Award-winning author Marlon James will read from his work and discuss the theme “Imagining Alternative Futures.” Guests are invited to attend in-person or virtually. The in-person event is preceded by a public reception at 5:15 pm.
As the celebrated author of five novels, Marlon James was born in Jamaica in 1970 and divides his time between Minnesota and New York. He is the author of the New York Times-bestseller Black Leopard, Red Wolf, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction in 2019. His novel A Brief History of Seven Killings won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and the Minnesota Book Award. It was also a New York Times Notable Book. James is also the author of The Book of Night Women, which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction and an NAACP Image Award. His first novel, John Crow’s Devil, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and was a New York Times Editors’ Choice.
This event is FREE and open to the public. RSVP here.
Location: George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural and Genealogy Center (1165 Angelina St, Austin, TX 78702)
The keynote speech will be live-streamed at this link.
No advance registration or login is required to view the broadcast online. A recording will be made available on the Warfield Center's YouTube channel and the Eric Williams Memorial Lecture web page.
Program Agenda
5:15 PM US Central Time – Reception and Book Sale
- Black Pearl Books will be selling selected titles by Marlon James and Eric Williams.
6:15 PM US Central Time – Keynote Reading and Discussion
Please arrive early. DOORS WILL CLOSE AT 6:15 PM.
Parking Details
Free parking is available in the Carver Museum, Cultural and Genealogy Center parking lot and on surrounding streets. You may also consider using a rideshare service or public transportation (see capmetro.org to learn more).
About the Eric Williams Memorial Lecture Series
In April 2021, the Eric Williams Memorial Lecture (EWML) moved from Florida International University to its new home at the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Founded in 1999, the series honors the late Dr. Eric Williams (1911-1981), scholar, statesman, and Head of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago from 1956 until his death in 1981. Williams authored Capitalism and Slavery (1944), the landmark study that has been translated into 9 languages: Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Turkish, Korean, Spanish, among them (with Dutch and German translations forthcoming). It continues to generate new debates and provocative thinking about slavery and abolition. A third reprint is now available for purchase from The University of North Carolina Press.The digital exhibition, Celebrating Eric Williams, coordinated by the Eric Williams Memorial Collection Research Library, Archives & Museum, and UT’s Black Diaspora Archive and mounted by Black Diaspora Archivist Rachel Winston can be viewed here. Exhibition materials are available in English and Spanish.
