The Center for Fiction Presents Rachel Eliza Griffiths on Promise with Marlon James

This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

Thursday, 7:00 pm EDT July 13, 2023

The Center for Fiction
& Livestreamed

9780593241929 Large

The Ticket/Voucher option includes a $10 Bookstore voucher, redeemable toward the featured event book on the night of the event. All registrants will receive a link to livestream the event.

The Center for Fiction welcomes Rachel Eliza Griffiths in celebration of her debut novel, Promise. Set in 1957 at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, Griffiths’s luminous work speaks to the often-overlooked experiences of Black people in integrated communities of New England, richly illustrating one family’s powerful story of resistance. As rising tensions reach their idyllic, isolated Maine village and violence, prejudice, and fear continue to escalate among their previously friendly white neighbors, the Kindred family commits great acts of heroism and grace on their path to survival. Bestselling author Marlon James, winner of the Man Booker Prize for A Brief History of Seven Killings, joins Griffiths for a powerful discussion of what James calls “a secret history of an America we think we know, but never really knew.”

Note: This event previously featured Nafissa Thompson-Spires, who is no longer able to attend.

9780593241929 Large

In Conversation

  • 2214591_griffiths_rachel_eliza - Events The Center for Fiction

    Rachel Eliza Griffiths

    Rachel Eliza Griffiths

    Rachel Eliza Griffiths is a poet, visual artist, and novelist. She is a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize and was a finalist for a NAACP Image Award. Griffiths is also a recipient of fellowships from many organizations, including Cave Canem Foundation, Kimbilio, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and Yaddo. Her work has been published in the New York Times, the New Yorker, Tin House, and other publications.


    Photo Credit: Beowulf Sheehan

  • Marlon James_c Mark Seliger 2021

    Marlon James

    Marlon James

    Marlon James was born in Jamaica in 1970. His most recent novel, Moon Witch, Spider King, is the second novel in his Dark Star fantasy trilogy. Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the first novel in James’s Dark Star trilogy, was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award. His novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, was the winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize, The American Book Award, and The Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize for fiction. He is also the author of the novels John Crow’s Devil and The Book of Night Women, which won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.


    Photo Credit: Mark Seliger

Featured Book

  1. . 
    9780593241929 Large

    Promise

    By Rachel Eliza Griffiths

    Published by Random House

    PURCHASE

    The Kindred sisters—Ezra and Cinthy—have grown up with an abundance of love. Love from their parents, who let them believe that the stories they tell on stars can come true. Love from their neighbors, the Junketts, the only other Black family in town, whose home is filled with spice-rubbed ribs and ground-shaking hugs. And love for their adopted hometown of Salt Point, a beautiful Maine village perched high up on coastal bluffs.

    But as the girls hit adolescence, their white neighbors, including Ezra’s best friend, Ruby, start to see their maturing bodies and minds in a different way. And as the news from distant parts of the country fills with calls for freedom, equality, and justice for Black Americans, the white villagers of Salt Point begin to view the Kindreds and the Junketts as threats to their way of life. Amid escalating violence, prejudice, and fear, bold Ezra and watchful Cinthy must reach deep inside the wells of love they’ve built to commit great acts of heroism and grace on the path to survival.

    In luminous, richly descriptive writing, Promise celebrates one family’s story of resistance. It’s a book that will break your heart—and then rebuild it with courage, hope, and love.

Events
More Events
Events

Discover More Upcoming Events