[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 122 (Tuesday, September 27, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1950]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       THE BURLINGTON LITERARY FESTIVAL HONORS KATHERINE PATERSON

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 27, 2005

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, Burlington, Vermont, as I know from my 
years as Mayor, is one of America's most livable cities. One of the 
primary reasons for its preeminence and livability is the vibrant arts 
scene in Vermont's largest city and in the surrounding region. Be it 
music, dance, theater or film, Burlington is and has been alive with 
creativity. The same is true for writing of all sorts, so we celebrate 
a notable moment when much of this writing was showcased at the first 
Burlington Literary Festival. I extend my congratulations on the 
inaugural Burlington Literary Festival, to its sponsors Burlington City 
Arts, Burlington Magazine and the Fletcher Free Library, to festival 
organizer Susan Weiss, and to the many, many writers who participated.
  In particular, I want to highlight that the Festival was dedicated to 
Katherine Paterson of Barre, Vermont. She is, with all due apologies to 
Grace Paley and the extraordinary writers who attended the conference, 
the most honored of all contemporary Vermont authors, with not one but 
two National Book Awards, not one but two Newberry Medals--and the Hans 
Christian Anderson Medal as well!
  When she writes for children, she takes their intellectual, ethical 
and political capacities with high seriousness. Social issues, 
international dimensions, and, if I am correct, a revisiting of the 
Bread and Roses strike in her next book: this is not escapist 
literature, but instead writing which draws its young readers into the 
world they live in, even as they encounter the remarkable characters 
and circumstances that enliven the domain of fiction.
  But Katherine Paterson knows that life asks more of us than writing, 
important as writing surely is. She established the ``Read to Live'' 
program to bring books, story-telling and other activities to 
Venezuelan communities which had been damaged and devastated by massive 
flooding. That program was so successful in giving children a sense of 
community and hope that it has been a model for programs in Indonesia 
for children left homeless by the tsunami, and is serving as a template 
for programs that will help the children or New Orleans and other 
cities destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
  We are proud to have Katherine Paterson living and working among us 
in Vermont, creating with the many other writers in attendance at the 
Burlington Literary Festival the imaginative fabric of American life. 
We wish her, and all, the very best as they continue to create in words 
both the America that is, and the America that can be.

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