Literature transforms the way we look at the world, deepening our understanding of even the most complex issues of today. Recognizing the strength of the written word, the National Book Foundation’s Literature for Justice program brings broad awareness to the issue of mass incarceration in America through the power of books.

Join us for an evening with an author and editor of two of this year’s Literature for Justice’s titles, James Kilgore and Robin Levi, in conversation with Sergio De La Pava. The writers will discuss their books and how literature can transform our understanding of America’s carceral system.

A limited number of complementary books will be available to attendees.

Robin Levi is co-editor with Ayelet Waldman of Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives From Women’s Prisons, which tells the stories of 13 women inside the American prison system. Levi is a consultant working in the field of human rights and is the former human rights director at Justice Now. While a staff attorney at the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, she documented sexual abuse of women in U.S. state prisons.

James Kilgore is the author of Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People’s Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time. He lived as a fugitive in South Africa from 1991 to 2002 under the name John Pape. In 2002, authorities extradited him to the United States where he served six and a half years in prison for political offenses committed in the 1970s. Kilgore is a social justice activist and writes widely on issues pertaining to mass incarceration. He is also a research scholar at the Center for African Studies at the University of Illinois.

Sergio De La Pava is a member of the 2018-2019 Literature for Justice Committee. He is the author of three novels: A Naked Singularity, Personae, and Lost Empress. He is also a lifelong public defender and Legal Director at New York County Defender Services in Manhattan where he represents indigent criminal defendants and advocates for large-scale criminal justice reform.

Presented in partnership by:
National Book Foundation, Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, Human Rights Lab, and School of Social Service Administration

To register, click here.

Author Conversation: HERE IS WHERE I WALK – Leslie Roberts & Michele Morano

Leslie Carol Roberts turns her daily walks in San Francisco’s Presidio into revelations of deeper meaning, reflecting on her travels as well as her home life as the single mother of two. In this finely crafted eco-memoir, each place provides Leslie with exactly the scaffolding needed to survive, with nature serving as the tonic. Here Is Where I Walk provides a vivid answer to how we can find our place, not only in nature but within ourselves and the world we walk.

Leslie Carol Roberts is an author, journalist, and essayist. She is also professor and chair of the MFA Writing Program at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

Michele Morano is the author of the travel memoir Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain. Her essays and short fiction have appeared most recently in Fourth Genre, Ninth Letter, the Normal School, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing at DePaul University, where she also chairs the Department of English.

Event date:
Sunday, May 5, 2019 – 4:00pm
Event address: 
Women & Children First
5233 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60640