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14th National Black Writers Conference: Colson Whitehead, Kwame Dawes Among 2018 Honorees

From school-age children to elder writers to Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times best-selling authors, the National Black Writers Conference is an intergenerational gathering of Black readers and writers.

From school-age children to elder writers to Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times best-selling authors, the National Black Writers Conference is an intergenerational gathering of Black readers and writers.

National Black Writers Conference, BK Reader, Medgar Evers College, Colson Whitehead, Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, Kwame Dawes, David Levering Lewis, Susan L. Taylor, Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due, Sonia Sanchez, Reel Sisters,

The Center for Black Literature returns with the 14th National Black Writers Conference (NBWC)  from Thursday, March 22 - Sunday, March 25, 2018, at Medgar Evers College in Crown Heights. The conference's annual awards ceremony and fundraiser reception will take place on Saturday, March 24. This year's honorees include Colson Whitehead, Kwame Dawes, David Levering Lewis, Susan L. Taylor, Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due and Eugene B. Redmond. Dr. Myrlie Evers-Williams will serve as this year's honorary chair.

The four-day event is a highly anticipated gathering of the some of the most celebrated writers of the African Diaspora. Every year it attracts locally and nationally celebrated writers, scholars, literary professionals and students to examine the state of literature produced by Black writers, to listen to writers read from their work, to attend a variety of workshops and screenings.

The conference will begin with a free community day on Thursday, March 22, dedicated to young scholars and elderly writers with a host of workshops and presentations. The day will conclude with a screening of Lorraine Hansberry's Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart followed by a talkback; the screening is presented by African Voices/ Reel Sisters.

A conference highlight will be the screening of BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez and talkback with the film's director Sabrina Schmidt Gordon on Friday, March 23.

The theme of this year's conference is Gathering at the Waters: Healing, Legacy and Activism in Black Literature, which centers on the ways in that Black writers use their writing to explore and convey messages that heal and restore our individual selves and collective community, will be in the focus on Saturday, March 24.  Reel Sisters will present a screening of  Living in a State of Grace: The Art of Healing, followed by conversations and readings with authors Gregory Pardlo, Rosamond S. King and Desiree Cooper.

The conference will conclude on Sunday with panels and conversations on Literary Activism in the Post-Obama Era and The State of Publishing for Black Writers.

For more information about the 14th National Black Writers Conference and a full list of events, go here.




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