ACRL is excited to announce Saeed Jones as the closing keynote speaker for the ACRL 2025 Conference, “Democratizing Knowledge, Access, and Opportunities,” to be held April 2-5, 2025, in Minneapolis and online.
Jones is an essential author as well as a powerful voice in the world of literary activism, and his writing often engages the questions and nuances of identity. He has shaped his platform into a tool for social awareness, breakthroughs and connections with his no-holds-barred personality and unforgettable voice. Vibe Check, the weekly news and culture podcast he hosts with Sam Sanders and Zach Stafford, has been lauded as one of the Best Podcasts of the Year by the New York Times, Vogue, and CBC Radio.
Saeed was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up in Lewisville, Texas. His debut poetry collection, Prelude to Bruise, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was awarded the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. His most recent collection, Alive at the End of the World, was published in 2022 and awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Poetry. The collection was also a finalist for both the 2023 Lambda Literary Award in Gay Poetry and the Publishing Triangle 2023 Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry.
There’s still time to join Saeed and newly minted 2024 MacArthur Fellow Ruha Benjamin on the conference program! ACRL 2025 will be a platform for us to engage in critical conversations and explore solutions-centered approaches to the challenges facing our profession. Together, we can build a future where knowledge is accessible to all. The deadline for lightning talk, poster session, roundtable discussion, and virtual conference presentation proposals is October 18, 2024.
Scholarship and Spectrum Scholar Travel Grant applications are due October 11, 2024. Conference registration opens in October 2024. Additional details about the ACRL 2025 Conference are available on the conference website.