Conform, with Thousand Voices
10:30am • From $30

WITH THANKS TO WELLS FARGO
“…compulsively readable and vividly written – it kept me awake long past my bedtime.” — Sarah J. Maas

Conform by Ariel Sullivan is the first work of fiction celebrated by Jenna Bush Hager’s new publishing venture, Thousand Voices. Described as "The Hunger Games meets romantasy,” Conform is a sweeping dystopian romance saga of love and rebellion, set in a post-apocalyptic future where a woman’s worth is measured by her ability to procreate. Join Ariel Sullivan and Jenna Bush Hager as they discuss this smart, genre-bending novel.

Black in Blues, with Dolen Perkins-Valdez
3pm • $30

National Book Award-winning author of South to America, Imani Perry , named “The most important interpreter of Black life in our time” by Eddie S. Glaude Jr., discusses her latest book Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People.

Tracing the way that blue is woven through Black history, from Miles Davis to Toni Morrison, her book echoes Louis Armstrong’s question, “What did I do to be so Black and Blue?” Imani Perry uses the world’s favorite color as a springboard for an emotional, cultural, and spiritual journey that transcends politics or ideology.

Imani Perry will be in conversation with novelist Dolen Perkins-Valdez.

Honoring Mother Emanuel, with special appearance by the Mother Emanuel Choir
5pm • FREE

PRESENTED WITH MOTHER EMANUEL AME CHURCH
Ten years after the tragic massacre that shocked the nation, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Kevin Sack discusses his new book, Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church, with bestselling author and scholar Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. The book explores the 200-year history of Charleston’s Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.

Following the conversation, the Mother Emanuel Choir, led by Dr. Wayne Singleton, will perform a choral program that reflects the church’s history through song.

Film Screening
8:45am • $10

Directed by Stephen Daldry                             Screenplay by David Hare                               Music by Philip Glass                                         Starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman

Released in 2002, The Hours, adapted from a novel of the same name by Michael Cunningham, follows three women in different eras whose lives are connected by Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel, Mrs. Dalloway. A hundred years since its publication, Mrs. Dalloway is still considered a pivotal work, inspiring other art forms, including this film for which Nicole Kidman received an Oscar. 

Dalloway 100
11am • $30

Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway, set on a single day in the life of a woman preparing for a party in 1920s London, with a parallel storyline featuring an ex WW1 soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress, continues to stimulate creativity a century after its publication: inspiring books, films, a ballet and even an opera.

Michael Cunningham, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning The Hours and more recently Day (both influenced by Mrs. Dalloway) and Jenny Offill, author of Weather and Dept. of Speculation, who wrote an introduction to the Penguin Classic edition of Mrs. Dalloway, celebrate the novel’s legacy and discuss why it continues to attract devotees.

Jane Austen’s Bookshelf, with Sunday Steinkirchner
1pm • $30

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, rare books dealer and book specialist on the History Channel reality show Pawn Stars, Rebecca Romney discusses her latest publication, Jane Austen’s Bookshelf.

The book investigates the disappearance of Austen’s heroines—women writers who were erased from the Western canon—to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten, despite frequently being significant authors. Romney collects the once-famed works of these forgotten writers and physically recreates Austen’s bookshelf—in conversation with antiquarian book dealer Sunday Steinkirchner.

Good Girl, with Lisa Taddeo
3pm • $30

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION
Aria Aber joins us to discuss her novel Good Girl. This powerful debut plunges the reader into a raging battle between a young Afghan woman’s cultural identity and desire for freedom. Good Girl describes Nila’s attempt to leave behind the legacy of her immigrant parents by reinventing herself within Berlin’s artistic community. “This is an emotive, psychedelic novel whose writing is both poetic and politically powerful” (Diana Evans, Women’s Prize judge).

Aria Aber was born and raised in Germany and now lives in the United States. She has also published an award-winning poetry collection. Aber will be in conversation with Lisa Taddeo, author of Three Women - currently in production as a series at Showtime - Animal, and Ghost Lover.

