event coverage

By Yael Valencia Aldana
On Saturday afternoon, a few hundred literary souls braved the unusually cold weather and a stiff biting breeze for the event, When Blackness Rhymes with Blackness, Cornelius Eady and Rowan Ricardo Phillips in conversation. I love these events as it gives us access to literary royalty.
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By Ofelia Montelongo
On Friday, January 13th, after defying the rain and the wind, Emerging Writer Award winners Lisa Lee (novel-in-progress), Amanda Hawkins (poetry), and Nayereh Doosti (short story) read from their work at the Coffee Butler Amphitheater in Key West, Florida. The awards support writers with extraordinary talent and
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By Kristin Taylor
The unusually cold wind whipping off the ocean may have rattled the canopies as the sun set, but it didn’t deter the audience from huddling under layered shirts and towels-turned-blankets to hear Jacqueline Woodson’s incandescent talk
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By Casey Petty
On a windy Saturday morning in Key West, from the stage of the Butler Coffee Amphitheater, the focus of the seminar shifted to discussing black voices in American History—a history that’s both triumphant and tragic,
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By Aaisha Haykal
On Saturday afternoon the attendees at the 2023 Key West Literary Seminar were treated to an engaging conversation on the role of horror, specifically Black horror, in society
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By Amanda Hawkins
The climate crisis is not easily a hopeful topic. Indeed, the tone at the beginning of Saturday afternoon’s discussion, “A Mighty Storm: Reading and Writing our Climate Future,” began as it should: serious, pointed, and clear.
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By Ali Banach
On this windy afternoon, Tananarive Due took to the Key West Literary Seminar stage to deliver a lecture about the genre of Afrofuturism and its role in books, cinema, and music. Toward the beginning of her talk, Due offered a working definition of Afrofuturism as “speculative work,” including science fiction, fantasy, and horror
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By Kathie Klarreich
It takes a special kind of person to move an audience from laughter to reflection in seconds, but for Ashley Ford, that ability seems as instinctual as her storytelling. During her nearly hour-long conversation with researcher, writer and community archivist Nadege Green, Ford gave insight and
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By Ali Banach
Rowan Ricardo Phillips opened his reading with a dedication to the Ambassador Chorale of Florida Memorial University, who had just departed the stage. He spoke to the moving nature of their performance, stating, “When I close my eyes, I hear the past, and when I open them, I see the future.”
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By Ariana McLean
Fresh from workshop and an afternoon soaking up the sun, I arrived at the Coffee Butler Amphitheater for the opening night of the 40th Key West Literary Seminar. After welcoming remarks from Executive Director Arlo Haskell and Program Chair Lori Reid,
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The 40th Annual Key West Literary Seminar, “Singing America: A Celebration of Black Literature”, is set to begin in just a few hours at the Coffee Butler Amphitheater with the John Hersey Memorial Address by Kevin Young.