NCF Tuesday: Promoting Literacy; Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Award; Natalie Portman Raps
News Innovations in Reading Prize, 2011, Goes To… My Own Book : Burt Freeman worked to create opportunity to increase literacy among New York City students. “The concept behind My Own Book is amazing in its simplicity: Third-grade children from inner-city schools go on a class trip to a bookstore where My Own Book volunteers help the children purchase $50 worth of books to help start and build their own personal libraries.” Kore Press : Currently, these literary activists are creating social change through three different projects that stray away from book form. They will use “t-shirts, video PSAs, readings, podcasts, poems wrapped around tampons and loaded into a repurposed tampon machine that travels to public restrooms, a 40-foot banner, a blog, a newspaper ad, posters in elevators, coffee cup sleeves and repurposed political yard signs.” Electric Literature: The quarterly journal reaches their audience through Twitter, YouTube videos, iPhone and iPad apps. They even crea...