"Teaching J to Read" by Ashley Jones

I don’t know how to begin,

how to explain that A means A,

that B isn’t Beaver

but simply B,

the second drawing

in a series of twenty-six.

He is in the fifth grade

and he can’t read about Dick or Jane.

He spends his days

finding new places to hide—

in between book chapters, scraping ink;

at the end of a punchline;

on the lip of a carton of milk.

I am useless, like an after-school special—

here, there is no purple dinosaur,

no sparkle in our smiles,

no bell-toned music to montage this away.

He finds pig in big

and the way a fist can solve these things.

He loses his name

in the sprawling alphabet—

the surest letter is the first: J.

This is the dark curve

that marks him,

and, even now,

I can’t remember the letters

that follow.

Ashley M. Jones is now in her second year at FIU, where she is a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Fellow in Poetry. She is originally from Birmingham, Alabama, and her poetry has been published in Aura Literary Arts Review, Sanctuary Literary Magazine, and the Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy.

***

Interview with Ashley M. Jones: Official Poet of the Sunrise Little Free Libraries Initiative

By Ellene Glenn Moore

The Little Free Libraries initiative is a national project that brings free library boxes to cities with no libraries or libraries with limited selections. In early 2013, still in her first year as an MFA student at Florida International University, Ashley M. Jones responded to a call for a poet to read at the City of Sunrise’s Little Free Libraries Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. In the following months, she has continued to contribute to the poetry community of Sunrise. Last month, we spoke over email about Little Free Libraries, the poetry community of the City of Sunrise, and her upcoming workshop for high school poets.

Ms. Jones is now in her second year at FIU, where she is a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Fellow in Poetry. She is originally from Birmingham, Alabama, and her poetry has been published in Aura Literary Arts Review, Sanctuary Literary Magazine, and the Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy.

Ellene Glenn Moore: How did you become the Official Poet of Sunrise, Florida? 

Last year, there was an email sent out to the [Florida International University] MFA listserv from the City of Sunrise—the City needed a reader for their Little Free Libraries Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. Little Free Libraries is a nationwide initiative which provides free library boxes (à la newspaper distribution boxes) in areas in which there aren’t libraries, or in which there aren’t a lot of selections in the library.  The Sunrise Leadership Academy Class of 2013 initiated this project, and along with the help of Miami based artist GG, it all came together beautifully.  I responded to the call for a reader, and, after sending some of my work, I was chosen to read at the ceremony.  Not only did I get to read my poems alongside award-winning author Edwidge Danticat, but my work was put into a booklet that was distributed in each of the four Little Free Libraries in Sunrise. Since that ceremony, I’ve remained involved in the Sunrise community and, before my first free workshop, the lovely people in the Sunrise government office named me Official Poet of the program. 

EGM: What are the responsibilities of the position?

AMJ: Basically, as Official Poet, I’m involved in the City’s poetry initiatives. So, I provide free poetry workshops to local high schoolers every semester. My first workshop occurred in May 2013, and my upcoming workshop is scheduled for November 16th. Recently, I participated in the Word UP! Spoken Word Competition, co-sponsored by the Jason Taylor Foundation and the Omari Hardwick BluApple Poetry Network. I was originally a judge for this initiative, but ended up not being able to judge because I attended all of the workshops leading up to the slam to connect more with the students and witness the process of preparing for this event—I was just trying to have my cake and eat it, too, because I love being around the students so much. 

EGM: On a broader scale, what do you think are the responsibilities of poets to their communities? Why do we have Official Poets and Poet Laureates?

AMJ: I think it’s important for artists, not just poets, to stay grounded. It’s easy to get wrapped up in line breaks and word choice and just the right sprinkling of simile. Although the artiness of poetry is important, I think it's also important to do something with that talent and spread the joy of your art throughout the community. This not only shows the world what wonders are found in poetry (it’s more than stuffy wordplay to me, and I think if more people realized [this fact] the world might be more full of beautiful words than harmful ones), but it also provides an important outlet for people who don't know where to turn. This idea of writing as an outlet has manifested itself most frequently, in my life, through my work with high school students. Students find a way to channel their feelings and their passions into words, and that, I think, is a lot more helpful than channeling those feelings and passions into hurting themselves or others.