Allies at War, with Jonathan Freedland
5pm • $30

Tim Bouverie, author of the acclaimed Appeasement, returns to the Festival to discuss his revelatory new history Allies at War, which focuses on the checkered, multinational relationships between the WW2 allies—primarily Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin—who won the war and made the peace. Was this incongruous coalition, divided by ideology, rivalry and politics, a triumph of diplomacy? Or did it store up trouble for the future?

Tim Bouverie discusses his highly readable and often amusing new book with BBC Radio 4’s The Long View presenter, Jonathan Freedland, and considers whether the Big Three alliance contains lessons for our times.

Gather Me, with Safiya Sinclair
7pm • $30

Glory Edim, founder of the renowned book club Well-Read Black Girl, which reaches a community of half a million readers dedicated to celebrating the written work of Black women, joins us to discuss her latest book, Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise Of The Books That Saved Me.

The memoir is a dramatic and intricate portrait of family, community, and resilience, and an ode to the power of books to help us understand ourselves. Glory Edim grew up in Virginia to Nigerian parents. She will be in conversation with award-winning Jamaican poet and author of the acclaimed memoir How To Say Babylon, Safiya Sinclair.

Performance by Branar Theater Company
9am • $20, children under 12 FREE

“Ulysses for children: has the world gone mad?... Branar has gone and done it.”—The Irish Times.

Innovative international family theater joins the festival lineup this year with James Joyce’s epic novel Ulysses brought to life by Branar, one of Ireland’s leading theater companies producing children’s shows. You’ll See is an inventive theater piece combining live performance, intricate paper design, and an original score.

For audiences aged 8 and upwards (including adults who haven’t gotten around to reading Ulysses yet), this is theater that will excite both young and old. Yes, I said, yes!

Second Performance
11am • $20, children under 12 FREE

“Ulysses for children: has the world gone mad?... Branar has gone and done it.”—The Irish Times.

Innovative international family theater joins the festival lineup this year with James Joyce’s epic novel Ulysses brought to life by Branar, one of Ireland’s leading theater companies producing children’s shows. You’ll See is an inventive theater piece combining live performance, intricate paper design, and an original score.

For audiences aged 8 and upwards (including adults who haven’t gotten around to reading Ulysses yet), this is theater that will excite both young and old. Yes, I said, yes!

Fox, with Jean Hanff Korelitz
12pm • $30

Joyce Carol Oates, “surely on any shortlist of America’s greatest living writers” (The New York Times), recipient of the National Humanities Medal, author of over 60 novels, including the National Book Award-winning Blonde, her fictional life of Marilyn Monroe, and We Were the Mulvaneys, selected by Oprah's book club, has just published her first whodunnit, Fox. The book is a spellbinding drama of psychological suspense concerning the disappearance of a charismatic teacher from a prestigious boarding school.

In conversation with Jean Hanff Korelitz, author of best-selling thrillers The Plot and The Sequel.

The Traitors Circle, with Jennifer Griffin
2pm • $30

Jonathan Freedland, best-selling author of The Escape Artist, award winning Guardian journalist, BBC broadcaster, and former Washington correspondent, discusses his new non-fiction thriller, The Traitors Circle. The book is the true story of secret rebels against Hitler, drawn from Berlin high society, who chose to stand up against tyranny.

Written like a novel, it is a page-turning account of resistance, heroism, betrayal and tragedy, which sheds light on one of the most dramatic and little-known episodes of WW2. The suspenseful and inspiring story resonates with an eternal question: what makes a person trade personal safety in order to stand up against tyranny?

In conversation with Jennifer Griffin, Chief National Security Correspondent for Fox News.

Reagan: His Life and Legend, with Kurt Andersen
4pm • $30

Pulitzer Prize-finalist, historian, and foreign-policy analyst, Max Boot discusses his “monumental and impressive biography that illuminates the untold story of Ronald Reagan” (Robert Mann). Son of the Midwest, movie star, and mesmerizing politician―America’s fortieth president comes to three-dimensional life in this gripping and profoundly revisionist biography.

