NPR and National Book Awards Finalists visit Concordia

By Jessica Ballou
Contributing Writer

Concordia College will host a National Book Award winner and a finalist March 24 and 25 for the college’s sixth annual event.

This year Jaimy Gordon, 2010 Fiction Winner for Lord of Misrule, and John Dower, 2010 Nonfiction Finalist for Cultures of War, will visit campus with Harold Augenbraum, executive director of the National Book Foundation in New York.

According to Tracey Moorhead, assistant to the President, Concordia is the only college that has a relationship like this with the National Book Foundation.

“We feel honored that Harold has allowed this relationship to happen,” she said, “and he is encouraging us to do this and tell others about what we’re doing.”

The National Book Award event has been taking place in New York for 61 years now, but hosting the authors on a college campus began six years ago. The college component began as a goal by Augenbraum, Moorhead said.

“It’s his philosophy that this is not a New York City Book Awards; it’s the National Book Award, so it belongs to everybody in the country and he wants to share it that way,” she said. “His outlook has made the difference.”

Having the National Book Awards at Concordia brings with it a conversation about good writing to the FM area, Moorhead said.

“We hope people get a desire to read more good American literature,” she said.

English professor Scott Olsen pioneered the initiative for this event to occur on campus with Moorhead six years ago. Olsen had said he would love the National Book Awards to come to campus, so he called Provost Mark Krejci, who approved the idea of contacting the National Book Foundation. Augenbraum returned his call within 10 minutes.

“I explained who we were and what we were thinking of, and he loved it,” Olsen said. “We’ve had a magnificent partnership since then.”

When it comes to picking two authors who come to campus from the short list of four or five finalists, Olsen and Moorhead look for personality.

“We are looking for not necessarily who’s going to win, but who has an engaging personality and a good book,” Olsen said. “We look for who will enliven the campus community.”

Olsen looks forward to the inspiration the authors’ texts bring for a variety of people on campus.

“Here’s the best [writing],” Olsen said. “You can argue what best means, but here is the year’s definition of the best…We can talk about inspiration as a light, fluffy thing, but it’s not: it’s a lonely, bang your head against the computer process. For people who are not writers but active participants, this is the life of inquiry.”

The National Book Awards event brings its audience into close contact with the writers.

“This is not an event where we put these people at the far end of the room and you can’t get to them,” Olsen said. “Each year in the spring time we are going to bring the best we can get to campus and you can hear their stories and the stories of their stories. With any luck, you leave with the world made more particular and real.”

There are different authors in attendance each year when Concordia hosts the National Book Awards authors; authors of different books and genres prompt different conversations. Vast distinctions exist from one year to the next. That’s part of what makes this event so exciting for students and faculty members. People get to hear two of the nation’s best authors speak about their work, and regardless of a person’s profession or interests, there is always something to get out of these events.

Listeners of National Public Radio get an extra treat this year, as the Readings and Conversation event featuring the two authors and Augenbraum will be hosted by Neal Conan, award-winning journalist and host of “Talk of the Nation,” the national news-talk call-in show for NPR News.

Conan’s achievements with NPR are vast, including work as a reporter in Washington, New York and London, the latter two as NPR’s Bureau Chief. Conan has anchored NPR live coverage of events including national political conventions, inaugurations, and an impeachment. He also hosted “Weekly Edition: The Best of NPR News” for five years. He played a major role in anchoring NPR’s live coverage after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, a duty he also had during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Readings and Conversation event will be followed immediately by a reception and book signing at 9 p.m.

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IF YOU GO:
National Book Awards Readings and Conversation
When: Thurs. March 24, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Concordia College, Centrum, Knutson Campus Center
Info: (218) 299-3001