First Year, Community, and One Reads
PATRICIA ENGEL
New York Times BestSelling and INTERNATIONALLY AWARD-WINNING NOVELIST
Born to Colombian parents and raised in New Jersey, Patricia has been awarded the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, her books have been translated into many languages and selected as an NEA Big Read.
tiffany jewell
#1 NYT Bestselling Author | ANTIracist advocate | educator
Tiffany is the author of the #1 New York Times and #1 Indie Bestseller, This Book Is Anti-Racist, a book for young folks and everyone to wake up, take action, and do the work of becoming antiracist. Her other books include The Antiracist Kid: A Book About Identity, Justice, and Activism and Main Street: A Community Story About Redlining.
ANNABELLE TOMETICH
Award-Winning Author | food writer | restaurant critic | journalist
“I just wanted to say thank you again SO much for being a part of our book club discussion today. Your writing truly resonated with so many of us, and it was such a joy to hear even more from you... I meant it when I said – you could see the look of pride on the faces of those of us in person at hearing you share how the book's success is providing so many great opportunities for you!
—Arthrex Women's Network Book Club
layla f. saad
Global Bestselling Author of Me & White Supremacy | Neurodivergent Visionary
Layla inspires and activates personal and collective change in the world. Her appearances are designed to help you become a good ancestor; to live and work in ways that leave a legacy of healing and liberation.
Sequoia Nagamatsu
Experimental Writing Visionary | National Bestselling Author | Art of Hope Storyteller
Sequoia is the author of the National Bestselling novel, HOW HIGH WE GO IN THE DARK. The novel was also a New York Times Book Review Editor's’ Choice, a Roxane Gay Audacious Book Club pick, and was a finalist for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize.
OMKARI L. WILLIAMS
ward-winning and Bestselling Author | Microactivism Advocate | Sustainable Changemaker
Stop asking “What can I do?” and start leveraging your skills to make an impact. Omkari L. Williams, creator of the activism archetype, uses micro-activism strategies to help you build community and cultivate sustainable change.
susan abulhawa
Palestinian writer + human rights activist + poet + Essayist
Her debut novel, Mornings in Jenin, translated into 30 languages, has sold over a million copies worldwide and is considered a classic in Palestinian literature. Her most recent novel, Against the Loveless World, won the 2020 Palestine Book Award.
joel christian gill
Award-winning, Bestselling Cartoonist and Illustrator | National Advocate for Sharing Stories
“The feedback I got from the kids was overwhelmingly positive. They were so proud to leave with a book signed by the author and artist. I saw students stand up and ask questions for the first time.”
—Event host at KIPP Troy Prep High School
Tony keith jr.
Award-winning Poet | Spoken Word Artist | Educational Leader and yA Author
“Tony’s energy was infectious and students and staff couldn’t stop talking about how grateful they were to have him come and speak; it was certainly the highlight of my teaching career so far.”
— Event host at Match Charter Public High School
Danielle Evans
Award-Winning Author + Professor of Creative Writing + Cultural Critic
Danielle is the author of the story collections The Office of Historical Corrections and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self. Her first collection won the PEN American Robert W. Bingham Prize, the Hurston-Wright award for fiction, and the Paterson Prize for fiction; her second won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and was a finalist for The Aspen Prize, The Story Prize, and The Los Angeles Times Book prize for fiction.
Kai Harris
Storyteller Centering Black Women and Girls | Mental Health Advocate
Kai Harris is a writer and educator from Detroit, Michigan, who uses her voice to uplift the Black community through realistic fiction centered on the experiences of Black girls and Black women.
“I believe the role of a writer is to be honest. To write the truth that the world needs to hear. We can’t fix everything with our words, nor should we be expected to. Yet, there is a power in our words that we shouldn’t shy away from.”
Gloria Muñoz
Multilingual Literacy Advocate | Award-winning Poet and Author |St. Pete's first Latina poet laureate
As a Colombian-American, I speak and write because I can; I have a voice in a world where many people do not. Through my stories, I aim to illuminate the spaces between circumstance, culture, and gender for you and your community.
“It was lovely! Gloria was great and very personable and knowledgeable. We were thrilled to be able to host her!”
—Brown Summer High School Program
ladee hubbard
AWARD-WINNING Novelist + Scholar
Ladee’s novel The Talented Ribkins received a 2017 Hurston-Wright Legacy Award and the 2018 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. Her second novel, The Rib King, was named one of Time magazine's 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 and was a finalist for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. In 2022 she published The Last Suspicious Holdout, a collection of short stories which was long listed for the Aspen Words Literary Prize.
Bridgett m. Davis
AWARD-WINNING MEMOIRIST AND FILMMAKER | JOURNALIST | ADVOCATE for Black Women’s Stories
“On what would’ve been my sister’s 65th birthday, I wrote a letter to her, and in it I explored some of the milestones in her life. That’s when I realized she’d lived through so many cultural touchstones; her life’s events were resonant beyond their individual impact on her, but also more broadly as markers of Black life from the mid-to-late 20th century. That’s when I committed to writing this memoir, with two goals in mind: To honor my sister, and to highlight what America’s structural racism looks like through the lens of a personal, lived experience.”
Lee Hawkins
Pulitzer Prize Finalist Journalist and Author | 19 years at WSJ | Podcast Creator and Host
Lee’s critically acclaimed memoir, I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free, is an introspective journey into his family history, tracing its roots to pre-Revolutionary America. Utilizing genetic testing, investigative reporting, and historical documentation, Mr. Hawkins explores 400 years of his family’s lineage, revealing the intertwined lives of Black and White families, their resilience and sufferings, and the impact of historical trauma.