Taking poetry into the community can also be a useful tool for literacy training—showing students that they can play with language on the page makes them want to interact with words a lot more, which is great for their reading and writing lives. The task of an official poet or a Laureate is to reach people with poetry. However that might happen is up to the poet, but it must happen. Even if I never write a work of poetic genius or receive hundreds of prizes to stack on my CV, I will be perfectly happy—more than happy—to take poetry into my community and make a positive difference with words. Words!!

EGM: Is your role as Official Poet in dialogue with your own work as a poet and a student? Has the experience informed your work, or vice versa?

AMJ: That's an interesting question...I think my role in Sunrise is definitely in dialogue with my own work as a poet and student. Like I said before, it’s easy to get caught up in the brainiac world of poetry. When I read at the Sunrise Little Free Libraries ceremony, a lot of people came up to me afterward and told me how my poems made them happy, how they made them reminisce on their own childhoods, and even made them cry. They asked me—me, little old nobody Jones from Birmingham, to autograph my booklet of poems that was passed out to the audience. These and other real-life reactions I've received really give me the confirmation that what I'm writing means something to people. I write about my life and I communicate my emotions in the best way I can—through poems. It’s good to know that the communication I'm offering isn’t dropping off into the literary abyss—people are listening and they hear what I'm saying. I've been in the academic writing world for a while, and sometimes I get down on myself because I'm not always as “poemy” as other poets—I write about the way my hair curls and the way my mom taught me to make biscuits. I'm glad to know that real-life people respond to it well.

As far as learning from my Sunrise experience, my students teach me a lot about being fearless—just this weekend, a student wrote about what I think was her childhood rape experience. It took me 10 years to finally write about my own truth—and it’s not a gruesome truth. Seeing this 16-year-old get up on a stage and perform such a personal piece tells me that I should stop being so afraid of being me on the page. I've gotten a lot more honest in my writing, and I'm going to keep on doing it. 

EGM: How did you come to poetry?

AMJ: Well, I’ve always liked reading, writing, and inventing stories. When we weren’t reading books or watching public television, the siblings Jones would spend time playing make-believe or constructing complex, soap-opera style plots for our Barbies to act out. I bought composition notebooks and wrote notes on everything I saw—spy missions, a la Harriet the Spy. These missions sometimes engendered poems about my family—little, awful, rhyming things. I once got so angry about something that I wrote a poem about how everyone hated me, and I posted it in the hallway at my house. My mom was not pleased... […]

EGM: Who are you currently reading? Who do you keep coming back to, and why?

AMJ: Hmmm... a better question might be “who do you wish you were reading?” because I barely have time for recreational stuff anymore. I've got a huge stack of library books waiting, unread, and a few books I bought last semester that are waiting for my attention. The last non-required new book of poetry I've looked at was actually Denise Duhamel's Blowout. Denise is my professor, so I’m always excited to see what she’s writing. Blowout, like a lot of Denise’s books, is one about real life. She’s able to write in such an everyday tone while keeping her poetic muscle moving. It’s great—I’m glad to be learning from a professor whose writing style seems so close to my own.

As far as my old standards, Lucille Clifton and Kevin Young are in constant rotation—I’ve been reading them a lot lately as I prepare to guest teach in a friend’s creative writing class and as I prepare for my workshop in Sunrise. […] Lucille Clifton is my favorite poet of all time—I was first struck by her use of lowercase letters (cummings was a fave of mine in the early years for that reason, too—I used to write in only lowercase letters). Then, when I actually paid attention to her words, I was doubly struck.

Clifton’s ability to craft language into an effortless punch never ceases to amaze me. Her poem, “what the mirror said” is a constant mantra of mine—if you're in need of quick empowerment, check that out. Kevin Young is just the man. I loved him for Jelly Roll and the way he managed to make jazz on the page while still using poetic technique. His playful voice is one I always want in my ear. Terrance Hayes is a new addition to this rotation—I absolutely love his voice and the way he makes me swoon with his words. He’s basically in the Ashley canon now. But I return to these poets because they refresh me when I'm feeling lost—they remind me what good poems look like when I'm in a slump, and they speak to me when I need someone to spell out my pain/joy/confusion/anger.

