As nominations for the NYC Neighborhood Library Awards come in, we continue our conversations on the power of fiction to open minds and build tolerance.
Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (Housekeeping, Gilead, Home, Lila), essayist, professor of English and creative writing at the Iowa Writer's Workshop and the author (most recently) of The Givenness of Things: Essays (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015) and Angela Flournoy, a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, a judge in the NYC Neighborhood Library Awards and the author of (National Book Award finalist) The Turner House (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015), talk about the works of fiction that have opened their minds.
For more on Marilynne Robinson's conversation with President Obama, here are the links to New York Review of Books.
→ And don't forget to vote: the nominating period for the NYC Neighborhood Library Awards continues. Click here to nominate your local library for a chance to win $20,000.
→ What work of fiction made YOU more open-minded? We're compiling a list of fictional works that made you less certain about your opinions using The List App. Download the app (it's free) to add to our list, and tweet your suggestions using #FictionOpensMinds.
Reading Hesse's Steppenwolf made me less sure of my opinions. Delicious uncertainty! #FictionOpensMinds @BrianLehrer https://t.co/c34DN1Ucub
— Natalí Alcalá (@natali_alcala) November 24, 2015
As a teenager, The Razor's Edge taught me that an unconventional life is a legitimate choice. #FictionOpensMinds @BrianLehrer
— Rebecca Weiss (@BobsBoxes) November 24, 2015
#fictionopensminds.The Power of One. Apartheid seen through the eyes of a young boy and his relationship with his rooster, his only friend.
— Jane Segall (@JaneSegall) November 23, 2015