Readings and Discussions with Writers

A Conversation with Douglas Stuart

Douglas Stuart is a Scottish-American author. His debut novel, Shuggie Bain, was a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of this year’s Booker Prize. It is to be translated into eleven languages. He wrote Shuggie Bain over a ten-year period and is currently at work on his second novel, Loch Awe.

A Conversation with Deesha Philyaw

Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies focuses on Black women, sex, and the Black church. Deesha is also the co-author of Co-Parenting 101: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Two Households After Divorce, written in collaboration with her ex-husband.

A Conversation with Brian Broome

Brian Broome, a poet and screenwriter, is K Leroy Irvis Fellow and instructor in the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh. He has been a finalist in The Moth storytelling competition and won the grand prize in Carnegie Mellon University's Martin Luther King Writing Awards. He also won a VANN Award from the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation for journalism in 2019.

A Conversation with L. Renée

L. Renée is a poet and nonfiction writer from Columbus, Ohio. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Indiana University, where she served as Nonfiction Editor of Indiana Review and Associate Director of the Indiana University Writers’ Conference, and a MS in Journalism from Columbia University, where she was a Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Moore Fellow. Her work, nominated for Best New Poets and a Pushcart Prize, has been anthologized and published in a variety of publications.

A Conversation with Jenna Blum

Jenna Blum is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of novels Those Who Save Us, The Stormchasers, and The Lost Family; the novella “The Lucky One” in the collection Grand Central; and memoir Woodrow on the Bench, about her senior black Lab and what his last seven months taught her, available from Harper Collins.

A Conversation with Susan Rich

Susan Rich is the author of seven books including: Gallery of Postcards and Maps, as well as Cloud Pharmacy, The Alchemist’s Kitchen, and others. Her poetry has earned awards from the Fulbright Foundation, PEN USA, and the Times Literary Supplement. She is the co-editor (along with Kelli Russell Agodon) of Demystifying the Manuscript: Creating a Book of Poems.

A Conversation with Ben Purkert

Ben Purkert’s writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Poetry, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Tin House, and elsewhere. His poetry collection, For the Love of Endings, was named one of Adroit’s Best Poetry Books of the Year. He holds degrees from Harvard and NYU, where he was a New York Times Fellow. He teaches creative writing at Rutgers.

A Conversation with Dax-Devlon Ross

Dax-Devlon Ross is the author of five books and his journalism has been featured in Time, The Guardian, The New York Times, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Washington Post Magazine and other national publications. He won the National Association of Black Journalists’ Investigative Reporting Award for his coverage of jury exclusion in North Carolina courts and is currently a Puffin Writing Fellow at Type Media Center.

A Conversation with E. Ethelbert Miller

E. Ethelbert Miller is a writer and literary activist. He is the author of two memoirs and several books of poetry including The Collected Poems of E. Ethelbert Miller, a comprehensive collection that represents over 40 years of his work. For 17 years Miller served as the editor of Poet Lore, the oldest poetry magazine published in the United States.

Alamo Film Club

A Conversation with Blayne Weaver

1455 and Alamo Film Club Present: Blayne Weaver, director of Santa Girl. We discuss his new project, GETAWAY, and his wild ride as an actor, writer, director, and mentor for young artists.

A Conversation with Gina Frangello

Gina Frangello is the author of four books of fiction in addition to the memoir, Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism, and Treason. Her novel A Life in Men is currently under development by Charlize Theron’s production company, Denver & Delilah. She has nearly 20 years of experience as an editor, and her short fiction, essays, book reviews and journalism have been widely published in too many places to count.

A Conversation with Jeannie Ouellette

Jeannine Ouellette’s essays and stories have appeared widely, including in North American Review, Narrative, Penn Review, Proximity, and more. She is a former fellow of Millay Colony for the Arts and Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, and her work has been published in several anthologies and recognized in many contests.

Potter's House

A Conversation with Philippe Cousteau Jr.

Inspired by the legacy of his grandfather of Jacques Cousteau, Philippe is an multi Emmy-Nominated TV host and producer as well as an author, speaker, and social entrepreneur.

A Conversation with Crime Fiction Writers

Join crime fiction authors E.A. Aymar, L.A. Chandlar, Jennifer Hillier, and Vanessa Lillie in a spirited discussion of writing and publishing crime fiction in the year 2020.

A Conversation with Diane Zinna

1455 is very proud to partner with historic venue The Potter’s House for a special conversation with Diane Zinna, author of The All-Night Sun, which was recently longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.

A Conversation with Chris Register

Chris Register, author of Conversations with Us, speaks with 1455 Executive Director Sean Murphy.

A Conversation with Carl Hoffman

Carl Hoffman is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest, which was a New York Times “Editor’s Choice,” a NY Times best seller, one of the Washington Post’s 50 notable books of 2014, a Kirkus best book of 2014 and the number one non-fiction book of 2014 on Amazon.com.

A Conversation with Ronnie Citron-Fink

1455’s Author Series at Handley Regional Library continues with Ronnie Citron-Fink, who will read from her book True Roots: What Quitting Hair Dye Taught Me about Health and Beauty.