American Writers Festival 2024 Reading List

Against Labor: How U.S. Employers Organized to Defeat Union Activism edited by Rosemary Feurer and Chad Pearson
Highlights the tenacious efforts by employers to organize themselves as a class to contest labor.

Writing Labor History
Featured writer: Steve Watkins; Moderator: Rosemary Feurer
4:15 p.m.
History & Bio Stage — South Hall

The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko by Derek Tyler Attico
The fascinating life of Starfleet’s celebrated captain, and Bajor’s Emissary of the Prophets, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Level Up: Writing & Gaming
Featured writers: Keith Ammann, Derek Tyler Attico, Keisha Howard, and Samantha Ortiz; Moderator: Carly A. Kocurek
1:00 p.m.
Main Stage — Pritzker Auditorium

Black Scare / Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States by Charisse Burden-Stelly
A radical explication of the ways anti-Black racial oppression has infused the US government’s anti-communist repression.

Writing the Dark Testament: Black History
Featured writers: Charisse Burden-Stelly and Andrew W. Kahrl; Moderator: Arionne Nettles
1:30 p.m.
History & Bio Stage — South Hall

The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America by Andrew W. Kahrl
Revealing a history that is deep, broad, and infuriating, The Black Tax casts a bold light on the racist practices long hidden in the shadows of America’s tax regimes.

Writing the Dark Testament: Black History
Featured writers: Charisse Burden-Stelly and Andrew W. Kahrl; Moderator: Arionne Nettles
1:30 p.m.
History & Bio Stage — South Hall

Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration by Harold Holzer
From acclaimed Abraham Lincoln historian Harold Holzer, a groundbreaking account of Lincoln’s grappling with the politics of immigration against the backdrop of the Civil War.

Writing About Writers
Featured writers: Mary V. Dearborn on Carson McCullers, George Getschow on Larry McMurtry, Harold Holzer on Abraham Lincoln, and Monika Zgustova on Mrs. Nabokov; Moderator: Peter Coviello
12:30 p.m.
History & Bio Stage — South Hall

Carson McCullers: A Life by Mary V. Dearborn
The first major biography in more than twenty years of one of America’s greatest writers, based on newly available letters and journals.

Writing About Writers
Featured writers: Mary V. Dearborn on Carson McCullers, George Getschow on Larry McMurtry, Harold Holzer on Abraham Lincoln, and Monika Zgustova on Mrs. Nabokov; Moderator: Peter Coviello
12:30 p.m.
History & Bio Stage — South Hall

The City Is Up for Grabs: How Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Led and Lost a City in Crisis by Gregory Royal Pratt
The first comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at the tumultuous single term of Mayor Lightfoot and the chaos that roiled the city and City Hall.

Writing the Story of Jazz
Featured writer: Larry Tye; Moderator: Gregory Royal Pratt. Accompanied by live jazz from the Richard D. Johnson Trio.
3:00 p.m.
Main Stage — Pritzker Auditorium

Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade by Carly A. Kocurek
Examines how and why video gaming culture became the domain of young men and boys.

Level Up: Writing & Gaming
Featured writers: Keith Ammann, Derek Tyler Attico, Keisha Howard, and Samantha Ortiz; Moderator: Carly A. Kocurek
1:00 p.m.
Main Stage — Pritzker Auditorium

College Girl, Missing: The True Story of How a Young Woman Disappeared in Plain Sight by Shawn Cohen
She visited friends. She walked to a bar. She was right there…until she was gone. Investigative journalist Shawn Cohen breaks more than a decade of silence as he pursues the truth: what really happened to Lauren Spierer?

Writing True Crime
Featured writers: Shawn Cohen and Philip Eil; Moderator: Evan F. Moore
4:15 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

A Crown of Ivy and Glass by Claire Legrand
A lush, sweeping, steamy, forbidden romance series starter that’s perfect for fans of Bridgerton and A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Writing Love Stories
Featured writers: Xio Axelrod, Swan Huntley, and Claire Legrand; Moderator: Pamala Knight
12:30 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

Dancing in Thatha’s Footsteps by Srividhya Venkat, illustrated by Kavita Ramchandran
A heartwarming picture book about a multigenerational Indian-American family discovering a shared love for bharatanatyam, an ancient classical dance that continues to fascinate dancers worldwide.

