After 341 years....

Ten years ago, when Britain's Prince Edward married Sophie Rhys-Jones, the British poet Carol Ann Duffy said, "I will not write a poem for Edward and Sophie. No self-respecting poet should have to."

That would traditionally be the job of the British Poet Laureate, who at that time was Andrew Motion. Motion's ten-year term has just ended, and it was announced Friday that the new Poet Laureate is...Carol Ann Duffy. Last year I reported on the movement developing in Britain to have the next Poet Laureate be a woman -- something that had never been the case in the post's 341-year history. Those efforts obviously paid off with the selection of Duffy who, in addition to being the first woman, is also the first Scot and the first openly gay person to ever hold the post. Duffy's selection could hardly be seen as a surprise however -- she is highly popular and renowned, and was thought to have probably been the close second choice after Motion ten years ago. Andy Burnham, Britain's culture secretary, referred to Duffy as "a towering figure in English literature today and a superb poet."

A biography of Carol Ann Duffy and a selection of her poems can be found here.

Challenging Books

Earlier this month the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom issued its annual list of the "10 most challenged books" of the previous year (found here). The list included books and authors both famous and less well-known, but the list of objections were over the usual issues that frighten those intimidated by the power of knowledge: religion and sex. A "challenge" is defined by the ALA as "a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness."

Two of the books on the list figure directly in recent cases. In Burke County, here in Western North Carolina, there's been a long running controversy about The Kite Runner (#9 on the ALA's list) being assigned as high school reading. As a result the Burke County Board of Education is thinking of setting up a new policy which would seem to almost invite parents to protest teachers' choices of assigned reading based on a number of vaguely worded criteria. And two weeks ago four members of the library board in West Bend, Wisconsin were dismissed because they refused to remove controversial books from the library's young adult section, one title being The Perks of Being A Wallflower, which came in at #6 on the ALA's ranking. A national anti-censorship coalition sent a letter of protest to the West Bend Common Council concerning their action. (More on this, and a link to the protest letter, can be found here.)

One positive thing about these controversies: they often increase interest and curiosity concerning the books being challenged and create the exact opposite effect from what the book banners would like to achieve. What has become the most popular book in Burke County over the past couple of years, the one that libraries and bookstores can't keep in stock? The Kite Runner, of course.

President Oprah

Populist? Demagogue? Liberator? Dictator? Opinions differ wildly about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez but one thing is sure: the man can sell books. Last week he presented President Obama with a copy of the book, Open Veins of Latin America, by Eduardo Galeano, published by Monthly Review Press. The record does not show that Obama said, "Why, thank you, Hugo, just what I wanted; how did you know?" And the White House was noncommittal as to when Obama would get around to perusing his new gift, noting that the First Reader had a lot of books to get through.

However, interest in the book among the reading public rose instantly when word of Chavez' gift got out. In one of the most widely watched indicators of such things, Open Veins shot up on Amazon's bestseller list from somewhere around 55,000 all the way to number 2. As to the effect it's had on Monthly Review Press, a small operation that's an offshoot of the venerable leftist "Monthly Review" magazine, the press has been somewhat reluctant to say. Perhaps there's a bit of unease there: after all, many of their publications have attacked capitalism, and now they find themselves caught up in the middle of it.

So if Open Veins made it to number 2 on Amazon's list, what remained at number 1? A book from practically the other end of the political spectrum: Liberty and Tyranny, by the conservative talk show host Mark Levin. Welcome to America.

Friday, 4/24 at Accent on Books: Young Poets

Accent on Books will hold its last official National Poetry Month event this coming Friday evening beginning at 6:00: "Rising Stars: Young Poets Speak Their Truths." This program is being organized by Marian Plaut, local poet and great friend of our store, so we at Accent on Books don't know much more about what to expect than you do. All we know is that Marian will be assembling a group of students from local schools to share their poetry with us. When we had a similar program last year it was fun and inspiring for everyone involved.

We hope you'll come by Friday evening and show your support for these young people who have chosen to demonstrate their love of language by creating poetry. Who knows -- maybe they will one day be world famous and you can say, "I heard them first, at Accent on Books!"

Son of Son of Just Announced: The "New" Nabokov

Monday was not a day for the faint of heart in Bookworld; announcements were flying right and left. In addition to Dan Brown and the Pulitzers, it was also revealed that in November Knopf will publish the final unfinished manuscript of Vladimir Nabokov. Now known as The Original of Laura, it was written by Nabokov on 138 index cards, which will be reproduced along with transcripts on facing pages in the Knopf edition.

The existence of this manuscript has been known for some time. One of the reasons for its delay in being published is an age old dilemma: what to do if you have work of potentially great interest or quality that the creator of that work wanted destroyed after his/her death. Despite his father's wishes, Vladimir Nabokov's son Dmitri has decided to go ahead with its publication. The debate no doubt will continue.

Son of Just Announced: The Pulitzer Prizes

Also on Monday, the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced. They are:

Fiction: Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
History: The Hemingses of Monticello, by Annette Gordon-Reed
Biography: American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, by Jon Meacham
General Non-Fiction: Slavery By Another Name, by John Blackmon
Poetry: Shadow of Sirius, by W. S. Merwin
Drama: Ruined, by Lynn Nottage.
(By the way, Gordon-Reed's book also won the National Book Award last fall -- a pretty impressive twofer.)

Other than the drama winner -- which does not appear to be in book form at this time -- all these books are either in stock or available to be ordered at Accent on Books.

More about the winning titles -- as well as the runners-up in each category -- can be found at the Pulitzer website .

Just Announced: The New Dan Brown

Doubleday announced on Monday that it will be publishing The Lost Symbol, the long awaited and repeatedly postponed new novel by Dan Brown, author of The DaVinci Code. It will go on sale September 15, 2009. In this novel, Brown's protagonist, Robert Langdon, discovers he's the seventeenth cousin, 41 times removed, of Mary Magdalene!

Actually that's not true; at least I don't think it is. The new book evidently has something to do with Freemasonry. More information, but not much more, can be found at Dan Brown's website.

Will Accent on Books be carrying The Lost Symbol? Um, yes, I imagine we will.