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Whiting Writers’ Award-Winner Clifford Thompson discusses his new book Jazz June in conversation with iconic DC writer E. Ethelbert Miller
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“Clifford Thompson has skillfully captured in words a distinct era of American history, the specific feel over time of two major cities (Washington and New York); an intimate glimpse of the complexity of race and masculinity; and the small details of family, love, ambition, fear, fatherhood, and aging that make up a life. It is a charming, quiet but powerful, well-crafted collection.”
—Dinty W. Moore, author of Between Panic and Desire
Jazz June dives into the deeper representative moments of life—the moments of wonder, hope, fear, uncertainty, humor, love, and epiphany—that make up
human experience. Through his reflections on literature, music, and film, Thompson, a Black American whose life is informed but not defined by race, embraces Black culture while remaining defiantly himself.
Clifford Thompson is a recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award for nonfiction whose essays and reviews have appeared in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Best American Essays, Times Literary Supplement, the 2024 Pushcart Prize Anthology, and more. His books include What It Is: Race, Family, and One Thinking Black Man’s Blues, which Time magazine called one of the “most anticipated” books of the season, and the graphic novel Big Man and the Little Men, which he wrote and illustrated. Thompson teaches creative nonfiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College and the Vermont College of Fine Arts. A painter, he is a member of Blue Mountain Gallery in New York City.
E. Ethelbert Miller is a literary activist and author of two memoirs and several poetry collections. He was given a 2020 congressional award from Congressman Jamie Raskin in recognition of his literary activism, awarded the 2022 Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement Award by the Peace and Justice Studies Association, and named a 2023 Grammy Nominee Finalist for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album. In 2024 Miller was awarded the Furious Flower Lifetime Achievement Award.
Books will be available for sale. A book signing will follow the conversation.
Day-of tickets, if available, will be sold for $15
