On Wednesday, September 14, 2022, the Lannan Center presented a special evening featuring Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah. Hosted by Lannan Center Director Aminatta Forna. Introduction by Lahra Smith, Director of the African Studies Program. Abdulrazak Gurnah is the 2021 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His most recent novel, AFTERLIVES is forthcoming from Riverhead Books in August 2022. He is the author of nine previous novels, including Paradise (shortlisted for the Booker Prize), By ...
Sep 14, 2022•1 hr 17 min
On Tuesday, April 12, 2022, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring poets Victoria Chang and Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Hosted by Carolyn Forché. Introductions by Lannan Fellows Max Zhang and Hiruni Herat. About Victoria Chang Victoria Chang’s new book of poetry, The Trees Witness Everything is forthcoming (Copper Canyon Press and Corsair Books in the U.K.). Her nonfiction book, Dear Memory (Milkweed Editions), was published in 2021. OBIT (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), her most recen...
Apr 12, 2022•1 hr 5 min
About The United States: exceptional, individual, shining city on the hill, home of democracy, land of the free, of the “American Dream” and the pursuit of happiness. A national narrative is composed of ideas made into stories. And these stories are powerful. In a time of division can Americans agree on a common story or make space for multiple narratives? Panelists: Rabih Alameddine, Aleksandar Hemon, Fathali Moghaddam, and Patricia Smith. Chaired by John Freeman Music: Quantum Jazz — " Orbitin...
Mar 23, 2022•57 min
About As the calls for social and racial justice grow, could the United States follow the example of South Africa and other conflict-affected nations and engage in a national, formal reconciliation process? Panelists: Elham Atashi, Tope Folarin, Aleksandar Hemon, and Tim Phillips. Chaired by David Smith Music: Quantum Jazz — " Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.
Mar 23, 2022•1 hr
About Wage inequality in the United States is approaching the extreme level that prevailed prior to the Great Depression, creating new social classes: the precariat (those on short term or zero hours contracts without benefits) and the one percent. With disparity widening––and anger building among some of the dispossessed––can the American Dream endure? Panelists: Sarah Anderson, Amy Goldstein, and John Freeman. Chaired by Tope Folarin Music: Quantum Jazz — " Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provide...
Mar 23, 2022•1 hr
About We write to make sense of the world around us. From war and political violence to natural disasters and pandemics – how have writers of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction responded to crises in their nation’s history? Panelists: Rabih Alameddine, Aleksandar Hemon, and Patricia Smith; Chaired by Jacki Lyden Music: Quantum Jazz — " Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.
Mar 23, 2022•1 hr 15 min
About If the lion does not tell his story, the hunter will. The history of the United States, as it is currently taught, is being contested like never before. Is it possible to reconcile differing perspectives on America’s national narrative? Panelists: Mark Muller, Elizabeth Rule, and Clint Smith; Chaired by Adam Rothman. Music: Quantum Jazz — " Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.
Mar 23, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Keynote Speech by Melody C. Barnes: "In Search of an Inclusive America: Culture, Politics, and the Narratives That Define Us" on March 22, 2022. About Melody C. Barnes Melody Barnes is executive director of the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy. She is also the J. Wilson Newman Professor of Governance at the Miller Center of Public Affairs and a senior fellow at the Karsh Center for Law & Democracy. Ms. Barnes was Assistant to the President and director of the White House...
Mar 22, 2022•1 hr 10 min
Clips taken from past event The View From Abroad : “What Can America Learn from the Experience of Other Nations at a Time of Crisis?” held on Crowdcast on March 18, 2021. Music: Soundside (royalty free music) — " Violin Inspiration" — Provided by Jamendo.
Mar 08, 2022•3 min
Clips taken from past event "Is There Such a Thing as American Exceptionalism?” held at Beyond Borders Scotland on August 29, 2021. Music: AudioInfinity — " Inspirational Piano" — Provided by Jamendo.
Mar 08, 2022•2 min
On February 8th, 2022, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring poets Mark Nowak. Moderated by Carolyn Forché. About Mark Nowak Mark Nowak is the author of four poetry collections: Social Poetics (Coffee House Press, 2020), Coal Mountain Elementary (2009), Shut Up Shut Down (2004), and Revenants (2000). Also a playwright, essayist, social critic, and labor activist, Nowak’s writing documents the hardships and injustices faced by the global working class. Nowak is the recipient of...
