Montclair Lit Fest 2021 To Kick Off With Deesha Philyaw Event – Montclair, NJ Patch
MONTCLAIR, NJ — A nonprofit in Montclair is kicking off its annual literary festival with an event featuring a National Book Award for Fiction finalist: Deesha Philyaw.
Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival has announced its first event for 2021, a conversation with Philyaw, who will speak about her debut short story collection, “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies” on Wednesday, Feb. 24.
According to an announcement from Succeed2gether:
“Deesha’s book focuses on Black women, sex and the Black church, and features four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, and being caught between church standards and their own needs and passions. The book was also a finalist for the 2020 Story Prize for Fiction, and just this month, was longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Deesha will be in conversation with author and Montclair resident Dionne Ford, co-editor of the anthology, ‘Slavery’s Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race and Reconciliation’ and of the forthcoming ‘Finding Josephine.'”
The event is free. Register in advance or learn more here.
I’m looking forward to being in conversation with
@DionneFord at The Montclair Literary Festival @MontclairLitFes! Register here to join us: https://t.co/B35Mg3n5m1 pic.twitter.com/HAqCCJiiHL
— Deesha Philyaw (@DeeshaPhilyaw) February 10, 2021
The event with Philyaw is a prelude to other upcoming festival dates, including a series of author events on March 20 and March 21 featuring writers and poets from England, Scotland, Ireland, Korea, Iran, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Ecuador and Spain. See all of the talks by following on Crowdcast here or visiting the nonprofit’s events page here.
The fifth annual Montclair Literary Festival will take place on Saturday, Oct. 2 with a combination of live and online events.
The festival is a program of Succeed2gether, a nonprofit organization based in Montclair that addresses unequal access to educational resources by providing free enrichment and academic programs to children in need from Essex County and surrounding New Jersey communities.
Succeed2gether launched its Montclair Literary Festival in 2017 to “promote literacy and reading for all” and “celebrate Montclair’s vibrant and diverse literary scene.” The festival raises funds and awareness for the work of Succeed2gether.
This story is part of Patch’s Headlining Hope series, which profiles local nonprofits and charitable organizations in need of volunteers and resources. If you know about a local organization that should be profiled, contact eric.kiefer@patch.com