Dani Shapiro | Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love

Tue, January 22, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

In conversation with Beth Kephart , the award-winning author of nineteen books, including Going Over , Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir , and Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River . Delivering “an eviscerating, raw honesty” ( New York Times…

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Bridgett M. Davis | The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers

Tue, January 29, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Bridgett M. Davis is the author of Into the Go-Slow , the acclaimed story of a young woman traveling from Detroit to Nigeria as she mourns the death of her sister, and Shifting Through Neutral , a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. She is a professor of journalism and the writing…

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Jane Brox | Silence: A Social History of One of the Least Understood Elements of Our Lives

Thu, January 31, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Penning “nonfiction literature of a high and lasting order” ( Chicago Tribune ), Jane Brox is the author of, among other books, Five Thousand Days Like This One , a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light , named one of…

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Feminista Jones | Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets with DaMaris B. Hill | A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing

Tue, February 5, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Social worker, public speaker, community activist, and blogger Feminista Jones is the author of the novel Push the Button and the poetry collection The Secret of Sugar Water . She was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Philadelphia ( Philadelphia Magazine )  and one of The Root…

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Chris Wilson | The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose

Thu, February 7, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Convicted of murder at 18 and sentenced to life in prison with no hope of release, Chris Wilson began to improve himself through study, physical fitness, and even started a business. For the next several years he followed the tenets of his “master plan,” and in his mid-thirties he…

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Galactic Philadelphia Speculative Fiction Reading Series | Charles E. Gannon and John Schoffstall

Tue, February 12, 2019 7:00 P.M.
Philbrick Hall at Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Room 405/406/407 Dr. Charles E. Gannon ‘s Caine Riordan/Terran Republic hard sf novels have all been national best-sellers, and include 3 finalists for the Nebula, 2 for the Dragon Award, and a Compton Crook winner. The fifth, Marque of Caine, is forthcoming in July 2019. His epic fantasy…

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Victor LaValle with Justina Ireland, Sam J. Miller, and Alice Sola Kim | A People's Future of the United States: Twenty-five Visionary Stories

Tue, February 12, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Amidst a climate of division, tumult, and fear, what will the United States look like tomorrow? In A People’s Future of the United States , 25 diverse writers synthesize hopeful, cynical, prescient visions of a country shaped by struggle and strife. Coeditor Victor LaValle ’s …

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Howard Schultz | From the Ground Up: My Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America

Wed, February 13, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $48/$33 Schultz—couple + book/single + book
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Couples Ticket The former chairman and CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz led the java giant from eleven cafes in the Seattle area to more than 28,000 locations worldwide and ranked fifth on Fortune’s 2018 list of “World’s Most Admired Companies.” He is the author of…

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Bernard-Henri Lévy | The Empire and the Five Kings: America’s Abdication and the Fate of the World

Thu, February 14, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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In conversation with Carlin Romano , Critic-at-Large, The Chronicle of Higher Education , former literary critic The Philadelphia Inquirer and author of America the Philosophical . “Perhaps the most prominent intellectual in France today” ( The Boston Globe ), Bernard-Henri…

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Pete Buttigieg | Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Future

Tue, February 19, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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In conversation with Tamala Edwards , anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition The multifaceted, 36-year-old progressive mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg is a Rhodes Scholar and Harvard graduate. Nearly a decade ago he left a successful career in business to return to his…

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Deborah Lipstadt | Event Cancelled

Wed, February 20, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Irvine Auditorium | University of Pennsylvania | 3401 Spruce St. | Philadelphia, PA 19104

Cost: $40 Orchestra, $35 Mezzanine, $30 Balcony

This event has been cancelled. A refund will be issued for the ticket purchase and handling fees.

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Steve Luxenberg | Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America’s Journey from Slavery to Segregation

Thu, February 21, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

A 30-year writer and senior editor at The Washington Post , Steve Luxenberg has overseen reportage that has won a host of awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes for explanatory journalism. He is the author of Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey in a Family Secret , the tale of his eponymous aunt who…

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Philly Loves Romance | Terri Brisbin and Rayna Vause

Sun, February 24, 2019 2:00 P.M.
Philbrick Hall at Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Fourth Floor - Room 405 Award-winning, USA Today best-selling author Terri Brisbin has sold more than 3 million copies of her historical and paranormal romance novels and novellas in more than 25 countries and 20 languages around the world. Terri’s previous, current or…

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Sigrid Nunez | The Friend: A Novel with Keith Gessen | A Terrible Country: A Novel

Tue, February 26, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Sigrid Nunez won the 2018 National Book Award for The Friend , “a penetrating, moving meditation on loss, comfort, memory” (NPR) in which a woman is forced to adopt her deceased best friend’s Great Dane. The recipient of a Berlin Prize, the Rome Prize in Literature, and a…

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Don Winslow | The Border

Thu, February 28, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

The author of numerous international bestselling crime novels, Don Winslow is the recipient of dozens of awards and spots on myriad best-books-of-the-year lists. These books include The Winter of Frankie Machine , The Force , and Savages , for which he wrote the screenplay for the Oliver…

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Brittney Cooper | Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower with Rebecca Traister | Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger

Tue, March 5, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

In converation with Rebecca Traister , author of Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger Examining the intersections of race, gender, and politics in a popular monthly Cosmo column, Brittney Cooper is also a professor of women’s and gender studies and Africana studies…

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Disrupting The Patriarchy 2019 with Radha Agrawal

Wed, March 6, 2019 6:30 P.M.
Business Resource and Innovation Center at Parkway Central Library

Cost: $10/$25

In celebration of International Women's Day, join us for the third annual  Disrupting the Patriarchy .   This year's event will feature Radha Agrawal, author of  Belong: Find Your People, Create Community and Live a More Connected Life . We will kick off the…

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David Treuer | The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present

Thu, March 7, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

An Ojibwe from the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota and an unromantic chronicler of Native American culture and literature, David Treuer is the author of the novels Prudence , Little , The Hiawatha , and The Translation of Dr. Appeles . He is a professor of literature and creative…

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Darius James | Negrophobia: An Urban Parable

Tue, March 12, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Author and spoken-word artist Darius James’s 1992 masterpiece, the William S. Burroughs meets Thomas Pynchon meets Ishmael Reed fever-dream Negrophobia , is a raunchy, raucous, headlong dive into the many faces of American racism. With other works including That's Blaxploitation: Roots…

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Frans de Waal | Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves

Thu, March 14, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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Esteemed primatologist Frans de Waal is the author of The Bonobo and the Atheist , a “tour de force” ( Nature ) exploration of the biological roots of human morality found in primate social emotions, including empathy, reciprocity, and fairness. One of Time ’s 100 Most…

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