Tagged author events
5 Author Events To Catch This September
While it’s a bit of a bummer that summer is drawing to a close, we’re happy to welcome in some cooler weather alongside a brisk fall season of Free Library Author Events. And what a lineup we have! Let’s take an autumn…
Enjoy These Free Library Author Events Podcast "Beach Reads"
It’s summer, and whether you’re lying in a hammock, soaking up the sun at the beach, taking a road trip, or — and we hope this isn’t the case — taking SEPTA to work, it’s the perfect time of year to…
Check Out Our Immigrant Heritage Month Author Events YouTube Playlist
June is Immigrant Heritage Month , and you can celebrate the extraordinary, far-reaching, and diverse contributions immigrants have woven into the American tapestry through this curated video playlist on our author…
The Big Send Off of One Book, One Philadelphia
Thursday, June 22 marks the finale of One Book, One Philadelphia and we over here in the One Book office are working up the nerve to say goodbye to this incredible season of events. After nine weeks of community workshops,…
Bryn Ziegler's Don’t Look Into The Abyss and Other Philadelphia Comics
The Art Department is thrilled to host the launch of Don’t Look Into The Abyss , a new graphic novel illustrated and published by Bryn Ziegler . Ziegler is a book and comic artist specializing in intimate,…
Honoring Juneteenth at the Free Library
Honor Juneteenth with the Free Library of Philadelphia! This year, we celebrate Juneteenth for the third time as a federal holiday, but it has been an important celebration for nearly 200 years! Juneteenth is the oldest known…
LGBTQ+ Authors on the Free Library Podcast
June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month and the Free Library’s Author Events program has an extensive archive of podcasts and videos to help you celebrate a diverse range of writers working across a wide array of topics and fields. Before we…
AAPI Experiences: Podcasts From Past Author Events
May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month , and you can celebrate the heritage, contributions, and writings of these diverse peoples through the Free Library’s Author Events audio podcast and YouTube video archives.…
Observe Women’s History Month With the Free Library Podcast
March is Women's History Month and the Free Library Author Events podcast page and YouTube channel have scores of aptly themed book talks. To start you on your way, here are TEN favorites from just this last year. Everything from…
5 Upcoming Author Events for Women's History Month
March is National Women’s History Month , and the Free Library’s author events series will feature five related authors who are making history in literary fiction, the business world, medicine, social justice, and more!…
Celebrating Black Voices with the Free Library Podcast
It’s Black History Month and the Free Library has an extensive archive of podcasts and videos to help you celebrate a diverse range of writers working in politics, fiction, food, poetry, religion, memoirs, sports, and much more.…
Six Upcoming Black History Month Author Events at the Free Library
February is Black History Month and, as we do throughout the year, the Free Library’s Author Events series is excited to celebrate diverse voices, viewpoints, and topics. This includes the story of one Black Philadelphian…
The One Book, One Philadelphia Kickoff Is Upon Us!
It's the eve of the 20th season of One Book, One Philadelphia , and the opening event is tomorrow, Wednesday, April 27 at 7:30 p.m., featuring a conversation with Quiara Alegría…
Black Authors and Voices: Podcasts from the Author Events Archive
Our podcast archive dates back more than 25 years and features scores of author talks to help you commemorate, celebrate, and reflect on Black History Month. But even in just this past year, we’ve hosted an incredible variety of…
Celebrate Native American Heritage Month with These Author Events Podcasts and Videos
November is Native American Heritage Month, so let’s celebrate with audio podcasts and videos from the Free Library’s Author Events series! Natalie Diaz | Postcolonial Love Poem with Denice Frohman Recorded April 21,…
African American Art Collecting and Research with Philadelphia Author Sherry Howard
Updated Tuesday, December 7, 2021 Sherry L. Howard is a Philadelphia-based art collector and researcher who primarily focuses on local African American art and artists. She writes about her experience in the world of art auctions…
Author Events Return Live and In-Person to Montgomery Auditorium This November!
