Toni Morrison's work undeniably reshaped American literature, and her influence extended well beyond her novels like Beloved or The Bluest Eye. Morrison confronted slavery, identity, trauma - as well as beauty - as she centered Black experiences. Morrison changed not only what stories were told, but how they were told.
Harvard professor and award-winning author Namwali Serpell's latest book argues that Morrison's literary skill often gets overshadowed by her public image as a Black female writer. On Morrison takes readers through her canon of literature, and focuses on the artistry and technique, demonstrating 鈥渉ow to read Morrison with the seriousness that she deserves.鈥�
Namwali Serpell was born in Lusaka and lives in New York. She is the author of multiple award-winning books, and her debut novel, The Old Drift, won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times鈥檚 Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.
For an entire year, starting on Toni Morrison鈥檚 birthday, the influential Nobel Prize-winning Ohioan will be the focus of literary and historic events in the Buckeye State. Join us - in partnership with Literary Cleveland - as Kourtney Morrow with the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards sits down in conversation with On Morrison author Namwali Serpell.
Speaker
Namwali Serpell
Author; and Professor of English, Harvard University
Moderator
Kortney Morrow
Program Director of the Anisfeld-Wolf Book Awards, Cleveland Foundation