Max Boot draws from over one hundred of the fortieth president’s aides, friends, and family members, as well as thousands of newly available documents that “beautifully catches the essence of who he was” (Stuart K. Spencer). He discusses his groundbreaking biography with The New York Times bestselling author and co-founder of Spy magazine, Kurt Andersen.

38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia, with Greg Myre
6pm • $30

International human rights barrister, Professor of Law in London and at Harvard, award-winning author of East West Street, Philippe Sands discusses his enthralling book, 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia.

Blending memoir, history, detective story and a courtroom drama (in which he took part), Sands uncovers connections between the 1998 London arrest of Chilean dictator Pinochet, mass murder in South America, and atrocities in the Nazi era. He considers the role of international law in holding leaders accountable for crimes against humanity, and reflects on the concept of ‘impunity’, issues relevant to our own times. In conversation with NPR national security correspondent, Greg Myre.

A Century of Fiction in The New Yorker, with Nathan Englander
8pm • $30

Deborah Treisman, fiction editor of The New Yorker, discusses a celebratory selection of short stories from the last 100 years of the magazine with award-winning short story writer and  novelist Nathan Englander.

An influential showcase for literature and instantly recognizable thanks to its iconic covers, the legendary magazine has launched dozens of careers in fiction. Join Treisman and Englander as they discuss this storied anthology featuring works by J. D. Salinger, Shirley Jackson, Vladimir Nabokov, Jamaica Kincaid, George Saunders, Zadie Smith, and more.

Journeying Through The Stars
12pm • $30

Astronaut Charles F. Bolden and space scientist Les Johnson share stories of space exploration, innovation, and discovery, offering the audience insights on humanity’s quest to understand—and thrive in—the cosmos.

In his book Traveler’s Guide to the Stars, Les Johnson explores the science behind interstellar travel and grants readers a passport to distant worlds. Written for young readers, Star Sailor by Charles F. Bolden details his experiences as an astronaut working for NASA, revealing the power that it takes to reach the stars.

Family Legacy in Fiction, with Regina Marler
2pm • $30

Acclaimed authors Sue Halpern, author of What We Leave Behind, Gish Jen, author of Bad Bad Girl, and Dolan-Perkins Valdez, author of Happyland convene for a conversation on family legacy in fiction. The work of all three writers conjures up worlds where their protagonists find themselves variously in opposition or in communion with family history and legacy. We explore how these writers think about fiction as a mode to shape identity across generations and cultures.

In conversation with New York Review of Books essayist and literary critic, Regina Marler. 

Here Comes the Sun, with Leilani Brown
4pm • $30

PRESENTED WITH THE SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER
From the acclaimed environmentalist, activist, and author of the groundbreaking The End of Nature comes a call to harness the power of the sun and rewrite our future. In his latest book, Here Comes the Sun, Bill McKibben sees the possibility in our moment of climate crisis—and the potential solar power provides. The sun is more than just a path out of the climate crisis: it is a chance to reorder the world.

Bill McKibben will be in conversation with Leilani Brown, a fellow colleague at Middlebury College.

Eat, Drink, and Remarry, with Marc Cherry
6pm • From $30

OFFICIAL BOOK LAUNCH
Known as the “dowager countess” (The New York Times), American socialite and matriarch of Bravo's hit reality show Southern Charm, Patricia Altschul joins us to launch her revealing and entertaining memoir Eat, Drink, and Remarry. Her world of glamor, romance, and intrigue comes to life in these fast-paced pages as she recounts with wit, class, and an abundance of sass how she has remained true to herself and her captivating style.

Patricia Altschul will be in conversation with Marc Cherry, creator of Desperate Housewives.

The Elements of Marie Curie, with Angela Saini
12pm • $30

Author of international best sellers such as Longitude and Galileo’s Daughter, and former The New York Times science reporter, Dava Sobel’s most recent book, The Elements of Marie Curie, is a vivid study of the brilliant two-times Nobel Prize-winner, pioneer radioactivity researcher, and co-discoverer of polonium and radium. Apart from her professional successes, Curie’s legacy was her impact on the 45 aspiring female scientists she mentored and continued to inspire.

