Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.  

One of my favorite award short lists was just announced, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. From their website:

Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award

From his home in Hartford, Mark Twain changed the way the world sees America and the way Americans see themselves.

Part of what makes Mark Twain’s work such an iconic piece of American history is the part he played in establishing a uniquely American voice in literature – especially with his 1885 masterpiece Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Just as Huckleberry Finn defined the voice of 19th-century America, The Mark Twain House & Museum looks to recognize modern voices that define our current America.

First presented in 2016, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award honors a work of fiction from the previous calendar year that speaks with an “American Voice” about American experiences.

The award carries a $25,000 cash prize underwritten by David and Michelle Baldacci.

Save the Date:

November 1 is the 2024 American Voice in Literature Award Celebration!

For more information CLICKING HERE.

To read about this year’s panel of Judges, click HERE.

Past winners are:

2023 – Jennifer Haigh for Mercy Street
2022 – Dawnie Walton for The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
2021 – Stephen Graham Jones for The Only Good Indians.
2020 – Ocean Vuong for On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
2019 – Jesmyn Ward for Sing, Unburied, Sing
2018 – Bill Beverly for Dodgers
2017 – T.C. Boyle for The Harder They Come

The official short list of titles for the 2024 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award includes:

• Absolution by Alice McDermott
• Be Mine by Richard Ford
• Emergency by Kathleen Alcott
• Night Watch by Jayne Ann Phillips
• North Woods by Daniel Mason
• The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
• This Other Eden by Paul Harding
• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
• Wednesday's Child by Yiyun Li
• White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link

The first thing you may notice is that these titles are not brand new. This award is normally a full year behind. They say so above in their about statement-- "previous calendar year". So these are titles that came out in 2023. This is wonderful for you because these are titles that I know you own AND they are probably on the shelf right now.

But what I also love about this award is that it recognizes the "American" experience as captured in a work of fiction and the committee loves genre and marginalized voices. As they should because those authors and story types capture a wider view of America. 

On the bottom of the page for the banquet, it says this about Twain and the award:

The mission of The Mark Twain House & Museum: Mark Twain changed the way the world sees America and the way Americans see themselves. We carry on this legacy to foster an appreciation of Twain as one of our nation's defining cultural figures, and to demonstrate the continuing relevance of his work, life, and times.

These are novels that define who WE are-- as America-- at the snapshot in time of the award. The idea that the jury takes a wide view for this honor, looking at these titles as they express the American Experience is unique for an award. It also warms my American Studies major heart. Speaking of my college-- a professor who was there when I was in college and who taught my kid was one of the judges this year.

Three years ago I wrote at length about Stephen Graham Jones winning this award for The Only Good Indians which it a MASTERPIECE of American literature. In that post I also talk about why this award is such a great resource. Click through for more on that.

Back to the short list. These 10 titles, taken together, represent many valid examples of the "American" experience. This alone, the short list providing a realistically wide view of what "American" means today, makes it a great resource.

If you simply take he last few years' of finalists, you have a diverse (both in identity of the authors and genres offered) display you can title it "The American Experience" and put it up anytime of year. 

The only problem wit this award is that they don't have a database of nominees and winners. They have the list of past winners (posted above) on the award's homepage but they make it hard to find more than that top level information.

But very specific Google searches can penetrate their archived web pages. I have done the work for you and cobbled together  places where the shortlist authors have been reported going back to the first award in 2019. The first three, are via me. I have been posting this award every year since 2021 to make sure someone is keeping this list of authors. It is too good a resource to allow that to happen but it does appear that 2017 and 18 are lost except for the winners.

• 2023
• 2022
• 2021 (also contains a long list of titles that have been considered over the years)
• 2020
• 2019

September Book Display Ideas via Passively Recommending Books with Lila Denning Plus How to Flex Your Staff's Strength

Lila Denning runs the Blog Passively Recommending Books where she helps you with book display ideas. You can click here for the other times I have sent you to learn from her.

Her ideas are meant to kick start your own creativity with what you display. What I also love about her display ideas is that they are about the books you put out, how you curate better and NOT about the decorations or ephemera. Like me she thinks there should be none. The books are what matter and if you can get them out more quickly, you will have the energy to do more displays, which means more books will go out.

Every month, just a bit before a new month, she has a post on ideas for the next month. Here on my blog, I have been trying to start a new month by reminding you of her ideas. 

As we close out August, here are Denning's ideas to help you plan some displays for September.

But her blog is more than a once a month pit stop. You should check out her blog regularly. I have added it to my "Sites Worth Checking Out" list on the side bar.