Feb 09, 2022•55 min
On January 25th, 2022, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring poets Valzhyna Mort and Michael Prior. Moderated by Carolyn Forché. About Valzhyna Mort Valzhyna Mort is a poet and translator born in Minsk, Belarus. She is the author of three poetry collections, Factory of Tears (Copper Canyon Press 2008), Collected Body (Copper Canyon Press 2011) and, mostly recently, Music for the Dead and Resurrected (FSG, 2020). Mort is a recipient of fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, th...
Jan 26, 2022•54 min
On November 30th, 2021, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring author Tope Folarin Introduction by Aminatta Forna. About Tope Folarin Tope Folarin is a Nigerian-American writer based in Washington, D.C. He won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2013 and was shortlisted once again in 2016. He was also recently named to the Africa39 list of the most promising African writers under 40. Folarin was educated at Morehouse College and the University of Oxford, where he earned two ...
Nov 30, 2021•1 hr 9 min
On November 9th, 2021, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring author Aminatta Forna and editor John Freeman. Introduction by David Gewanter. About Aminatta Forna Aminatta Forna was born in Scotland, raised in Sierra Leone and Great Britain and spent periods of her childhood in Iran, Thailand and Zambia. She is the award-winning author of the novels Happiness , The Hired Man , The Memory of Love and Ancestor Stones , and a memoir The Devil that Danced on the Water , and most rec...
Nov 09, 2021•1 hr 9 min
On October 26th, 2021, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring Douglas Stuart and Maureen Corrigan. Introduction by Aminatta Forna. About Douglas Stuart Douglas Stuart is a Scottish-American author. His debut novel, Shuggie Bain , won the Booker Prize. It is published by Grove Atlantic in the US and Picador in the UK, and is to be translated into thirty-four languages. He wrote Shuggie Bain over a ten year period and is currently at work on his second novel, to be published in 2...
Oct 26, 2021•58 min
On October 12th, 2021, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring poet Jericho Brown. Introduction by Carolyn Forché. About Jericho Brown Jericho Brown is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Brown’s first book, Please (2008), won the American Book Award. His second book, The New Testamen t (2014), won the Anisfie...
Oct 12, 2021•54 min
On September 21st, 2021, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring Sofi Oksanen. Moderated by Lannan Center Director, Aminatta Forna. Cosponsored by the Georgetown Medical Humanities Initiative , the Georgetown Humanities Initiative , the Global and Comparative Literature Program , the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics , the Women's and Gender Studies Program , and the Women's Center at Georgetown University. About Sofi Oksanen Sofi Oksanen is a Finnish-Estonian novel...
Sep 21, 2021•1 hr
On April 20, 2021, we held a virtual reading and conversation with Irenosen Okojie, winner of the 2020 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing. Moderated by Prof. Lahra Smith, Director of African Studies Program. Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian-British writer. She is the winner of the 2020 AKO Caine Prize For Fiction for her story, “Grace Jones.” Her debut novel Butterfly Fish won a Betty Trask award and was shortlisted for an Edinburgh International First Book Award. Her work has been featured in the...
Apr 20, 2021•55 min
On April 13, 2021 the Lannan Center presented a Crowdcast webinar featuring Carolyn Forché. Moderated by Penn Szittya of the Lannan Foundation. Carolyn Forché's first volume of poetry, Gathering the Tribes , winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, was followed by The Country Between Us, The Angel of History , and Blue Hour. In March, 2020, Penguin Press published her fifth collection of poems, In the Lateness of the World. She is also the author of the memoir What You Have Heard Is Tru...
Apr 13, 2021•1 hr 1 min
On March 18, 2021 the Lannan Center presented a Crowdcast webinar featuring author Salman Rushdie, as part of "THIS LAND" the 2021 Lannan Center Symposium. Moderated by BBC's Razia Iqbal. About Salman Rushdie Salman Rushdie is the author of fourteen novels, most recently Quichotte , The Golden House , and Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights . His book Midnight’s Children was awarded the Booker Prize in 1981 and the Best of the Booker in 2008. He is also the author of a book of stories...
Mar 18, 2021•57 min
On March 18, 2021 the Lannan Center presented a Crowdcast webinar on the subject The View From Abroad: "What Can America Learn from the Experience of Other Nations at a Time of Crisis?" This was the launch event of "Beyond Identity: Reimagining the American Narrative," the Lannan Seminars at Georgetown University, and featured Aleksandar Hemon, Monica McWilliams, Ebrahim Rasool, and Elif Shafak. This event was moderated by BBC's Razia Iqbal. Hosted in association with Beyond Conflict and Beyond ...
