Book Talk

Book Talk provides authors’ perspectives on libraries, books,technology, and information. If you have any suggestions of authorsyou would like to see featured in Book Talk, or if you are interested involunteering to be an author-interviewer, contact Kathleen Hughes,Editor of Public Libraries, at the Public Library Association, 50 E. HuronSt., Chicago, IL 60611; khughes@ala.org.

Call to Action

An Interview with Nicholas D. Kristof

New York Times journalist Nicholas D. Kristof has twice won the Pulitzer Prize: the first was shared with his wife Sheryl WuDunn for their coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement, and the second was awarded for his 2006 coverage of the genocide in Darfur. For the past twenty years, he has traveled the world, and has recently focused his attention on women’s issues in developing countries. Kristof is an advocate of new media, maintaining a blog  (http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com), a YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/NicholasKristof ), and Facebook and Twitter pages. Kristof and WuDunn are also authors of China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power and Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia. Their current book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, was published in September 2009 and has already appeared on the The New York Times Bestseller list. He spoke to Public Libraries via e-mail on September 20, 2009.

Public Libraries: How did you come to cover women’s issues in developing countries?

Nicholas D. Kristof: One epiphany came when I happened to report on sex trafficking in Asia. I was just blown away by what I found: thirteen-year-old girls systematically kidnapped in rural areas and sold into brothels wherethey were imprisoned, beaten, and never paid. It struck me that the main difference with nineteenth-century slavery was that these girls were all going to be dead of AIDS by their twenties. Then increasingly I came to see that so many of the most egregious human rights violations in the world involved the systematic abuse of women and girls. At roughly the same time, given my deep interest in global poverty, I came to see that the most effective ways to defeat poverty and extremism were to educate girls and bring women into the formal labor force.

PL: How has your approach and outlook on these issues changed during your tenure as a reporter?

NK: I’ve certainly come to appreciate over time that it’s harder to help people than it looks. Lots of aid projects fail, and going into a country witha megaphone to tell people what to do won’t work. But I think we’re also learning what kinds of aid do work. For example, among the most cost effectiveways of getting more kids in school is to deworm them—that makes them better nourished, less anemic, and less likely to miss school from sickness. Other great ways to help girls are to iodize salt, or to bribe parents to send them to school.

Who would have thought that? I’m a great believer in empiricism and practical experiments to see what works and what is cost-effective, and we’re making great strides in understanding how to make aid more effective—often through empowering women and girls.

PL: You write in Half the Sky about how readers are spurred to action by the story of one individual rather than a listing of statistics. Can you talk about the methods you use when writing a story? How do you decide what you want to write your column about and how do you arrive at the finished product? Out of all the people you meet and interview, how are you able to select just one?

NK: I’m very influenced by the work of Paul Slovic and other social psychologists, who have given us insights into what creates empathy. To oversimplify, it helps to tell stories about individuals and to focus on hopeful or inspiring narratives rather than depressing ones. I do indeed try to use these ideas in shaping my columns, and my wife and I also used them in selecting the stories for Half the Sky. We were quite proud that we managed to write a happy and inspiring book about sex trafficking and maternal mortality!

PL: You’ve hosted a very popular “Win a Trip with Nick Kristof” contest the past few years. How did that come about and what has your experience with it been?

NK: Originally, I conceived of the contest as a way to take a student with me on a reporting trip to Darfur. I figured the contest would create some nice buzz, and then the winner would write about what he saw and would create interest among young people. The New York Times lawyers weren’t impressed by the genius of the idea of taking a student into a war zone, however. So I reconceived it as a contest to take a student with me on a reporting trip to Africa, to look at issues around global poverty. It’s been a terrific experience, for me and the winner, and a nice way to focus a bit more attention on global issues.

PL: You’ve been at the forefront of new media, keeping both a blog anda YouTube channel. How did you decide to use these outlets? What areyou able to achieve reporting a story through these outlets rather than in your column? How have you found the dialogue between you and your readers and viewers?

NK: There’s always a perception that any New York Times columnist must be incredibly arrogant, and so the blog is a useful way of responding to readers and maybe chip away at that perception a little bit. The same goes for my Twitter and Facebook entries. Perhaps because my columns tend to be about very serious topics, readers tend to think I’m utterly humorless, and about 110 years old, and I think they’re often pleasantly surprised that my tone in Facebook and tweets is much more casual and funny.

PL: A major theme in Half the Sky is the need for education (particularly the education of girls) in developing countries. What can our readers intheir roles as librarians do to help? Also, what advice would you give toa reader of your book if he or she wants to do something more to tackle these issues?

NK: Our aim truly is not just to inform people, but also to galvanize them to action. In the back of the book, we have a list of organizations that are active in this space, and throughout the book we have examples of people who have gotten involved in various ways. There’s no one way to get active. For some, it’ll be writing checks, for others it’ll be going off for a couple of months to teach English to the brothel children at the New Light shelter in Calcutta. We’re hoping that book clubs will also morph into take-action clubs and work together on some of these issues. We’ve also formed a website (www.halftheskymovement.org) with resources to get people engaged.

PL: What is your plan for Half the Sky? Will it be a book you and Sheryl revisit and update? What is your hope for the book?

NK: The website is part of the ongoing effort, and there are also plans for a Half the Sky documentary, TV special, and an online social networkinggame. It feels as if there is an incipient movement building on this issue, and we hope the book can help us reach a tipping point.

PL: A documentary, The Reporter, was made about your 2007 trip tothe Congo. How did that come about and what was the experience like?

NK: A film company asked if it could accompany me on my 2007 win-atripjourney. I agreed, because I wanted more attention focused onthese issues. Frankly, it was a hassle at the time to have three extra people coming along, and there were times I was ready to hand them over to a warlord. But I’m so happy with the documentary they did, and I think it advances the goal of getting people to pay attention to the Congo.

PL: Finally, what roles have public libraries played in your life?

NK: As a child, especially, I lived in our local public libraries. I was a prodigiousreader and knew all the children’s librarians very well—and they helped run interference when as a fourth- and fifth-grader I began to rent adult books and the adult librarians were suspicious. A huge portionof my childhood was spent reading and rereading the Freddy the Pig series, to the point that in my next life I may come back as a hog.