EGM: If you weren't a writer, what would you be doing?

I used to want to be a counselor (in schools or otherwise), so maybe I’d do that. But I also have dreams of being a university president, so maybe I'd still be on that path, just minus the writing. I’d also love to be a personal shopper (the mall is my friend, and I love helping people express themselves—affordably—through clothes) or a restaurant owner (I love to cook). If I weren't doing the MFA right now, I would be in Birmingham, working in the Administration or Admissions department at my alma mater. I was a part of the Stewardship team and I was a tour guide as an undergraduate—both would have panned out into good careers if I hadn't hopped the crazy train and pursued my dreams to get an MFA. 

One interviewer at Redivider Journal likes to close interviews by asking the interviewee for a favorite recipe. I am happily aware that you are an excellent baker, so I will ask if there's a favorite recipe you'd like to share here—Biscuits? Cookies? Banana bread? The floor/ counter is yours.

Gosh, a favorite recipe! I’d LOVE to share my recipe for biscuits. Here it goes:

Ashley’s Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour (If you're into it, you can substitute one of those cups of flour for whole wheat flour—it tastes just as good)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 stick of cold, unsalted butter cut into cubes (No getting around this, folks. Butter or nothing)

3/4 cups of lowfat greek yogurt (Or buttermilk, or whole milk, or whatever milk you’d like)

*you can add herbs and cheese if you want to make these for fancydinner

Instructions:

-Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F-

1. Measure the dry ingredients into a food processor (or a bowl if you've got the muscles for hand-cutting). Add the cubed butter and pulse until the mixture resembles cornmeal and the butter is incorporated. If you're using a regular bowl and biscuit cutter, work it until you can't work it anymore!

2. Add your greek yogurt/buttermilk/milk and mix until the dough becomes a ball.

3. Dump mix onto your floured counter and flatten it.

4. Fold the dough onto itself and flatten again. Repeat a few times. 

5. Flatten dough to your desired biscuit thickness (an inch, at most)

6. Cut the biscuits using a biscuit cutter or some circular object. Put the biscuits into a greased pan. 

7. Bake for 15-20 minutes (start checking at 15) until the biscuits are tall and lightly brown and beautiful!

1 Minute Book Review: Nairobi Heat by Mukoma Wa Nguigi

Name of the book: Nairobi Heat

Author:   Mukoma Wa Nguigi

Publisher:  Melville International Crime

What's the book about? 

A cop from Wisconsin pursues a killer through the terrifying slums of Nairobi and the memories of genocide

IN MADISON, WISCONSIN, it’s a big deal when African peace activist Joshua Hakizimana—who saved hundreds of people from the Rwandan genocide—accepts a position at the university to teach about “genocide and testimony.” Then a young woman is found murdered on his doorstep.

Local police Detective Ishmael—an African-American in an “extremely white” town—suspects the crime is racially motivated; the Ku Klux Klan still holds rallies there, after all. But then he gets a mysterious phone call: “If you want the truth, you must go to its source. The truth is in the past. Come to Nairobi.”

It’s the beginning of a journey that will take him to a place still vibrating from the genocide that happened around its borders, where violence is a part of everyday life, where big-oil money rules and where the local cops shoot first and ask questions later—a place, in short, where knowing the truth about history can get you killed.


Why am I reading the book? I met Mukoma Wa Ngugi at the Yardstick Festival and heard him read from Nairobi Heat at one of the afternoon panels. Coming from Miami where crime novels are de rigeur, I thought it was an interesting concept of having an African-American and African cop partnered in Kenya to solve the mystery of a dead blonde girl found on the doorsteps of a renowned African peace activist who lives in Madison, Wisconsin. I read Nairobi Heat the next day. I was not disappointed.


Quote from the book: "Were we manipulating race? The calculation was simple: one million lives did not move the world, African countries included, to intervene, but the death of one beautiful blonde girll would. We did not create that equation--we found it as it was. And we would use it to get justice."

