The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival Presented by Emory University is proud to present 2020 Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown as this year’s Keynote speaker. In conversation with festival board president, Mathwon Howard, Brown will discuss his most recent book, The Tradition, that details the normalization of evil and its history at the intersection of the past and the personal. As in much of his poetry, Brown highlights both the broad and intimate, and at their very core a distillation of the incredibly human. Brown makes mythical pastorals to question the terrors to which we’ve become accustomed, and to celebrate how we survive. Join us for a reading and discussion with one of the greatest poets of our time, and an integral member of the Emory community.

Jericho Brown is author of The Tradition, for which he won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and he is the winner of the Whiting Award. Brown’s first book, Please, won the American Book Award. His second book, The New Testament, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. His third collection, The Tradition won the Paterson Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His poems have appeared in The Bennington Review, Buzzfeed, Fence, jubilat, The New Republic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, TIME magazine, and several volumes of The Best American Poetry. He is an Emory professor and director of their Creative Writing Program.

Mathwon Howard currently serves as Associate Vice President for Development at Yale University. Howard came to Yale from Emory University where he most recently served as Senior Associate Vice President for Development Programs. Howard has over 24 years of advancement, major gifts, and alumni experience at various non-profits, including Duke University, University of Michigan, Binghamton University, and Detroit Zoological Society. He has been involved with campaigns ranging from $6 billion to $49 million. Howard has experience in all aspects of institutional advancement including alumni relations, annual giving, board relations, events, research, major gifts, and campaigns. Howard has a passion for the art and literary communities; he has served on the AJC Decatur Book Festival board since 2016 and is currently president of the board. Howard holds a Bachelor of Arts in leadership and public administration from Adrian College. He enjoys public speaking, reading, writing, nature, and any activity that captivates his children.

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Keynote: Jericho Brown Sponsored by Ideas United