Author: Kevin Thurston
Critic-at-large for The Los Angeles Times and frequent contributor to The Nation, Laila Lalami will be the next luminary to grace the stage at Just Buffalo Literary Center’s BABEL series the night after the general election on Wednesday, November 9th at 8:00pm at Kleinhans Music Hall (3 Symphony Circle, Buffalo).
The Moor’s Account is the featured book of the evening and, in the words of BABEL alum Salman Rushdie, “Laila Lalami has fashioned an absorbing story of one of the first encounters between Spanish conquistadores and Native Americans, a frightening, brutal, and much-falsified history that here, in her brilliantly imagined fiction, is rewritten to give us something that feels very like the truth.” As a work of historical fiction, the book is an imagined memoir of the first black explorer of America, a Moroccan slave whose testimony was left out of the official record.
The Pulitzer Prize nominated author of The Moor’s Account will be speak upon the forgotten history of Muslims in America. The day after the general election, this event is extremely relevant to the ever evolving idea of America.
After Ms. Lalami’s talk, there will be an audience-generated Q&A. Audience questions can be submitted prior to the event by emailing submissions@justbuffalo.org or at the event on index cards. Following the Q&A, the author will sign books. Talking Leaves Books, the official BABEL bookseller, will be selling copies of all three of Lalami’s novels at Kleinhans the night of the event.
Tickets may be purchased online at justbuffalo.org, by calling (716) 832-5400, or available the evening of at Kleinhans. Student Admission is just $10 with student ID.
For more information about all of Just Buffalo Literary Center’s offerings, visit their website at justbuffalo.org.