Where to buy: http://www.amazon.com/Nairobi-Heat-Melville-International-Crime/dp/1935554646

Novelist, poet, and literary scholar, Mukoma Wa Ngugi is the author of Black Star Nairobi (Melville, 2013), Nairobi Heat (Penguin, SA 2009, Melville House Publishing, 2011), an anthology of poetry titled Hurling Words at Consciousness (AWP, 2006) and is a columnist for Ebony.com and a regular contributor to Kenya Yetu Magazine.  He was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2009.  In 2010, he was shortlisted for the Penguin Prize for African Writing for his novel manuscript, The First and Second Books of Transition.  Mukoma holds a PHD in English from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, an MA in Creative Writing from Boston University and a BA in English and Political Science from Albright College. He is an Assistant Professor of English at Cornell University.


Source: http://www.mukomawangugi.com/

***

I've modified this format from One Minute Book Reviews: http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/

Black History Month; John Edgar Wideman

The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:
http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey
We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:
http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897
Thank you for your support.

Book Review: A Question of Freedom by R. Dwayne Betts

Why Did You Do It, Son?

Forget Stephen King! As a father and mentor, A Question of Freedom by R. Dwayne Betts is the scariest book I’ve read in a long time. Part cautionary tale, part story of redemption, A Question of Freedom is a riveting memoir about “a moment of insanity” that resulted in a nine year prison sentence for the author in the Virginia penal system.

The memoir starts with the poem “Shahid Reads His Own Palms,” written by Betts, which makes it immediately clear that the author possesses a keen literary imagination. Then, the first chapter, ”Thirty Minutes,” describes his arrest and descent into prison life in chilling detail.  From his dehumanizing entry into prison life, “My state number. It was a five digit number I soon learned meant more than my name,” we witness the author, who was sixteen at the time of his arrest, beginning his adaption to his changed circumstances:

On my lips and in my head was the start of a new language defined by the way words changed meanings, all because I’d decided to make a man a victim. New words like inmate, state number and juvenile certification had crept into my vocabulary (6).

A far cry from when he was taking cases such as “Pre-calculus, physics, honors English, AP U.S. history, French 4 and computer math” as an honors student and class treasurer at Suitland High School (55).

With no prior arrests or any trouble with the law, Betts is transformed from a sixteen year old kid who wears glasses (and braces for Chrissakes!) into a “menace to society.” The presiding judge tells him, “I don’t have any illusions that the penitentiary is going to help you, but you can get something out of it if you want to” (79).

As he continues his journey through the penal system, the facts surrounding his case are revealed. Betts was arrested for carjacking: “Which is the stupidest crime you can commit. There’s no money in it. Just glorified joyriding” (201). This is not the only twist in his story:

Two years before my crime I read Nathan McCall’s Makes Me Wanna Holler, the kind of book black women give their sons when teachers begin to call home too often, or when the police show up at the door to give a warning or when the word truancy becomes a word to be said at the dinner table (94).

Makes Me Wanna Holler—one of the books I’ve used in mentoring-- should have been a deterrent. But it wasn’t. Plus, it wasn’t the only media to which Betts had been exposed. At the time of his arrest he admits, “There were titles of movies and books on my mind: Shawshank Redemption; American Me; Blood In, Blood out; Makes Me Wanna Holler; Racehoss; The Autobiography of Malcolm X" (3-4).

Coupled with his honesty, one the most disturbing aspects of Betts’s story is his naiveté: “I thought it was possible to confess to carjacking and have a court let you walk away with a my bad” (13). As he later confesses, “Maybe there is no real why, no one definitive answer to give when they ask “Why did you do it?” After eight years in prison answers didn’t come any easier” (232).

What’s shocking—Betts is old enough to be my son—is that his crime and incarceration did not have to happen. Dwayne was a good student with a loving mother who did everything to make sure that he would never suffer the fate that he did. Still it happened. Armed with a gun—he had never held one before—Dwayne entered a mall and looked “for someone to make a victim” (65).

If Dwayne Betts, honors student and class treasurer, can be seduced into committing a criminal act, what hope can I have for my children and my mentees who have yet to realize their talents?

