An illuminating conversation on the relationship between gothic narratives, fictional and not-so-fictional monsters, and the history of American slavery, featuring the Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James (A Brief History of Seven Killings, Moon Witch Spider King) in conversation with Leila Taylor, author of Darkly: Blackness and the America's Gothic Soul, in which she synthesize her personal memoir with American history and cultural analysis to brilliant effect.

Leila Taylor, graphic designer and Creative Director at the Brooklyn Public Library, grew up identifying as that rare person: a Black Goth. Her book, Darkly, is an ode to Goth sensibility, and a meditation on Blackness and how America's sordid history has found expression in gothic narratives.

Marlon James won the 2015 Man Booker Prize for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. 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. James is also the author of The Book of Night Women, which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award. His most recent novel, Moon Witch, Spider King is the critically-acclaimed follow-up to Black Leopard, Red Wolf, a New York Times bestseller, that draws on African history and mythology.

This event is free, but we invite supporters of Deep Water Literary Fest who can afford it to make a small donation towards our festival costs.