University Libraries

2022 National Book Fest features 'Great Reads' by Pa. authors Hirsch and Machado

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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Center for the Book has selected two "Great Reads" by Pennsylvania authors to represent the state at the 2022 National Book Festival: the youth title, "Night Creatures: Animals That Swoop, Crawl, and Creep while You Sleep" by Rebecca E. Hirsch, illustrated by Sonia Possentini, Millbrook Press, 2021; and the adult title, "In the Dream House: A Memoir" by Carmen Maria Machado, Greywolf Press, 2019.

Each year the Great Reads from Great Places program tasks 56 affiliate Centers for the Book (the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and Northern Marianas) with selecting titles to represent their locations. After more than 20 years of highlighting youth titles, Great Reads has added adult titles for 2022.

Hirsch, a resident of Pennsylvania’s Appalachian Mountains, explores the mysteries of nocturnal life in her youth picture book "Night Creatures," a soothing bedtime read accompanied by Possentini’s luminous illustrations. Listen to Hirsch talk about this title in a free, online discussion that will be published toward the end of August on the National Book Festival website and Library of Congress YouTube channel.

With an inventive hybrid of historical research, lyrical prose, and narrative tropes, Machado deconstructs the psychological experience of a lesbian trauma bond in her memoir "In the Dream House." She is a resident of Philadelphia and resists LGBTQ+ erasure with her award-winning work as a queer Latina writer. Machado currently serves as the Abrams Artist-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania.

The National Book Festival returns to in-person celebrations this year on Saturday, Sept. 3, at the Washington Convention Center, where affiliate centers will showcase their Great Reads among a vast array of literary offerings, both onsite and virtually. Visit the 2022 National Book Festival page of the Library of Congress website to learn more.

About the Pennsylvania Center for the Book

The Pennsylvania Center for the Book is an affiliate of the Center for the Book established in 1977 at the Library of Congress. In partnership with and housed within Penn State University Libraries since 2000, it encourages Pennsylvania’s citizens and residents to study, honor, celebrate and promote books, reading, libraries and literacy.

In addition to Great Reads from Great Places, the Pennsylvania Center for the Book administers: the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize, the Public Poetry Project, A Baker’s Dozen: The Best Children’s Books for Family Literacy, Poems from Life, Words of Art, the interactive Literary and Cultural Heritage Maps of Pennsylvania, and Curricula and Teaching Materials. The center’s public initiatives provide access to free content that includes poetry posters, live and recorded presentations, lesson plans, reviews and more.

For additional information about Great Reads from Great Places, visit the Great Reads from Great Places page of the Library of Congress website or contact Karla M. Schmit, education librarian and director of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book (kms454@psu.edu).

Last Updated August 23, 2022