Even though Betts says the “answers don’t come any easier,” I hope I will have the opportunity to ask him the question when he comes to the African American Read In at the Lehman Theater, Miami Dade College, on February 4, 2013. Until then, I’ll be praying a little harder for my children---all of them.

***

Live webcast of R. Dwayne Betts at Miami Dade College, North Campus on February 4, 2013 at 10:00 a.m.:  http://www.mdc.edu/north/live/

Here’s a video clip of Mr. Betts from C-SPAN’s video library: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/306453-8

BookTV: Dwayne Reginald Betts, "A Question of Freedom": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD_iLRYYOfE

***

A Question of Freedom by R. Dwayne Betts

At the age of sixteen, R. Dwayne Betts—a good student from a lower-middle-class family—carjacked a man. He had never held a gun before, but with this first offense he’d committed six felonies within minutes. A Question of Freedom chronicles Dwayne’s years in prison, as he reflects back on his crime and makes a decision about how a “moment of insanity” would—or would not--define him. This book is about a quest for identity, one that guarantees a young man’s survival in a hostile environment. As Dwayne writes, “It’s the story of the thirty minutes it took me to shatter my life into the memory of one cell after another, and the cost of walking away from a bad idea a minute too late.” But finally, and most poignantly, this story is about the many ways that books and a passion for writing helped a young man find his way back to the life he’d lost. In 2011 Betts was awarded a Radcliffe Fellowship to Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies and continues to share his story of empowerment and resilience all over the nation.

African American Read-In: R. Dwayne Betts

Miami Dade College,

North Campus

Presents

The Seventh Annual African American Read-In

Many Backgrounds,

Many Stories…

One American Spirit

Featuring

Mr. R. Dwayne Betts

Monday, February 4, 2013

Lehman Theatre, Room 5120

10:00 a.m.

For more information, visit the Social Sciences Department, Room 2256.

(305) 237-8111.

Five Questions With… Joseph McNair

Joe McNair has been a good friend for almost twenty years now, and the biography that he provided at the end of this interview does not do him any justice. Although he has retired from Miami Dade College, we still keep in touch, and when I learned about the publication of his new book, I Hear Music in the Air, I requested an interview, which he kindly granted.

1. There is a recurrent trope of the connection between jazz and spirituality, yet based on casual observations it would not seem as if many of these musicians could be regarded as spiritual people. Is there a connection?

Giving oneself over to the music is as special as a spiritual experience. This is why being overtaken by the muse is similar to getting high. What many musicians learn too late. Musicians grow into their spirituality when the music becomes as addictive as life itself. And playing good music requires a discipline as steadfast as getting high on a daily basis. One needs to develop spiritual tools to maintain their spirituality. Yes, there is a connection.

2. Many of the jazz greats did not seem to have lived "happy" lives, but the overwhelming tone of "I Hear Music in the Air" is triumphant. What am I missing?

Kicking any addiction is cause for celebration. As a recovering alcoholic, kicking alcohol is probably one of the most courageous and triumphant thugs I have ever done. and is something that I am most proud of.

3. Which musicians best embody the nexus between jazz/ water/liquid imagery in the collection?

The Neptunians such as Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Ben Webster, Bennie Carter, Lester Young, Thelonius Monk, Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, John Coltrane, Milt Jackson, Jutta Hip, ART Tatum, Mile Davis, Fred Anderson, Alice Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Sonny Rollins, Doc Austin, Dorothy Ashby, Freddie Hubbard, Joanne Brackeen, McCoy Tyner, Black Arthur Blythe, Chick Correa, AVotcja, and Winton Marsalis.

4. You've used several different poetic forms in the collection such as the sonnet, villanelle, and the Kwansaba. What attracted you to the Kwansaba?

The Kwansaba was invented by the Eugene B Redmond Writers group out of East Saint Louis Illinois. I was attracted due to my close association with Redmond. I used to follow him around years ago when He was a professor of English at Sacramento State University.

5. What makes you laugh?

The aggressive or obscene idea is activated in the unconscious but disguised by the wit-work (or technique) so that the psychic energy initially aroused can be safely relieved. According to Arthur Koestler metaphoric perception is, indeed, fundamental to all science and involves bringing together previously incompatible ideas in radically new ways.

