Please join AWP in honoring Black History Month this February. AWP is committed to respecting, uplifting, and honoring Black voices both inside and outside the literary world, especially voices in underrepresented and marginalized communities. In honor of Black History Month, we’re providing a compilation of past AWP panels and events, Writer’s Chronicle articles, online educational events, and a Bookshop.org list of influential and prolific Black authors and poets.

From the Writer’s Chronicle

Whole Sight: Notes on New Black Fiction by Charles Johnson, February 1985

An Interview with Rita Dove by Elizabeth Alexander, October/November 2005

Like Water Remembering Light: An Interview with Marilyn Nelson by Leslie McGrath, September 2009

Make It New/Make It Funky: An Interview with Cornelius Eady by Jona Colson, December 2010

In Our Way: Racism in Creative Writing by Claudia Rankine, October/November 2016

An Interview with Jericho Brown by Jona Colson, November 2020

Rewatch Online Events

Virtual AWP: Conversations with Writers Featuring Maurice Carlos Ruffin & Regina Brooks

AWP Virtual Book Club Featuring Horsepower by Joy Priest

NBCC Award Winners Edwidge Danticat and Sarah M. Broom on Finding Home

Legacy Conversations with C. S. Giscombe and Nathaniel Mackey, Sponsored by Cave Canem

#AWP21 Event Tribute to June Jordan, Sponsored by Copper Canyon Press

Virtual AWP Pedagogy: Reclaiming Genre Fiction for the Creative Writing Classroom

Virtual AWP in Conversation: Celebrating Black Poetry with Cave Canem

#AWP22 Honoring the Endeavor with Cornelius Eady & Toi Derricotte

#AWP23 Blue Flower Arts Presents Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Kwame Dawes, and Chigozie Obioma

#AWP23 Cave Canem Presents: Duende & The Harlem Arts Salon

#AWP23 NBCC Presents Honorée Fannone Jeffers and Namwali Serpell, Moderated by Jane Ciabattari

Upcoming Online Events

All events appear in ET.

Sunday, February 4

11:00 a.m.—The Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture presents Black History Is American History. Join to hear Lujira Cooper bring back the intimate and hidden history of Black folks in the United States. This event offers free admission and will take place online.

Wednesday, February 7

7:00 p.m.—Attend East End Libraries Present: Celebrating Black Joy with Brenda Simmons, founder of the Southampton African American Museum, and Dr. Georgette Grier- Key, executive director and curator of the Eastville Community Historical Society, for a discussion celebrating Black history. This event offers free admission and will take place online.

Wednesday, February 21

1:15 p.m.—Explore Canadian Black history through Peel Region Black History Month 2024 - “Truth in Storytelling.” This event will discuss the extensive history of Black Canadians and will delve into the power of poetry and spoken word. Speakers include Jennifer Holness, Dwayne Morgan, and Tyneisha Thomas. This event offers free admission and will take place online.

Thursday, February 22

7:00 p.m.—Join the Georgia Public Library for Black History Month: Author Kern Carter. Kern Carter, author of Boys and Girls Screaming, will share the joy and pain behind this book’s creative process as well as his personal and career journeys. This event offers free admission and will take place online.