Speakers

Featured Speakers

Tayari Jones

Tayari Jones

Bestselling Author • Novelist

Dubbed by The Los Angeles Times “a bard of the modern South”, Tayari Jones confronts issues of race, family, and criminal justice reform in her novels. Her latest, the instant New York Times-bestseller An American Marriage, won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and an NAACP Image Award and was an Oprah’s Book Club selection.

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The Lacks Family

The Lacks Family of THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS

Members of the Lacks Family from Rebecca Skloot’s New York Times bestseller, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks have enthralled university and library audiences across the country talking about Henrietta Lacks’ continued legacy.

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Mitchell S. Jackson

Mitchell S. Jackson

Author • Filmmaker

TED Fellow Jackson is the author of Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family, an essential addition to the national conversation about race and class, and the novel The Residue Years, a powerful reflection on poverty, addiction, and the redemptive power of reading and writing.

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Jesmyn Ward

National Book Award Winner • Essayist • Memoirist

New York Times bestselling author and MacArthur “Genius” Jesmyn Ward is the first woman and first person of color to win the National Book Award for Fiction twice, for her novels Sing, Unburied, Sing and Salvage the Bones. The American Booksellers Association has called her “the new Toni Morrison.”

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Dr. Allyson Hobbs

Dr. Allyson Hobbs

Author • Essayist • Historian

Dr. Hobbs is the Director of African and African American Studies at Stanford and a contributing writer for The New Yorker. In A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, she examines the phenomenon of racial passing in the US. She is at work on two books, Far From Sanctuary: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights, and a history of Black women’s testimonials of sexual violence in the wake of #MeToo.

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Ayana Mathis

Ayana Mathis

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Essayist

Mathis’s stunning debut novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, was an Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection and named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and NPR. Mathis is the first Black woman to be a permanent faculty member at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. A new novel is forthcoming.

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Kiese Laymon

Bestselling Author • Social Critic • Essayist

Laymon is the author of Heavy: An American Memoir, a fearless and provocative memoir which unpacks what a lifetime of secrets and lies does to a Black body, a Black family, and a nation hunkered on the edge of moral collapse.

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Diana Abu-Jaber

Diana Abu-Jaber

Author • Essayist • Memoirist
Dr. Danielle Allen

Dr. Danielle Allen

Political Theorist • Public Intellectual • Cultural Commentator
Paul Beatty

Paul Beatty

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Poet
Dr. Martha Beck

Dr. Martha Beck

Bestselling Author • Life Coach • Inspirational Leader

John Berendt

Bestselling Author • Journalist • Essayist
Elizabeth Berg

Elizabeth Berg

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Memoirist
Chris Bohjalian

Chris Bohjalian

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Human Rights Advocate
Nadia Bolz-Weber

Nadia Bolz-Weber

Pastor • Bestselling Author • Memoirist
Katherine Boo

Katherine Boo

Pulitzer Prize Winner • Bestselling Author • Journalist
Taylor Branch

Taylor Branch

Pulitzer Prize Winner • Bestselling Author • Historian

Jessica Bruder

Journalist • Author

NoViolet Bulawayo

Novelist • Essayist • Short Story Writer
Ana Castillo

Ana Castillo

Author • Essayist • Poet
Vikram Chandra

Vikram Chandra

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Memoirist

Justin Cronin

Bestselling Author • Novelist
Dr. Matthew Desmond

Dr. Matthew Desmond

Pulitzer Prize Winner • Bestselling Author • Urban Ethnographer
Anthony Doerr

Anthony Doerr

Pulitzer Prize Winner • Bestselling Author • Novelist
Heidi Durrow

Heidi Durrow

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Essayist
Esi Edugyan

Esi Edugyan

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Essayist

Dr. Brian Fagan

Archaeologist • Author • Climate Change Historian
Dr. Sheri Fink

Dr. Sheri Fink

Pulitzer Prize Winner • Bestselling Author • Journalist

David Finkel

Pulitzer Prize Winner • Bestselling Author • Journalist

Richard Ford

Pulitzer Prize Winner • Bestselling Author • Novelist
Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen

National Book Award Winner • Bestselling Author • Journalist
Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Memoirist
Julia Glass

