National Endowment for the Arts Announces More Than $1.5 Million in Big Read Grants for First Half of 2008

One hundred twenty-seven grantees include libraries, arts groups, science organizations, colleges, and municipalities. U.S. military bases overseas and Russian cities join the Big Read. Institute of Museum and Library Services partnership helps program continue to grow.

Bring your lunch and enjoy an interesting hour with author and history professor, Robert K. Ackerman as he discusses his book, Wade Hampton III. Providing the most balanced and comprehensive portrayal of Wade Hampton III to date, Robert K. Ackerman's biography explores the remarkable abilities and tragic failings of the planter-statesman who would come to personify the Civil War and Reconstruction in South Carolina.

Thursday, December 6, 2007
Noon—1 p.m.
SC State Library Administration Building
Room 309, 1430 Senate Street, Columbia, SC

The South Carolina Center for the Book is proud to announce that the next several installments of its popular Speaker at the Center series will feature authors scheduled to appear at the 2008 SC Book Festival.  The 12^th Annual SC Book Festival will be held February 22-24, 2008 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in Columbia, SC and is a program of The Humanities Council SC.  The festival presents a diversified group of authors, poets, and scholars to the readers and writers of South Carolina free of charge. The SC Book Festival offers panel discussions and presentations on a variety of popular genres and literary topics, from the latest trends in new fiction to regional favorites to outstanding poetry performances.

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, in partnership with Target Stores and in cooperation with the South Carolina Center for the Book, invites readers in grades 4 through 12 to enter Letters About Literature, a national reading-writing contest.