Storytime: Dancing in Thatha’s Footseps
Featured writer: Srividhya Venkat
1:15 p.m.
Children’s Library

Eggasaurus by Jennifer Wagh, illustrated by Hallie Bateman
In this funny and winsome epistolary picture book, a young boy who orders a dinosaur egg ends up with more than he—or his dad—bargained for!

Music & Movement Storytime
Featured writer: Jennifer Wagh
12:30 p.m.
Children’s Library

Extended Stay by Juan Martinez
Haunting and visceral, Extended Stay uses the language of body horror and the gothic to comment on the complicated relationship between the Latinx undocumented experience and capitalism.

Writing Latino History
Featured writer: Marie Arana; Moderator: Juan Martinez
2:30 p.m.
History & Bio Stage — South Hall

Fighting the Night: Iwo Jima, World War II, and a Flyer’s Life by Paul Hendrickson
From the acclaimed author of Hemingway’s Boat, the profoundly moving story of his father’s wartime service as a night fighter pilot, and the prices he and his fellow soldiers paid for their acts of selfless, patriotic sacrifice.

Writing Family History
Featured writer: Paul Hendrickson; Moderator: Elizabeth Taylor
3:30 p.m.
History & Bio Stage — South Hall

Girls with Bad Reputations by Xio Axelrod
All her life, Kayla heard the same refrain: Don’t be so loud. Don’t act so wild. Don’t take up so much space. Now she’s the beating heart of an up-and-coming rock band…and the whole world is going to know her name.

Writing Love Stories
Featured writers: Xio Axelrod, Swan Huntley, and Claire Legrand; Moderator: Pamala Knight
12:30 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

The House of Plain Truth by Donna Hemans
A lyrical, lush, evocative story about a fractured Jamaican family and a daughter determined to reclaim her home.

New Fiction
Featured writers: Donna Hemans, Jessica Shattuck, and Yukiko Tominaga; Moderator: Michael Zapata
2:45 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

How to Defend Your Lair by Keith Ammann
Defend yourself and protect your assets in a lair that feels as real and alive as your monsters with advice from Keith Ammann, author of The Monsters Know What They’re Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters.

Level Up: Writing & Gaming
Featured writers: Keith Ammann, Derek Tyler Attico, Keisha Howard, and Samantha Ortiz; Moderator: Carly A. Kocurek
1:00 p.m.
Main Stage — Pritzker Auditorium

Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists by Donna Seaman
An award-winning writer rescues seven first-rate 20th-century women artists from oblivion—their lives fascinating, their artwork a revelation.

Freedom to Read
Featured writers: Heather Booth, Anna Claussen, Sara Paretsky, and Donna Seaman. Presented by the American Library Association.
1:30 p.m.
Partner Stage — Third Floor
Writing Memoir
Featured writers: Nicole Chung and Lydia Millet; Moderator: Donna Seaman
3:30 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

Indigenous Archival Activism: Mohican Interventions in Public History and Memory by Rose Miron
Tracing one tribe’s fifty-year fight to recover and rewrite its history, Indigenous Archival Activism takes readers into the heart of debates over who owns and has the right to tell Native American history and stories.

Indigenous History & Memory
Featured writer: Rose Miron; Moderator: Jean O’Brien. Presented by the Newberry Library.
1:30 p.m.
Partner Stage — Third Floor

Is There God After Prince? Dispatches from an Age of Last Things by Peter Coviello
Essays considering what it means to love art, culture, and people in an age of accelerating disaster.

