Author Events and Media, Penguin Group (USA) Weekly Update - 5/25:

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T.C. Boyle Is Inducted into Prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters

Viking/ Penguin author T.C. Boyle was officially inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters at the annual Ceremonial in New York this past Monday. Members and award winners gathered onstage in the Academy's landmark auditorium to formally acknowledge new members to this prestigious group of 125 noted people in literature.

The American Academy of Arts and Letters is an honor society of 250 architects, composers, artists, and writers. Members of the Academy are elected for life. As vacancies occur, the Academicians nominate and elect new members. The honor of election is considered the highest formal recognition of artistic merit in the United States. Only Academicians may nominate and elect new members.

Other Penguin authors that have earned the distinction as being part of this exclusive group include Garrison Keillor, John Ashbery, Paul Auster, and Don DeLillo.

Browse through all of T.C. Boyle’s Penguin titles here.

Khaled Hosseini Gives Keynote Speech at IRA Conference

Khaled Hosseini gave a moving keynote address at the recent International Reading Association (IRA) North Central Conference in Minneapolis, MN. The 2,500 teachers, literacy advocates and reading specialists in attendance gave the author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns (Riverhead Books) a warm welcome with standing ovations upon his introduction and at the conclusion of his talk. In his 45-minute speech he talked about his youth in Afghanistan, his beginnings as a writer, the current political situation in Central Asia, and his new foundation, which provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan to help alleviate suffering and build healthy communities. In an inspiring finish, Hosseini discussed the crucial roles that teachers and parents have had in teaching our youth in this country to be concerned citizens of the world.

Click here to learn more about Hosseini's new foundation.

View our feature page on Khaled Hosseini to watch a video with the author, read an interview, and read Khaled’s bio.

Michigan Humanities Council Selects Bich Minh Nguyen’s Stealing Buddha’s Dinner for 2009-2010 Great Michigan Read

Bich Minh Nguyen’s Stealing Buddha’s Dinner (Viking/Penguin) has been selected as the 2009-2010 Great Michigan Read (GMR) by the Michigan Humanities Council (MHC).

Stealing Buddha’s Dinner follows Bich’s family’s migration out of Saigon in 1975 and her coming of age in Grand Rapids, Michigan during the 1980’s. The MHC offers free state-wide programs that link to the theme of the book: immigration, cultural understanding, and contemporary history. The book was selected among 75 other nominated titles by a committee of 50 librarians, authors, students, professors, teachers, and others from around the state.

Bich recently spoke at the unveiling ceremony on May 19th where Stealing Buddha’s Dinner was announced as the Great Michigan Read. To see a video of the announcement and learn more information, please click here.

Penguin Speakers Bureau has set up an October state-wide tour from October 13-17th, 2009. Bich will make stops in Grand Rapids, Lansing, Metro Detroit, Midland, and Traverse City. In April 2010, she’ll also participate in an Author Homecoming event.

The MHC plans to release a chapter from Stealing Buddha’s Dinner in the Detroit Free Press, a newspaper with a circulation of 300,000. The announcement of the GMR has already garnered great attention, with more newspaper features and interviews still to come.

Bich’s first novel, Short Girls, will be published by Viking in July 2009.

Greg Mortenson Continues to Inspire People to Make a Difference

Greg Mortenson's work and message have taken on a life of their own. As he demonstrates, one man can make a difference and not only does he do that by building schools in Taliban controlled areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, but by inspiring people through his lectures and Three Cups of Tea (Penguin). Mortenson's lecture so moved a Vero Beach orthodontist that the orthodontist and his wife left the lecture thinking about what they could do to make a difference. They came up with the idea of giving away braces if a child would agree to perform community service as a way of paying it forward. Here's a link to the full article. A little inspiration goes a long way.

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