Meeting Interesting People at the Library

You can meet interesting people at the library. I am not only talking about the type of “meeting” that teens are said to do here, although what better place to meet another smart, forward-thinking teen than at the library?

These past few weeks I have had the pleasure and honor of meeting some amazing writers, volunteers and community members. Over 300 local writers and guests were at the Central Library for the 45th Annual Local Authors Exhibit and reception to celebrate their collective accomplishments in writing and presenting over 320 books published in 2010. The writers ranged from age 7 to 90 and included a former Prisoner of War, a local rock star, a 16 year-old writing prodigy, and representatives from local institutions such as UCSD, a comic book publishing company, Balboa Park museums and historical societies. Hal and Althea Altenbern are partners in writing, in love and life. They joined us at the reception to celebrate their latest book and their 61st wedding anniversary! Another highlight of the evening was the ceremony honoring UCSD Professor and Pulitzer Prize winner Rae Armantrout, who was bestowed with the San Diego Public Library’s Local Author Literary Achievement Award. We were in stellar company indeed! The Local Authors Exhibit at Central Library, the Online Author Exhibit and Photo Gallery will be on display through February.

The library family had another big event, hosted in partnership with KPBS at the La Jolla Country Day School to a crowd of over 400 celebrating the 2011 One Book, One San Diego season. The book we are reading as a community this year is the Gangster We Are All Looking For by lê thi diem thúy. Thúy is a young Vietnamese-American woman who grew up in the Linda Vista area. She is an eloquent, lyrical writer and speaker. It was interesting listening to her talk about the book, her life and her inspiration. The following evening thúy did an author talk at the Central Library, held us spellbound as she read from the book and intrigued us with the list of people she would love to have at the dinner table for conversation, among whom was the prize-winning horse, Secretariat! Thúy theorized that she could learn something from Secretariat and I believe we could likewise learn from thúy! (You also might be interested to see a video of thúy that describes why the Linda Vista Branch Library is her “favorite library in the whole wide world.”)

Rounding out the beginning of the year celebrations was the 23rd annual Evening with the Stars; the Stars being the wonderful tutors and learners of the READ/San Diego literacy program. The dinner was lovely with over 300 participants who were witness to the recounting of just a few of the accomplishments achieved by tutors and learners in the program. These are people who so recognize the value of education and life-long learning, that they commit to a partnership to learn/tutor to read despite the various other challenges in day to day life. In my book, these are all heroic people and I was so pleased to meet them, thanks to the library.