, Moira
    • Date: 2020-09-26
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    Big Brother Is Watching: National Book Festival 2020 Barton Gellman, "Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State" (Penguin), appears in conversation with Thomas Rid, "Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), and Washington Post columnist and spy novelist David Ignatius (moderator), "The Paladin: A Spy Novel" (Norton). Gellman's narrative of the modern surveillance state is based on unique access to Edward Snowden and...
    • Contributor: Gellman, Barton - Rid, Thomas - Ignatius, David
    • Date: 2020-09-26