Guest speaker: Eli Saslow

Eli Saslow is a Washington Post staff writer and author of Rising out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist and Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2014 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 2013, 2016 and 2017. He lives in Oregon with his wife and children.

RISING OUT OF HATRED: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist— it is an exploration of how white supremacy has mainstreamed its way into the heart of America and the story of how a leading voice within one of the nation’s largest hate movements came to believe he was leading the country into an abyss.

The Derek Black story not only explains from the inside how ideas and values emanating from the darkest corners of America’s extreme right have become daily fodder for politics and the news, but it also offers a small measure of something in truly short supply — hope.