Sobel discusses Marie Curie’s trailblazing life (1867-1934) and influence with Angela Saini, author of The Patriarchs, an inquiry into the roots of male domination, and considers why Marie Curie is still the most famous female scientist.

Servant of Beauty, with Paul Goldberger
2pm • $30

Preservationist and historian Anthony C. Wood discusses his book Servant of Beauty: Landmarks, Secret Love and the Unimagined Life of an Unsung New York Hero with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and architectural critic Paul Goldberger.

This fascinating biography of Albert Bard, responsible for the 1956 Bard Act that enabled New York to pass its influential landmarks preservation law, reveals a visionary activist whose public existence revolved around the protection of civic beauty—involving David and Goliath battles with Robert Moses—while his private life was dominated by his hidden love for a younger man, which led to a dramatic spy scandal.

An audience with the 2025 Charleston Literary Festival Cato Fellows
4pm • FREE

Join us for an onstage conversation with the two 2025 Charleston Literary Festival Cato Fellows. These two writers, chosen via a competitive application process, will present readings of their work and share the inspiration behind their writing.

The Charleston Literary Festival Cato Fellowship Prize was created with the generosity of author and philanthropist Marion Cato to nurture and encourage exceptional emerging writers.

Vera, or Faith, with Ross Benjamin
6pm • $30

“Very funny, very sad, very sharp, and completely delightful.”—Elif Batuman.

Named “one of his generation’s most exhilarating writers” (The New York Times), Gary Shteyngart, bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story, joins us to share his newest novel, Vera, or Faith. A blended family of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASPs are caught in the throes of an unstable country and their fraying bonds. Vera, or Faith follows the titular character on her journey to find her birth mother in order to discover at last who she really is, and how to ensure love’s survival in this great, mad, imploding world.

In conversation with scholar and translator Ross Benjamin.

Aphorism at Play
10am • $30

For lovers of words, aspiring writers, and discerning readers, that is to say all Literary Festival attendees, join James Geary, lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School, as he celebrates the art of the aphorism, a short, witty, philosophical phrase, in an entertaining, interactive session exploring the wisest and pithiest sayings of the world.

Starting in ancient China and ending with contemporary meme makers, The World in a Phrase, a The New York Times bestseller, features some of the greatest practitioners—from humorists Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker, to activists James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, and artists Jenny Holzer and David Byrne—and explores the aphorism in the age of social media.

The Odyssey
12pm • $30

“This may be the best translation of The Odyssey yet.”—Edith Hall, The Telegraph.

Celebrated classicist Daniel Mendelsohn discusses his translation of The Odyssey that is “searingly faithful—yet absolutely original” (Jorie Graham).

Mendelsohn’s translation of Homer’s classic epic poem, brings to life the gripping adventures and profound human insights that have made Homer’s work resonate for twenty-eight centuries, while remaining close to the original cadences of ancient Greek. 

COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War, with David Blight
2pm • $30

WINNER OF THE 2025 PULITZER PRIZE FOR HISTORY
Known for her transnational work on West African societies, the African diaspora, and Gullah culture, Dr. Edda Fields-Black sets out on a quest to discover her family history. In Combee, she delves into her ancestors’ participation in the Combee River Raid led by Harriet Tubman during the Civil War. Combee is the first detailed account of one of the war’s most dramatic episodes and the central role the abolitionists played in it.

Dr. Edda Fields-Black will be in conversation with fellow Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Blight.

Honor in Literature, with Lucas Wittmann
4pm • $30

PRESENTED WITH 92ND STREET Y, NEW YORK
Join us for a conversation with award-winning authors Roxana Robinson and Eliot Ackerman on the concept of honor in contemporary literature and society. Robinson’s writing generally explores honor in relation to the realm of the personal, while Ackerman, as a former marine, tends towards questions of honor in the context of the military—both writers explore how one can embrace and subvert traditional honor codes. Their conversation will explore how one forms a code of honor in today’s world and the implications of this practice.

