LILRC Webinar – Food as Storytelling: Michael W. Twitty and Raj Tawney
Food and cooking hold powerful roles in the transmission of stories, as cultural memory, as family history, and more. Join LILRC as we welcome culinary historian Michael W. Twitty and food memoirist Raj Tawney for a conversation about the many ways that food is narrative.
Michael W. Twitty is a culinary historian and food writer from the Washington D.C. area. He blogs at Afroculinaria.com. He’s appeared on Bizarre Foods America with Andrew Zimmern, Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, and most recently Taste the Nation with Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi.
HarperCollins released Twitty’s acclaimed book, The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South, in 2017, which traces his ancestry through food from Africa to America and from slavery to freedom. The Cooking Gene was a finalist for The Kirkus Prize and The Art of Eating Prize and a 3rd place winner of Barnes & Noble’s Discover New Writers Awards in Nonfiction. The Cooking Gene also won the 2018 James Beard Award for best writing as well as book of the year, making him the first Black author so awarded. A follow up book, Kosher Soul :The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew (HarperCollins, 2022) was the 2023 National Jewish Book Council Award Winner for Book of the Year.
Raj Tawney is a writer and journalist whose work largely reflects his multiracial American upbringing. Born to an Indian, Puerto Rican, and Italian American family, Tawney has explored his identity and family history through personal essays published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and other outlets throughout the country. His debut memoir Colorful Palate: A Flavorful Journey Through a Mixed American Experience (Empire State Editions/Fordham University Press) earned critical acclaim and won a 2024 Best Indie Book Award and Living Now Book Award. His Middle Grade novel All Mixed Up (Paw Prints Publishing/Baker & Taylor) was released on November 26, 2024 to much praise.