Manhattan Beach - Jennifer Egan

A deft, dazzling, propulsive exploration of a transformative moment in the lives and identities of women and men, of America and the world.

(Scribner / Simon & Schuster)

The Future Is History - Masha Gessen

Putin’s bestselling biographer reveals how, in the space of a generation, Russia surrendered to a more virulent and invincible new strain of autocracy.

(Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House)

2016: The Underground Railroad (Pulitzer Prize Winner) (National Book Award Winner) (Oprah's Book Club) - Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead has established himself as one of the most versatile and innovative writers in contemporary literature. The author of eight books, he is a MacArthur fellow and Pulitzer Prize finalist.

2014: Redeployment - Phil Klay

United States Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay wowed critics and readers alike with his short story collection Redeployment, which was named “one of the best debuts of the year” (The Oregonian.)

2009: Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann

Hailed as an incomparable storyteller, Colum McCann is an award-winning author whose topics have ranged from the troubles in Northern Ireland, to the effects of 9/11, to the examination of the Roma in Europe. 

1999: Waiting - Ha Jin

Ha Jin is an award-winning novelist and a professor at Boston University. Born in China and a veteran of the People’s Liberation Army, Jin’s fascinating upbringing makes him a captivating speaker on China’s past and present.

2012: Behind the Beautiful Forevers - Katherine Boo

Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo is among the most influential journalists writing about disadvantaged populations. Her New York Times bestseller Behind the Beautiful Forevers, based on years of reporting in Mumbai, exposes one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds with uncompromising clarity and empathy.

2009: The First Tycoon - T.J. Stiles

T. J. Stiles is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The First Tycoon, a biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Custer’s Trials, a biography of George Armstrong Custer. He has served as a historical adviser and on-screen expert for American Experience programs on PBS.

1997: American Sphinx - Joseph J. Ellis

A leading scholar of American history, Joseph J. Ellis is a Pulitzer Prize winner for his biographies of our nation’s earliest presidents. Ellis is a distinguished professor and seasoned speaker who regales audiences with stories of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other U.S. presidents.

2015: Voyage of the Sable Venus - Robin Coste Lewis

Robin Coste Lewis is an electrifying new voice in contemporary poetry. Both tender and arresting in her poems, Lewis is also an astute cultural critic, alert to the complexities of race and the black female voice.

2014: Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson is a four-time Newbery Honor winner, a recipient of the NAACP Image Award, and was recently named the Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. She gives stirring lectures that delve into the inspiration behind her books and explore important issues of race, gender, and bullying.

1980: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt - Edmund Morris

Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential biographer Edmund Morris’s Theodore Roosevelt trilogy is considered the definitive work on that president’s life, and perhaps no writer is better equipped to discuss the legacy of Ronald Reagan than Morris. He is a seasoned lecturer in demand by audiences as both a historical expert and as an interpreter of public lives.