february 2021
04feb6:00 pmNBF Presents: Black History Reexamined6:00 pm ET
Event Details
Tamara Payne. (Photo
Event Details


In two groundbreaking works, 2020 National Book Award–honored authors Tamara Payne (The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X, Winner, Nonfiction) and Isabel Wilkerson (Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, Longlist, Nonfiction) deconstruct and re-contextualize Black experiences in America—Payne through the lens of the famed civil rights leader Malcolm X, and Wilkerson through centuries of racialized hierarchies. Join Payne and Wilkerson for a conversation on research, race, and re-writing American history.
Moderated by Wesley Lowery, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and correspondent for CBS News.
Books are available for purchase at Bookshop.org with thanks to this season’s bookseller, Loyalty Bookstores.
Time
(Thursday) 6:00 pm ET
Location
Virtual
Organizer
National Book Foundation
10feb4:00 pm5:00 pm[email protected] with Christopher Paul Curtis4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET
Event Details
Join us for a [email protected] discussion with National Book Awards finalist for Young People’s Literature Christopher Paul Curtis about his book Bud, Not Buddy, the classic novel about a 10-year old boy on a journey
Event Details
Registration is required. Please register here.
Time
(Wednesday) 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET
Location
Virtual
Organizer
National Book Foundation
16feb8:00 pmNBF Presents: Secrets of the South8:00 pm ET
Event Details
Event Details



Join National Book Award–honored authors Jericho Brown (The Tradition, 2019 Poetry Finalist), Tayari Jones (An American Marriage, 2018 Fiction Longlist), and Deesha Philyaw (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, 2020 Fiction Finalist) for a conversation on Southern literature and how Black writers are redefining stereotypes of the South, one poem, story, and secret at a time.

Moderated by Kiese Laymon, author of, most recently, Heavy: An American Memoir.
Books are available for purchase at Bookshop.org with thanks to this season’s bookseller, Loyalty Bookstores.
Time
(Tuesday) 8:00 pm ET
Location
Virtual
Organizer
National Book Foundation
26feb7:00 pmNBF Presents: LitFest 20217:00 pm ET
Event Details
Megha Majumdar. (Photo
Event Details


2020 National Book Award–honored novelists Megha Majumdar (A Burning, Longlist, Fiction) and Charles Yu (Interior Chinatown, Winner, Fiction) visit Amherst College’s annual, and now virtual, LitFest.

Moderated by visiting writer Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint.
This program is supported by Amherst College and The Common magazine.
Time
(Friday) 7:00 pm ET
Location
Virtual
Organizer
Amherst College Amherst, MA
27feb11:00 amNBF Presents: LitFest 202111:00 am ET
Event Details
Tommye Blount.
Event Details


2020 National Book Award–honored poets Tommye Blount (Fantasia for the Man in Blue, Finalist, Poetry) and Natalie Diaz (Postcolonial Love Poem, Finalist, Poetry) join John Hennessy, poetry editor for The Common and judge for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry, for Amherst College’s annual, and now virtual, LitFest.
Update: Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, Natalie Diaz is no longer able to participate in this event.
This program is supported by Amherst College and The Common magazine.
Time
(Saturday) 11:00 am ET
Location
Virtual
Organizer
Amherst College Amherst, MA
march 2021
06mar11:00 amNBF Presents: Page, Stage, and Screen11:00 am MST
Event Details
Jenn Shapland. (Photo
Event Details



2020 National Book Award–honored authors Lydia Millet (A Children’s Bible, Finalist, Fiction), Jenn Shapland (My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, Finalist, Nonfiction), and Charles Yu (Interior Chinatown, Winner, Fiction) come together for a cross-genre discussion on inspiration, reading, and recognition. Presented in partnership with the Tucson Festival of Books.
Moderated by Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart, Abandon Me, and Girlhood (forthcoming).
More information and RSVP coming soon.
Time
(Saturday) 11:00 am MST
Location
Virtual
11mar7:30 pmNBF Presents: The National Book Awards at Concordia College7:30 pm CT
Event Details
Omar Mohamed. (Photo
Event Details



The National Book Foundation’s sixteenth year of partnership with Concordia College features a reading and conversation with National Book Award–honored authors Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed (When Stars Are Scattered, 2020 Young People’s Literature Finalist) and David Treuer (The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to Present, 2019 Nonfiction Finalist).
Moderated by John Ydstie, a former NPR correspondent.
More information and RSVP coming soon.
This program is supported by Concordia College and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in honor of Earl Lewis ‘78.
Time
(Thursday) 7:30 pm CT
Location
Virtual
Organizer
Concordia College901 8th St. S. Moorhead, MN 56562
13mar7:00 pmNBF Presents: The Work of Fiction7:00 pm EST
Event Details
Megha Majumdar. (Photo
Event Details



Three 2020 honorees for the National Book Award for Fiction Rumaan Alam (Leave the World Behind, Finalist), Megha Majumdar (A Burning, Longlist), and Deesha Philyaw (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, Finalist) discuss their books and fiction’s place in contemporary American culture. Presented in partnership with the Virginia Festival of the Book, this event will be available for free on-demand viewing at VaBook.org.

