Our Events

Event Recordings

  • Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Members’ Room Event | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration required
    In this one-of-a-kind event, two scholars passionate about Woolf discuss her life and her place in literature.
    Embedded thumbnail for Anne E. Fernald and Roxana Robinson, The World of Virginia Woolf
  • Thursday, November 4, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Members’ Room Event | Members' Room | open to the public | $20 per person | advance registration required
    Uptown at Night returns to the Members’ Room with a vibrant lineup of humorous storytellers and comedians including Joan Juliet Buck, Sloane Crosley, Patty Kiernan, Tom Perrotta, and James Harvey on keyboard. Sydney LeBlanc hosts.
    Embedded thumbnail for Uptown at Night: An Evening of Comedy and Humorous Storytelling
  • Monday, October 25, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Members’ Room Event | Members' Room | open to the public | $15 per person | registration required
    A captivating study of Napoleon’s plundering of Europe’s art for the Louvre, told through the story of a Renaissance masterpiece seized from Venice. Author Cynthia Saltzman talks about the history and the art with Xavier F. Salomon, The Frick Collection Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator. A noted Veronese scholar, Salomon curated the 2014 exhibition on the artist at London's National Gallery.
    Embedded thumbnail for Cynthia Saltzman, Plunder: Napoleon's Theft of Veronese's Feast, with Xavier F. Salomon
  • Monday, October 18, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Online Event | Livestreamed | open to the public | $10 per person | registration required
    A culminating work on the American Founding by one of its leading historians, The Cause rethinks the American Revolution as we have known it.
    Embedded thumbnail for Joseph J. Ellis, The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783
  • Thursday, September 30, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Online Event | Livestream open to the public (Members' Room by invitation only) | free of charge | registration required
    The brilliant scholar who served as guest curator for the Library's Black Literature Matters exhibition imparts the lessons bequeathed by the Black community and its remarkable artists and thinkers.
    Embedded thumbnail for Farah Jasmine Griffin, Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature
  • Tuesday, September 28, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Online Event | Livestreamed | open to the public | $10 per person | registration required
    A one-of-a-kind conversation between rising star fiction writers Deesha Philyaw (2020 Pen/Faulkner Award winner) and Dantiel W. Moniz (“a gorgeous debut” - Lauren Groff).
    Embedded thumbnail for Dantiel W. Moniz, Milk Blood Heat, and Deesha Philyaw, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
  • Thursday, September 23, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Online Event | Livestreamed | open to the public | free of charge | registration required
    A remarkable novel about J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white in order to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.
    Embedded thumbnail for Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, The Personal Librarian: A Novel
  • Thursday, September 9, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Online Event | Livestreamed | open to the public | $10 per person | registration required
    The Boston Globe has called Hilma Wolitzer an "American literary treasure." Here she discusses her new volume of uncannily relevant, deliciously clear-eyed collected stories with beloved novelist Meg Wolitzer.
    Embedded thumbnail for Hilma Wolitzer, Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket: Stories, in conversation with with Meg Wolitzer
  • Thursday, June 24, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | online | open to the public | $10 per person | registration required
    A poignant coming-of-age memoir by the daughter of artistic, bohemian parents—set against a backdrop of 1950s New York, Cape Cod, and Mexico.
    Embedded thumbnail for Hayden Herrera, Upper Bohemia: A Memoir
  • Monday, June 14, 2021 - 6:00 PM | The Writing Life | online | open to the public | free of charge | registration required
    Acclaimed mystery writers Jeffery Deaver, Laurie King, Charles Todd, and Caroline Todd discuss crafting mysteries and their ever-shifting publishing landscape. This panel celebrates the release of HOW TO WRITE A MYSTERY: A HANDBOOK FROM MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA.
    Embedded thumbnail for Panel: Jeffery Deaver, Laurie King, and Charles and Caroline Todd, How to Write A Mystery (co-sponsored with Mystery Writers of America - New York Chapter)
  • Wednesday, June 9, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | YouTube Live | open to the public | drop in
    The New York City Book Awards, founded in 1996, honor each year’s best books about the city. This year's special ceremony honors the creators of great New York City books from 2019 and 2020.
    Embedded thumbnail for The 25th Anniversary New York City Book Awards Ceremony
  • Thursday, June 3, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | online | open to the public | $10 per person | registration required
    From an award-winning storyteller comes a stunning debut novel about a New Mexican family’s extraordinary year of love and sacrifice. In this special event, Ms. Quade talks about THE FIVE WOUNDS and the art of fiction writing with award-winning novelist Meg Wolitzer.
    Embedded thumbnail for Kirstin Valdez Quade, The Five Wounds: A Novel, in conversation with Meg Wolitzer
  • Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Reception | YouTube Live | open to the public | drop in
    Award winners and participants are celebrated at a ceremony with writing advice and inspiration from the author judges.
    Embedded thumbnail for The 2021 Young Writers Awards Ceremony
  • Thursday, May 20, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Online Event | online | open to the public | free of charge | registration required
