In Conversation with Jerald Walker

Acclaimed author and Professor of Creative Writing at Emerson College Jerald Walker—whose most recent book How to Make a Slave and Other Essays was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award in Nonfiction and winner of the 2020 Massachusetts Book Award in Nonfiction—will take us into his visceral accounts of what it is like to be a Black man in America during this intimate conversation moderated by Crystal Haynes, Emmy award winning journalist and weekend anchor for Boston 25 News. We'll conclude with an author signing facilitated by a local independent bookstore partner.

About the author

A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Jerald Walker has published in magazines such as Creative Nonfiction, The Missouri Review, The Harvard Review, Mother Jones, The Iowa Review, and The Oxford American, and he has been widely anthologized, including five times in The Best American Essays.

Walker is the author of Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption, recipient of the 2011 PEN New England/L.L. Winship Award for Nonfiction and named a Best Memoir of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, and The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult. His latest book, How to Make a Slave and Other Essays was a Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award in Nonfiction, and winner of the 2020 Massachusetts Book Award in Nonfiction. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, James A. Michener Foundation and in 2022 the MacArthur Foundation.

Walker's doctorate is in Interdisciplinary Studies, combining the fields of African American literature, African American history, and creative writing.

Prior to arriving at Emerson College where he is a Professor of creative writing, he was an Associate Professor of English at Bridgewater State University. He also has been a Visiting Professor in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies at MIT and in the MFA in Nonfiction Program at the University of Iowa. His teaching honors include the Favorite Faculty Award and the Martha D. Jones Award for Most Outstanding Dedication to Students.

About the moderator

Crystal Haynes is an Emmy award winning journalist and weekend anchor for Boston 25 News. Her Priced Out and Equity in Education series won Northeast Regional Emmy and Salute to Excellence Awards from the National Association of Black Journalists. Crystal is the creator, producer, and host of the award-winning Boston’s Black History: Inspiring Our Future series.

Crystal is an Arlington resident, the Events Working Group Lead on the Arlington Human Rights Commission, a member of the Boston Association of Black Journalists, NAACP, and is a part-time lecturer at Northeastern University.

Crystal holds a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism from Emerson College and a Master’s degree in Media Advocacy from Northeastern University's College of Arts, Media and Design.

This program is presented in partnership by the Boston Public Library the Arlington International Film Festival.

Host or Publisher Boston Public Library