by Vann R. Newkirk IIChildren of the Flood

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CHILDREN OF THE FLOOD Three Towns, Rising Waters, and the Fate of Black America VANN R. NEWKIRK II

An award-winning journalist unearths the roots of African-American dispossession.

In CHILDREN OF THE FLOOD, Vann Newkirk weaves together the incredible stories of three of the earliest free black towns in the United States – Princeville, North Carolina; St Helena, South Carolina; and Ironton, Louisiana – and their pioneering inhabitants, who, imperilled by both climate change and more than a century of white-supremacist policy, face a manmade environmental disaster on the scale of the 1930s’ Dust Bowl. In so doing, he reveals how black Americans throughout history have been forced to negotiate an impossible choice: self-preservation or the preservation of their ancestral lands and culture.

A powerful – and timely – story about survival, resilience and spiritual longing, CHILDREN OF THE FLOOD offers lessons for us all on how to endure in the face of environmental catastrophe.

VANN R. NEWKIRK II is a senior editor at The Atlantic, where he has covered politics and policy. He is the host and reporter for ‘Floodlines’, The Atlantic’s award-winning documentary podcast on Hurricane Katrina. In 2017, he was named to The Root 100, and in 2018, he received the Next Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors. In 2019, he was named a 2020 11th Hour Fellow at New America. His work has been published in outlets such as the New York Times Book Review, the New York Times, the New Yorker, GQ and Ebony. He lives in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Agent: Tisse Takagi

Publisher: Random House (US) Delivery: November 2022 Publication: Autumn 2023 Status: Proposal and sample chapter Length: 100,000 words

All rights available excluding World English Language (Random House)