Celebrating the Power of the Written Word to Create Change
18sept
6:30PM
Book Chat: “Invisible Child: Poverty Survival and Hope in an American City”
Join us on September 18th for a discussion and audience Q&A with Andrea Elliott, winner of the 2022 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice for Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City. The event will begin at 6:30 PM at Fordham University in the Lowenstein 12th floor lounge (113 West 60th Street).
Ms. Elliot will be joined by Lydia Polgreen as the discussion’s moderator.
Andrea Elliott is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who has documented the lives of poor Americans, Muslim immigrants and other people on the margins of power. She is an investigative reporter for The New York Times and the author of Invisible Child, which won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. She is also the recipient of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, a George Polk award, an Overseas Press Club award and was awarded a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.
Lydia Polgreen became an Opinion columnist for The New York Times in 2022. She is also a host on the weekly Opinion podcast, “Matter of Opinion.” Ms. Polgreen was a 2006 recipient of the George Polk Award for foreign reporting, in recognition of her travels deep into the war-torn western regions of Sudan to report on the carnage in Darfur. She received the 2008 Livingston Award for international reporting for her series “The Spoils,” an account of how the scramble for Africa’s mineral wealth has brought misery and exploitation. In 2011 she was awarded the Columbia University Medal for Excellence.
On May 6, 2023, Goddard Riverside invited the community to join us for an in-person discussion about Sanctuary: Kip Tiernan and Rosie’s Place, the Nation’s First Shelter for Women with the author by Christine McDonnell, winner of our 2022 Goddard Riverside CBC Youth Book Prize for Social Justice. The event took place at our Children’s Book Giveaway at our Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center.
Join us for an in-person discussion about Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City with the author Andrea Elliott, winner of our 2022 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice.
The Book Prizes celebrates the power of the written word to create change in the name of justice for all people—a value shared by the publishing community and Goddard Riverside. Learn more.
About the Books
Sanctuary: Kip Tiernan and Rosie’s Place, the Nation’s First Shelter for Women by Christine McDonnell and Illustrator by Victoria Tentler-Krylov
Winner of the 2022 Goddard Riverside CBC Youth Book Prize for Social Justice
Before Kip Tiernan came along, the US had no shelters for women. Here is the inspirational story of a singular woman and what her vision and compassion have brought to life.
“Justice is not three hots and a cot. Justice is having your own key.”–Kip Tiernan
When Kip Tiernan was growing up during the Great Depression, she’d help her granny feed the men who came to their door asking for help. As Kip grew older, and as she continued to serve food to hungry people, she noticed something peculiar: huddled at the back of serving lines were women dressed as men. At the time, it was believed that there were no women experiencing homelessness. And yet Kip would see women sleeping on park benches and searching for food in trash cans. Kip decided to open the first shelter for women–a shelter with no questions asked, no required chores, just good meals, and warm beds. With persistence, Kip took on the city of Boston in her quest to open Rosie’s Place, our nation’s first shelter for women.
Purchase a copy of Sanctuary: Kip Tiernan and Rosie’s Place, the Nation’s First Shelter for Women
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City
Winner of the 2022 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice
By turns heartbreaking and revelatory, provocative and inspiring, Invisible Child —Pulitzer Prize winner—tells an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family, and the cost of inequality.
In Invisible Child, Pulitzer Prize winner Andrea Elliott follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani, a girl whose imagination is as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn shelter. In this sweeping narrative, Elliott weaves the story of Dasani’s childhood with the history of her ancestors, tracing their passage from slavery to the Great Migration north. As Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis has exploded, deepening the chasm between rich and poor. She must guide her siblings through a world riddled by hunger, violence, racism, drug addiction, and the threat of foster care. Out on the street, Dasani becomes a fierce fighter “to protect those who I love.” When she finally escapes city life to enroll in a boarding school, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning your family, and yourself?
A work of luminous and riveting prose, Elliott’s Invisible Child reads like a page-turning novel. It is an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family, and the cost of inequality—told through the crucible of one remarkable girl.
Purchase a copy of Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City.