 Bookmark Nominated for Emmy Award  Bookmark, after more than 200 intimate, literary conversations spanning almost two decades has been nominated for one of television's highest honors: an Emmy Award. As one of four programs nominated in the Southeast chapter, Bookmark joins the best of the best in a highly competitive field known for an abundance of sports and cultural programs. Host Dr. Don Noble calls the news a perfect way to kick off next year's anniversary celebration. Noble, a 35 year veteran professor of southern literature and journalism was drafted to his position by Center for Public Television and Radio producer Brent Davis almost twenty years ago. It was 1988. Larry King Live was taking baby steps. Booknotes was merely a glimmer in Brian Lamb's eye. And Bookmark was born. Since then Larry King Live has become a marathon, Booknotes produced its own offspring, and Noble retired from the English Department at the University of Alabama. But aside from the name change-originally it was dubbed Alabama Bound-Bookmark has stayed the course. To think that a show hinging on bookish conversations with the same old man doing the same old talking could survive nearly twenty years and still be thriving seems crazy, says Noble, adding, "It's not unlike marriage." Noble, who won an Emmy in 1996 for co-writing the documentary I'm in the Truth Business with Davis, has interviewed a variety of authors from the unknown to the infamous. The 2006 season included four Pulitzer Prize winners (one a two-term U. S. Poet Laureate) and several best-selling authors (one whose move from writing about vampires to Jesus shocked her legions of fans). From the 13 episodes that appeared in 2006, four authors' excerpts comprised the compilation: Juan Williams discussed the writing of Eyes on the Prize, journalism's state of tameness, Fox News, and his Quaker heritage; Taylor Branch's topics included Maya Angelou, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., some surprise effects of the Civil Rights Movement, and the influence of television; Anne Rice, tells what it's like to go from writing about vampires to Jesus and to become an icon for gay America; and Rita Dove shares stories about the White House, promoting poetry for a television culture, and the visceral pleasure she experiences while reading. As the "face" of Bookmark, Noble's contribution to the show's success is widely known. But without the invisible team behind the camera and in the edit bay, the show would not exist. Members currently include videographers Wade Woodall and Preston Sullivan, editors Rob Briscoe, Nick Rymer and Johnathan Morris. Crucial administrative personnel are Eva Lynch, Tamika Hewitt, Tammy Holloway, and Sara Zach. Ron Hamner and Dave Baughn provide engineering support. Wendy Reed produces and directs with director of television programming Dwight Cammeron and CPT&R director Elizabeth Brock. The winners will be announced on June 23rd at the 33rd Annual Emmy Awards Presentation in Atlanta. Press Releases || The University of Alabama Center for Public Television |