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Journalist Monica Hesse and writer Maris Kreizman discuss Hesse’s new book “American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land,” now in paperback.
The arsons started on a cold November midnight and didn’t stop for months. Night after night, the people of Accomack County waited to see which building would burn down next, regarding each other at first with compassion, and later suspicion. Vigilante groups sprang up, patrolling the rural Virginia coast with cameras and camouflage. Volunteer firefighters slept at their stations. The arsonist seemed to target abandoned buildings, but local police were stretched too thin to surveil them all. Accomack was desolate. There were hundreds of abandoned buildings, and by the dozen they were burning.
The culprit, and the path that led to these crimes, is a story of twenty-first century America. Washington Post reporter Monica Hesse first drove down to the reeling county to cover a hearing for Charlie Smith, a struggling mechanic who upon his capture had promptly pleaded guilty to sixty-seven counts of arson. But as Charlie’s confession unspooled, it got deeper and weirder. He wasn’t lighting fires alone; his crimes were galvanized by a surprising love story. Over a year of investigating, Hesse uncovered the motives of Charlie and his accomplice, girlfriend Tonya Bundick, a woman of steel-like strength and an inscrutable past. Theirs was a love built on impossibly tight budgets and simple pleasures. They were each other’s inspiration and escape…until they weren’t.
Though it’s hard to believe today, one hundred years ago Accomack was the richest rural county in the nation. Slowly it’s been drained of its industry and agriculture, as well as its wealth and population. In an already remote region, limited employment options offer little in the way of opportunity. A mesmerizing and crucial panorama with nationwide implications, American Fire asks what happens when a community gets left behind. Hesse brings to life the Eastern Shore and its inhabitants, battling a punishing economy and increasingly terrified by a string of fires they could not explain. The result evokes the soul of rural America, a land half gutted before the fires even began.
Maris Kreizman is a writer and critic and the author of the book “Slaughterhouse 90210.” NYPL Author Talks | Recorded live at the New York Public Library, Celeste Auditorium, on September 17, 2018.
From the bestselling author and renowned scholar of philosophy and law comes a revealing exploration of how the identities that shape our world are riddled with contradiction. Who are we, and what are we? How do we choose to self-identify? In his latest book, The Lies That Bind, Kwame Anthony Appiah explores the nature and history of the collective identities that define us—creed, sexuality, race, religion—and the role they play in our increasingly polarized world. Appiah shows how our contemporary thinking is disproportionately influenced by affiliations that draw us together as much as they tear us apart. He argues that there is no way to dispense of identities altogether, but suggests that, by gaining a deeper understanding, we can reconfigure them. As Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh objects to being held accountable for his behavior in high school, we look at the criminalization of black and brown students that has led to what is known as the school-to-prison pipeline. We speak with a roundtable of community activists engaged in the fight to save schools and push for alternatives to punishment and privatization. Their voices are highlighted in a new book titled “Lift Us Up, Don’t Push Us Out! Voices from the Front Lines of the Educational Justice Movement.” In Chicago, we speak with Jitu Brown, the national director of the Journey for Justice. In Washington, D.C., we speak with Zakiya Sankara-Jabar, the co-founder of Racial Justice NOW! and field organizer for the Dignity in Schools Campaign. And in New York City, we speak with high school teacher and restorative justice coordinator E.M. Eisen-Markowitz and Mark Warren, co-author of “Lift Us Up, Don’t Push Us Out!” 
Robert Hass presents "A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry" and Tracy K. Smith presents "Wade in the Water: Poems" at the 2018 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.
Speaker Biography: Robert Hass was born in San Francisco. His books of poetry include "The Apple Trees at Olema," a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner as well as "Time and Materials," "Sun Under Wood," "Human Wishes," "Praise" and "Field Guide," which was selected by Stanley Kunitz for the Yale Younger Poets Series. Hass also co-translated several volumes of poetry with Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz and authored or edited several other volumes of translation, including Nobel Laureate Tomas Tranströmer's "Selected Poems" and "The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson and Issa." His essay collection "Twentieth Century Pleasures: Prose on Poetry" received the National Book Critics Circle Award. Hass served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997 and as chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. His latest work is "A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry" (Ecco). Hass lives in California with his wife, poet Brenda Hillman, and teaches at the University of California at Berkeley.
