News Release

05/14/08
RI Author Ann Hood to Speak at Annual Meeting of RI Center for the Book at Providence Public Library; Local “Letters About Literature” Contest Winners to be Announced

The 2008 Annual Meeting of the Rhode Island Center for the Book will be held Tuesday, June 3 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm at the William Hall Library, 1825 Broad Street, Cranston. The event will feature Rhode Island award-winning author Ann Hood as the keynote speaker.

Ann Hood’s address is entitled “The Writing Life.” Hood’s most recent books are the well-received novel, The Knitting Circle, a novel for young adults entitled How I Saved My Father’s Life (and Ruined Everything Else) , and her memoir that just came out in April, Comfort: A Journey Through Grief. She is the author of seven other novels, and a collection of short stories. Many of her essays and short stories have appeared in publications, including The New York Times, Good Housekeeping, Bon Appetit, Traveler, Food and Wine, The Paris Review, Ladies Home Journal and Rhode Island Monthly.

2008 “Letters About Literature” Winners to be Awarded
(Recipients are from Barrington, Cranston, East Greenwich, and North Kingstown)

Ms. Hood will be sharing the stage with a few other writers at the RI Center for the Book Annual Meeting. The three State Winners of the 2008 Letters About Literature competition will be sharing their award-winning letters during the meeting, which will also include an award ceremony. Julia Zubiago, of East Greenwich has taken top honors for Level 1 (grades 4 – 6) in this year’s writing contest. Nolan McHale-Rossi and Gabrielle Sclafani, of Barrington are the top honorees for Levels 2 (grades 7 & 8) and Level 3 (grades 9 – 12) respectively.

Honorable Mention awards will be given to Andrew Miner of East Greenwich, Sam Karlin of Barrington, Sophia Wright of Cranston and Sullivan Roberts and Krista Hoffman, both of North Kingstown.

The winning letters and many of the 90 semifinalist letters will be posted soon at RI Center for the Book.

Approximately 56,000 young readers across the country participated in this year’s Letters About Literature competition, a reading promotion program of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, presented in partnership with Target. To enter, young readers write a personal letter to an author explaining how his or her work changed their view of the world or themselves. Readers can select authors from any genre—fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic. The program has three competition levels: upper elementary, middle school, and secondary. The contest theme encourages young readers to explore his or her personal response to a book then express that response in a creative, original way.

The public is invited to attend this free event. For more information about Ann Hood, please visit: www.annhood.us/bio.

Reading Across Rhode Island is a project of the Rhode Island Center for the Book at Providence Public Library. RARI 2007 is sponsored by Fidelity Investments, Reading with Robin, Newport Federal, RI Network for Educational Technology and Algonquin Books.

Providence Public Library is committed to providing quality programming on a variety of educational topics. The views and opinions expressed therein are those of the individual presenters and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the Library. We welcome community members to work with us to provide free, thought-provoking events of interest.