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January 31, 2019NYS Writers Institute Welcomes Ibi Zobol, National Book Award Finalist, to the University at Albany February 5
Ibi Zoboi, a National Book Award finalist for her first novel, American Street (2017), will discuss her new books, the YA bestseller Pride and the essay anthology Black Enough, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, February 5, in the University at Albany’s Performing Arts Center Recital Hall, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany. Earlier that same day, at 4:15 p.m. in the Multi-Purpose Room in the university’s Campus Center West Addition, Zoboi will hold an informal craft talk.
The programs, cosponsored by the UAlbany Student Association, are free and open to the public.
American Street draws on Zoboi’s own experiences as she tells the story of a Haitian girl’s path from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to her new life in Detroit. The Chicago Tribune called it
“a stunning, richly textured debut novel.” Zoboi was born in Haiti and immigrated to New York with her mother when she was four years old.
Her widely-acclaimed new novel, Pride (2018), is an Afro-Latino retelling of Jane
Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, set in the Bushwick neighborhood of modern-day Brooklyn.
School Library Journal said of Pride, “This excellent coming-of-age take on a classic belongs on all YA shelves.”
Zoboi is also editor of Black Enough (2019), a new collection of stories about what it’s like to be young and black in America, featuring contributions by 17 bestselling Black YA authors, including Jason Reynolds, Nic Stone, Justina Ireland, and Zoboi herself.
In a Washington Post review published earlier this month, Mary Quattlebaum wrote: “In her sensitive introduction, Zoboi hopes that this timely book ‘will encourage all black teens to be their free, uninhibited selves.’ But the anthology is more than that: It’s an invitation for all readers to understand, as its subtitle suggests, what it means to be ‘young and black in America.'”
For more information contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or www.nyswritersinstitute.org.
