“Provocative and compelling” (New York Newsday), Jabari Asim is a Guggenheim Fellowship-winning author, poet, playwright, editor, and Emerson College writing professor. A former deputy editor of the book review section at the Washington Post, he is now editor-in-chief of the venerable Crisis magazine. A sought-after public speaker, Asim has been a commentator on countless TV news programs. His debut novel is a tale of social upheaval in the 1970s Midwest.

Philadelphia native Simone Zelitch earned a 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for her fiction, which examines history, myth, religion, and social justice. Louisa, her second novel, received praise from the New York Times and The Boston Globe. Zelitch is the coordinator of the English Degree program at Community College of Philadelphia, and her new novel follows a young white volunteer’s experiences during the 1964 Freedom Summer.   

Moderated by writer and The Head and The Hand publisher, Nic Esposito