In The Act of Creation, Arthur Koestler explores a similar notion, which he refers to as bisociation. Koestler himself makes use of a metaphor between “the logic of laughter” and the creative act, which he defines as “the perceiving of a situation or idea in two self-consistent but habitually incomparable frames of reference.”


Joe also provided me with an alternate answer to the first question.
A good friend asked me the following question: "There is a recurrent trope of the connection between jazz and spirituality, yet based on casual observations it would not seem as if many of these musicians could be regarded as spiritual people. Is there a connection?"
The following was my answer.


just as all humans are spiritual
to breathe according to philosopher
dane rudyar
is the first independent act that
expresses i am.
this action of independence
is to be independent
and relatively at least
self sufficient .
complete and
alive.
to breathe is to inhale the whole
world. to open oneself to the
air that has coursed through
millions of lungs that the sun has
kissed, the earth has scented and
the stars have blessed & exalted
to stop breathing and very soon the
the song is ended.
having refused to contact
the whole living world through
the magical performance of breathing
the body loses its significance and
disintegrates, it has been rendered useless
and meaningless.
when buddy bolden opened himself
to the air that that carried
the molecules and atoms of a million cultures
with a deep breath shaped by his embouchure
and sent that blown air sound
through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound
that starts a standing wave vibration in the air
column inside the instrument.
by playing daily and pitting himself against
all players, perfected his skills and broke through
the inertia of static tradition into a new world fluidic
and scintillating with light, a world of
strange perceptions and glamorous mirages
for some and transcendental realizations for others
he opened himself up to the air and the music
took him there. this i believe is true for any
musician of note. the black musical spiritual,
over my head i hear music in the air
came out of my breathing. as such
writers and musicians are connected
 
 

About Joe McNair

Joseph D. McNair is an African American educator, poet/writer, journalist, and musician. He is currently an Associate Professor, Senior in the School of Education at Miami Dade College, North Campus in Miami-Florida. He is the founder/editor of Asili: The Journal of Multicultural Heartspeak, an on-line literary magazine ten years old this year. He is a recipient of two of Miami Dade College's endowed teaching chairs. His published works include two volumes (Earthbook in 1971 and An Odyssey 1976) and one chapbook of poetry (Juba Girl in 1973). A collection of Selected Works is scheduled for release in early 2008. He has written three books for adolescent readers published by The Child's World Journey to Freedom: The African American Library series. These are Leontyne Price (2000), Barbara Jordan: African American Politician (2000), and Ralph Bunche (2001). His latest release, O Şe Şango, a novel, will be published by The Asili Press October/November 2007. As a journalist, he is the author of sixty-five feature articles and commentary written under his own name and several pseudonyms between 1986 and 1989 for Hotline Newsmagazine, a popular and influential Northern Nigerian weekly. In 1996 he authored a college textbook entitledMulticultural Awareness/Consciousness: Toward a Process of Personal Transformation. In 1997 he coauthored Individuals In Transition with three Social Science Colleagues. In 1998 he revised his first text under a new title: Personal Transformations: The Process of Multicultural Awareness/Consciousness. He is a prolific on-line author and manages several websites.


For more information about I Hear Music in the Air, please contact josephmcnair48 [at] yahoo.com

Enemy of the State: "Armed and Dangerous"

My Ideal Schedule - Miami Book Fair International 2011

My Schedule - Miami BookFair International 2011

Tuesday, November 15

Time	Location	Event
6:00 p.m.	Chapman Conference Center	An Evening with Harry Belafonte

