United for Libraries to livestream Gala Author Tea, sponsored by Data Axle, free to all during United Virtual 2021

EXTON, Pennsylvania — David Wright Falade, Meg Waite Clayton, Daniel Black, and others will be featured authors at the United for Libraries Gala Author Tea, sponsored by Data Axle Reference Solutions, at 1:00 pm Eastern Thursday, August 19 during United Virtual 2021.

This event will be livestreamed via Facebook and Zoom and presented free for all to attend. Barbara Hoffert of LibraryJournal’s Prepub Alert will moderate. Attendees are invited to enjoy their beverage of choice while hearing authors discuss their writing lives and forthcoming books.

David Wright Falade (“Black Cloud Rising,” Atlantic Monthly Press /Grove Atlantic) is a professor of English at the University of Illinois and a 2021-2022 Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Public Library. He is the co-author of the young adult novel “Away Running” and the nonfiction book “Fire on the Beach: Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers,” which was a New Yorker notable selection and a St. Louis-Dispatch Best Book of 2001. The recipient of the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award, he has written for the New Yorker, the Village Voice, the Southern Review, Newsday, and more.

New York Times and USA Today bestseller and book club favorite Meg Waite Clayton (“The Postmistress of Paris,” HarperCollins) is the author of eight novels, including the Jewish Book Award finalist “The Last Train to London,” a national and international bestseller. Her screenplay for the novel was chosen for the prestigious Meryl Streep- and Nicole Kidman-sponsored The Writers Lab.

Daniel Black (“Don’t Cry for Me,” Hanover Square Press/Harlequin) is a native of Kansas City, Kansas, yet spent the majority of his childhood years in Blackwell, Arkansas. He is an associate professor at his alma mater, Clark Atlanta University, where he now aims to provide an example to young Americans of the importance of self-knowledge and communal commitment. He is the author of "They Tell Me of a Home" and "The Sacred Place."

Ruth Ozeki (The Book of Form and Emptiness: A Novel, Viking Books/Penguin Random House) is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest. She is the award-winning author of three novels, "My Year of Meats," "All Over Creation," and "A Tale for the Time Being," which was a finalist for the 2013 Booker Prize. Her nonfiction work includes a memoir, "The Face: A Time Code," and the documentary film, "Halving the Bones." She is affiliated with the Everyday Zen Foun­dation and teaches creative writing at Smith College, where she is the Grace Jarcho Ross 1933 Professor of Humanities.

For more information on United for Libraries Virtual 2021, visit https://www.ala.org/united/events_conferences/virtual. For information about registering for the conference, visit https://www.ala.org/united/virtual/registration.

United for Libraries: The Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations, is a division of the American Library Association with approximately 4,000 personal and group members representing hundreds of thousands of library supporters. United for Libraries supports those who govern, promote, advocate, and fundraise for libraries, and brings together library trustees, advocates, friends, and foundations into a partnership that creates a powerful force for libraries in the 21st century. To join, please visit www.ala.org/united or call (800) 545-2433, ext. 2161