AMERICAN AUTHORS CHALLENGE--TENTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION! (2024)

2024 marks the 10 anniversary of the American Authors Challenge, initiated in 2014 by Mark Freeburg, @msf59. We will celebrate the anniversary by revisiting one of America's most popular authors, Mark Twain, who was featured in that first challenge.

This will be the general discussion thread for matters pertaining to American literature, the history of this Challenge, and a place to keep track of where we are with this year's list. A new feature this year will be the participation of 3 guest hosts, for whose assistance I am VERY grateful. As always, there will be a monthly thread for each 2024 author or theme. I will endeavor to put links to each one as it is created, in the appropriate place on the list below. SO, this year's list is as follows:

JANUARY: Mark Twain
Here's the Twain thread.

FEBRUARY: Susan Sontag

MARCH: Truman Capote

APRIL: General Non-Fiction with host Caroline @Caroline_McElwee.

MAY: William Maxwell

JUNE: Queer Authors with host Dr. Laura Koons @lycomayflower

JULY: Susan Power a/k/a Mona Susan Power

AUGUST: Jeffrey Lent

SEPTEMBER: Living American authors who were born outside the US but adopted this country as their home.

OCTOBER: Katharine Anne Porter

NOVEMBER: Jewish American Authors with host Kristel @kristelh

DECEMBER: The Heartland (regional authors from the middle of the country)

WILD CARD : 2015 Redux
Pick an author from the 2015 Challenge

*EXTRA POINTS CHALLENGE: Complete the challenge by reading at least one work from the author or category featured each month AND one work from the Wildcard list each month.

*DISCLAIMER: Extra Points are self-conferred. The Challenge itself gives out no points or awards of any kind.

For quick reference, here are the lists for past years :

2023
JANUARY: Children’s classics
FEBRUARY: Richard Powers
MARCH: Poetry
APRIL: Ursula Hegi
MAY: John Edgar Wideman
JUNE: Mary Gordon
JULY: US Presidents as authors
AUGUST: Percival Everett
SEPT: American Ladies of Crime
OCT,: Dorothy Canfield Fisher
NOV.: Canadian authors
DEC.: Benjamin Alire Saenz
WILD CARD: AAC 2014 REDUX

2022
JANUARY Graphic novels, comics and/or non-fiction
FEBRUARY Tess Gallagher
MARCH Bernard Malamud
APRIL Jennifer Finney Boylan
MAY 19th Century American Author of your choice
JUNE John Dos Passos
JULY Gish Jen
AUGUST Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
SEPTEMBER Pulitzer Prize Winners
OCTOBER John McPhee
NOVEMBER Native American authors, themes and history
DECEMBER Martha Gellhorn

2021
JANUARY All in the Family Spouses, partners, parents and children who all write.
FEBRUARY Ethan Canin
MARCH Roxane Gay
APRIL Americans Who Make Music
MAY Mary McCarthy
JUNE Ken Kesey
JULY Native American Authors and Themes
AUGUST Connie Willis
SEPTEMBER Howard Norman
OCTOBER Attica Locke
NOVEMBER Albert Murray
DECEMBER Young Adult
WILD CARD---You name it, you read it.

2020

AAC 2020 Wild Card--Sci-Fi/Fantasy
January: Charles Frazier
February: Grace Paley
March: David McCullough
April: Francine Prose
May: E. Lynn Harris
June: Jean Stafford
July: Wendell Berry
August: Robert Penn Warren
September: Dawn Powell
October: Ward Just
November: Ann Lane Petry
December: Tony Hillerman

2019

January: Chaim Potok
February: Louisa May Alcott
March: Joe Clinch
April: Jesmyn Ward
May: Jay Parini
June: Pearl Buck
July: Founding Fathers and Mothers
August: Ernest J Gaines
September: Leslie Marmon Silko
October: Drama
November: W. E. B. Du Bois
Wild Card - Genre Fiction

2018 (hosted by Mark)
January: Joan Didion
February: Colson Whitehead
March: Tobias Wolff
April: Alice Walker
May: Peter Hamill
June: Walter Mosley
July: Amy Tan
August: Louis L'Amour
September: Pat Conroy
October: Stephen King
November: Narrative Nonfiction
December: F. Scott Fitzgerald

2017 (hosted by Mark)
Octavia Butler
Stewart O'Nan
William Styron
Poetry
Zora Neale Hurston
Sherman Alexie
James McBride
Patricia Highsmith
The Short Story
Ann Patchett
Russell Banks

2016 (hosted by Mark)
Anne Tyler
Richard Russo
Jane Smiley
Poetry
Ivan Doig
Annie Proulx
John Steinbeck
Joyce Carol Oates
John Irving
Michael Chabon
Annie Dillard
Don Delillo

2015 (hosted by Mark)
Carson McCullers
Henry James
Richard Ford
Louise Erdrich
Sinclair Lewis
Wallace Stegner
Kent Haruf
Ursula K. Le Guin
Larry McMurtry
Flannery O'Connor
Ray Bradbury
Barbara Kingsolver
E. L. Doctorow

2014 (hosted by Mark)
Willa Cather
William Faulkner
Cormac McCarthy
Toni Morrison
Eudora Welty
Kurt Vonnegut
Mark Twain
Philip Roth
James Baldwin
Edith Wharton
John Updike
Larry Watson

>1 laytonwoman3rd: Hi - Thank you for all this effort!

I'm currently immersed in the Science of Steamboat Piloting with Life on the Mississippi.

>3 m.belljackson: Always a bit ahead of the rest of us, Marrianne!

Here's the Twain thread.

>4 laytonwoman3rd: Hi - forgot to wait for the special Thread - couldn't wait to share this one!