Writing About Writers
Featured writers: Mary V. Dearborn on Carson McCullers, George Getschow on Larry McMurtry, Harold Holzer on Abraham Lincoln, and Monika Zgustova on Mrs. Nabokov; Moderator: Peter Coviello
12:30 p.m.
History & Bio Stage — South Hall

I Want You More by Swan Huntley
A ghostwriting gig in the Hamptons becomes far more than a job in this sexy, atmospheric, and deliciously tense story.

Writing Love Stories
Featured writers: Xio Axelrod, Swan Huntley, and Claire Legrand; Moderator: Pamala Knight
12:30 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America by Larry Tye
A sweeping and spellbinding portrait of the longtime kings of jazz who, born within a few years of one another, overcame racist exclusion and violence to become the most popular entertainers on the planet.

Writing the Story of Jazz
Featured writer: Larry Tye; Moderator: Gregory Royal Pratt. Accompanied by live jazz from the Richard D. Johnson Trio.
3:00 p.m.
Main Stage — Pritzker Auditorium

Last House by Jessica Shattuck
From the bestselling author of The Women in the Castle comes a sweeping story of a nation on the rise, and one family’s deeply complicated relationship to the resource that built their fortune and fueled their greatest tragedy.

New Fiction
Featured writers: Donna Hemans, Jessica Shattuck, and Yukiko Tominaga; Moderator: Michael Zapata
2:45 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen by Sarah James
This vibrant, utterly delightful mystery expertly captures the drama, glamour and absurdity of wartime Hollywood. Sarah James’s swift dialogue, dry wit and clever characters transport you into a 1940s movie, where the jokes are quick, the love affairs scandalous and the cast as charming as they are flawed.

Making Up True Stories: Novels and Books About Real People
Featured writers: Amanda Flower, Sarah James, Brianna Labuskes, and Brianna Madia; Moderator: Dipika Mukherjee
1:15 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

Last On His Feet: Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century by Adrian Matejka, art by Youssef Daoudi
A groundbreaking graphic portrait of boxing legend Jack Johnson, Last On His Feet offers a front-row seat to the Battle of the Century.

Melvin Dixon & Black Queer Poetry
Featured writers: CM Burroughs and Adrian Matejka. Presented by the Poetry Foundation.
2:15 p.m.
Partner Stage — Third Floor

LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority by Marie Arana
A sweeping yet personal overview of the Latino population of America, drawn from hundreds of interviews and prodigious research that emphasizes the diversity and little-known history of our largest and fastest-growing minority.

Writing Latino History
Featured writer: Marie Arana; Moderator: Juan Martinez
2:30 p.m.
History & Bio Stage — South Hall

A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung
A searing memoir of family, class and grief—a daughter’s search to understand the lives her adoptive parents led, the life she forged as an adult, and the lives she’s lost.

Writing Memoir
Featured writers: Nicole Chung and Lydia Millet; Moderator: Donna Seaman
3:30 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

Loch Ness Uncovered: Media, Misinformation, and the Greatest Monster Hoax of All Time by Rebecca Siegel
An extensively researched, myth-busting account of the world’s most famous monster hoax—the Loch Ness Monster—and a cautionary tale on the dangers of misinformation.

Fake News & Media Literacy for Young Learners
Featured writer: Rebecca Siegel
3:30 p.m.
Children’s Library

The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata
The mesmerizing story of a Latin American science fiction writer and the lives her lost manuscript unites decades later in post-Katrina New Orleans.

New Fiction
Featured writers: Donna Hemans, Jessica Shattuck, and Yukiko Tominaga; Moderator: Michael Zapata
2:45 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

The Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes
For fans of The Rose Code and The Librarian Spy comes another literary themed historical novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books.

Making Up True Stories: Novels and Books About Real People
Featured writers: Amanda Flower, Sarah James, Brianna Labuskes, and Brianna Madia; Moderator: Dipika Mukherjee
1:15 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

Master Suffering by CM Burroughs
The bodies of this book are supplicant yet seething—they want nothing more than to survive. But how does a woman survive? The female bodies of Master Suffering want power; they want to control and to correct the suffering they witness and withstand.