Thursday, November 17

Time	Location	Event
11:30 a.m.	Batten	Cedella Marley on One Love

Saturday, November 19

Time	Location	Event
9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.	Children's Alley	One World Many Stories
10:00 a.m.	Auditorium	Senator Bob Graham on The Keys to the Kingdom
11:00 a.m.	Auditorium	The Writer's Voice: Francisco Goldman on Say Her Name, Hector Tobar on The Barbarian Nurseries, Elizabeth Nunez on Boundaries and Esmeralda Santiago on Conquistadora
11:00 a.m.	Centre Gallery	Tigertail: A South Florida Annual with Lynne Barrett, David Beaty, Jim Daniels, Denise Duhamel, Patricia Engel, Jen Karetnick, Christopher Louvet, Campbell McGrath, Lyn Millner, Lauren Doyle Owens and Ian Vasquez
11:00 a.m.	Room 3209	Caribbean Voices: Generations in Art and Literature with Opal Adisa, Le Roy Clarke, Ramabai Espinet, Gordon Rohlehr, and Donna Weir-Soley
11:00 a.m.	Room 3315	All About Writing: Sam Barry and Kathi Kamen Goldmark on Write that Book Now! and Roy Peter Clark on Help! For Writers
12:30 p.m.	Room 3209	Caribbean Voices: Post-Colonial Themes with Andrew Downes, Brian Meeks, Selwyn Ryan, Verene Shepherd, and Brenda Flanagan moderating
12:30 p.m.	Room 3410	What? Mark Kurlansky in conversation on his new book
2:00 p.m.	Centre Gallery	A Celebration of the Life and Work of Jeffrey Knapp with readings by Michael Hettich, Adrian Castro, Geoffrey Philp and John Dufresne
2:00 p.m.	Room 3209	Caribbean Voices: Fiction and Poetry with Angela Barry, Lelawattee Manoo-Rahming, Shara McCallum, and Eunice Heath-Tate
2:30 p.m.	Chapman Conference Center	Touré on Post Blackness
3:30 p.m.	Auditorium	The Writer's Voice: Karen Russell on Swamplandia! , Diana Abu-Jaber on Birds of Paradise, Elizabeth Stuckey-French on em>The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady and Sterling Watson on Fighting in the Shade
3:30 p.m.	Centre Gallery	The Fiction Writer's Voice: Da Chen on Brothers, Marlon James on The Book of Night Women, and Dominic Smith on Bright and Distant Shores
3:30 p.m.	Batten	Bob Edwards on My Life in Radio and Norma Watkins on Taking the Mississippi Cure
3:30 p.m.	Room 3209	Contemporary Africa in Fiction: Helon Habila on Oil on Water: A Novel and Chenjerai Hove on his Miami memoir, Homeless Sweet Home
3:30 p.m.	Room 7128	The Writer's Voice: Jing Yi, Hong Ying, Carine Fabius, and Kola Boof on their new work
4:30 p.m.	Chapman Conference Center	Deadline Artists: A Conversation with Stanley Crouch, Mike Barnicle, Errol Louis, Pete Hamill and John Avlon
5:00 p.m.	Auditorium	The Poet's Voice: Readings by Gerald Stern, Li-Young Lee, and Robert Pinsky

Sunday, November 20

Time	Location	Event
9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.	Children's Alley	One World Many Stories
10:00 a.m.	Chapman Conference Center	The Writer's Voice: Readings by Russell Banks, Michael Ondaatje and William Kennedy
11:00 a.m.	Room 1164	Discover New Worlds: Geoffrey Philp on Marcus and the Amazons and Henry Cole on A Nest for Celeste
11:00 a.m.	Room 3209	It's A Mystery! Edna Buchanan on A Dark and Lonely Place, Paul Levine on Lassiter and James Grippando on Afraid of the Dark
11:00 a.m.	Room 7106/7107	The Writer's Voice: Rosalind Brackenberry on Becoming George Sand , N.M. Kelby on White Truffles in Winter and Ann Napolitano on A Good Hard Look
12:30 p.m.	Centre Gallery	The Poet's Voice: Readings of New Work by Michael Hettich, Beth Ann Fennelly, Sandra Beasley and Pablo Medina
12:30 p.m.	Room 3209	The Writer's Voice: Justin Torres on We the Animals, Tayari Jones on Silver Sparrow, Ana Menendez on Adios, Happy Homeland and Lynne Barrett on Magpies
1:30 p.m.	Prometeo Theatre	Spotlight: Ben Katchor on The Cardboard Valise in conversation with literary critic Ariel Gonzalez
1:30 p.m.	Room 7128	Les Standiford and John Blades on a special 100th anniversary edition of The Last Train to Paradise