Overheard: Deliberations of the 2020 BPL Literary Prize Committee
Each fall, the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize recognizes an outstanding work of both nonfiction and fiction with an award and a $5,000 prize. The 2020 awardees will finally be announced on Friday, November 20th at the Brooklyn Classic–the signature fundraising event of the Brooklyn Eagles. To pick the winners, a volunteer team of two dozen librarians spend the better part of a year evaluating titles submitted by staff from across the borough. The committee looks for books published after June 1, 2019 that push boundaries, bring light to unheralded stories, or give voice to…
A Short, Sweet List of Good Short Story Anthologies
Short stories are pretty terrific. If you’re short on sustained reading time and focus due to a hectic week, or promising yourself just a few pages before you turn out the lights, a short story can be just right. Short stories can be a great way to discover new authors. Nearly all the authors whose work is collected in these anthologies have full-length novels in our collection. Sampling a story or two is a great way to reset your reading after reading a really big novel or nonfiction tome. Short stories are an excellent way to pull yourself out of a reading slump, where you can’t focus on…