Conversation, fun, and friendship are hallmarks of our popular Duke Nashville Women’s Forum Book Club. The Book Club is having a special author event that’s co-sponsored by Duke Nashville and Duke Black Alumni and open to Duke alumni, family, and friends.

Our guest is Nashville author Andrew Maraniss, who writes sports- and social justice-related nonfiction for children, teens, and adults. His books have earned honors such as 100 Best Baseball Books Ever Written by Esquire, Book of the Year by the American Library Association, and RFK Book Awards’ Special Recognition Prize.

We’ll read the new 10th Anniversary Edition of Andrew’s best-selling book, Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South. The book features Vanderbilt basketball player Perry Wallace, who was the first African American basketball player in the SEC. The fast-paced, richly detailed biography digs deep beneath the surface to reveal a more complicated and profound story of sports pioneering than we've come to expect from the genre. The 10th Anniversary Edition features a new foreword by co-hosts of The Black Athlete podcast and an epilogue updating Perry’s story from the time the first book came out in 2014 through present day.

You can learn more about Andrew Maraniss at AndrewMaraniss.com or follow him on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram.

Join us for a light dinner at 6:30 p.m. followed by a conversation with Andrew Maraniss at 7-8:30 p.m.