April 6, 2017, Thursday - Big Ideas: Can Literature Make a Damn Bit of Difference? at The Guthrie

Time:  7:00pm - 8:30pm

Location: Guthrie Theater, Dowling Studio, 818 Second Street S

Big Ideas: Can Literature Make a Damn Bit of Difference?

Imagine a world where everyone read an hour each day. What would that world look like, and would it be better than the one we're living in? Join the Loft as we host Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James and Executive Director of the National Book Foundation Lisa Lucas for a wide-ranging conversation about the importance, issues, and opportunities that books bring to our lives and culture.

Co-presented with the Minnesota Book Publishers' Roundtable, and with generous venue support from the Guthrie Theater. 

General tickets are $15 ($10 members).

There is also a special pre-reception at Spoonriver with Lisa Lucas and Marlon James for $160. It includes a reserved ticket to the event, appetizers, and a complimentary drink. Learn more about this special reception through this link. 

Lisa Lucas is the Executive Director of the National Book Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, she served as the Publisher of Guernica, a non-profit online magazine focusing on writing that explores the intersection of art and politics with an international and diverse focus. Lucas also serves on the literary council of the Brooklyn Book Festival.

Marlon James was born in Jamaica in 1970. His most recent novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and the Minnesota Book Award. It was also a New York Times Notable Book. James is also the author of The Book of Night Women, which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction and an NAACP Image Award. His first novel, John Crow’s Devil, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and was a New York Times Editors’ Choice. James is a Loft board member and lives in Minneapolis.

About Big Ideas
"The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.” James Baldwin said that. And we agree.