For example, in between the August and September ideas post, she had this post which is very close to my RA for All heart: "Everyone in Your Library is an Expert in Something." From the post:

While you are planning out your library's book displays and lists, don't limit input to certain staff members. Allow anyone who works in your library to contribute to coming up with ideas and selecting titles. There could be things percolating in parts of popular culture that you are not familiar with or have not even heard of. Meanwhile, someone on your facilities team or in your business office may have done a deep dive into that thing and could help you assemble something for your patrons. 

Allowing anyone to contribute an idea or theme for a display or list will also expand the parts of your collection that receive attention while also encouraging staff to share their passions. It can be helpful to know what your co-workers are interested in as you work with the public. This is something that we did when I worked for a bookstore. We knew who was the historical romance readers, who loved poetry, and who was fluent in all kinds of space operas. When a customer asked for help with one of those areas, if that staff member was working, they would jump in to share their passion. 

As you schedule your book displays and lists, include room for a rotating staff display. The name of the staff member doesn't need to be part of their display; you are leveraging their expertise to market your collection. Make certain that you spread out the opportunity equally among different departments and give anyone interested a chance to assemble one. Have guidelines available so that the displays meet the same requirements as any one of your displays as far as avoiding bestsellers and being diverse and inclusive. 

Finally, if someone isn't comfortable or doesn't want to contribute, don't require it. There are plenty of other ways for a staff member to contribute to the success of your library.  

I have long been a proponent of getting all staff-- no matter their place on the organizational chart-- involved with your service to readers. Asking people for display ideas. Here is time on time earlier this year when I used a conversation starter question via Reactor magazine to get staff to contribute to a small display.

I will be reminding you once a month (at least) about Denning's book discussion posts. I love how she takes an old standby-- displays-- and injects new life into it. People are always going to gravitate to a smaller collections of titles over the large mass that is the stacks. We need to remember to use the power of the book display to highlight all of the items people would not find without our help. And also, asking for help from other staff members is not a weakness, it is flexing out staff's strength. 

Side note about Denning, she has been ramping up her formal training for library workers on how to create better book displays and has been replacing Robin Bradford (by Robin's choice and with her recommendation) on some Collection Development webinars as Denning works in collections for a FL library. Look for her offerings through PCI, ALA, and more.

 As a result of those programs, Lila has gathered a list of questions and concerns people have about upping their display game and she is planning a series of posts to answer those "how to" questions. I will cross post here in the coming weeks. For example, here is a recent: "Book Display Basics-- Scheduling."

Side note about Denning, she has been ramping up her formal training for library workers on how to create better book displays and has been replacing Robin Bradford (by Robin's choice and with her recommendation) on some Collection Development webinars as Denning works in collections for a FL library. Look for her offerings through PCI, ALA, and more.

RA For All Greatest Hits: The Best List of Books to Read Before You Die

This week, I updated my list of upcoming presentations because Fall is one of my busiest live presentation seasons. In fact, as I was updating, I realized I have at least a half dozen programs that are agreed to but not scheduled yet that I will also need to add those soon.

Whenever I get busy like this, I am reminded that there are many people out there who are not aware of the information that I lay out as foundational to all RA Service. I hear myself talking all the time, and I have presented all over the country, so it is easy to lose sight of the fact that I have barely made a dent in terms of who I have reached. 

This week was a great example. There was another one of those "Books to Read Before You Die" lists that someone sent me. (I am not sharing it. Read below as to why.)

I wanted to reply snarkily with "the only books you need to read before you die are the books you want to read, and don't let anyone tell you differently."

But, I stopped myself because this concept is not intuitive even to the most dedicated library workers or readers. I know this because it is part of my first rule of basic RA service. I start every presentation reminding people that we need to stop being judgmental about what books people should read-- both our patrons but more importantly, ourselves.

As I was thinking about this concept, I also remembered that I haven't done an RA for All Greatest Hits post in a while. So here you go. One of my favs, a post that originally appeared in 2021, but actually goes back much further through the links I included. 

For more of RA for All's Greatest Hits click here.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

The Best List of Books to Read Before You Die

I have long been a proponent of NOT making lists of the books you should read. In my 10 Rules of Basic RA Service and a few other places I have multiple links that address this issue. Yes, I train people who are helping leisure readers. Yes, my job is to know about all the books so I can help people find the best read for them. And yes, I want to read all the books. But here's the thing, I cannot read all the books and I never will. I have gotten over this, and it was not as hard as we make it.

Our job is to help people find books that are right for them. Most of us also like to read for fun. But, too many of us toxically combine these two truths and turn what we HAVE to read into an anxiety inducing problem that takes over our lives.

I say it over and over, but I know it needs to be repeated-- 1. You can read whatever you want and 2. you are not a better person to librarian if you read more than someone else. This is nonsense. Yes I believe in the work I do and I take it seriously, but it is work. It is not my life or reason for being. It does not define me.

