UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — During the fall 2015 semester, the University Libraries welcomed a wide array of speakers who are widely regarded authors of fiction and nonfiction works. Following is a roundup of highlighted photos and quotes from their visits to the University Park campus.
University Park
University Libraries welcomes host of prominent speakers, celebrates authors
Noted fiction and nonfiction authors' works have been honored this fall by the Libraries with a symposium, awards and other honors
Kwame Alexander is the 2015 Newbery Medal winner and 2015 recipient of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book's Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, which was presented Oct. 1 in Foster Auditorium in the University Libraries on Penn State's University Park campus. Both awards are for his novel in verse titled "The Crossover." Credit: Jill Shockey, Penn State University Libraries / Penn State. Creative Commons
“Always keep a poem in your pocket. Teachers, keep a poem in your pocket, because you never know where you’re going to be and you’re going to need it. Poetry is the bridge that gets our students to appreciate language and literature. It’s concise. It’s rhythmic. It’s full of energy and movement. There’s so much white space on the page that kids are not intimidated by it. Keep a poem in your pocket.”
– Kwame Alexander, 2015 Newbery Medal winner for his novel in verse, “The Crossover,” also referred to as the first great hip-hop novel. Alexander spoke Oct. 1 at the University Libraries’ Foster Auditorium prior to receiving the Pennsylvania Center for the Book's 2015 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award for “The Crossover.”
A full recording of Alexander's talk is now available for viewing online courtesy of Libraries MediaTech and MediaSite Live.
Russell Gold, author of "The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World," spoke Tuesday evening (Oct. 13) at a Penn State Reads event at the Days Inn Penn State, downtown State College. Credit: Jill Shockey, Penn State University Libraries / Penn State. Creative Commons
"You wouldn't build a nuclear power plant — you wouldn't build some sort of a smelter — lightly regulated. But for some reason we feel that that's OK to do with fracking. No, if we want to be serious about using fossil fuels and trying to find a way to do it in an environmentally responsible manner, then we all have a stake in it. The companies have a stake in it, the neighbors, the community has a stake in it, and, yes, the governmental regulators have a stake in it."
— Russell Gold, author of the 2015-16 Penn State Reads book "The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World," speaking in an interview with College of Communications instructor Katie O'Toole Oct. 13 at a Penn State Reads community event at the Days Inn Penn State in downtown State College.
Sister Simone Campbell is the executive director of NETWORK, a Catholic leader in the global movement for justice and peace that educates, organizes and lobbies for economic and social transformation. Credit: Jill Shockey, Penn State University Libraries / Penn State. Creative Commons
"What I realized is the contemporary questions of our time deal with the toxicity of racism and the toxicity of pollution of our Earth, and as Pope Francis says, they are not two crises. They are a single crisis of exploitation, where we can exploit each other, we can exploit our Earth, and we take that as business as usual."
– Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, religious leader, attorney, poet and coordinator of Nuns on the Bus, speaking Oct. 14 at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center to open the Sister Joan Chittister Symposium: Ancient Traditions, Contemporary Questions.
Penn State Distinguished Alumna Joan Chittister is a Benedictine Sister of Erie, Pennsylvania, and a founding member and co-chair of The Global Peace Initiative of Women, a partner organization of the United Nations, through which she works to develop a worldwide network of women peace builders. Credit: Wilson Hutton, Penn State University Libraries. All Rights Reserved.
"Do something to honor the evolutionary God who has given you not just the possibility, not just the option, not just the decision, but given you what it takes to make a difference in the world that badly needs you to make a difference now."
— Sister Joan Chittister, internationally renowned writer, lecturer, social analyst, influential religious leader and Penn State distinguished alumna, speaking Oct. 15 at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center. Her keynote speech, "Who is God in an Evolutionary World?" concluded the University Libraries' two-day Sister Joan Chittister Symposium: Ancient Traditions, Contemporary Questions.
The Eberly Family Special Collections Library is displaying “Inspired and Inspiring: The Passions of Joan Chittister’s Life, an exhibition” through Dec. 15 in 104 Paterno Library.
Author Mariko Tamaki accepts the 2015 Lynd Ward Prize for Graphic Novel of the Year, sponsored by the University Libraries and administered by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. Credit: Wilson Hutton, Penn State University Libraries. All Rights Reserved.
“The task of a comic book writer is, in part, to think of the characters in terms of what they say — words that cut and words that soothe. Most of the comics that I’ve worked on pretty solidly reflect my love of talking and not talking, because I love how people can say so much by what they avoid as by what they embrace in what they say.”
– Author Mariko Tamaki, speaking before receiving the 2015 Lynd Ward Prize for Graphic Novel of the Year on Oct. 22 in Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library. Tamaki received the award also on behalf of her collaborator and cousin, artist Jillian Tamaki, for their coming-of-age graphic novel “This One Summer,” which also won a Caldecott Honor for exceptional picture book art and a Printz Honor for outstanding young adult literature earlier this year.
The exhibit "The Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize: the First Five Years" showcases the work of the prize's initial honorees through Jan. 20, 2016, in Sidewater Commons, Pattee Library.
Last Updated November 17, 2015