Jan. 26, 2024
Readers, viewers get new space to explore, connect through shared joy of reading
CONWAY, Ark. (Arkansas PBS) — Launched by Detroit Public TV, Arkansas PBS is participating in a PBS Books initiative, which is a national hub for avid readers who enjoy public TV called the PBS Books Readers Club.
Arkansas PBS encourages members to join PBS Books Readers Club to continue the shared love of reading.
The PBS Books Readers Club is a multi-platform initiative connecting a community of readers nationwide to important stories by many of today’s most prolific and thought-provoking authors and PBS personalities, featuring the likes of Geraldine Brooks, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and James Crichton, the new executive producer of the hit PBS series “All Creatures Great and Small.” There is no cost to join the PBS Books Readers Club.
Offerings will include a new monthly digital video series featuring in-depth conversations with authors, weekly social media content, a bi-weekly e-newsletter with book-related articles and book recommendations plus an interactive PBS Books Readers Club Facebook Group where readers can chat, discover new books and submit questions for the authors who will be featured in the new digital-first streaming series.
Every month, PBS Books will select book club picks that will be discussed in the series, e-newsletter and on social media. The featured books will pair with programming and themes viewers see on PBS programs. The effort will be promoted by PBS Books and PBS stations nationwide, as well as through the national PBS Books Library Engagement network.
The first installment of the new exclusive series will be released on Wednesday, Jan. 31, featuring Crichton, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks, author of the inaugural PBS Books Readers Club January selection, “Horse,” a sweeping tale that uses the true story of the famous 19th-century racehorse, Lexington, to explore the roots and legacy of enslavement.
The next episode on Feb. 28 will feature a conversation with scholar and documentarian Henry Louis Gates Jr., who has published numerous books and produced and hosted an array of documentaries. Gates will discuss his newest four-part PBS series “GOSPEL”; his mega-popular weekly PBS program, “Finding Your Roots“; and several of his books including “The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song,” a New York Times bestseller that braids an odyssey from religion and mythology in Africa to the expressions of African American religiosity familiar to us today
Gates will also discuss the soon-to-be-released “The Black Box: Writing the Race,” the epic story of Black self-definition in America through the prism of the writers who have led the way and redefined themselves.
For additional information, visit https://www.pbsBooks.org/readersclub.
About Arkansas PBS
For more than 50 years, Arkansas PBS has served as Arkansas’s statewide public media network. An inventive and award-winning multiplatform producer of local and national public media content, Arkansas PBS empowers learners of all ages and drives conversations, inspiring people and communities to reach their full potential. Arkansas PBS is home to the most utilized teacher professional development resources in the state with more than 4 million credit hours awarded. Arkansas PBS creates and celebrates Arkansas stories, informs through in-depth public affairs content and shares valued PBS programs as an essential service to all Arkansans, deepening connections to communities and the larger world, and changing lives for the better. More information about Arkansas PBS’s broadcast, online, educational and on-demand services and resources is available at myarkansaspbs.org.
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