In this series of videos from BigThink.com, 1998 Anisfield-Wolf Award winner Walter Mosley gives answers to all types of questions: What big ideas have you had lately? What’s the biggest misconception about a writer’s life? And perhaps a question every writer and aspiring writer wants to know: What is your writing routine? Get the answers to all these and more below:
Tag: video
2009 Anisfield-Wolf Award winner Annette Gordon-Reed had the distinct privilege of being awarded a MacArthur “Genius” grant, which is a $500,000 prize for individuals with an exceptionally high level of creativity in their work. The grant is a no-strings-attached award, designed to let the winners continue to produce high-quality work without financial worry. Here is Annette’s video on how she began work on her book, The Hemmingses of Monticello, and what being a MacArthur Fellow means to her.
It’s been almost 10 years since Quincy Jones won an Anisfield-Wolf Award for his book, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones, but his legacy is always worth revisiting. The BBC produced a two-part series on his 50+ years in the music industry, “The Many Lives of Q,” giving viewers a chance to understand the profound influence he has had on music of every genre, from jazz to hip-hop to pop music.
Check out part one of the video above, and the rest of the videos here.
2005 Anisfield-Wolf Award winner Edwidge Danticat gets emotional after receiving the Langston Hughes medal at the 2011 Langston Hughes Festival, celebrating writers from the African diaspora. Past winners of the Langston Hughes medal include Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison, Ralph W. Ellison, August Wilson, and Derek Walcott—all Anisfield-Wolf Award winners as well! As Danticat said during her emotional acceptance speech, “My life, for reasons that only the universe fully understands has been one in which I always feel I am walking in the footsteps and on the shoulders of giants.” Congratulations to Ms. Danticat for a well-deserved honor!
In the video below she talks about the history and the power of storytelling in Haitian culture and talks about her new book, “Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work.”
The world of publishing is changing right before our eyes, with established authors choosing to go the self-publishing route. Anisfield-Wolf’s very own John Edgar Wideman chose to self-publish his collection of short stories, Briefs, with Lulu.com in 2010. Check out this video of young actor Theron Cook giving a steady performance of one of his stories, “Bananas.”
David Eltis, Woodruff Professor of History at Emory University, along with his co-author David Richardson, has complied one of the most exhaustive works on the subject of the Atlantic slave trade. Their ground-breaking work was turned into the website, www.SlaveVoyages.org, where visitors can get estimates of the slave trade, research African names, and get detailed maps regarding the passage of slaves from one country to another. Check out this short clip for more information on the project.
Thinking about picking up a book from one of the 2011 Anisfield-Wolf winners? Check out this brief reading from Mary Helen Stefaniak and see if her 2010 novel, The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia, might make its way onto your Christmas list.
2011 Anisfield-Wolf Award winner Nicole Krauss, honored for her 2010 novel Great House, was selected as one of 12 honorees of USA Network’s Character Approved award. Here she speaks in this short clip about her approach to writing and how she doesn’t view it as simply putting words to paper, but rather, it’s more like architecture.
In this brief interview from Knopf’s “Writers on Writing” series, 2011 Anisfield-Wolf winner Isabel Wilkerson discusses the lengthy, grueling process of writing her award-winning book, The Warmth of Other Suns. She says, “I am so glad that I didn’t know it would take 15 years. Had I know it would take 15 years, I don’t think I would have embarked upon it.”
See Knopf’s full series of informational interviews with some of today’s best writers here.