Mar 18, 2021•1 hr 28 min
On March 16, 2021 the Lannan Center presented a Crowdcast webinar featuring Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, as part of "THIS LAND" the 2021 Lannan Center Symposium. Moderated by poet Carolyn Forché. About Joy Harjo In 2019, Joy Harjo was appointed the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold the position. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Harjo is an internationally known award-winning poet, writer, performer, and saxophone player of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation. Harjo’s nine books of poe...
Mar 16, 2021•1 hr 6 min
On February 9, 2021 the Lannan Center presented a Crowdcast webinar featuring Shane McCrae and Vievee Francis. Introductions by Lannan Fellows Joshua Kim and Renny Simone. Moderated by Carolyn Forché. Shane McCrae is the author of seven books of poetry, including Sometimes I Never Suffered (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020); In the Language of My Captor (Wesleyan University Press, 2017), which was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and The Animal Too Big ...
Feb 09, 2021•58 min
On January 26, 2021 the Lannan Center presented a Crowdcast webinar featuring Javier Zamora and Natalie Scenters-Zapico. Introductions by Lannan Fellows Dennese Mae Javier and Nohora Arrieta Fernandez. Moderated by Carolyn Forché. Javier Zamora was born in La Herradura, El Salvador in 1990. His father fled El Salvador when he was a year old; and his mother when he was about to turn five. Both parents’ migrations were caused by the US-funded Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992). In 1999, Javier migra...
Jan 26, 2021•57 min
On November 17, 2020, the Lannan Center presented a Crowdcast webinar featuring Carmen Giménez Smith and José Olivarez. Introduced by Aminatta Forna and moderated by English Department Chair Ricardo Ortíz and Professor Elizabeth Velez. Carmen Giménez Smith is most recently the author of Be Recorder (2020), which was shortlisted for both the National Book Award and the PEN Open Book Award. Her 2013 collection Milk and Filth , was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is a Pro...
Nov 17, 2020•1 hr 1 min
On October 20, 2020, the Lannan Center presented a Crowdcast webinar featuring Valeria Luiselli in conversation with Aminatta Forna. Introduced by Lakshmi Krishnan. Valeria Luiselli 's recent novel, Lost Children Archive was a finalist for the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Fiction and long-listed for the 2019 Booker Prize, and has been named a best book of 2019 by Entertainment Weekly , Vanity Fair , Vulture , and Time . Lost Children Archive sits beside Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions , L...
Oct 20, 2020•1 hr 2 min
On September 29, 2020 the Lannan Center presented a Crowdcast webinar featuring Susan Choi in Conversation with Maureen Corrigan. Introduction by Aminatta Forna. Susan Choi is most recently the author of Trust Exercise (2019), which won the National Book Award for fiction, and her first book for children, Camp Tiger (2019). Her first novel, The Foreign Student , won the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction. Her second novel, American Woman , was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize. Her t...
Sep 29, 2020•57 min
On May 18, 2020, author and 2019 Booker Prize Winner Bernardine Evaristo was interviewed by NPR's Maureen Corrigan (The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University) via Zoom. We apologize for the quality of the sound during the interview, which was made under COVID-19 conditions. Music: Quantum Jazz — " Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.
May 26, 2020•55 min
On February 25, 2020, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring poets John Murillo and Tina Chang. Introduction by Patricia Guzman. John Murillo is the author of the poetry collections Up Jump the Boogie (2010), which was a finalist for both the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the PEN Open Book Award, and Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry , forthcoming from Four Way Books in 2020. His work has appeared in Callaloo, Court Green, Ninth Letter , and Ploughshares , and is forthcoming in Ang...
Mar 02, 2020•1 hr 7 min
On February 18, 2020, the Lannan Center presented "Power and Language," a special event with Caine Prize winning writer Lesley Nneka Arimah. Welcome: Aminatta Forna (Director of the Lannan Center, Georgetown University). Introduction: Scott Taylor (Director of the African Studies Program, Georgetown University). Lesley Nneka Arimah is the author of “Skinned,” winner of the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing; What It Means When A Man Falls From the Sky (2017), her debut short story collection; ...
Feb 21, 2020•1 hr 2 min
