Events

  Miami Herald columnist LEONARD PITTS, Jr., will discuss and sign his latest novel, FREEMAN, set in the first few months after the Confederate surrender and Lincoln's assassination. Sam - a runaway slave who once worked for the Union Army - leaves his safe haven in Philadelphia to walk back to Mississippi to find his wife, Tilda, the mother of his only child. Meanwhile, Tilda is being forced at gunpoint to walk with her owner from the charred remains of his farm into Arkansas. Freeman is a love story - sweeping, generous, brutal, compassionate, patient, powerfully capturing the pathos and possibility of the era. "Post-Civil War America is fertile ground for novelists, but few have tilled it with such grace and majesty as Leonard Pitts. In Freeman, Pitts weaves a beguiling, cinematic love story against a rich tapestry of American history, evoking unforgettable characters in a narrative that could easily replace a shelf of textbooks. What a splendid read!" Herb Boyd "Leonard Pitts has a passion for history and a gift for storytelling. Both shine in this story of love and redemption, which challenges everything we thought we knew about how our nation dealt with its most stubborn stain." Gwen Ifill, PBS, author of The Breakthrough "Leonard Pitts, Jr. is the most insightful and inspiring columnist of his generation." Tavis Smiley "Pitts is a master storyteller with a keen eye for both social trends and the human heart.” Tananarive Due Leonard Pitts, Jr., won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, in addition to many other awards. He is also the author of the novel Before I Forget, the collection Forward From this Moment: Selected Columns, 1994-2009, Daily Triumphs, Tragedies, and Curiosities, and Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood. Pitts was born and raised in Southern California and now lives in suburban Washington, DC, with his wife and children.