Presentation by North Country Reads Author at JCC on Apr. 4
On Friday, April 4, author Diana Abu-Jaber will visit Jefferson Community College to give a presentation and reading from the North Country Reads 2008 featured book The Language of Baklava. The presentation begins at 12:30 p.m. in the Jules Center Amphitheater (6-002) and will conclude with the opportunity to have copies of the book signed by Ms. Abu-Jaber. The presentation is free and open to the public.
The presentation at Jefferson is one of many planned April 2-4 during Ms. Abu-Jaber’s visit to the North Country in celebration of the North Country Reads program. In addition to presentations at high schools in the tri-county area, Ms. Abu-Jaber is participating in book readings, signings and presentations at libraries in Lewis and St. Lawrence counties and on Fort Drum. In a very special event on Thursday, April 3 at 7:00 p.m., North Country Public Radio’s “Readers and Writers on the Air” program, featuring Ms. Abu-Jaber, will be broadcast live from the Sturtz Theater at Jefferson. Please visit www.ncpr.org/ncreads for a complete schedule of author events.
The Language of Baklava is a memoir about growing up as a first generation Arab immigrant in the region surrounding Syracuse. Ms. Abu-Jaber’s memoir humorously weaves together the two cultures of her childhood - American and Jordanian - and paints a portrait of her immigrant father who cooked to remember his home country and to pass that cultural heritage on to his children.
Diana Abu-Jaber is also the author of Crescent, which was awarded the 2004 PEN Center USA Award for Literary Fiction and the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award and was named one of the twenty best novels of 2003 by The Christian Science Monitor. Ms. Abu-Jaber also authored Arabian Jazz, which won the 1994 Oregon Book Award and was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in English from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego, a master of arts degree in English and creative writing from the University of Windsor and a doctorate in English and creative writing from SUNY Binghamton. Since 1996, she has taught English at Portland State University and divides her time between Portland and Miami, Florida.
North Country Reads is an exciting community-based literature program encouraging residents of Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties to read and share their experience of one book. More than 2,000 copies of The Language of Baklava have been made available free-of-charge to schools, libraries and retirement communities through the generous contributions of these project partners: Bernier, Carr & Associates PC, Henry Keep Home, Northern New York Community Foundation, NYS Council of the Arts via the Decentralization Program managed by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council, NYS Senate via former Sen. James Wright, Pratt Northam Foundation, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Verizon and Watertown Daily Times.
A complete listing of events along with additional information about Diana Abu-Jaber and The Language of Baklava is available at the North Country Public Radio website, http://www.ncpr.org/ncreads/. For more information about North Country Reads, please call 315-785-7705 or email ncreads@ncpr.org.
North Country Reads is a collaborative project developed by Flower Memorial Library, Jefferson Community College and North Country Public Radio. The shared reading program is designed to forge new connections across organizations and communities over the course of the coming year, building community conversations and developing enhanced literacy in the North Country.