Name: Rewriting the Record: Literature, Memory, and the Histories We Inherit
Start: 2026-04-17T10:30:00-0400
End: 2026-04-17T11:15:00-0400

Rewriting the Record: Literature, Memory, and the Histories We Inherit

Friday April 17, 2026 10:30am - 11:15am EDT

Gezon Auditorium

In conversation, Laurie Halse Anderson and Ayana Mathis discuss how literature can illuminate, challenge, and reshape historical narratives—especially those marked by racial injustice.They explore storytelling as an act of truthtelling and repair, revealing how writers help readers reckon with the past while imagining more honest, humane futures. 

Book signing follows in the Spoelhof Atrium

Speakers

Laurie Halse Anderson

Laurie Halse Anderson is a New York Times bestselling author whose writing spans young readers, teens, and adults. Combined, her books have sold more than 8 million copies.

Two of her novels, Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists, and Chains was short-listed for the... Read More →

Ayana Mathis

Mathis's bestselling debut, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, was an Oprah's Book Club selection. Her newest, The Unsettled, is a searing multi-generational novel set in a historically Black town in Alabama and racially and politically turbulent Philadelphia. Mathis was the first Black woman to be a permanent faculty member at the Iowa Writers' Workshop... Read More →

Friday April 17, 2026 10:30am - 11:15am EDT
Gezon Auditorium

Concurrent Session, Conversation

2026 Festival of Faith and Writing

Laurie Halse Anderson

Ayana Mathis

Get help with the event

2026 Festival of Faith and Writing

Laurie Halse Anderson

Ayana Mathis

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