Former first lady Michelle Obama will kick off the 2018 American Library Assn. conference in June. The national conference of librarians is one of the largest annual gatherings of people who read, buy and recommend books.

This year’s ALA conference, which will take place in New Orleans, will feature the newly announced keynote address by Obama, Publishers Weekly reports.

The former first lady is scheduled to speak June 22 at the city’s Morial Convention Center. She’s expected to focus on her memoir, “Becoming,” slated to be published Nov. 13 by Penguin Random House.

Other speakers at the conference include historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith, broadcaster Jose Antonio Vargas and biographer Jonathan Eig.


The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that the conference’s closing speaker will be an author known for having a famous day job: actress Viola Davis, whose children’s book, “Corduroy Takes a Bow,” is scheduled to be published Sept. 4.

Obama’s memoir is one of the most anticipated books of 2018. Last year, she and President Obama signed a joint book deal with Penguin Random House rumored to be worth $60 million.

“Becoming” will be the former first lady’s second book. Her first, “American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America,” was published in 2012.