Reading James Baldwin: An Online Literary Seminar

The Authors Guild Foundation, in association with the James Baldwin Estate, presents a new series of talks exploring the great writer’s life and work.

Reading James Baldwin

Few American writers have marked their era as powerfully as James Baldwin. As distinctive on the page as on the airwaves, his voice is indelibly associated with the demand for racial justice in the United States, a demand that continues to make him one of our most pressing and urgent contemporaries.

To mark Baldwin’s centenary, the Authors Guild Foundation invites you to join a conversation featuring some of our most exciting writers, scholars, and essayists.

Session Schedule

Tickets are required for all sessions. Authors Guild members can buy tickets at a discounted rate.

Click any session title for more information. A subscription to all sessions is available here.

All sessions start at 2 p.m. ET.

DateSession
Wednesday, February 26Jesse McCarthy—An Introduction
Tuesday, March 18Colm Tóibín—Go Tell It on the Mountain
Thursday, April 24Imani Perry—“Sonny’s Blues” & “The Uses of the Blues”
Wednesday, May 21W. Ralph Eubanks & Eddie Glaude, Jr.—Notes of a Native Son
Thursday, June 26Viet Thanh Nguyen—No Name in the Street
Thursday, July 24Rachel Cohen—Baldwin & Delaney
Thursday, August 21Vinson Cunningham—Another Country
Thursday, September 18Ayana Mathis—The Fire Next Time

The painting of James Baldwin in the graphic above is by Beauford Delaney and reprinted courtesy of the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery.

Beauford Delaney (1901–1979), James Baldwin, c.1945–50, oil on canvasboard, 24 x 18 inches / 61 x 45.7 cm, estate stamp; Private Collection; © Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator, Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY