E book-lovers gathering at a earlier Decatur E book Competition. (Picture by Megan Varner)
This month, the organizers of the Decatur E book Competition introduced Saeed Jones and Angie Thomas this 12 months’s keynote and “kidnote” audio system, respectively, giving bookish Atlantans extra causes to anticipate the beloved occasion. Each Jones and Thomas are recognized for his or her activism and writing about social justice themes, working to advertise empathy by means of sharing their struggles and joys with honesty and hope.
This isn’t a coincidence, in line with the Competition’s govt director, Leslie Wingate, who says organizers wished to supply a balm for the usually overwhelming concern and uncertainty of current years. “We’re doing all the pieces we are able to in each side of our programming, not simply our creator programming, to instill that sense of belonging and group on this Competition,” Wingate mentioned.
That dedication to group made Jones — award-winning creator of three celebrated books, most lately the poetry assortment Alive on the Finish of the World (Espresso Home Press, 2022) — an ideal alternative for this 12 months’s keynote occasion.
However the challenge that introduced Jones to Competition organizers’ consideration this 12 months was the forthcoming Energy to the Folks: Poems, Essays, and Artwork for Wanting Ahead (Simon & Schuster, September 2025), an anthology of poetry, essays and artwork aimed toward cultivating objective, group and hope in a troubled period, which Jones curated alongside author Maggie Smith.
Thomas additionally advocates for group in her work, specializing in tales of Black kids and youngsters wrestling with racism and systemic violence alongside friendship, crushes and household strife. Her first guide, The Hate U Give (Clarion, 2017), was an enormous hit, crossing over from YA to grownup readers and in the end being tailored for the large display in 2018. Her latest guide, Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The E book of Anansi (Clarion), scheduled for launch in September, is the second installment in a deliberate middle-grade fantasy trilogy.
Thomas mentioned that she sees books “as a type of activism. If nothing else, books give us a glimpse into lives that we could not have recognized about earlier than; they will promote empathy.”
Now greater than ever, Wingate mentioned, books are a mandatory supply of consolation, and the Competition as a “place of group.”
“I used to be on a name with somebody” she mentioned, “and so they mentioned the Competition looks like an enormous hug — , when hugs are wanted essentially the most. And I simply thought that was the right depiction.”
The Decatur E book Competition will happen round downtown Decatur on October 3 and October 4 and embrace creator signings, panels and readings, together with reveals, stay music, cooking demonstrations, meals and actions, a lot of which can be introduced within the coming months.
Jones will seem Friday, October 3, in the Sanctuary of the First Baptist Church of Decatur in dialogue with three contributors to The Folks’s Venture: poet Tiana Clark and native writers Victoria Chang and Aruni Kashyap. Thomas will seem the identical day, at Agnes Scott Faculty’s Presser Corridor, in a dialogue with Atlanta literacy advocate FeFe Useful. Each occasions are free, however reservations are really helpful.
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Rachel Wright has a Ph.D. from Georgia State College and an MA from the College Faculty Dublin, each in inventive writing. Her work has appeared in The Stinging Fly and elsewhere. She is at present at work on a novel.