Also, YOU WILL NEVER READ ALL THE BOOKS, SO STOP TRYING! You will never even read all the books you want to read. Get over it. I could go on and on, but below I have compiled a few of my best posts that address this issue from a variety of angles:

• Here is the link to my popular and helpful [so I've been told] post on handling TBR anxiety. I think this is the first step. Managing your personal stress about all the books you will never get to.
• The next step is understanding that you can help all the readers without reading all the books as long as you use resources to help you. This is a HUGE focus of my signature training program. The best way to start is to focus on reading ABOUT all the books, instead of trying to read all of them. You actually learn more about who would like the book and why if you read about a book. When you read it, it is easier to get caught up in your own opinions and experience. It takes a lot of practice to extricate yourself as a reader from the process. But, when you read multiple opinions, reviews, reader comments, and articles ABOUT a book, you get a fuller picture and can actually help more readers connect to it. Click here for one of my many posts on this topic. And also here for my 10 Rules of Basic RA, of which many delve into this more.
• There is also the issue of shaming others about how many more books you have read than them. It should be clear from the bullet points above that I don't care how many you read. And if I don't care, the leading provider of RA training in the country, who are you trying to impress? Seriously. Take a step back and check yourself. No one cares how many books you have read. And, furthermore, as I have established above, it doesn't make you better at your job.
• Click here for my post on how and why you should stop with the counting of books and shaming of others[because you are shaming others even if you don't do it on purpose].
• Click here for for a link to an article and podcast by others who are also top RA practitioners talking about how they are excellent at their jobs without being able to read many books.

But all of this work I have done over many years has never stopped the books you "should" read debate, and I am sick of it!

You should read whatever you want for whatever reason you want. And, just because you are a library worker or bookish person, you are not above others. We spend so much time shaming people for what they like to read-- especially genre readers-- and I am never here for this behavior. No matter what anyone wants to read, they should read it. End of sentence.

We are not the reading police. We should not be gatekeepers. We are simply guides, matching people with their best read. I explain it to library workers this way: your goal should be to have every single book in your collections checked out at the same time. Obviously this is impossible, but that is what you should be striving for. This means not only are you working to match people with books, but also that your collection is responsive to what they actually want to read. It is a whole library effort.

In my first rule of RA Service, I have long held up this excellent list of the books you "should" read. It is all about serendipity or based on what you want to read. It is 28 examples. But just the other day, I was alerted to this even better list of the Books Your Should Read Before You Die over on Twitter:

Click here to see the tweet

The image reads:

List of Books to Read Before You Die

1. Any book you want
2. Don't read books you don't want to read
3. That's it
4. Congratulations you did it

There is a comment: "I really like this list. All my favorite books are on it."

And a second comment: " Thanks! I worked really hard on it."

[Thanks to Twitter handle Library_Kevin for positing it and my colleague and LibraryReads Board Member, Joe Jones, for getting it into my timeline.] 

While this list is not perfect, the sentiment is EXACTLY what I have been trying to get across to all of us for years. Print this out, book mark it, whatever it takes to remind yourself  that we are not saving the world here, we are simply making it a more enjoyable experience for everyone. Read what you want. Stop making rules and judgments about what we should read. 

I hope all of the links here today will help you help yourself first, so that you can then pass this healthier attitude on to your colleagues and patrons. 

Survey Results: Americans' Views on Book Restrictions in US Public Schools

Click here to download the
full report for free

The Knight Foundation in partnership with Langer Research Associates has released their full report on Americans' Views on Book Restrictions in U.S. Public Schools. Click here or on the image above to read the full report. Below I have the executive summary from their website (without the graphs.0

But before we get there, I need to frame this a bit since most of my audience works in public libraries. Yes those surveyed were specifically about public school libraries, but understanding where people stand when it comes to libraries crafting collections using public dollars is important. Not all of the findings here would make for an apples-to-apples comparison, but understanding how Americans feel about book restrictions is information all of us need to do our jobs.

Please look at the executive summary below, but take some time to download and really read the full report. Use it as a chance to start discussions in your own library or library system and if you can, use it to reach out to your school library colleagues in your area as well.

As we gather more data, the more we need to work together to craft our messaging to combat the banners.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Book challenges and restrictions in U.S. public schools have increased dramatically since 2021.[1] Yet research on public awareness, attitudes and engagement in these activities is limited. In an effort to fill this critical knowledge gap in the national dialogue, Knight Foundation partnered with Langer Research Associates to survey a random national sample of more than 4,500 adults, deeply exploring public attitudes on restricting students’ access to books in public schools. This research extends the foundation’s two-decade history of public opinion polling on attitudes toward the First Amendment and free expression.

Read the full report here. 

Download the supplemental materials and methodology here. Download the full raw data set in here: .csv format, .sav format.

