Black Books Matter

I’ll be heading back to Britain in October and have a very busy birthday week lined up. On the 24th I’ll be giving a talk in the Faculty of Education at Cambridge University, then I’ll head up to Newcastle the following day to deliver the same talk at Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Literature. You can learn more about those events here. On my actual birthday (October 26) I’ll be attending a symposium, What’s Happening in Black British History, before presenting that afternoon at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study. I met Susan Belgrave last spring at Coventry Law School and she suggested we collaborate on another event for youth when I returned. “Black Books Matter” will be an interactive workshop and I hope teens do come out (October is Black History Month in the UK). I hope to see some friends as well while I’m over there but mostly I’m looking forward to disappearing for a while. Being in Nova Scotia this past weekend was wonderful—I didn’t take my laptop but came home with a head full of ideas. Now I just have to sit down and WRITE…