Co-author Tamara Payne to discuss Malcolm X biography Nov. 4

The 2021 virtual History Book Festival will present a special closing event at 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 4, via Zoom. The program will feature Tamara Payne, co-author of an award-winning biography of Malcolm X, one of the 20th century’s leading civil rights figures.

Payne will discuss “The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X” with author and educator Peniel E. Josep. A question-and-answer session will follow the discussion.

The program is free, but preregistration is required. To reserve a spot, go to historybookfestival.org.

“The Dead Are Arising” earned the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for biography and the 2020 National Book Award for nonfiction. It also was a New York Times Notable Book of 2020 and Editors’ Choice Selection, and was named one of the 10 best nonfiction books of 2020 by Time magazine.

The award-winning book is the product of a father-daughter collaboration, with Tamara Payne completing the work begun by award-winning journalist Les Payne (1941-2018).

“Malcolm X is one of the most politically relevant figures of the 20th xentury, whose bold efforts to overcome racism and encourage Black empowerment take on added significance today,” said Ronald Collins, History Book Festival co-founder and co-chair. “We are delighted to have Tamara Payne and Peniel Joseph join us for the 2021 festival’s closing program.”

“Although the pandemic necessitated that our 2021 programs be virtual, we had thousands of avid readers join us for 18 events since June 2020,” said Jen Mason, History Book Festival co-founder and co-chair. “We are grateful for the acclaimed authors, eager readers, generous sponsors, and committed supporters and volunteers who made the festival so successful.”

Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly 30-year quest to speak with anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X. He spent hundreds of hours interviewing family members, classmates, friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI informants, police officers and political leaders around the world. The result is an authoritative biography that separates fact from fiction and provides an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, documenting his life within the Nation of Islam and against the larger backdrop of American history.

Payne traces Malcolm X’s life from his birth as Malcolm Little in Nebraska in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965. With a biographer’s unwavering determination, Payne corrects the historical record and delivers extraordinary revelations - from the unmasking of the mysterious Nation of Islam founder, to a clandestine meeting with the KKK, and a minute-by-minute account of Malcolm X’s murder at the Audubon Ballroom.

Les Payne was a reporter and editor at Newsday in New York. A founder of the National Association of Black Journalists, Payne also wrote an award-winning syndicated column.

Tamara Payne, who served as her father’s research assistant for many years, left her job in commercial real estate in 2016 to work full time on the book project. She is a graduate of William Smith College in Geneva, N.Y. She previously worked for the PBS MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and taught English in China.

Peniel E. Joseph is a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was the founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. Joseph has written several books on African American history, including “The Sword and The Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.,” which earned critical acclaim.

Copies of “The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X” are available at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, the official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Biblion in Lewes also has copies of the book for sale. Books purchased at either shop come with a signed archival bookplate.

Presenting sponsors of the 2021 festival are Delaware Humanities and the Lee Ann Wilkinson Group of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Gallo Realty.

In addition to the Lewes Public Library, the festival’s virtual programs are supported by the Delaware Division of Libraries and Sussex County Libraries.

Now in its fifth year, the History Book Festival is the first and only book festival in the United States devoted exclusively to history.