Clint Smith
2021 Keynote
Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, which was a #1 New York Times Bestseller, and the poetry collection Counting Descent, which won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award.
Brittney Morris
2021 Keynote
Brittney Morris is the author of SLAY and The Cost of Knowing. She is also the founder and former president of the Boston University Creative Writing Club. She holds a BA in economics. You can find her online at AuthorBrittneyMorris.com and on Twitter or Instagram @BrittneyMMorris.
Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
2020
Poet, essayist, translator, and immigration advocate, Castillo is the author of the collection Cenzontle (2018), which won the 2017 A. Poulin Jr. prize, and the chapbook Dulce (2018). His memoir, Children of the Land (2020), is his most recent publication. His work has appeared or been featured in The New York Times, PBS Newshour, People Magazine en Español, The Paris Review, Fusion TV, Buzzfeed, Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts, New England Review, and Indiana Review, among others. He currently teaches in the Low-Res MFA program at Ashland University.
Mahogany L. Browne
2020
Writer, organizer, and educator., Browne is the Interim Executive Director of Urban Word NYC & Poetry Coordinator at St. Francis College. She has received fellowships from Agnes Gund, Air Serenbe, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research & Rauschenberg and is the author of Chlorine Sky (2021), Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice (2020), Black Girl Magic (2020), Woke Baby (2018), and Kissing Caskets (2017). Browne is also the founder of Woke Baby Book Fair (a nationwide diversity literature campaign); and as an Arts for Justice grantee, is completing her first book of essays on mass incarceration, investigating its impact on women and children.
Jerry Craft
2019
Jerry Craft is an author and illustrator who has worked on numerous picture books, graphic novels, and middle-grade novels. His newest book, New Kid, is a middle-grade graphic novel that has earned four starred reviews, including one from Booklist Magazine that called it "Possibly one of the most important graphic novels of the year." Kirkus Reviews called it "An engrossing, humorous, and vitally important graphic novel that should be required reading in every middle school in America." Jerry's books have been Junior Library Guild selections, and he has won five African American Literary Awards.
Tricia Ebarvia
2019
Tricia Ebarvia teaches at a school outside of Philadelphia, PA. She is Co-Director for the Pennsylvania Writing and Literature Project (PAWLP), a site of the National Writing Project (NWP). She contributes to “From the Classroom” column on the PAWLP website and to MovingWriters.org. Her writing has also been published in English Journal, Literacy Today, and Education Week. In 2016 she was named a Heinemann Fellow, an action-research “think tank” of teachers led by Ellin Keene. And in 2018, Tricia co-founded the anti-bias, anti-racist pedagogy effort #DisruptTexts with the goal of advocating for more inclusive and equitable curricula and pedagogies.
Elizabeth Acevedo
2018
ELIZABETH ACEVEDO is a New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X and With the Fire on High. Her critically-acclaimed debut novel, The Poet X, won the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. She is also the recipient of the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Fiction, the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and the Boston Globe-Hornbook Award. Additionally, she was honored with the 2019 Pure Belpré Author Award for celebrating, affirming, and portraying Latinx culture and experience.