Julia Glass

National Book Award Winner • Bestselling Author • Novelist
Dr. Alice Goffman

Dr. Alice Goffman

Author • Social Justice Advocate • Urban Ethnographer
Jeff Goodell

Jeff Goodell

Author • Energy & Environment Expert • Investigative Journalist
Dr. Allyson Hobbs

Dr. Allyson Hobbs

Author • Essayist • Historian
Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Short Story Writer
Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon

Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon

Author • Energy & Security Expert • Political Scientist
A.M. Homes

A.M. Homes

Novelist • Essayist • Memoirist
Nancy Horan

Nancy Horan

Bestselling Author • Novelist
John Irving

John Irving

National Book Award Winner • Bestselling Author • Screenwriter
Pico Iyer

Pico Iyer

Bestselling Author • Journalist • Travel Writer
Mitchell S. Jackson

Mitchell S. Jackson

Author • Filmmaker
Gish Jen

Gish Jen

Cultural Commentator • Novelist • Essayist
Tayari Jones

Tayari Jones

Bestselling Author • Novelist

Hillary Jordan

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Screenwriter
Piper Kerman

Piper Kerman

Bestselling Author • Memoirist • Social Justice Advocate

Sue Monk Kidd

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Memoirist
Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder

Pulitzer Prize Winner • Bestselling Author

Jamaica Kincaid

Novelist • Memoirist • Gardener
Lily King

Lily King

Bestselling Author • Novelist

Laura Kipnis

Social Critic • Author • Essayist

Lisa Ko

Novelist • Author • Essayist
Alex Kotlowitz

Alex Kotlowitz

Bestselling Author • Journalist • Documentary Filmmaker

James Howard Kunstler

Social Critic • Journalist • Urban Planning Advocate

The Lacks Family

The Lacks Family of THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS
Laila Lalami

Laila Lalami

Novelist • Author • Essayist

Stephanie Land

Bestselling Author • Journalist • Economic Justice Advocate
Jeanne Marie Laskas

Jeanne Marie Laskas

Bestselling Author • Journalist • Memoirist

Kiese Laymon

Bestselling Author • Social Critic • Essayist
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Bestselling Author • Journalist • Women’s Advocate
Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Essayist
Anthony Marra

Anthony Marra

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Short Story Writer
Ayana Mathis

Ayana Mathis

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Essayist

Imbolo Mbue

Bestselling Author • Novelist
Colum McCann

Colum McCann

National Book Award Winner • Bestselling Author • Novelist
Jeremy McCarter

Jeremy McCarter

Cultural Historian • Bestselling Author
Maaza Mengiste

Maaza Mengiste

Novelist • Essayist • Social Justice Advocate
Emily Nussbaum

Emily Nussbaum

TV Critic • Pulitzer Prize Winner • Essayist
Téa Obreht

Téa Obreht

Bestselling Author • Novelist
Susan Orlean

Susan Orlean

Bestselling Author • Journalist • Essayist

Christa Parravani

Essayist • Memoirist • Women's Rights Advocate
Jennifer Pastiloff

Jennifer Pastiloff

Bestselling Author • Memoirist • Mental Health Advocate
Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult

Bestselling Author • Novelist

Sheri Salata

Former media executive • entrepreneur • Memoirist
Eli Saslow

Eli Saslow

Pulitzer Prize Winner • Journalist • Author
Lisa See

Lisa See

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Memoirist
Joshua Wolf Shenk

Joshua Wolf Shenk

Bestselling Author • Essayist • Curator
Curtis Sittenfeld

Curtis Sittenfeld

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Short Story Writer
Rebecca Skloot

Rebecca Skloot

Bestselling Author • Journalist
Rachel Louise Snyder

Rachel Louise Snyder

Journalist • Author • Domestic Violence Advocate

Paul Theroux

Bestselling Author • Novelist • Travel Writer
Clive Thompson

Clive Thompson

Journalist • Author • Tech Industry Expert
Krista Tippett

Krista Tippett

Public Radio & Podcast Host • Bestselling Author • Social Entrepreneur
William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann

Novelist • Journalist • Short Story Writer

Jesmyn Ward

National Book Award Winner • Essayist • Memoirist
Edmund White

Edmund White

Novelist • Social Critic • Memoirist