Center for Black Literature

18th National Black Writers Conference

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Writers on Writing

Writers on Writing Interview
with Dr. Latorial Faison

Dr. Brenda Greene interviews poet and writer Dr. Latorial Faison. Greene and Faison discuss the themes in Faison’s books, Nursery Rhymes in Black (University of Alaska Press, 2025) and Blood at the Root (Finishing Line Press, 2025). Faison shares the catalyst for her books, her writing process, and the people and writers who have influenced her. Her writing explores Black Southern traditions, womanhood, memory, and the intersections of race, culture, and identity. Faison has been nominated for Poet Laureate of Virginia. She is Department Chair of Languages and Literature at Virginia State University.

Writers on Writing Interview
with James E. Cherry

Dr. Brenda Greene interviews poet, fiction writer, professor, and literary activist James E. Cherry. Greene and Cherry discuss the themes in Cherry’s poetry book, Between Chance and Mercy, the writers from the Black Arts Movement who have influenced him, his writing craft and teaching, and his book Edge of the Wind (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2022), a novel about a community and how it reckons with the nightmare of racial injustice. Cherry’s writing has been published in journals and anthologies both in the U.S. and internationally.

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The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College presented the Tenth National Black Writers Conference: March 2010: Pictured (front row, left to right): Honoree Amiri Baraka; Dr. Brenda M. Greene, Executive Director, Center for Black Literature; poet and presenter Sonia Sanchez; Honorary Chair Toni Morrison; Dr. Cornel West; and Susan L. Taylor. (Back row, left to right) Dean Richard Jones; Dean Moses Newsome; MEC student, and Honoree Kamau Brathwaite. Photo by Andre Beckles.

About the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, CUNY

For 20 years, the programs of the Center for Black Literature (CBL) have had a dynamic impact in the literary field. The highly anticipated author readings and book signings, journals, symposia, conferences, panel discussions, and writing workshops—and the Center’s intellectual and accessible approach to programming—form an integrative approach to programming that sets CBL apart from others. CBL’s events are known for the way they ensure that Black literary scholarship and conversations are valued and sustained.

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Center for Black Literature (CBL)
at Medgar Evers College, CUNY
1534 Bedford Avenue | 2nd Floor
Brooklyn, New York 11216
(Click HERE for the Postal Mailing Address)

Main Phone: (718) 804-8884
Main Office: info@centerforblackliterature.org

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