The local nonprofit continues its 30-year mission to increase Black literary representation.
The Hurston/Wright Foundation is in the midst of its annual Writers Week, which brings together Black writers and literature lovers from around the world. The digital conference, usually held in D.C., began on July 31 with a public reading on CrowdCast, and it continues to this Friday, Aug. 7, with workshops on poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, plus 60-minute micro-classes about the craft of writing. The concluding event is a publishing panel about the diversity gap in the industry featuring panelists from Penguin Random House and other literary organizations. Award-winning writers are showcased throughout the week, including Hurston/Wright’s co-founder, novelist and nonfiction writer Marita Golden, who was born in D.C. and won the Authors Guild Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community.
On July 31, New Issues Poetry Prize-winner Chet’la Sebree, nonfiction writer and Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winner Emily Bernard, and New York Times bestselling novelist Dolen Perkins–Valdez, who is based in the District and was awarded a DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities grant to complete her second novel Balm, read from their work and spoke with the audience afterward.