Melvin Dixon & Black Queer Poetry
Featured writers: CM Burroughs and Adrian Matejka. Presented by the Poetry Foundation.
2:15 p.m.
Partner Stage — Third Floor

The Mine Wars: The Bloody Fight for Workers’ Rights in the West Virginia Coalfields by Steve Watkins
In this gripping narrative nonfiction book, meet the resolute and spirited people who fought for the rights of coal miners, and discover how the West Virginia Mine Wars paved the way for vital worker protections nationwide.

Writing Labor History
Featured writer: Steve Watkins; Moderator: Rosemary Feurer
4:15 p.m.
History & Bio Stage — South Hall

Monumental Mobility: The Memory Work of Massasoit by Lisa Blee and Jean O’Brien
In this thought-provoking book, the surprising story of this monumental statue reveals much about the process of creating, commodifying, and reinforcing the historical memory of Indigenous people.

Indigenous History & Memory
Featured writer: Rose Miron; Moderator: Jean O’Brien. Presented by the Newberry Library.
1:30 p.m.
Partner Stage — Third Floor

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker, illustrated by Wendy Xu
Pursued by dark forces eager to claim the magic of wolves and out of options, Tam turns to Nova for help. Their latent feelings are rekindled against the backdrop of witchcraft, untested magic, occult rituals, and family ties both new and old in this enchanting tale of self-discovery.

Writing Other Worlds
Featured writers: Darcie Little Badger and Suzanne Walker; Moderator: Michi Trota
2:00 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

Never Leave the Dogs Behind by Brianna Madia
A deeply honest, moving account of a woman walking the line between independence and isolation when she moves to the Southwest desert with nothing and no one but her four dogs.

Making Up True Stories: Novels and Books About Real People
Featured writers: Amanda Flower, Sarah James, Brianna Labuskes, and Brianna Madia; Moderator: Dipika Mukherjee
1:15 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

Pastures of the Empty Page: Fellow Writers on the Life and Legacy of Larry McMurtry edited by George Getschow
A collection of essays that offers an intimate view of Larry McMurtry, America’s preeminent western novelist, through the eyes of a pantheon of writers he helped shape through his work over the course of his unparalleled literary life.

Writing About Writers
Featured writers: Mary V. Dearborn on Carson McCullers, George Getschow on Larry McMurtry, Harold Holzer on Abraham Lincoln, and Monika Zgustova on Mrs. Nabokov; Moderator: Peter Coviello
12:30 p.m.
History & Bio Stage — South Hall

Pay Dirt by Sara Paretsky
Legendary detective V.I. Warshawski uncovers a mystery with roots dating back to the Civil War in this edge-of-your-seat thriller.

Freedom to Read
Featured writers: Heather Booth, Anna Claussen, Sara Paretsky, and Donna Seaman. Presented by the American Library Association.
1:30 p.m.
Partner Stage — Third Floor

Prescription for Pain: How a Once-Promising Doctor Became the “Pill Mill Killer” by Philip Eil
An obsessive true crime investigation of a bizarre and unlikely perpetrator, who’s serving the opioid epidemic’s longest term for illegal prescriptions—four life sentences.

Writing True Crime
Featured writers: Shawn Cohen and Philip Eil; Moderator: Evan F. Moore
4:15 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs by Jamie Loftus
Part travelogue, part culinary history, all capitalist critique—comedian Jamie Loftus’s debut, Raw Dog, will take you on a cross-country road trip in the summer of 2021, and reveal what the creation, culture, and class influence of hot dogs says about America now.

Writing Chicago Food & Comedy
Featured writers: Jamie Loftus and Chelsea Hood; Moderator: David Hammond
12:00 p.m.
Main Stage — Pritzker Auditorium

A Revolver to Carry at Night by Monika Zgustova
A captivating, nuanced portrait of the life of Véra Nabokov, who dedicated herself to advancing her husband’s writing career, playing a vital role in the creation of his greatest works.

