This interview first appeared in American Libraries’ May 2009 issue. Roberts died September 17. In We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters, you write about women succeeding in professions that were traditionally considered the domain of men. How were you able to develop the confidence and determination it took for you to do so? I was raised … Continue reading Remembering Cokie Roberts
Telgemeier has also written two fictional graphic novels (Drama and Ghosts), four illustrated adaptions of The Baby-Sitters Club series, and the new interactive journal Share Your Smile. American Libraries spoke with Telgemeier about her creative process, how graphic novelists became champions for unrepresented voices in publishing, and her advice for aspiring artists. You wrote two … Continue reading Newsmaker: Raina Telgemeier
Holmes recently spoke with American Libraries about her fiction favorites, the breadth of the romance genre, and why librarians are the original influencers. Tell me about your relationship with books and reading. Where does fiction fit in your personal pop-culture landscape? When I was a teenager I read a ton of big, heavy commercial fiction, … Continue reading Newsmaker: Linda Holmes
What were you reading growing up in Venezuela? Who were your literary heroes? Isabel Allende, La casa de los espíritus (The House of the Spirits). Growing up, her novels were like the universe. She’s from Chile originally—she escaped the dictatorship and found a home in Venezuela. There’s a character in the book called Clara because … Continue reading Newsmaker: Mariana Atencio
In your podcast Mobituaries, you exhume little-known facts about both relatively unknown and iconic people and events. How do you go about picking a story that you’d like to pursue? I pursue stories about people and things that interest me. There are people who had obituaries the first time around when they actually died, but … Continue reading Newsmaker: Mo Rocca
Why did you choose to tell your story as a graphic novel? It’s been my mission in life to tell the story of my childhood imprisonment and to raise awareness of that chapter of American history. There’s a new generation of young people, and we want to target them in the best way. I thought … Continue reading Newsmaker: George Takei
Paul Jones, professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s (UNC) School of Information and Library Science, is one of a few who worked on the Lunar Library, a 30-million-page archive in the size and shape of a DVD. The archive—which includes the English-language Wikipedia among nearly 200 gigabytes of content with 1.5 billion … Continue reading Newsmaker: Paul Jones
When did you first try out for Jeopardy? I first auditioned for the show when I was just about to graduate from high school. At the time, I was trying to get on the show’s College Championship. (I could audition for that as a high school student because the tournament would tape and air when … Continue reading Newsmaker: Emma Boettcher
Adeyemi will be an Auditorium Speaker at the 2019 ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition in Washington, D.C., on June 24. American Libraries spoke with her about writing, her inspirations, and the importance of representation in media. From being a New York Times bestselling debut author to getting a movie deal, what has been the most … Continue reading Newsmaker: Tomi Adeyemi
You spent much of your childhood in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. Did you visit the library there? Yes, it had the advantage of being across from a park, in a neighborhood that had shops and candy stores. So there was a ritual: You’d go to the library, and then on the way back, … Continue reading Newsmaker: Sandra Cisneros
You have a law degree. How did you get started in genealogy? Do you see a correlation between the two fields? I absolutely see a correlation. I love research and writing. I love reading and digging and finding clues. And that’s what genealogy is. I started doing genealogy when I was in law school. I … Continue reading Newsmaker: Kenyatta D. Berry
Pilkey struggled with dyslexia and ADHD as a child. But being encouraged by his mother to read whatever he liked—”it didn’t matter if it was a magazine, or a comic book, or a bunch of Snoopy cartoons, or the Guinness Book of World Records,” he says—changed his life. He started drawing his Captain Underpants character … Continue reading Newsmaker: Dav Pilkey
