The Kylene and Brad Beers Reading Project Lecture, a keynote lecture around the book and its themes, is a principal experience of the NTC Reading Project. Each year, the Beers family sponsors the book's author, or a complementary scholar, to speak with the first-year students during a lecture and lunch. This year, Yaa Gyasi, author of Transcendent Kingdom, will be the Beers Family Keynote.

Transcendent Kingdom is a beautifully written narrative centered around a family of Ghanaian immigrants living in the contemporary South. The novel follows the main character, Gifty, a PhD candidate studying neuroscience, on her quest to make sense of the hardships she sees in her daily life through her own academic pursuits. Transcendent Kingdom tells a story of resilience and self-authorship, all while speaking to larger themes of race, mental health and wellbeing, family, spirituality, academic scholarship, and loss, largely within the context of higher education. Gyasi’s approach enthralls readers and inspires us all to consider what drives our own pursuits in life.

The conversation with Yaa Gyasi will be followed by a Q&A.