A.E. Rooks is the author of The Black Joke: The True Story of One Ship's Battle Against the Slave Trade, winner of the Maritime Foundation’s Mountbatten Award for Best Book in 2022. A Jeopardy! champion who’s additionally received two national awards for sex positive journalism, Rooks’s literary passions are united by what the past can teach us about the present, how history shapes our future, and above all, really interesting stories.

Schedule

1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
State Library, Second Floor, Meeting Room
The Stories We Tell About Inequality, Race, Place, and the Myth of Progress
Monica Patrice Barra, Good Sediment: Black Ecologies and the Politics of Restoration in Coastal Louisiana
Katie Benner, Miracle Children: Race, Education and the Fate of the World
Sarah L. Webb, Colorism: The Politics of Skin Tone and How We Get Free
with moderator A.E. Rooks

2:15 pm to 3:00 pm
State Library, Fifth Floor, Serials
Beyond the Stars: Sci-Fi Novels of Cosmic Horror, Ancient Magic, Evil Empires, and Survival
Brian Fontenot, Seraphim Descent
Yoon Ha Lee, Code and Codex
with moderator A.E. Rooks

Moderator