Renowned author Renée Watson is the featured speaker for the 2023 Augusta Baker Lecture, hosted by the School of Information Science. The public is invited to attend the lecture at Richland Library Main at 6:30 p.m., April 21.  Seating is limited, so please reserve your seat.  Register here if you prefer to attend virtually via our livestream.

Among her best-known works are Ways to Make Sunshine, Some Places More Than Others, and This Side of Home. Watson received the Coretta Scott King Award and the Newbery Honor for her 2017 novel Piecing Me Together.

Many of Watson's books are inspired by her experiences growing up as a Black girl in the Pacific Northwest. Her poetry and fiction center around the experiences of Black girls and explore themes of home, identity, body image, and the intersections of race, class, and gender. 

Augusta Baker Endowed Chair Nicole Cooke will moderate the discussion with Watson.

The annual lecture honors Augusta Braxton Baker, a renowned children’s librarian and storyteller who served as USC’s storyteller-in-residence from 1980 to 1994. The first African American Director of Children’s Services in the New York Public Library system, Baker was instrumental in diversifying and modifying children’s literature to better serve its readers.