Writing About Writers
Featured writers: Mary V. Dearborn on Carson McCullers, George Getschow on Larry McMurtry, Harold Holzer on Abraham Lincoln, and Monika Zgustova on Mrs. Nabokov; Moderator: Peter Coviello
12:30 p.m.
History & Bio Stage — South Hall

Root Fractures by Diana Khoi Nguyen
National Book Award finalist Diana Khoi Nguyen’s second poetry collection, a haunting of a family’s past upon its present, and a frank reckoning with how loss and displacement transform mothers and daughters across generations.

Forms & Fissures
Featured writers: Diana Khoi Nguyen and Cindy Juyoung Ok. Presented by the Poetry Foundation.
3:45 p.m.
Partner Stage — Third Floor

See: Loss. See Also: Love. by Yukiko Tominaga
A tender, slyly comical, and shamelessly honest debut novel following a Japanese widow raising her son between worlds with the help of her Jewish mother-in-law as she wrestles with grief, loss, and—strangest of all—joy.

New Fiction
Featured writers: Donna Hemans, Jessica Shattuck, and Yukiko Tominaga; Moderator: Michael Zapata
2:45 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

The Shattering: America in the 1960s by Kevin Boyle
From the National Book Award winner, a masterful history of the decade whose conflicts shattered America’s postwar order and divide us still.

Polarizing America: Chicago 1968
Featured writer: Heather Hendershot; Moderator: Kevin Boyle. Presented by the Newberry Library.
3:00 p.m.
Partner Stage — Third Floor

Sheine Lende: A Prequel to Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Darcie Little Badger’s Elatsoe launched her career and in the years since has become a beloved favorite. This prequel to Elatsoe, centered on Ellie’s grandmother, deepens and expands Darcie’s one-of-a-kind world and introduces us to another cast of characters that will wend their way around readers’ hearts.

Writing Other Worlds
Featured writers: Darcie Little Badger and Suzanne Walker; Moderator: Michi Trota
2:00 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

skin & bones by Renée Watson
A soulful and lyrical novel exploring sisterhood, motherhood, faith, love, and ultimately what gets passed down from one generation to the next. Through Watson’s poetic voice, skin & bones is a stirring exploration of who society makes space for and is ultimately a story of heartbreak and healing.

Writing Literary Fiction
Featured writer: Renée Watson; Moderator: Jabari Asim
4:00 p.m.
Main Stage — Pritzker Auditorium

The Steal: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It by Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague
In The Steal, veteran journalists Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague offer a week-by-week, state-by-state account of the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Writing Politics Today
Featured writers: Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague; Moderator: Natalie Y. Moore
2:00 p.m.
Main Stage — Pritzker Auditorium

Stella and the Mystery of the Missing Tooth by Clothilde Ewing, illustrated by Lynn Gaines
In this effervescent companion to the picture book Stella Keeps the Sun Up, Stella goes on the hunt to figure out who’s behind her friend’s missing tooth.

The Next Phase of Representation in Children’s Lit
Featured writers: Clothilde Ewing and Malcolm Newsome
2:00 p.m.
Children’s Library

The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore
A lyrical, intelligent, authentic, and necessary look at the intersection of race and class in Chicago, a Great American City.

Writing Politics Today
Featured writers: Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague; Moderator: Natalie Y. Moore
2:00 p.m.
Main Stage — Pritzker Auditorium

Sydney’s Big Speech by Malcolm Newsome, art by Jade Orlando
A perfect picture book about perseverance, overcoming challenges, and working hard to achieve your goals!

The Next Phase of Representation in Children’s Lit
Featured writers: Clothilde Ewing and Malcolm Newsome
2:00 p.m.
Children’s Library

Thirsty by Jas Hammonds
A gripping read about a queer teen risking it all to pledge an underground sorority with her best friends the summer before college—perfect for fans of Euphoria and Girl in Pieces.