Moderated by Lucas Wittmann, Executive Director of the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center.

The Doorman, with Anne Blessing
6pm • $30

“Mr. Pavone has written an outstanding book full of sociological detail and pulsing with the passions and prejudices of the times in which we live."  —Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal.

Master of the shock-ending, Chris Pavone’s international thrillers consistently appear on the New York Times bestseller list. The Doorman, his latest page turner set in New York is “a Bonfire of the Vanities for the 21st century” (Stephen King). The Doorman follows Chicky Diaz, everyone’s favorite doorman at the Bohemia, a storied Upper West Side apartment building, as he is drawn into a multilayered web of intrigue, robbery, and murder.

Empire of the Elite, with Nancy Novogrod
8pm • $30

Condé Nast—the home of iconic magazines Vogue, Vanity Fair, TheNew Yorker, and more—defined how to live the good life in America.

Join us for a conversation with Michael M. Grynbaum, media correspondent with The New York Times and author of Empire of the Elite. This first book-length history of Condé Nast is full of fresh behind-the-scenes reporting and sets out to explain how the media empire established itself. It documents its rise as the gatekeepers of good taste, offering opinions to tens of millions of readers every month. The Condé Nast editors and writers were the ultimate influencers—before social media changed everything.

In conversation with Nancy Novogrod, successor of Anna Wintour as the Editor-in-Chief of House & Garden and longtime Editor-in-Chief of Travel + Leisure.

Imagination: A Manifesto, with Benny Starr
12pm • $30

PRESENTED WITH THE INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM
Transdisciplinary scholar and Princeton University Professor Ruha Benjamin joins artist and cultural strategist Benny Starr for a conversation about the power of the imagination to challenge oppression and to craft new stories that create a world in which everyone can thrive.

Benjamin’s Imagination: A Manifesto highlights educators, artists, activists, technologists and other visionaries who are experimenting with new ways of imagining the world differently – and better. Together with Benny Starr, she reflects on Toni Morrison’s instruction: “Dream a little before you think”. 

with Special Guest
2pm • $30

PRESENTED WITH FOOD & WINE CLASSIC CHARLESTON
Editor-in-chief of Food & Wine, Hunter Lewis, joins us for an extra special event with a top secret culinary expert.

Foodlovers watch out.

A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile, with Bilal Qureshi
4pm • $30

A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile is a blend of travelog and memoir in which Aatish Taseer explores citizenship and what it means to belong. Taseer’s exile began in 2019 when the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked his Indian citizenship, thereby banning him from the country where he grew up.

In his travels across the world, Taseer casts on incisive eye at what it means to belong to a place that becomes an unstable, politicized vessel for ideas defined by exclusion and prejudice, and gets to the human heart of the shifts and migrations that define our multicultural world.

Air-Borne, with David Adams
6pm • $30

The New York Times science columnist Carl Zimmer, whose previous Festival appearance focused on She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, returns with Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe.

His new book, which reads like a combination of detective and horror stories, is a fascinating odyssey through the invisible atmosphere, from pollen to viruses, that spans the Black Death to COVID-19 and the threats of germ warfare. “No one unravels the mystery of science as brilliantly and compellingly as Carl Zimmer” – David Grann.

In conversation with David Adams, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Surgery at MUSC, Carl Zimmer discusses how much remains to discover, and why this is vital. 

The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation, with Dr. Tonya Matthews
11am • From $30

South Carolina congressman James E. Clyburn’s new book The First Eight tells the powerful stories of pioneering Black politicians from South Carolina who were elected to Congress in the aftermath of the Civil War.

A unique blend of history and memoir, The First Eight is both a monument to the legacies of these eight trailblazing Americans, and also a clear-eyed appraisal of how far we’ve come, and how far we have left to go, in our nation’s ongoing struggle for true democracy.

In conversation with International African American Museum CEO, Tonya Matthews.

Race Against Terror: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War
1pm • From $30

CNN’s Jake Tapper joins us to discuss his gripping new book, Race AgainstTerror, which spotlights two assistant US attorneys as they rush to lock up a dangerous Al Qaeda terrorist in one of the most riveting true crime cases of the 21st century.

