Virginia Hamilton and the Transformation of American Children’s Literature

October 6, 2021 — Winner of the National Book Award, the Newbery Medal, and a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, Virginia Hamilton (1934–2002) wove Black folktales and narratives of African American life and history into a body of work that forever changed American children’s writing and made her its most honored writer. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden joins award-winning children’s book author and memoirist Jacqueline Woodson (Brown Girl Dreaming) for a conversation about Hamilton’s life and wildly inventive novels, newly collected in a Library of America volume edited by Hamilton biographer Julie K. Rubini.

We thank our promotional partners: The Association of Literary Scholars, Critics & Writers; Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center @ Wright State University; the Library of Congress; Ohio Humanities; the Toledo Lucas County Public Library; Yellow Springs Community Foundation.