Speaker Biography: Tracy K. Smith was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States in 2017. She was reappointed for a second term on March 22, 2018. Smith is the author of four poetry collections, including "Wade in the Water: Poems" (Graywolf) and "Life on Mars," winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Her memoir is "Ordinary Light," which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Smith is working to bring poetry to rural communities across America. She teaches at Princeton University. Lynne Thompson is the author of the poetry collections "Start with a Small Guitar" (What Books Press, 2013) and "Beg No Pardon" (Perugia Press, 2007) winner of a Perugia Press First Book Award and the Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award. She also received a 2015 Artist Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A.). Her poems have appeared in many journals including "Poetry," "Ploughshares," "Salamander," "Prairie Schooner," "Rattle," "African American Review," "Crab Creek Review," "Poetry Internationa"l and several anthologies including, "Nasty Women Poets: An Anthology of Subversive Verse" (Lost Horse Press, 2017). A former practicing attorney, Thompson lives in Los Angeles and is the reviews and essays editor for the literary journal, "Spillway." The interview is part of a series hosted by L.A. poet Mariano Zaro, available at www.Poetry.LA Pamela Paul, editor of The New York Times Book Review, moderates a conversation with two of Britain’s most beloved and iconic voices — Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning actor and screenwriter Emma Thompson, and best-selling, award-winning author, Ian McEwan. Thompson stars in the upcoming film “The Children Act,” adapted by McEwan from his own novel about a British High Court judge who, in the midst of a marital crisis, must rule on a life-changing legal case concerning the survival of a teenage boy. Join Thompson and McEwan for a riveting conversation about challenging our belief systems, forging profound connections, and getting to the core of what constitutes right and wrong. 
Sayu Bhojwani and Naomi Wolf discuss diversifying America’s political establishment and Bhojwani’s new book, “People Like Us: The New Wave of Candidates Knocking at Democracy’s Door.” This event is presented in partnership with the Literacy Partners’ Subway Reads Campaign and the New York Immigration Coalition.
Political scientist Sayu Bhojwani is challenging the established status quo of the white, male, Christian and rich political system. In her latest book “People Like Us,” Sayu offers case studies of politicians and activists who don’t fit the established American political bill, be they, people of color or immigrants, fighting the system to create a better world for all. Sayu simultaneously shines a strong spotlight on the roadblocks that quell many people’s chances of affecting robust change in governmental representation.
One of the world’s most influential feminists and the bestselling author of “The Beauty Myth,” Naomi Wolf doesn’t just comment on the world’s most pervasive problems, she aims to solve them. Wolf has written eight bestselling works of nonfiction, including “Give Me Liberty,” which includes effective tools for citizens to promote civic engagement and create sustainable democracy. Wolf is the co-founder of The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership and The American Freedom Campaign. The co-Founder and CEO of tech startup DailyClout.io, a digital platform that lets anyone lobby by sharing live bills, pass legislation, and run for office.
Sayu Bhojwani is the Founder and President of New American Leaders, which works across the country to build the power and potential of first- and second-generation Americans. She served as New York City’s first Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs and is the founder of South Asian Youth Action, a community-based organization in Queens. Sayu earned a PhD in Politics and Education from Columbia University, where her research focused on immigrant political participation. Her TED talk focuses on the importance of immigrants to American democracy, and her work to build a more inclusive democracy has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and in The New York Times. Her book, “People Like Us: Knocking at Democracy’s Door,” will be published by The New Press in October 2018. An immigrant of Indian descent, she grew up in Belize and now lives in New York City with her husband and child.
Through #SubwayReads, commuters across New York City can free promotional excerpts from 200+ exclusive books across over a dozen categories, including: Women’s Leadership, Black Lives Matter, Immigrant Stories, Career Development, Food, Travel, and more. Young readers and adults alike can read on and off the subway using www.subwayreads.org
