Breaking the Canon: A New Era of Black Fiction

Moderator: Leslie-Ann Murray

Featuring: 

• Samiya Bashir
• Namwali Serpel
• Kaitlyn Greenidge 

A new era of Black fiction is here—bold, genre-fluid, unapologetically experimental, and deeply rooted in community. This panel explores the innovations, risks, and cultural shifts in current Black fiction. We’ll examine how Black writers are speaking across geographies, genres, and generations—and what this means for the future of storytelling.

Leslie Ann Murray: Leslie-Ann Murray is a fiction writer from Trinidad & Tobago who immigrated to America with her family in the early 90’s. East Flatbush, Brooklyn New York has been her artistic inspiration and cultural home for the past twenty years. In her twenties, Leslie-Ann started traveling throughout the world. She has lived in South Africa, China, Bangladesh, and Paris where she has studied and worked. She founded Brown Girl Book Lover, a social media platform where she interviews diverse writers and reviews books that should be at the forefront of our imagination.

Samiya Bashir: Samiya Bashir is a poet, artist, performer, and educator, author of three poetry collections including Field Theories(winner of the Oregon Book Award). Her next book, I Hope This Helps, arrives in 2025. A Rome Prize and Pushcart Prize honoree, she currently serves as the June Jordan Visiting Scholar at Columbia.

Namwali Serpell: Namwali Serpell, professor of English, is an award-winning novelist, essayist, and critic. Born in Zambia and raised across England, Zambia, and the U.S., she is the author of The Old Drift, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Her work blends memory, politics, and imagination with sharp attention to justice.

Kaitlyn Greenidge: Kaitlyn Greenidge is the author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman, a New York Times Critics’ Top 10 Book of 2016, and Libertie. Her work appears widely, and she has received fellowships from the NEA, Guggenheim, and more. She is Features Director at Harper’s Bazaar and a New York Times contributor.