Ann Patchett’s six novels and two nonfiction works have earned her numerous awards, including the Orange Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award for Bel Canto, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Taft, and the New York Times Notable Book of the Year for The Patron Saint of Liars. She is also the author of the suspenseful novel State of Wonder, set amid a forgotten tribe along the banks of the Amazon river, and two works of nonfiction: the New York Times bestselling Truth & Beauty and What Now?. Named one of Time magazine’s Most Influential People, Patchett opened Parnassus Books when her hometown of Nashville was left without a bookstore. This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is a collection of the large experiences and small moments that have shaped her life.  

Natalie Cohn Memorial Lecture