The 15th National Book Awards at Concordia, March 12-13, 2020, will feature Sarah M. Broom, nonfiction winner for “The Yellow House,” and David Treuer, a nonfiction finalist for “The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee.” The Reading and Conversation with the Authors event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 12, in the Centrum, Knutson Campus Center.
Sarah M. Broom has contributed to the New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, Oxford American, and O, The Oprah Magazine, among others. She received a Master of Journalism degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been awarded fellowships from the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and The MacDowell Colony. She lives in Harlem with her partner, filmmaker Dee Rees, and a tiny brown dog.
Treuer’s essays and stories have appeared in Granta, Harper's, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Esquire, Slate, and The Washington Post, among others. In addition to his works of fiction and nonfiction, he is the author of a book of criticism, ”Native American Fiction: A User’s Manual.“ Treuer is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, two Minnesota Book Awards, and fellowships from the NEH, Bush Foundation, and Guggenheim Foundation. ”The Translation of Dr. Apelles“ was named a Best Book of the Year by the Washington Post, Time Out, and City Pages. Treuer is a graduate of Princeton University and earned a doctorate in anthropology. He divides his time between his home on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota and Los Angeles, where he teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Southern California.
The National Book Awards at Concordia is underwritten by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in honor of Earl Lewis ’78.
Dr. Earl Lewis, a 1978 graduate of Concordia College, is director of the new University of Michigan Center for Social Solutions, which was established to address three core areas of social concern: diversity and race, water, and the future of work.
Concordia College is the founding partner with the National Book Foundation of the National Book Awards on Campus Program. Each spring Concordia hosts two authors, selected from among the finalists/winners of that year’s National Book Awards, for a two-day residency on campus. The mission of the National Book Foundation is to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture.
John Ydstie ’74, a member of Concordia’s Board of Regents, will host the Readings and Conversation event on Thursday, March 12.
Lisa Lucas is the executive director of the National Book Foundation. Before joining the foundation, Lucas served the publisher of Guernica, a nonprofit online magazine focusing on writing that explores the intersection of art and politics with an international and diverse focus. Prior to that, she served as director of education at the Tribeca Film Institute, on the development team at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and as a consultant for the Sundance Institute, San Francisco Film Society, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and ReelWorks Teen Filmmaking. Lucas also serves on the literary council of the Brooklyn Book Festival.