American Literary Talents

Today’s session of GABFEST speaking club (at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) started with the introductions ritual that allows to find out a few things about the newcomers.

After that the club’s moderator Mrs.Tamara told the club members about her trip to Poland to share the best practices of library activities. Mrs. Tamara made a presentation about the Language Clubs operated at the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Library (DOUNB). The moderator introduced the projects of other librarians which might be implemented at the Gabfest Club. The “Speed Dating” projected received a lot of attention and we will start preparations for it soon.

The Club member Marina shared her impressions about a meeting with the USA Ambassador in Ukraine John Tefft which she attended in Dnipropetrovsk. The Club members asked Marina a lot of questions and decided that it was a sign for Marina to try and participate in one of exchange projects between USA and Ukraine. The Club members were quite interested in the information about the exhibition “Education USA” which was promoted by the visit of the USA official.

The official part of the session was dedicated to world famous American writers – O. Henry, Scott Fitzgerald and Steinbeck. We have read and translated an article about O. Henry and   some of his quotes. A lot of discussion was triggered by the video on his story “The Gift of Magi”.

The mini biography video about Scott Fitzgerald introduced his best-selling novels and the words coined after his fiction character - “a Gatsby” and “a Gatsby party”. The Literary Tourism video about a trip to Long Island was very educational and added some new knowledge to the audience. We even tried to decide on the local equivalent of Long Island.

The mini biography video about John Steinbeck introduced his legacy to the audience. Another “Literary Tourism” video introduced to us a Californian location depicted in one of his popular novels. The modern village kept only two things intact - the beautiful sunrise and the variety of lifestyles.

The information about the American writers was supported by a dozen of their books available at the library.

The number of participants – 25.