Writing in a World of Borders and Bonds

Join Jennine Capó Crucet (My Time Among the Whites) and Margaret Wilkerson Sexton (The Revisioners) in conversation as they discuss their urgent and innovative approaches to writing about race, identity, culture, genre, and language in a world divided by borders and barriers — and explore the opportunity and obligation of storytelling to transcend them. Drawing from their recent work, they will discuss the shifting borders of place and migration, the powerful relationship between personal bonds and personal history, and what it means to belong, both now and in the future. PEN America Member and novelist Chaitali Sen will moderate the discussion. 

Free and open to the public, the Texas Book Festival is one of the largest and most prestigious literary festivals in the country, the annual event features 300+ nationally and critically recognized adult and children’s authors, 100+ exhibitors, local food trucks, family activities, and countless opportunities to meet authors and fellow book lovers. 

Jennine Capó Crucet is the author of two previous books and is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. Her novel, Make Your Home Among Strangers, was the winner of the 2016 International Latino Book Award. Her short stories have been honored with the Iowa Short Fiction Award, an O. Henry Prize, and other awards. Raised in Miami, Florida, she is an associate professor in the Department of English and the Institute for Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska.

Born and raised in New Orleans, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton studied creative writing at Dartmouth College and law at UC Berkeley. Her debut novel, A Kind of Freedom, was a 2017 National Book Award Nominee, a New York Times Notable Book of 2017 and a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. Her work has been published in The New York Times Book Review, Oprah.com, Lenny Letter, The Massachusetts Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, and other publications. She lives in the Bay Area, California, with her family.