Reading & Book Signing
Kia Corthron
The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter
In the highly anticipated debut novel by Kia Corthron, the lauded playwright brings an American epic to life through the story of four brothers, two black and two white, and their coming of age between World War II and modern day. In an Alabama town in the shadow of the Klan, the brilliant Randall cares for his deaf brother B.J. In Maryland, gifted Eliot and artistic Dwight find inspiration from civil rights activists. And from there they grow, moving and changing with the shifting world of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, 9/11, and a violent intersection with consequences for all. As her important new novel continues to garner praise, we're excited to welcome Corthron for this reading and signing.
The author of more than fifteen plays produced nationally and internationally, Kia Corthron came to national attention in the early nineties with her play Come Down Burning. Portraying characters who live in extreme poverty or crisis and whose lives are otherwise invisible, her plays paint a disturbing picture of American history and its repercussions on our most intimate relationships. Corthron's most recent awards include a Windham Campbell Prize for Drama, the Simon Great Plains Playwright (Honored Playwright) Award, the USA Jane Addams Fellowship Award, and the Lee Reynolds Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women, and she has developed work through various international residencies. She has also written for television, receiving a Writers Guild Outstanding Drama Series Award and an Edgar Award for The Wire. The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter is her first novel. She grew up in Cumberland, Maryland, and now lives in Harlem, New York.