Please join us for a conversation with author and Loudmouth Books bookstore owner Leah Johnson. Johnson will sit down with U-M's Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, author and Associate Professor of Education. They'll talk about censorship, public education, entrepreneurship, and Black Girl Magic. Expect questions like:

-Why was Johnson's debut novel banned?
-What was the inspiration behind the name Loudmouth Books?
-What's next on the horizon for Johnson's readers?

Book sale and signing immediately following the Q&A courtesy of Black Stone Bookstore.

Leah Johnson is an eternal midwesterner and author of award-winning books for children and young adults. Her bestselling debut YA novel, You Should See Me in a Crown, was a Stonewall Honor Book, and the inaugural Reese's Book Club YA pick. In 2021, TIME named it one of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. Her debut middle grade book, Ellie Engle Saves Herself was published by Disney-Hyperion in May 2023. When she’s not writing, you can find her at Loudmouth Books, her Indianapolis independent bookstore that specializes in highlighting the work of marginalized authors and uplifting banned or challenged books.

Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, PhD is Chair of the Joint Program in English and Education at the University of Michigan’s Marsal Family School of Education, as well as Associate Professor of Education. She is the author of The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (NYU Press, 2019), which won the World Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Children’s Literature Association Book Award, among other accolades. Her most recent books are Harry Potter and the Other: Race, Justice, and Difference in the Wizarding World (University Press of Mississippi, 2022) co-edited with Sarah Park Dahlen, and Restorying Young Adult Literature: Expanding Students’ Perspectives with Digital Texts (NCTE, 2023) co-authored with James Joshua Coleman and Autumn A. Griffin.

The Jill S. Harris Memorial Endowment was established in 1985 by Roger and Meredith Harris, Jill’s parents, her grandparents Allan and Norma Harris, and friends. The fund was established in memory of Jill, a resident of Chicago and undergraduate student at U-M who passed away due to injuries from an auto accident. The fund brings a distinguished visitor to campus each year who will appeal to undergraduates interested in the humanities and the arts. The visitor may either be a fellow of the institute for an extended period of time or invited for a few days to present the annual lecture. The visiting fellow will usually interact with undergraduates, informally and through visits to classes or by other means by which exchanges with undergraduates may be promoted.