New Names for Stars: Len Lawson in Conversation with Danté Stewart
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An Evening of Poetry: insightful conversation, New Names for Stars reading and book signing. 💫
Celebrate Len Lawson's latest poetry collection release with us! Lawson will be joined with Danté Stewart, author of Shoutin' in the Fire: An American Epistle, in conversation to discuss New Names for Stars. ✨🌟
"Len Lawson’s remarkable poetry collection New Names for Stars is a journey and a companion for that journey, exploring Afrofuturism, superheroes, mental health, social justice, and beyond, with narratives ranging from personal to universal...Every poem in this collection provides readers with the gift of wisdom, opening a conversation with history both distant and near, enlightening as it delights."
—Mary Biddinger, author of The Girl with the Black Lipstick, Department of Elegy, and Partial Genuis
"Len Lawson’s New Names for Stars is a daring, thoughtful book that superimposes the struggle and triumph of Black life onto the cosmos. Across a collection of experimental and inventive meditations emerges one of our most important chroniclers of Black America. Lawson is masterful with a playful spirit and a master elegist’s eye. This collection took me to a better world."
—Nate Marshall, author of Wild Hundreds & Finna
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Len Lawson is author of New Names for Stars, winner of the Lit Fox Award (Lit Fox Books, forthcoming 2026), Negro Asylum for the Lunatic Insane (Main Street Rag, 2023), and Chime (Get Fresh Books, 2019). He is also editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry (Blair Press, 2021) and Hand in Hand: Poets Respond to Race (Muddy Ford Press, 2017). He has received fellowships from Tin House Summer Workshop, Palm Beach Poetry Festival, Callaloo Barbados, Vermont Studio Center, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts among others. His poetry appears in African American Review, Callaloo, Mississippi Review, Ninth Letter, Verse Daily, and has been translated internationally. Len earned a PhD in English Literature and Criticism at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in Creative Writing at Queens University of Charlotte. Born and living in South Carolina, he is Director of African American Studies and Assistant Professor of English at Newberry College.
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Rev. Danté Stewart is the author of Shoutin’ in the Fire: An American Epistle. He is an award-winning writer, whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Atlantic, New York Times, the Washington Post, TIME, ESPN, Andscape, Oxford American, Sojourners, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, and more. His forthcoming ESPN essay on what football means to one small Black rural town is being produced into an ESPN documentary, on which Danté also serves as a writer. He is a sought-after voice on matters of faith, heartbreak, justice and the power of telling the stories that matter and has spoken on these issues for NPR on several occasions. Named by Georgia Writers Association as "Georgia Writer of the Year”; by The Center for American Progress as one of "22 Faith Leaders to Watch in 2022"; and by Religion News Service as one of "Ten Up-And-Coming Faith Influencers." He received his B.A. in Sociology from Clemson University and his MTS from The Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. He is an ordained minister, and lives with his wife and children in Georgia.
Celebrate Len Lawson's latest poetry collection release with us! Lawson will be joined with Danté Stewart, author of Shoutin' in the Fire: An American Epistle, in conversation to discuss New Names for Stars. ✨🌟
"Len Lawson’s remarkable poetry collection New Names for Stars is a journey and a companion for that journey, exploring Afrofuturism, superheroes, mental health, social justice, and beyond, with narratives ranging from personal to universal...Every poem in this collection provides readers with the gift of wisdom, opening a conversation with history both distant and near, enlightening as it delights."
—Mary Biddinger, author of The Girl with the Black Lipstick, Department of Elegy, and Partial Genuis
"Len Lawson’s New Names for Stars is a daring, thoughtful book that superimposes the struggle and triumph of Black life onto the cosmos. Across a collection of experimental and inventive meditations emerges one of our most important chroniclers of Black America. Lawson is masterful with a playful spirit and a master elegist’s eye. This collection took me to a better world."
—Nate Marshall, author of Wild Hundreds & Finna
📚📚📚
Len Lawson is author of New Names for Stars, winner of the Lit Fox Award (Lit Fox Books, forthcoming 2026), Negro Asylum for the Lunatic Insane (Main Street Rag, 2023), and Chime (Get Fresh Books, 2019). He is also editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry (Blair Press, 2021) and Hand in Hand: Poets Respond to Race (Muddy Ford Press, 2017). He has received fellowships from Tin House Summer Workshop, Palm Beach Poetry Festival, Callaloo Barbados, Vermont Studio Center, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts among others. His poetry appears in African American Review, Callaloo, Mississippi Review, Ninth Letter, Verse Daily, and has been translated internationally. Len earned a PhD in English Literature and Criticism at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in Creative Writing at Queens University of Charlotte. Born and living in South Carolina, he is Director of African American Studies and Assistant Professor of English at Newberry College.
📚📚📚
Rev. Danté Stewart is the author of Shoutin’ in the Fire: An American Epistle. He is an award-winning writer, whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Atlantic, New York Times, the Washington Post, TIME, ESPN, Andscape, Oxford American, Sojourners, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, and more. His forthcoming ESPN essay on what football means to one small Black rural town is being produced into an ESPN documentary, on which Danté also serves as a writer. He is a sought-after voice on matters of faith, heartbreak, justice and the power of telling the stories that matter and has spoken on these issues for NPR on several occasions. Named by Georgia Writers Association as "Georgia Writer of the Year”; by The Center for American Progress as one of "22 Faith Leaders to Watch in 2022"; and by Religion News Service as one of "Ten Up-And-Coming Faith Influencers." He received his B.A. in Sociology from Clemson University and his MTS from The Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. He is an ordained minister, and lives with his wife and children in Georgia.
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Where is it happening?
978 Broad Street, Augusta, GA, United States, Georgia 30901
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Host or PublisherThe Book Tavern