    In this original series of live online events, Black writers from the 1700s to the present are re-examined to inspire understanding of race in our country today. Black Literature Matters celebrates Black writers in four extraordinary evenings. This final event of the series showcases brief excerpts from the work of writers from 1960 to the present.
    Embedded thumbnail for Black Literature Matters: 1960-Now
  • Tuesday, May 4, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | online | open to the public | $10 per person | registration required
    What would Willa Cather's widely read and cherished novels have looked like if she had never met magazine editor and copywriter Edith Lewis? A groundbreaking new look at the American novelist's creative process.
    Embedded thumbnail for Melissa J. Homestead, The Only Wonderful Things: The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather & Edith Lewis
  • Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | online | open to the public | free of charge | registration required
    Edward Hirsch's new book presents 100 of the most moving and inspiring poems of the last 200 years from around the world, a collection that will comfort and enthrall anyone trapped by grief or loneliness, selected by the award-winning, best-selling, and beloved author of HOW TO READ A POEM. In this special event, Dr. Hirsch introduces the poems and their creators, with moving readings by actors R.J. Foster and Sarah Rose Kearns.
    Embedded thumbnail for Edward Hirsch, 100 Poems to Break Your Heart, with dramatic readers
  • Monday, April 19, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | online | open to the public | $10 per person | registration required
    In this grand and thrilling narrative, the acclaimed biographer of Magellan, Columbus, and Marco Polo brings alive the singular life and adventures of Sir Francis Drake, the pirate/explorer/admiral whose mastery of the seas during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I changed the course of history.
    Embedded thumbnail for Laurence Bergreen, In Search of a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire
  • Monday, April 12, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | online
    AN AMERICAN ODYSSEY illuminates the life and work of Romare Bearden, whose art celebrated the traditions and ceremonies of African American culture. In this special event, biographer Mary Schmidt Campbell discusses Bearden's life and art and talks with gallery owners Sherman Edmiston and June Kelly.
    Embedded thumbnail for Mary Schmidt Campbell, An American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden, with special guests
  • Thursday, March 25, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Online Event | online | open to the public | free of charge | registration required
    In this original series of live online events, hear the voices of Black writers through history re-examined to inspire understanding of race in our country today. This third presentation brings to life the first half of the 20th century with dramatic readings, historical context, and images.
    Embedded thumbnail for Black Literature Matters: 1900-1959
  • Monday, March 15, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | online | open to the public | $10 per person | registration required
    From the author of MIDNIGHT, a poignant tale about one woman’s quest to recover her family’s history, and a story of loss and survival during the Holocaust.
    Embedded thumbnail for Victoria Shorr, The Plum Trees
  • Wednesday, March 10, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | online | open to the public | $10 per person | registration required
    This richly researched new biography celebrates two complicated pioneers who exploded the limits of possibility for women in medicine. "Nimura casts a thoughtful and revelatory new light onto women’s and medical history." (Publishers Weekly)
    Embedded thumbnail for Janice P. Nimura, The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine
  • Thursday, March 4, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | online | open to the public | $10 per person | registration required
    The final volume of the magisterial Pacific War Trilogy from acclaimed historian Ian W. Toll, “one of the great storytellers of War” (Evan Thomas). Drawing from a wealth of rich archival sources and new material, Twilight of the Gods casts a penetrating light on the battles, grand strategic decisions and naval logistics that enabled the Allied victory in the Pacific.
    Embedded thumbnail for Ian W. Toll, Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945
  • Wednesday, February 24, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | online | open to the public | $10 per person | registration required
    Mixing cultural criticism, literary history, biography, and memoir, scholar and New York Times writer Salamishah Tillet explores Alice Walker’s critically acclaimed and controversial novel THE COLOR PURPLE, in conversation with playwright Marsha Norman, who adapted it for Broadway.
    Embedded thumbnail for Salamishah Tillet, In Search of The Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece, in conversation with Marsha Norman
  • Thursday, February 18, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | online | open to the public | $10 per person | registration required
    Family secrets emerge as the bestselling author of The Island at the Center of the World dives into the history of the mob in small-town America.
    Embedded thumbnail for Russell Shorto, Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob
  • Monday, February 8, 2021 - 6:00 PM | Lecture | online | open to the public | $10 per person | registration required
    FURIOUS HOURS brings to life a shocking historic case, from the murders to the courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South. It also offers a deeply moving portrait of one of the country’s most beloved writers and her struggle with fame, success, and the mystery of artistic creativity.
    Embedded thumbnail for Casey Cep, Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee

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