The National Book Foundation has announced the spring lineup for NBF Presents, its public programming series. Two dozen events will take place between January and May of 2019. The series is made possible by a three-year, $900,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
In addition to standalone events that include public conversations and panels, the spring season of NBF Presents will feature two large-scale events—in Albuquerque and New Orleans—tied to the Foundation's "Author in Focus" and "Literature for Justice" programs. This year, the NBF is newly partnering with five libraries, five colleges and universities, and four festivals.
Authors confirmed to appear at NBF Presents events in the spring include: Carol Anderson, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Robin Benway, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Jamel Brinkley, Robert A. Caro, Jennifer Clement, Leslie Connor, Sloane Crosley, Charmaine Craig, Anthony Doerr, Casey Gerald, Daniel Gumbiner, Adam Haslett, Brandon Hobson, Arlie Russell Hochschild, Victoria Johnson, Min Jin Lee, Robin Coste Lewis, Karan Mahajan, Rebecca Makkai, Ibram X. Kendi, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Sigrid Nunez, Tommy Orange, Erika L. Sánchez, Sarah Smarsh, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, John Edgar Wideman, Monica Youn, and Kevin Young, with more to come.
“For the Foundation, the launch of NBF Presents was a promise to continue to think about access to literature and quality literary programming in a truly national way” David Steinberger, chairman of the board of directors of the National Book Foundation, said in a statement. “The National Book Awards and the work of the Foundation exist to reach beyond any one region and any one type of reader. NBF Presents makes that possible, bringing authors and new audiences together for meaningful discussions around books and the universal themes to which they are able to speak.”
Programs will include continued partnerships with Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., Amherst College in Amherst, Mass., Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., and Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Tex., which are recurring campus events presented under the program title NBA on Campus. New partnerships with colleges and universities throughout the country include an event this month at the Community College of Philadelphia.
The NBF Presents lineup also includes a new season of the Eat, Drink & Be Literary series, presented since 2006 with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and events tied to two of the Foundation’s other programs—"Author in Focus: James Baldwin," supported by funding from Velvet Film via the Ford Foundation, and Literature for Justice, made possible by a grant from the Art for Justice Fund—will be held this spring in Albuquerque and New Orleans, respectively.