Moderated by Randy Winston, the fiction editor at Slice Literary Magazine.
Time
(Saturday) 7:00 pm EST
Location
Virtual
Organizer
Virginia Festival of the Book Charlottesville, VA
17mar4:00 pm5:00 pm[email protected] with Kacen Callender4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET
Event Details
Join us for a [email protected] discussion with the 2020 National Book Award Winner for Young People’s Literature Kacen Callender about their book King and the Dragonflies, a story about a young boy in Louisiana
Event Details
Registration is required. Please register here.
Time
(Wednesday) 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET
Location
Virtual
Organizer
National Book Foundation
25mar6:00 pmNBF Presents: Borders of Belonging6:00 pm ET
Event Details
Event Details



To question the “other” in American identity, join National Book Award–honored authors Laila Lalami (The Other Americans, 2019 Fiction Finalist), Nafissa Thompson-Spires (Heads of the Colored People, 2018 Fiction Longlist), and Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (The Undocumented Americans, 2020 Nonfiction Finalist) for a conversation on borders, immigration, and outsiders, and what it means to write one’s self into existence.

Moderated by Concepción de León, a New York Times reporter.
Books are available for purchase at Bookshop.org with thanks to this season’s bookseller, Loyalty Bookstores.
Time
(Thursday) 6:00 pm ET
Location
Virtual
Organizer
National Book Foundation
april 2021
21apr4:00 pm5:00 pm[email protected]4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET
Event Details
Join us for our monthly Live Author Visit, featuring a student-generated Q+A with prominent authors of young people's literature. We will be announcing this month's featured author later this year.
Event Details
Join us for our monthly Live Author Visit, featuring a student-generated Q+A with prominent authors of young people’s literature. We will be announcing this month’s featured author later this year. This event will be open to the public.
Registration is required. Please register here.
Time
(Wednesday) 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET
Location
Virtual
Organizer
National Book Foundation
22apr6:00 pmNBF Presents: Poetry in Protest6:00 pm ET
Event Details
Event Details



It’s National Poetry Month, and to celebrate, National Book Award–honored authors Toi Derricotte (“I”: New and Selected Poems, 2019 Poetry Finalist), Camonghne Felix (Build Yourself a Boat, 2019 Poetry Longlist), and Terrance Hayes (Lighthead, 2010 Poetry Winner; How to Be Drawn, 2015 Poetry Finalist; American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, 2018 Poetry Finalist) discuss the impact of protest poetry on American literature and American politics.
Moderated by Kyle Dacuyan, Executive Director of The Poetry Project.
Books are available for purchase at Bookshop.org with thanks to this season’s bookseller, Loyalty Bookstores.
Time
(Thursday) 6:00 pm ET
Location
Virtual
Organizer
National Book Foundation
may 2021
19may4:00 pm5:00 pm[email protected]4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET
Event Details
Join us for our monthly Live Author Visit, featuring a student-generated Q+A with prominent authors of young people's literature. We will be announcing this month's featured author later this year.
Event Details
Join us for our monthly Live Author Visit, featuring a student-generated Q+A with prominent authors of young people’s literature. We will be announcing this month’s featured author later this year. This event will be open to the public.
Registration is required. Please register here.
Time
(Wednesday) 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET
Location
Virtual
Organizer
National Book Foundation
20may5:00 pmNBF Presents: The Art of Translation5:00 pm ET
Event Details
Fernanda Melchor. (Photo
Event Details


Hurricane Season is the story of a dead witch set in a small town in Mexico. The book, translated from the Spanish, found a global audience and recognition. 2020 National Book Award Longlist author and translator Fernanda Melchor and Sophie Hughes come together for a conversation on the trust-fall act—and art—of literary translation, and the significance of a reader’s access to international perspectives.

Moderated by Shuchi Saraswat, writer, editor, and founder of The Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith.
Books are available for purchase at Bookshop.org with thanks to this season’s bookseller, Loyalty Bookstores.
Time
(Thursday) 5:00 pm ET
Location
Virtual
Organizer
National Book Foundation
june 2021
15jun6:00 pmNBF Presents: Revolutionary Joy6:00 pm ET
Event Details
Akwaeke
Event Details



NBF Presents’ season finale recognizes the historical and literary significance of Black trans and nonbinary narratives with National Book Award–honored authors Kacen Callender (King and the Dragonflies, 2020 Young People’s Literature Winner), Akwaeke Emezi (Pet, 2019 Young People’s Literature Finalist), and Danez Smith (Don’t Call Us Dead, 2017 Poetry Finalist) for a discussion on trans and nonbinary stories that make room for both queer pain and joy.

Moderated by Celeste Chan, writer and Queer Ancestors Project facilitator.
Books are available for purchase at Bookshop.org with thanks to this season’s bookseller, Loyalty Bookstores.
Time
(Tuesday) 6:00 pm ET
Location
Virtual
Organizer
National Book Foundation
16jun4:00 pm5:00 pm[email protected]4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET
Event Details
Join us for our monthly Live Author Visit, featuring a student-generated Q+A with prominent authors of young people's literature. We will be announcing this month's featured author later this year.
Event Details
Join us for our monthly Live Author Visit, featuring a student-generated Q+A with prominent authors of young people’s literature. We will be announcing this month’s featured author later this year. This event will be open to the public.
Registration is required. Please register here.
Time
(Wednesday) 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET
Location
Virtual
Organizer
National Book Foundation