KEY FINDINGS

Majorities of Americans feel informed about book restriction efforts and say the issue is personally important to them. Still, few actively participate.

About six in 10 feel informed about debates to restrict access to books in public schools. As many call the issue highly important.

About one in four (23 percent) are aware of efforts to restrict public school students’ access to books in their community. Thirteen percent say book access in fact has been restricted due to these efforts.

Far fewer, 3 percent, personally have engaged on this issue: 2 percent to maintain book access, 1 percent to restrict it.

Two-thirds of Americans oppose efforts to restrict books in public schools and most are confident in public schools’ selection of books.

Strong sentiment is lopsided, with strong opponents of book restrictions outnumbering strong supporters by nearly 3-1.
In general terms, 78 percent of adults are confident that their community’s public schools select appropriate books for students to read.
Additionally, more people say it is a bigger concern to restrict students’ access to books that have educational value than it is to provide them with access to books that have inappropriate content. This view is especially prevalent when it comes to middle and high school students.

Most Americans see age appropriateness as a legitimate issue, especially for younger students – even as concern about exposure to inappropriate books is limited. Marking the issue’s complexity, trust in specific groups to determine age appropriateness is lower than trust in schools’ book selections more generally.

Six in 10 see age appropriateness as a legitimate reason to restrict students’ book access. Far fewer say it is legitimate to block access to books that contradict parents’ political views, religious beliefs or moral values.
Potentially controversial topics are more likely to be seen as appropriate for high school students, followed by middle school students; objections rise when it comes to content for elementary school students. These views are sharply divided, especially along ideological lines.
Just 7 percent of parents with reading-age children say their child has read an age-inappropriate book from school.[2] Among pre-K-12 parents, a quarter are concerned about this happening in the future, leaving 74 percent not concerned about it.
No one group has broad trust to determine what books are age appropriate. Roughly half of Americans have a great deal or good amount of trust in librarians and teachers to do this; fewer say so about principals, parents, district leaders, the state government or non-parents.

Who supports book restriction efforts?

Ideology is a major factor in attitudes on the issue. Support for restricting students’ access to books is highest among people who identify themselves as conservatives. Indeed, while conservatives account for 29 percent of all adults, they make up 57 percent of book restriction supporters.
Support for book restrictions in the public schools also reaches majorities among more-conservative groups such as white evangelical Protestants, Republicans and parents with children in private, religious or homeschool settings.
Underlying attitudes are involved. Conservatives are less likely than other people to think that books in public schools adequately represent conservative political views. They also are less confident in schools’ handling of topics including moral values, gender and sexuality, religious beliefs and political views. And they are particularly opposed to the availability of books that discuss topics such as non-traditional gender identities and sexual orientation.

Who opposes book restriction efforts?

Opposition to book restrictions peaks among liberals, Democrats and LGBTQ adults. It is modestly higher among four-year college graduates, moderates and Black people compared with all adults.
Opposing book restrictions is strongly related to views on free expression and individual thinking. Large majorities of Americans say children should develop their own political opinions, moral values and religious beliefs, rather than adopting their parents’ points of view. More than half also think that book restriction efforts threaten students’ freedom of expression. Those holding these views are highly opposed to book restriction efforts.
Views among public school parents show the issue’s complexity. These parents are broadly confident in their public schools to select appropriate books, and most (59 percent) oppose book restriction efforts. Still, that is 8 points lower than the level of opposition to book restriction efforts among non-parents, 67 percent.

Nearly all adults think public school parents should be able to challenge books, but there is concern about potential chilling effects in book selection.

Nine in 10 think any public school parent should be able to submit a book complaint to their local district. However, three-quarters also think an investigation should occur only after multiple complaints are received.
About six in 10 also are concerned that fear of complaints might deter public school districts from purchasing books with educational value.
About two-thirds think public school teachers and librarians should have substantial say in deciding what books are available; 57 percent say the same about pre-K-12 parents. In contrast, just about two in 10 say so about their state government or community members who are not pre-K-12 parents.

ABOUT THIS STUDY

Results presented in this report are from a national survey of 4,567 adults, including 1,138 pre-K-12 parents, conducted Feb. 29-March 10, 2024, via the probability-based Ipsos KnowledgePanel®, with design, management and analysis by Langer Research Associates. Results have a margin of error of plus or minus 1.6 percentage points for the full sample. As in all surveys, error margins are larger for subgroups.

In addition to the full report, a supplemental report provides topline data, a detailed methodology statement and a desk review of prior research.

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[1] See Meehan, K., Baêta, S., Markham, M., & Magnusson, T. (2024). Banned in the USA: Narrating the Crisis. PEN America. https://pen.org/report/narrating-the-crisis/

[2] We define “reading-age children” as K-12 students, excluding those in pre-K.