August 2 would have been the 96th birthday of James Baldwin, a literary icon widely known for his compelling, powerful writing, social advocacy, and civil rights activism. With the ongoing conversations about race and racism in the United States, Baldwin’s words have been echoed and analyzed and remain relevant for adults and teens alike.
Meet our three summer Junior Fellows—Mal Haselberger, Ethan McFerren, and Jake Newman—and learn about the literary programs they've helped develop over the past 10 weeks.
Looking forward to the 2020 National Book Festival? In the meantime, you can watch past festival presentations by exploring our full National Book Festival video collection—which includes this video of Natasha Trethewey and Jenny Xie discussing “the poetry of place” and their new books, “Monument: Poems New and Selected” (Trethewey) and “Eye Level” (Xie), on the Poetry & Prose stage at the 2019 Festival.