Gregg Hecimovich, a professor of English at Furman University, will deliver a lecture on his biography, The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of the Bondwoman’s Narrative, on Monday, March 25, at 7:00 p.m. in Vaughan Auditorium, Robert Marks Hall. The Washington Post selected the biography as “One of the 10 Best Books of 2023,” describing it as “part thriller, part mystery and part biography.” The lecture is free and open to the public.

The Bondwoman’s Narrative, a manuscript discovered by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard scholar, was published in 2002. Believed to be the first novel written by an African American woman, it tells the story of a woman named Hannah who escapes from slavery in North Carolina and embarks on a journey to freedom. In his biography, Hecimovich identifies the author as Hannah Bond (later adopting the pen name Hannah Crafts), a slave to John Hill Wheeler of Murfreesboro, North Carolina. Through his research, Hecimovich highlights the influence of Chowan students residing at the Wheeler house on Hannah’s writing. A Hutchins Family Fellow at Harvard University, Hecimovich holds an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduate degrees, including a Ph.D. in English, from Vanderbilt University.