Forum Network

Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

Funding provided by:

Georgia Center for the Book

Founded in 1920, the Georgia Center for the Book, based at the DeKalb County Public Library, is the statewide affiliate of the Library of Congress with a mission of serving libraries, literacy and literature. We sponsor two popular literary competitions for students, develop and encourage programming for and other literary-related organizations and sponsor some 90 literary programs each year, bringing more than 125 authors to metro Atlanta and the state for free public events.

http://www.georgiacenterforthebook.org

Letters About Literature

Sat, May 19, 2007

The Georgia Center for the Book honors the Georgia finalists of the 2007 "Letters About Literature" competition, sponsored by Target. These young writers read their inspirational letters written to a writer about his or her book, and describe how that book has changed their lives.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man

Wed, May 23, 2007

Arnold Rampersad discusses his new book, *Ralph Ellison: A Biography*. Georgia Center for the Book presents the acclaimed writer as part of the Decatur Arts Festival celebration. Ralph Waldo Ellison, the American writer born in 1914, achieved international fame with his first novel, *Invisible Man* (1952). He was influenced early by the myth of the frontier, viewing the United States as a land of "infinite possibilities." The close-knit black community in which he grew up supplied him with images of courage and endurance and an interest in music.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
Road to Disunion: Why the South Left

Wed, May 16, 2007

William Freehling discusses his new book, *The Road to Disunion: Volume 2*. Georgia Center for the Book presents historian and writer William Freehling. His second book examines one of the fundamental questions in American history: Why did the southern states leave the union and precipitate the Civil War? His new book, *The Road to Disunion: Volume 2, Secessionists Triumphant 1854-1861*, follows his Bancroft Prize-winning study of the Old South, *The Road to Disunion: Volume 1, Secessionists at Bay*.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
Ron Rash: Chemistry

Thu, May 24, 2007

Ron Rash discusses his new book of stories, *Chemistry*. Georgia Perimeter College presents one of the South's literary voices, Ron Rash, who is the prize-winning writer of half of a dozen books of fiction and poetry. *Chemistry* is a collection filled with characters that cover a century in the troubled, violent South.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
In the Ruins of Empire: Battle for Postwar Asia

Mon, Jul 30, 2007

Ronald Spector reads from his new book, *In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia*. It is a sequel to the Prize-winning military historian's earlier book, *Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan*, hailed as the "definitive" one-volume account of World War II in the Pacific. Spector, who has been a historian at the US Army Center for Military History, also is the author of *After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam* and *At War at Sea: Sailors and Naval Conflict in the 20th Century*.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance

Tue, Nov 6, 2007

Amy Chua discusses her new book *Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance and Why they Fall Law*. Yale Law School professor and author of *World on Fire*, Amy Chua tackles a timely topic. She argues that the key to maintaining power for nations is always to attract and assimilate, rather than to coerce and intimidate, and she traces this remarkable history from ancient Persia to the US in Iraq.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
Remembering the Great Depression in the Rural South

Wed, Sep 12, 2007

Kenneth J. Bindas examines the lives of rural Georgians and others in his new collection of more than 600 oral histories, *Remembering the Great Depression in the Rural South*. Bindas provides a detailed, personal chronicle of the 1930's from a rural Southern perspective and captures an important historical era and its impact. These reminiscences were collected over a four-year period in the late 1980's as people looked back over their lives and those of their families.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
Nefertiti: Queen of Egypt, Daughter of Eternity

Mon, Oct 8, 2007

Michelle Moran discusses her latest novel, *Nefertiti*, about one of history's most intriguing figures. Based on extensive on-site research, the book offers a detailed, realistic story of a beautiful and charismatic queen struggling against palace intrigue. Moran is a Californian who has worked in Israel as a volunteer archaeologist.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
Mercy: Dying of AIDS in Africa

Mon, Sep 10, 2007

Lara Santoro, a veteran journalist, discusses her first novel, *Mercy*, a tragic and powerful story of what it is like to die of AIDS in Africa. *Mercy* offers a glimpse into the role played by the pharmaceutical industry and the US government against the interests of an entire continent, and gives a name and face to the AIDS epidemic in Africa. This is a story Santoro has seen played out many times in her prize-winning coverage of Africa for *Newsweek* and the *Christian Science Monitor*. Her work has also appeared in *The Wall Street Journal*, *The New Republic* and the *London Sunday Times*.

Global Health

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
Jimmy Carter: Prophet from Plains

Fri, Oct 24, 2008

Frye Gaillard explores the legacy of former President Jimmy Carter in his new book, *Prophet from Plains*. Frye Gaillard, a writer of Southern culture and politics, assesses the life and work of Carter through his stubborn, faith-driven integrity, which is at once his greatest asset and most serious flaw. Among 20 other books that Gaillard has written is *Cradle of Freedom*, winner of the Lillian Smith Award.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book