YA Lit Today
Featured writers: Samira Ahmed and Jas Hammonds
4:00 p.m.
Children’s Library

This Book Won’t Burn by Samira Ahmed
From the New York Times bestselling author of Internment comes a timely and gripping social-suspense novel about book banning, activism, and standing up for what you believe.

YA Lit Today
Featured writers: Samira Ahmed and Jas Hammonds
4:00 p.m.
Children’s Library

A Thousand NO’s by DJ Corchin, illustrated by Dan Dougherty
This empowering picture book teaches readers that even great ideas sometimes get a NO―but that NO can actually help great ideas become the best ideas!

Interactive Storytime
Featured writer: DJ Corchin
2:45 p.m.
Children’s Library

To Slip the Bonds of Earth by Amanda Flower
While not as famous as her older siblings Wilbur and Orville, Katharine Wright is equally inventive—especially when it comes to solving crimes—in bestselling author Amanda Flower’s radiant new historical mystery series inspired by the real sister of the Wright Brothers.

Making Up True Stories: Novels and Books About Real People
Featured writers: Amanda Flower, Sarah James, Brianna Labuskes, and Brianna Madia; Moderator: Dipika Mukherjee
1:15 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

Trouble the Water by Melvin Dixon
Trouble the Water gains resonance from its unflinching confrontation with dualities common in the Afro-American experience: reality and myth, folklore and sophistication, North and South, rural and cosmopolitan.

Melvin Dixon & Black Queer Poetry
Featured writers: CM Burroughs and Adrian Matejka. Presented by the Poetry Foundation.
2:15 p.m.
Partner Stage — Third Floor

Ward Toward by Cindy Juyoung Ok
Ok moves assuredly between spaces—from the psych ward to a prison cell, from divided countries to hospice wards. She plumbs these institutions of constraint, ward to ward, and the role of each reality’s language, word to word, as she uncovers fractured private codes and shares them in argument, song, and prayer.

Forms & Fissures
Featured writers: Diana Khoi Nguyen and Cindy Juyoung Ok. Presented by the Poetry Foundation.
3:45 p.m.
Partner Stage — Third Floor

We Are the Culture: Black Chicago’s Influence on Everything by Arionne Nettles
Pop culture expert Arionne Nettles takes us through the history of how Black Chicagoans have led pop culture in America for decades, and gives insight into the ways culture spreads and influences our lives.

Writing the Dark Testament: Black History
Featured writers: Charisse Burden-Stelly and Andrew W. Kahrl; Moderator: Arionne Nettles
1:30 p.m.
History & Bio Stage — South Hall

We Loved It All: A Memory of Life by Lydia Millet
This lucent anti-memoir from celebrated novelist Lydia Millet explores the pain and joy of being a parent, child, and human at a moment when the richness of the planet’s life is deeply threatened.

Writing Memoir
Featured writers: Nicole Chung and Lydia Millet; Moderator: Donna Seaman
3:30 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

When the News Broke: Chicago 1968 and the Polarizing of America by Heather Hendershot
A riveting, blow-by-blow account of how the network broadcasts of the 1968 Democratic convention shattered faith in American media.

Polarizing America: Chicago 1968
Featured writer: Heather Hendershot; Moderator: Kevin Boyle. Presented by the Newberry Library.
3:00 p.m.
Partner Stage — Third Floor

Writer’s Postcards by Dipika Mukherjee
Part travelogue, part memoir, and part commentary, Writer’s Postcards is a collection of essays that examine imagination and culture through the lens of geography.

Making Up True Stories: Novels and Books About Real People
Featured writers: Amanda Flower, Sarah James, Brianna Labuskes, and Brianna Madia; Moderator: Dipika Mukherjee
1:15 p.m.
Fiction / Genre Stage — Reception Hall

Yonder by Jabari Asim
The Water Dancer meets The Prophets in this spare, gripping, and beautifully rendered novel exploring love and friendship among a group of enslaved Black strivers in the mid-19th century.

Writing Literary Fiction
Featured writer: Renée Watson; Moderator: Jabari Asim
4:00 p.m.
Main Stage — Pritzker Auditorium