Through intense reporting and meticulous recreation, from the battlefield to the courthouse, Race Against Terror tells the story the courageous soldiers who risked their lives for each other, and the diverse set of law enforcement, intelligence, and military personnel who work tirelessly to stay one step ahead of disaster.

Will There Ever Be Another You, with Martha Rhodes McLendon
3pm • $30

“Patricia Lockwood writes with the impish verve and provocative guilelessness of a peeing cupid.” - Alexandra Schwartz, The New York Times).

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2021 for her book Nobody Is Talking About This, Patricia Lockwood joins us to talk about her latest novel, Will There Ever Be Another You. Amid a global pandemic, one young woman is trying to keep the pieces together as she slowly loses her mind. This phosphorescent story is a profound and playful investigation into what keeps us alive in the most desperate and disorienting times.

In conversation with lawyer Martha McLendon.

Exit Wounds, with Autumn Phillips
5pm • $30

Award-winning writer and former President of PEN America, Peter Godwin discusses his stunning memoir Exit Wounds—a meditation on grief, belonging, and the relationships and places that shaped his life. Raised in Zimbabwe, Godwin has spent his life missing his African childhood. With generations of history behind him, he lyrically brings us into the spaces which make us question and suffer, shows us how we can heal our own scars, and celebrate the lives we have among family and friends.

Godwin is in conversation with Autumn Phillips—journalist, writer, traveller, and the former Editor-in-Chief of the Post and Courier.

Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life
7pm • $30

The New York Times bestselling author and poet Maggie Smith distills the art of creativity and the craft of writing in her practical guide Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life. Perfect for aspiring authors, fans of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, and for everyone who wants to learn more about living a creative life.

Drawing from her twenty years of teaching experience and her bestselling Substack, Maggie Smith breaks down creativity into ten essential elements that artists of all experience levels can apply to their own creative practices and carry with them into all genres and all areas of life.

Flowers, Guns, and Money, with Kim Cliett Long
9am • FREE

CHARLESTON READS
Historian Lindsay Schakenbach Regele’s book, Flowers, Guns, and Money, investigates the life of botanist and trader Joel Roberts Poinsett. A confidant of Andrew Jackson and former member of South Carolina Legislature, Joel Roberts Poinsett introduced poinsettias to America, and fought surreptitiously in Chile’s War for Independence. In her book, Schakenbach Regele reveals an America defined by opportunity and violence, freedom and slavery, nationalism and self-interest.

In conversation with academic and author Dr. Kim Cliett Long, Project Administrator of Jonathan Green’s Maritime Cultural Center at the University of South Carolina Beaufort.

The Role of the Writer, with Jon Gundersen
11am • $30

Andrey Kurkov is Ukraine’s most celebrated author, both in his home country and internationally. He is a former President of PEN Ukraine, and a widely recognized public intellectual whose voice is respected all over the world.

In his special appearance at the Festival, Andrey Kurkov will discuss his novels, characterized by their dark humor, including the best-selling Death and the Penguin and his most recent crime thriller The Stolen Heart: The Kyiv Mysteries. He will also reflect on the role of the arts and artists in troubled times.

In conversation with Jon Gundersen, American diplomat who served as first Kiev, Ukraine Consul General.

Another Man in the Street, with Bilal Qureshi
1pm • $30

Caryl Phillips is a Kittitian-British author of 12 notable novels and called by The New York Times, “one of the literary giants of our time.” He currently lives in America, and taught creative writing at Yale. A multiple literary award-winner, his new book, Another Man in the Street, is set in an immigrant community of London during the 1960s and beyond. The powerful and haunting story of a West Indian’s search for home and identity pits his dreams against reality.

In conversation with journalist and cultural critic Bilal Qureshi, he discusses his interest in the emotional baggage immigrants bring when they arrive in a new destination and are never able to relinquish.

