Halloween might be on Oct. 31, but the season continues at the Central Library on Wednesday, Nov. 1, when award-winning horror writer and Jordan Peele collaborator Tananarive Due appears to discuss her much-anticipated new novel “The Reformatory,” just one day after it’s released.
The event, which runs from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., is free (of course), but registration is required. Go to the calendar listing to read more and register.
Described as transcending the boundaries of horror and literary fiction, “The Reformatory” is based on Due’s family history. It follows a 12-year-old Black boy who is sent away to a notorious, segregated reform school in Jim Crow Florida after kicking a white boy. The school is modeled after the infamous Dozier School for Boys, where Due’s great uncle Robert Stephens – for whom the protagonist is named — died in 1937, when he was just 15 years old.
In “The Reformatory,” the author pieces together the life of the relative her family never spoke of, and brings his tragedy and those of many others to light. (Robert and at least 55 other children, mostly Black, were buried in Dozier’s makeshift cemetery, Boot Hill. His remains have now been laid to rest by his family.)
According to information from her publisher, Due intentionally chose to explore this story through the lens of speculative fiction instead of nonfiction, turning a painful history into a ghost story: Although an evil warden in the book fears the “haints,” the monsters are all too human.
It’s a notable Seattle appearance for the American Book Award-winning author, who is also a screenwriter and producer. Due was executive producer on Shudder’s documentary “Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror,” and has written for Jordan Peele’s “The Twilight Zone.” She also has a story in “Out There Screaming,” Jordan Peele’s new anthology of horror.
Due teaches a class at UCLA called “The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival, and the Black Horror Aesthetic” and has spoken about how Peele and others are using the horror genre to reveal truths about race in America.
Library Journal called “The Reformatory” a “masterpiece of fiction” and Kirkus Reviews described it as “a vividly realized page-turner, which is at once an ingenious ghost story, a white-knuckle adventure, and an illuminating if infuriating look back at a shameful period in American jurisprudence.”
Due will be in conversation with Nisi Shawl, the multiple award-winning Seattle speculative fiction writer who wrote the horror collection “Our Fruiting Bodies,” among many other works.
Partners on the event include Langston Seattle, Elliott Bay Book Company and the Seattle Times. It is supported by The Gary and Connie Kunis Foundation and The Seattle Public Library Foundation.
You can learn more about Tananarive Due at www.TananariveDue.com.
MORE AUTHOR EVENTS
By the way, the Library has other fantastic events in store over the next month.
- “From Page to Stage: Adapting ‘No-No Boy’ for Today’s Theater.” From 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 24. Central Library, Microsoft Auditorium
- Dr. Blair LM Kelley and “The Roots of the Black Working Class.” From 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25. Northwest African American Museum
- Chloe Fulton reads “What Are You?” From 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 28. Douglass-Truth Branch
- Timothy Egan: “A Fever in the Heartland.” From 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. Central Library, Microsoft Auditorium
- Jack Straw Writers Showcase. From 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 4. Central Library, Microsoft Auditorium
- Bryan Washington discusses “Family Meal.” From 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 9. Central Library, Microsoft Auditorium
- Jonathan Evison discusses “Again and Again.” From 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., Monday, Nov. 13.
- The Postwar Seattle Chinatown of John Okada. From 2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 19. Central Library, Microsoft Auditorium.
– Elisa M., Communications
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