14th National Black Writers Conference: “Gathering at the Waters: Healing, Legacy, and Activism in Black Literature”

The 14th National Black Writers Conference (NBWC), a major program hosted by the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, CUNY, will be held at Medgar Evers College, from Thursday, March 22, to Sunday, March 25, 2018. Dr. Myrlie Evers-Williams is the Honorary Chair. Award-winning writers Colson Whitehead, Kwame Dawes, David Levering Lewis, Susan L. Taylor, speculative fiction writers Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due, and cultural historian Eugene B. Redmond are 2018 National Black Writers Conference Honorees. Through invigorating panel discussions and roundtable conversations, author readings, film screenings, workshops, and performances, writers, scholars, literary professionals, students and the general public will convene over four days to discuss issues related to the conference theme, to examine the state of literature produced by Black writers, to listen to writers read from their work and to attend writers’ workshops.

The theme of the 14th National Black Writers (NBWC) “Gathering at the Waters: Healing, Legacy, and Activism in Black Literature” acknowledges our concern about the recent, and still continued, issues of social inequality and injustices that challenge us and builds on the legacy of healing through activism. This timely theme centers on the ways in which Black writers use their writing to explore and convey messages that heal and restore our individual selves and collective community. The Conference will also examine the instrumental role that Black writers have played in building our cultural history; the imprint that this has left in Black literature; and how the literature of Black writers has impacted present-day and future generations. And lastly, we will also look at the significance of activism in writers’ works, that is how a writer’s beliefs and personal vigorous action are used to support the political and social change they want to see take place in today’s society and in the world. A major strand of the Conference will be a series of panels focused on “Community Conversations on Race, Resistance, & Activism.”

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