Monday, September 13th at 8:00 PM ET | 5:00 PM PT: PBS Books presents this Author Talk with Annette Gordon-Reed about her book On Juneteenth.
In collaboration with WETA, PBS Books is honored to host this virtual engagement event with author Annette Gordon-Reed on September 13th as part of our dynamic, sequel partnership with The Library of Congress for the 2021 Library of Congress National Book Festival “Open a Book, Open the World.”
After a successful partnership with The Library of Congress last year, this second series of virtual author talks with legendary authors of our time will center on this year’s theme: “Open a Book, Open the World.” The 2021 LOC Festival will be a 10-day event, held from September 17-26, 2021. Programming includes a 60-minute PBS Books special, exploring the many worlds authors create, investigate, and share. Hosted by LeVar Burton, the special will premiere on Sunday, September 12, from 6-7pm ET (Check your local listing). Additional PBS feed dates are Saturday, September 18 at 7pm ET, and Sunday, September 19 at 1:30pm ET (more details to follow). Expect diverse discussions from incredible guests like Angie Thomas, Tana French, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Michael J. Fox.
Throughout the months of August and September, PBS Books is hosting ten events to celebrate several authors who are part of this thrilling special. These intimate, moderated Q&As will be moments to learn about the care and curiosity that generates great writing. The events will provide insights into the upcoming festival and will be targeted to particular national regions. As always, this PBS Books content will be accessible to all audiences.
About the Author
Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard. Gordon-Reed won sixteen book prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2009 and the National Book Award in 2008, for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton, 2008). In addition to articles and reviews, her other works include Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy(UVA Press, 1997), Vernon Can Read! A Memoir, a collaboration with Vernon Jordan (PublicAffairs, 2001), Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History (Oxford University Press, 2002), a volume of essays that she edited, Andrew Johnson (Times Books/Henry Holt, 2010) and, with Peter S. Onuf, “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs”: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination (Liveright Publishing, 2016). Her most recent book is On Juneteenth (Liveright Publishing, 2021). Gordon-Reed was the Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at the University of Oxford (Queens College) 2014-2015. Between 2010 and 2015, she was the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. She was the 2018-2019 President of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. She is the current President of the Ames Foundation. A selected list of her honors includes a fellowship from the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, a Guggenheim Fellowship in the humanities, a MacArthur Fellowship, the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Award, the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, the George Washington Book Prize, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. Gordon-Reed served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College from 2010 to 2018. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011 and was a member of the Academy’s Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2019, she was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society.