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

Cost: FREE

Jeanette Winterson burst onto the literary landscape at the age of 25 when she published the semi-autobiographical Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit , the coming-of-age tale of a young lesbian rebelling against her conservative English Pentecostal upbringing.  Winterson is also the author of…

Thu, October 24, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00; $38.00 with book

Tickets on sale September 9, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. The bestselling Atlas Obscura garnered popular acclaim in 2016 as a joyous plunge into some of Earth’s weirdest and most mysterious places. Replete with rigorous research, lavish charts and illustrations, and brisk writing, a revised and…

Mon, October 28, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

In conversation with Michael Klein, editor/producer of inquirer.com/food and @phillyinsider Originally a meeting place for South Philly’s Abruzzi-American community, the members-only Palizzi Social Club is now one of America’s hottest restaurants. Since owner and chef Joey Baldino…

Tue, October 29, 2019 12:00 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00

Tickets on sale September 9, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. A columnist for the New York Times and a member of its editorial board since 1995, Gail Collins was the Gray Lady’s editorial page editor from 2001 to 2007, the first woman to hold that position. Her books include America’s Women: 400…

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

Cost: $55/$40 two seats + book/seat + book

Tickets on sale September 9, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. In conversation with Jason Freeman Praised as “an absolutely transformative figure” by the late Anthony Bourdain, Sean Brock is the founding chef of the Husk restaurant group, which has four locations in South Carolina and Georgia. In…

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

Cost: $15.00

Tickets on sale September 9, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. The frontman for R&B band Booker T. & the M.G.’s, songwriter, producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist Booker T. Jones was a driving figure in the creation of the Memphis soul sound, selling millions of records and collaborating…

Mon, November 4, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

Paul Hendrickson’s books include Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934–1961 , a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist; Sons of Mississippi , winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; and The Living and the Dead:  Robert McNamara and…

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

Cost: FREE

Erica Armstrong Dunbar is the author of the National Book Award finalist Never Caught, the story of Ona Judge, a young enslaved person who risked her life to escape servitude under President George Washington. Named the National Director of the Association of Black Women Historians and the first…

Wed, November 6, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00

Tickets on sale September 9, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. A “deft researcher and a first-rate storyteller” ( Washington Post ), Michael Beschloss is the author of nine books on the American presidency, including two volumes on Lyndon Johnson, the bestsellers Presidential Courage and The…

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

Cost: FREE

In conversation with Emma Eisenberg, author of the forthcoming book The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia Carmen Maria Machado’s bestselling debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties , was a finalist for the National Book Award and is being…

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

Cost: FREE

Saeed Jones is the author of the “hard and glaring and brilliant” ( NPR Book Review ) poetry collection Prelude to Bruise , winner of the 2015 Stonewall Book Award/Barbara Gittings Literature Award. He is also the co-host of BuzzFeed’s morning show AM to DM and was the…

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

Cost: $15.00

Tickets on sale September 9, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. Co-sponsored by Monday Poets This year, Joy Harjo became the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American honored with this position. Her 16 poetry collections include She Had Some Horses , Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings , and,…

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

Cost: $15.00

Tickets on sale September 9, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. A staff writer for the New Yorker  since 1992, Susan Orlean won wide acclaim for the 1998  New York Times bestseller The Orchid Thief , the story of a renegade Florida swamp plant poacher that was adapted into an Academy…

Mon, November 18, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00

Tickets on sale September 9, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. In convesation with Larry Platt Philadelphia Eagles long-snapper Jon Dorenbos played in two Pro Bowls and had an illustrious 14-year career in the NFL. Also a gifted magician, he was a finalist on the 11th season of America’s Got Talent and…

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

Cost: $15.00

Tickets on sale September 9, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. In conversation with Carrie Rickey, former film critic for the Inquirer Mentor to some of contemporary cinema’s top directors (Joss Whedon and Michael Bay) and founder of the department of film studies at Wesleyan University, Jeanine Basinger…

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

Cost: $15.00

Tickets on sale September 9, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. Deirdre Bair won the National Book Award for her “blockbuster biography” of Samuel Beckett, “the best introduction to an enigmatic giant of 20th-century literature” ( Christian Science Monitor ). Her other acclaimed…

Mon, November 25, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

The Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University and editor of the  Journal of Palestine Studies , Rashid Khalidi is one of the world’s leading historians of the Middle East. Among his many books are Palestinian Identity ,  Brokers of Deceit…

Tue, December 3, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00

Tickets on sale September 9, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. In conversation with Gary Kramer, a writer and film critic based in Philadelphia André Aciman is the author of the nationwide bestseller Call Me by Your Name , a novel that chronicles the bittersweet love story of a teenage boy and the young…

Thu, December 5, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: FREE

William D. Cohan is the bestselling author of The Last Tycoons , an inside history of Lazard Frères & Co., one of the country’s most venerable investment banks. A former longtime Wall Street mergers and acquisitions banker, the topics of his other books range from the financial…

Tue, December 10, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00; $34.00 with book

Tickets on sale September 9, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. In conversation with novelist and musician Wesley Stace “One of the major literary voices of our time” ( San Francisco Chronicle ), Salman Rushdie is the author of more than a dozen novels, including The Satanic Verses , The…