Annnnnnnd we’re back! On Monday, November 1, the Free Library’s Author Events series will host its first in-person event in more than 19 months. For now, there are only a handful of in-person author talks on our schedule,…
Author Events Fall 2021 Schedule
While—for now—the realities of the ongoing pandemic keep us from gathering in the Parkway Central Library’s Montgomery Auditorium for a new season of Author Events , this month we’re bringing you a host of…
Author Events Celebrates Pride Month
June is Pride Month and the Free Library’s Author Events series has an extensive archive of podcasts and videos to help you celebrate a diverse range of writers working in politics, fiction, health and fitness, literary fiction,…
Asian Pacific American Authors and Voices: Podcasts from the Author Events Archive
May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! You can celebrate the heritage, contributions, and writing of these diverse peoples through the Free Library’s Author Events Series. Here’s a compilation of ten authors…
Author Talk: Sarahlyn Bruck, Light of the Fire: A novel
Author Sarahlyn Bruck will present her new novel, Light of the Fire . In this heartrending story about healing from past mistakes, two estranged friends face the twenty-year-old accident that forced them apart—and the…
Author Talk: Steven Ujifusa
Author Steven Ujifusa will present his book, THE LAST SHIPS FROM HAMBURG: Business, Rivalry, and the Race to Save Russia’s Jews on the Eve of World War. Ujifusa tells the largely forgotten, colorful story of three…
Sohla El-Waylly | Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook: A Cookbook
THE AUDITORIUM IS FULL! REGISTER FOR THE OVERFLOW ROOM In conversation with Reem Kassis A chef, writer, video producer, and community advocate, Sohla El-Waylly hosts Mystery Menu for The New York Times Cooking YouTube channel and The…
Author Event | Prisoners of Congress: Philadelphia’s Quakers in Exile, 1777-1778
Join scholar Norman E. Donoghue II for an inside look into an untold story of Philadelphia Quakers during the American Revolution. In 1777, Congress labeled Quakers who would not take up arms in support of the War of Independence as…
Raquel Willis | The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation
REGISTER A writer, activist, and media strategist dedicated to Black transgender liberation, Raquel Willis has served as director of communications for Ms. Foundation for Women, a national organizer for the Transgender Law Center, and…
Beth Kephart | My Life in Paper: Adventures in Ephemera
REGISTER Renowned for her ability “to generalize from her personal experience to the greater human one” ( The Washington Post ), Beth Kephart is the author of more than 30 books across a wide range of genres, including…
Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter | The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are
TICKETS The winner of three Grammy Awards and three NAACP Image Awards, Tariq Trotter , aka Black Thought , is the MC and co-founder of The Roots. The Philly-based hip-hop group has produced 11 albums and is the house…
Sigrid Nunez | The Vulnerables: A Novel with Henry Hoke | Open Throat: A Novel
REGISTER Sigrid Nunez won the 2018 National Book Award for The Friend , a “beautiful” novel “crammed with a world of insight into death, grief, art, and love” ( The Wall Street Journal ) in which a woman is…
Author Talk: Arlene Lamazoff-Marron
Arlene Lomazoff-Marron is a contemporary fiction writer who decided to write a novel based upon retiring from a career in the healthcare field. Her debut novel was Beneath a Blanket of Snow . She will discuss her latest…
Kimberlé Crenshaw | #SayHerName: Black Women’s Stories of Police Violence and Public Silence
TICKETS In conversation with Dorothy Roberts One of the country’s foremost authorities in civil rights, Black feminist legal theory, race, and the law, Kimberlé Crenshaw is a law professor at UCLA and Columbia Law School,…
Stephanie Land | Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger and Higher Education
TICKETS In conversation with Errin Haines Stephanie Land is the author of the bestseller Maid , a memoir that “nails the sheer terror that comes with being poor, the exhausting vigilance of knowing that any misstep or twist of…
Tanisha Ford | Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement
REGISTER In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill Tanisha Ford ’s Our Secret Society is a biography of Mollie Moon, the socialite, powerbroker, and founder of the National Urban League Guild, who was a key fundraiser for the Civil…
Alice McDermott | Absolution
TICKETS In conversation with Nomi Eve “Filled with so much universal experience, such haunting imagery, such urgent matters of life and death” ( The New York Times ), Alice McDermott’ s bestselling novels include…
Joseph Sassoon | The Sassoons: The Great Global Merchants and the Making of an Empire
REGISTER “A marvelous epitaph to a monumental family, makers of several worlds and keepers of none” ( The Wall Street Journal ), Joseph Sassoon ’s eponymous historical volume The Sassoons charts the remarkable…
David Brooks | How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
TICKETS Acclaimed for his ability to “elevate the unseen aspects of private experience into a vigorous and challenging conversation about what we all share” ( San Francisco Chronicle ), David Brooks has written an op-ed…
Roz Chast | I Must be Dreaming
TICKETS Renowned for her “extraordinarily honest, searing and hilarious” ( San Francisco Chronicle ) takes on modern life, Roz Chast has published more than 1,000 cartoons in The New Yorker since 1978. She has written…
Cristina García | Vanishing Maps: A Novel
REGISTER In conversation with Rebeca L. Hey-Colón, Professor of Latinx Studies, Temple University Cristina García is the author of eight “languid and sensual, curt and surprising” ( The New York…
Melissa Broder | Death Valley: A Novel with Hilary Leichter | Terrace Story: A Novel
REGISTER Melissa Broder is the author of Milk Fed , the “sensuous and delightfully delirious tale” ( O, The Oprah Magazine ) of a calorie-obsessed lapsed Jewish woman who falls under the spell of a zaftig Orthodox frozen…
Tim O'Brien | America Fantastica: A Novel
TICKETS Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture “As good as any piece of literature can get” ( Chicago Sun Times ), Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book…
