Events Calendar

The National Book Foundation returns to Sam Houston State University for an annual celebration of National Book Award–honored authors. Derrick Barnes (The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze, 2025 Young People’s Literature Longlister; Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice, 2022 Young People’s Literature Finalist), Esther Lin (Cold Thief Place, 2025 Poetry Longlister), and Sam Sax (Yr Dead, 2024 Fiction Longlister) will gather for readings and conversation on the meaning of individuality, community, and artmaking across fiction, poetry, and young people’s literature.

Moderated by Giuseppe Taurino, writer, editor, and Executive Director of Inprint.

Presented in partnership with Sam Houston State University, and sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the MFA Program in Creative Writing, Editing, and Publishing.

The nonfiction works of National Book Award honorees Kelly Lytle Hernández (Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands, 2022 Nonfiction Longlist; and most recently, Racist by Design: Two Centuries of U.S. Immigration Control) and Nilo Tabrizy (For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran’s Women-Led Uprising, 2025 Nonfiction Longlist) offer historical—and sometimes personal—contexts fueling present-day US immigration policies and global movements. Join the authors for readings and conversation about fusing research, reporting, and identity, from the 1791 Haitian Revolution to the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran.

Moderated by Ruth Dickey, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation.

Presented in partnership with Hay Festival Forum Dallas.

Register here.