Audition, with Regina Marler
3pm • $30

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 BOOKER PRIZE
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S SELECTED BOOKS OF 2025
WITH THANKS TO J. JILL
Katie Kitamura, author of award-winning book Intimacies, discusses her dazzling, destabilizing novel, Audition with author and writer for the New York Review of Books, Regina Marler. Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, and young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him?

In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day and the masks we perform.

Dark Renaissance, with Geoffrey Harpham
5pm • $30

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Harvard Professor Stephen Greenblatt reconstructs the scandalous and subversive life of the sexually reckless rock star of Elizabethan theatre Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare’s greatest rival, and explores his transgressive genius. A poet and a playwright—Tamburlaine and Faustus are dramatic masterpieces about the perils of power—Marlowe was a spy in the Queen’s service accused of heresy and blasphemy owing to his provocative anti-church writings. His mysterious death, murdered in a London inn at the age of 29, adds to his mythological status.

Stephen Greenblatt investigates Marlowe’s daring life and violent death, and his impact on Elizabethan culture, with Geoffrey Harpham, Emeritus Director of National Humanities Center.

with Adam Gopnik
7pm • $45

THEATRE
Best known as a celebrated writer for The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik has spent over three decades writing essays, memoirs, and criticism. Also the author of a number of bestselling books including Paris To The Moon and The Real Work, Gopnik now turns his eye to theatre.

Join us for this intimate once-off performance of his brand new one-man-show, Talk Therapy.

The play reveals Gopnik’s experiences as a young writer cutting his teeth in the wilds of New York City and the relationships that helped him along the way. 

Make it New: Adapting The Swerve, with Mena Mark Hanna
11am • $30

PRESENTED WITH SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA
A conversation with Adam Gopnik, Stephen Greenblatt and musicologist Mena Mark Hanna on shaping Greenblatt’s Pulitzer-winning The Swerve—a meditation on ancient thought—into an opera, where history, philosophy, and music converge. Currently in development with Spoleto Festival USA.

Mothers and Sons, with Bill Goldstein
1pm • $30

Pulitzer Prize-finalist Adam Haslett, named “one of the country’s most talented writers” (The Wall Street Journal) discusses his latest novel Mothers and Sons with literary critic Bill Goldstein. 

Estranged for many years, a mother and son reckon with the shared secret around an act of violence that drew them apart. In an engrossing story about family and forgiveness, Adam Haslett demonstrates yet again his mastery of “a rich assortment of literary gifts” (The New York Times).

When You Listen to This Song: On Memory, Loss, and Writing, with Maurice Samuels
3pm • $30

WORLD PREMIERE: OFFICIAL BOOK LAUNCH
PRESENTED WITH VILLA ALBERTINE
Celebrated French author Lola Lafon launches the English language translation of When You Listen To This Song, a meditation on a night she spent alone in the annex where Anne Frank, writer of the famous diary, and her family hid from the Nazis between 1942-1944. Lafon uses her unique experience to find the person at the heart of the venerated and exploited myth.

Lola Lafon discusses her vision of Anne Frank with Maurice Samuels, author of Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair.

To Save and to Destroy, with Bilal Qureshi
5pm • $30

Professor and Pulitzer-Prize winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen joins us to discuss his latest essay collection. Originally delivered as the prestigious Norton Lectures, To Save and to Destroy is a personal and sweeping meditation on the outsider in literary history and the role of the writer in the world at large. The essays proffer a new answer to a classic literary question: What does the outsider mean in literary writing?

Viet Thanh Nguyen will be in conversation with journalist and cultural critic Bilal Qureshi.

Flesh
7pm • $30

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 BOOKER PRIZE
Author of All That Man Is, longlisted for the 2016 Booker Prize, David Szalay discusses Flesh, a propulsive, hypnotic novel by the “uncommonly gifted” writer (The New York Times). Fifteen-year old István lives in a quiet complex in Hungary, but his life begins to spiral out of control as he begins a clandestine relationship with a married woman close to his mother’s age. Szalay traces the history of a perpetual outsider as he navigates a rags to riches journey from boyhood in Hungary to wealth and power in London—asking the questions what makes life worth living, and what breaks it.