Author Talk: Thom Nickels, Death in Philadelphia: The Murder of Kimberly Ernest
Author Thom Nickels will present his book, Death in Philadelphia: The Murder of Kimberly Ernest , which is a reporter's behind-the-scenes account of the investigation of the 1995 Center City jogger murder. Thom Nickels is…
Simon Schama | Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines, and the Health of Nations
Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture In conversation with Maiken Scott “A historian of prodigious and varied gifts” ( San Francisco Chronicle ), Simon Schama is the author of 20 books, including The Embarrassment of Riches; Scribble,…
Bernie Taupin | Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton and Me
In conversation with novelist and musician Wesley Stace Legendary English song lyricist Bernie Taupin has worked with Elton John since 1967 and has written the lyrics for most of the iconic performer’s hits, including “Rocket Man,”…
Jennifer Weiner | The Breakaway
Jennifer Weiner is the no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen “funny, fanciful, extremely poignant” ( The Boston Globe ) novels, including That Summer , Mrs. Everything , Who Do You Love , All Fall Down , …
Jonathan Eig | King: A Life
Named one of the most anticipated books of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Newsweek , Jonathan Eig ’s King , an “intimate, multidimensional biography” ( The Boston Globe ) of Martin Luther King Jr., offers a…
Sheryl Lee Ralph | Diva 2.0: 12 Life Lessons From Me For You
In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak A celebrated veteran of film, television, and the Broadway stage, Sheryl Lee Ralph won an Emmy Award, a Critic’s Choice Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award…
James McBride | The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
James McBride is the author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird , “a brilliant romp of a novel” ( The New York Times Book Review ) in which a young boy born into slavery joins abolitionist John Brown’s doomed…
R. Eric Thomas | Congratulations, the Best Is Over!: Essays
R. Eric Thomas is the author of the Lambda Literary Award finalist Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul America , a bestselling essay collection that tackles just what it means to be an “other” in the maelstrom of modern America.…
Wesley Lowery | American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress
In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak In American Whitelash , Wesley Lowery examines the cyclical pattern of violence that marks each watershed moment of racial progress in this country, most…
Barbara Butcher | What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator with Kate White | Between Two Strangers
Barbara Butcher is the former chief of staff and director of the Forensic Sciences Training Program at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). Only the second woman hired as a death investigator in Manhattan (and the…
Jake Tapper | All the Demons Are Here: A Thriller
In conversation with Jim Gardner Jake Tapper is the Washington, D.C., anchor and chief Washington correspondent for CNN, where he hosts the weekday program The Lead with Jake Tapper and the Sunday morning show State of the Union .…
Blair LM Kelley | Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class
In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill Referred to by acclaimed author and academic Michael Eric Dyson as “one of the most important works of history to come across my desk in a long time,” Blair LM Kelley’s Black Folk: The Roots of the…
One Book One Philadelphia Finale: Author Conversation with Charles Yu
Join us at the Community College of Philadelphia for a celebration to conclude the One Book, One Philadelphia 2023 season. This event will feature an in-person conversation between Charles Yu and Dr. Michelle Myers, associate professor…
David E. Guggenheim | The Remarkable Reefs Of Cuba: Hopeful Stories From the Ocean Doctor
A marine scientist, ocean explorer, conservation policy specialist, and submarine pilot, David E. Guggenheim, Ph.D. is the founder and president of Ocean Doctor, a nonprofit organization committed to advancing the conservation of the…
Christine Pride and Jo Piazza | You Were Always Mine
In conversation with Alexandra Auder, author of Don't Call Me Home: A Memoir Publishing industry veteran Christine Pride has held a variety of editorial positions at Doubleday, Simon & Schuster, and Crown, among other publishing…
Geraldine Brooks | Horse
Geraldine Brooks won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for her novel March , an “honorable, elegant, and true” ( The Wall Street Journal ) retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women from the point of view of the titular family’s absent…
David Maraniss | Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe
In conversation with Paul Hendrickson “One of our most talented biographers and historians” ( The New York Times ), David Maraniss is the author of bestselling portraits of some of America’s most consequential figures, including Bill…
Kwame Alexander | Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Recipes, Letters, and Remembrances
In conversation with Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts Kwame Alexander is the author of The Crossover , a “beautifully measured novel” ( The New York Times Book Review ) that follows twin brother basketball stars coming to terms with…
Airea D. Matthews | Bread and Circus
In conversation with poet Phillip B. Williams Airea D. Matthews is the 2022–23 Philadelphia Poet Laureate and directs the poetry program at Bryn Mawr College. Her collection Simulacra won the 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize and…
James Comey | Central Park West: A Crime Novel
In conversation with George Anastasia The director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017, James Comey captured international attention for his investigations into Hillary Clinton’s emails, Russian interference into the 2016 presidential…
Kristen R. Ghodsee | Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us
In conversation with Arwa Mahdawi Referred to by bestsstelling author Rebecca Traister as “exhilarating, good humored, and forward looking,” Kristen R. Ghodsee ’s Everyday Utopia is a two-millennia examination of diverse…