Now Live: “New Year, New Chapter for PBS Books as It Launches the National PBS Books Readers Club”
From Today’s Launch Announcement:
After many years of working to amplify books and authors through the PBS Books initiative, Detroit Public TV is launching a new national online hub for avid readers who enjoy public television called the PBS Books Readers Club, in partnership with PBS.
The PBS Books Readers Club is a multi-platform initiative connecting a community of readers nationwide to diverse and important stories by many of today’s most prolific and thought-provoking authors and PBS personalities, featuring the likes of Geraldine Brooks, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and James Crichton, the new executive producer of the hit PBS series ‘All Creatures Great and Small.” There is no cost to join the PBS Books Readers Club.
Offerings will include a new monthly digital video series featuring in-depth conversations with authors, weekly social media content, a biweekly e-newsletter with book-related articles and book recommendations plus an interactive PBS Books Readers Club Facebook Group where readers can chat, discover new books, and submit questions for the authors who will be featured in the new digital-first streaming series.
Every month, PBS Books will select book club picks that will be discussed in the series, e-newsletter, and on social media. The featured books will pair with programming and themes viewers see on PBS programs. The effort will be promoted by PBS Books and PBS stations nationwide, as well as through the national PBS Books Library Engagement network.
The first installment of the new exclusive series will be released on Wednesday, Jan. 31, featuring Crichton, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks, author of the inaugural PBS Books Readers Club January selection, “Horse,” a sweeping tale that uses the true story of the famous 19th-century racehorse, Lexington, to explore the roots and legacy of enslavement.
The next episode on Feb. 28 will feature a conversation with scholar and documentarian Henry Louis Gates Jr., who has published numerous books and produced and hosted an array of documentaries. Gates will discuss his newest four-part PBS series “Gospel”; his mega-popular weekly PBS program, “Finding Your Roots“; and several of his books including “The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song,” a New York Times bestseller that braids an odyssey from religion and mythology in Africa to the expressions of African American religiosity familiar to us today
Gates will also discuss the soon-to-be-released “The Black Box: Writing the Race,” the epic story of Black self-definition in America through the prism of the writers who have led the way and redefined themselves, in resistance to the lies of racism, across the country’s history.
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.