And, if I didn't start early, I'd never get done before 2025!

>5 m.belljackson: No problem at all....I hope your enthusiasm is catching!

Pulitzer Prize winning author M. Scott Momaday has died.

>7 laytonwoman3rd: I just read his Pulitzer winning novel recently.

Jennifer Finney Boylan, who was featured in the 2022 AAC, is the new President of Pen America, and I thought I'd share this message here. If anyone is so inclined, support for the fight against book banning and other forms of censorship can be made through their website. https://pen.org/fall23-fight-back-against-book-bans/

This is a bit early, but our March author is Truman Capote, and there is a new mini series on FX, streaming on Hulu, Capote vs. The Swans. I have no idea whether it's any good, as I don't have either service. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YljcR-8YE7Q

Is anyone doing any Black History Month reading? As far as I can tell, there isn't a thread in the group for that, so please feel free to share here.

For ongoing and Black History Month reading, a new Early Reviewers book, THE MUSIC -

New and Selected Poems 1973-2023 by Everett Hoagland - was perfect for both poetry and history.

(For those who steer away from Poetry, good to keep in mind that nearly all songs are poems, just ask Bob.)

THE MUSIC inspired me to revisit Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in My Soul Has Grown Deep, a collection of African American Classics.

>12 laytonwoman3rd: I read Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall and illustrated by Hugo Martinez. It's graphic nonfiction about Hall's dissertation research on women-led slave revolts. It's an interesting premise for graphic nonfiction, and I think they made it work. I read it for a book club and we'll be discussing it next week. Should be an interesting discussion!

From Everett Hoagland -

Liberated, up-
beat poetry. Be it
a penned declaration
of improvised oration as
an affirmation of its own, like
writing family, righting wrongs

>12 laytonwoman3rd: I have started King: A Life by Jonathan Eig although I doubt I will finish it this month. I also have my regular Black Studies reading that I do every month. For February I have already read Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall (see Carrie's mention at post 14) and have Freedom’s Daughters by Lynne Olson on tap yet to read.

I'm going to try to get in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man by Henry Louise Gates, Jr.

>17 laytonwoman3rd: I will be curious to see what you think of that one, Linda.

Here is April's thread:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/359657

Happy Spring reading.

The May thread is up! We're reading William Maxwell...you won't want to miss him.

Nearly June, and our guest host for Pride Month in the American Authors Challenge, @lycomayflower, is on the ball. Here you will find the thread for Queer Authors.

I'm not sure if there's a thread for the Wildcard, but this month I re-read Washington Square by Henry James (1881). In general I'm not a James fan, but this slim novel from his early years has some very clean writing and excellent descriptions of 1840s New York society. I didn't really like any of the characters, and yet I kept reading for the insights into their personalities. In fact it was an interesting exercise to determine who I thought was the worst human being of the bunch; not sure if James and I would agree.

>23 kac522: You know, I don't think I did make a Wild Card Thread this time. I'll take care of that today. Anybody else reading anything from the 2015 Challenge?

ETA:
Wild Card Thread for 2024

Two authors new to me have come to my attention this week--James Galvin (primarily a poet, but with a memoir and a novel to his credit as well), and Gretel Ehrlich (similarly varied output). Both write about the open spaces of the American West--Colorado/Wyoming, and might bear consideration for a regional authors month next year. Has anyone read either of them?

>25 laytonwoman3rd: Ehrlich has been on my TBR for yonks. Keep meaning to get to her.

>26 lycomayflower: Aha! Whatcha got?

>27 laytonwoman3rd: I'm not sure whether I actually own any...

It'll be July any minute! Here is the thread for Mona Susan Power.

FREE SHIPPING at www.Bookshop.org right now. In case anyone is buying books around here. *ahem* Support your favorite independent bookstore, even if it's on the other side of the country.

The August thread is up. This month we're reading Jeffrey Lent.

Wasn't August going to be James Baldwin? Or am I hallucinating? I could have sworn there was a thread for that....

>32 jessibud2: Different challenge Shelley

https://www.librarything.com/topic/362111#n8586334

>32 jessibud2:, >33 Caroline_McElwee: Yes, all welcome to join the Monthly Authors Group to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of James Baldwin in August.

The September American Authors Challenge thread is up. We'll be reading living authors who are American by choice. Check it out here.

The October thread for Katherine Anne Porter is now up.

Kristel is our host for the November challenge, which is to read Jewish American Authors. She has put the thread up here!

James has won the National Book Award.

>38 laytonwoman3rd: Definitely on next year's reading list.

I feel the guest host format has worked really well for this challenge this year, and I'm asking for volunteers to do it again in 2025. I'd like at least 4 helpers, and more would be welcome. Subject/author/month -- your choice. I would prefer to scatter them throughout the year, if possible, though. I'll fill in the rest of the slots from previous suggestions or my own arbitrary picks! I'll be thinking on this over the next couple weeks...please join me and share your thoughts. Thank you.

Can a guest host choose an author that's already appeared in an AAC? I really want more people to experience the greatness that is Stewart O'Nan, so I'd host a month dedicated to him if that was acceptable... 😁

>41 katiekrug: I think at this point it is perfectly OK to repeat O'Nan, who was featured in 2017. That's long enough, and he's published a couple things since then.

Cool! Sign me up. Whatever month works best - I'm flexible.

>43 katiekrug: Thank you---you's a gem!

*bump*

>40 laytonwoman3rd: Thinking...

I can do a romance month.

>46 Caroline_McElwee: Will this help?

>47 lycomayflower: YAY!

Going to the Heartland for December. Please join us.

I've put up a new thread for planning our 2025 Challenge. I think I have 4 months settled, so I need lots more suggestions!