NBF Presents: Writing Towards Tomorrow

National Book Award–honored poet, essayist, and memoirist Camonghne Felix (Build Yourself a Boat, 2019 Poetry Longlister; and most recently, Let the Poets Govern: A Declaration of Freedom) and novelist Sarah Thankam Mathews (All This Could Be Different, 2022 Fiction Finalist) use storytelling to imagine a more expansive and equitable future. Join the authors for readings and conversation about the possibilities of writing as a tool for change and for community building, no matter the genre.

Moderated by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, bestselling author, professor, and a firefly guide for Mississippi State Parks.

Limited free copies of Build Yourself a Boat and All This Could Be Different will be available at the event, first come, first served. Contact Jen Waller at [email protected] to coordinate receiving books in advance. The program will be followed by a book signing.

Presented in partnership with Coahoma Community College, the Coahoma County Higher Education Center, and the National Book Foundation.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Camonghne Felix, poet and essayist, is the author of Dyscalculia, which was longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and Build Yourself a Boat, which was Longlisted for the National Book Award in Poetry, shortlisted for the PEN/Open Book Awards, and shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Awards. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in the Academy of American Poets’ poets.org, Freeman’s, Harvard Review, LitHub, The New Yorker, PEN America, Poetry, and elsewhere. Her essays have been featured in Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Teen Vogue, and other places. She is a professor of writing at The New School.

Born in India and raised in Oman, Sarah Thankam Mathews is the author of the critically acclaimed novel, All This Could Be Different, which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a finalist for multiple awards, including the National Book Award for Fiction. Mathews lives and works in New York and writes the newsletter thot pudding.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of the book of food essays Bite By Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees and the New York Times bestselling illustrated collection of nature essays World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks & Other Astonishments. She also wrote five previous poetry collections including Night Owl and Oceanic. Her most recent chapbook is Lace & Pyrite, a collaboration of epistolary garden poems with the poet Ross Gay. Honors include a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowship, the Pushcart Prize, a Mississippi Arts Council grant, and the North American Association for Environmental Education’s 2024 Pepe Marcos-Iga Award for Innovation in Environmental Education. For a decade, she served as the poetry editor for Orion and Sierra magazines. A professor of English and Creative Writing for over 25 years, she also serves as a firefly guide for Mississippi State Parks.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher National Book Foundation