College + University Speakers

Engaging today with the world-changers of tomorrow, our college author speakers inspire students and faculty to foster dialogue on topics as diverse as the campuses they visit.

Yaa Gyasi

Author of Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom, and recipient of the National Book Foundation's 'Under 35' award

Dr. Michele Harper

Emergency room physician and author of the New York Times-bestselling The Beauty in Breaking

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi

National Book Award-winning historian and New York Times-bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist

Shaka Senghor

Author of Letters to the Sons of Society and Writing My Wrongs and leading voice on criminal justice reform

More College + University Speakers

Omar El Akkad

Award-winning journalist and author of the debut novel American War

Will Allen

Founder of Growing Power, MacArthur 'Genius' Award winner, and author of The Good Food Revolution

Moustafa Bayoumi

Journalist and author of How Does it Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America

Adam Benforado

New York Times bestselling author of A Minor Revolution and Unfair

Brit Bennett

Novelist of National Book Award nominated, New York Times-bestselling The Vanishing Half, and National Book Foundation 2016 5 Under 35 Honoree

Dr. Uché Blackstock

Founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, Emergency Physician, and author Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine (Jan. 2024)

Cat Bohannon

Researcher and Author of Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

Peter Buffett

Emmy Award-winning musician, author, and philanthropist

Bill Burnett

Executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford and co-author of the #1 New York Times-bestselling book Designing Your Life

Francisco Cantú

Author of the bestselling memoir The Line Becomes a River and former US Border Patrol Agent

John Carreyrou

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author of the New York Times bestseller Bad Blood

Casey Cep

New York Times bestselling author of Furious Hours and New Yorker staff writer

Ta-Nehisi Coates

#1 New York Times-bestselling author of Between the World and Me and The Water Dancer

Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree and National Book Award finalist The Man Who Could Move Clouds

Ron Currie, Jr.

Author of Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles, Everything Matters! and God is Dead

Hernan Diaz

Pulitzer Prize winning author of Trust and In the Distance

David Ewing Duncan

Award-winning science and technology journalist and bestselling author of Talking to Robots

Jennifer Egan

Author of The Candy House and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad

June Eric-Udorie

Feminist activist, Editor of Can We All Be Feminists? and DEI Programme Manager for Flexa

Dave Evans

Co-founder of Electronic Arts and co-author of the #1 New York Times-bestselling book Designing Your Life

Dr. Sheri Fink

Pulitzer Prize-winning medical journalist and author of Five Days at Memorial, M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford

Franklin Foer

National correspondent for The Atlantic, New America Foundation fellow, and former editor of The New Republic

Jamie Ford

New York Times-bestselling author and book club favorite

Dr. Marisa G. Franco

Psychologist, professor, friendship expert, and New York Times-bestselling author of Platonic

Paul Greenberg

James Beard Award-winning author of the New York Times bestseller Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food and American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood

Lauren Groff

National Book Award finalist and bestselling author of Fates and Furies and Matrix

Tess Gunty

National Book Award-winning author of The Rabbit Hutch

Doc Hendley

Founder and president of Wine to Water, CNN Hero, and author of Wine to Water

Kristin Henning

Professor of Law at Georgetown University and author of The Rage of Innocence

Cathy Park Hong

Award-winning poet and New York Times-bestselling author of Minor Feelings

Kristen Iversen

Award-winning author of Full Body Burden and public health speaker

Daisy Khan

Women's advocate, media commentator, and Executive Director of the Women's Islamic Initiative

Phil Klay

U.S. Marine Corps veteran and author of Redeployment, winner of 2014 National Book Award for Fiction

Robert Kolker

Award-winning journalist and instant #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Hidden Valley Road

Mark Kurlansky

New York Times bestselling-author of Cod, Salt, and The Food of a Younger Land

Jean Kwok

Award-winning author of Girl in Translation

Steve Lopez

Author of The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music

Amanda Lucidon

Obama White House photographer, award-winning filmmaker, and New York Times-bestselling author

Drew Magary

Author of The Postmortal, The Hike, and Someone Could Get Hurt

Rebecca Makkai

Author of Pulitzer Prize-finalist The Great Believers and I Have Some Questions for You

Ian Manuel

Advocate for criminal justice reform, poet, and motivational speaker

Sarah McBride

Delaware State Senator, LGBTQ activist, and National Press Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign

Dinaw Mengestu

Named one of The New Yorker "20 Under 40" writers to watch and author of The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears and How to Read the Air

Chanel Miller

Artist, activist, and author of the New York Times bestseller Know My Name

Celeste Ng

Author of the New York Times bestseller Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere

Beth Nguyen

Author of Pioneer Girl, Stealing Buddha's Dinner and Short Girls

Emi Nietfeld

Software engineer, writer, and author of Acceptance

Jenny Nordberg

Award-winning investigative reporter, foreign correspondent, and author of The Underground Girls of Kabul

Sigrid Nunez

Author of the 2018 National Book Award winner and New York Times bestseller, The Friend

Jenny Odell

New York Times-bestselling author of How to Do Nothing and Saving Time

Ruth Ozeki

Filmmaker, novelist, and Zen Buddhist priest

Ahmed Rashid

Journalist and author of Descent into Chaos and Pakistan on the Brink

Kiley Reid

Debut novelist of instant New York Times-bestselling Such a Fun Age

Jerry Saltz

Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic for New York magazine

Marjane Satrapi

Academy Award-nominated director, cartoonist, and author of Persepolis

Bo Seo

Two-time world champion debater and author of Good Arguments

Dani Shapiro

Bestselling author of Hourglass and Inheritance, host of the Family Secrets podcast.

Neil Shubin

Evolutionary biologist and discoverer of the "Missing Link," and author of Your Inner Fish and The Universe Within

Suzanne Simard

Leader of The Mother Tree Project and author of Finding the Mother Tree

Chris Smalls

Labor organizer and president and co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union

Bren Smith

Restorative ocean farmer, co-founder of GreenWave, and author of Eat Like a Fish

J. Ryan Stradal

New York Times-bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest

Darin Strauss

Bestselling novelist and author of the acclaimed memoir Half a Life, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography

Cheryl Strayed

Author of the #1 New York Times-bestselling memoir Wild and "Dear Sugar" columnist

Mark Sundeen

Award-winning author of The Man Who Quit Money and The Unsettlers

David Treuer

Author of The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee and Rez Life

Bina Venkataraman

Author of The Optimist's Telescope, columnist at The Washington Post, and a fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center

Dr. Vint Virga

Distinguished veterinary practitioner and animal behaviorist, and author of The Soul of All Living Creatures

Hadley Vlahos

Hospice nurse, palliative care advocate, author of The In-Between

Ocean Vuong

Poet and author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

John Wang

Leadership Coach, Founder of Mastery Academy, author of Big Asian Energy (2025)

Colson Whitehead

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys

Isabel Wilkerson

Pulitzer Prize winner and author of the critically-acclaimed bestsellers The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste

John Wood

Founder and board co-chairman of Room to Read and author of Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy

Zachary R. Wood

Former President of Uncomfortable Learning at Williams College, author of Uncensored, and free speech advocate

Alora Young

Spoken word poet and author of Walking Gentry Home

Charles Yu

National Book Award-winning author of Interior Chinatown

Javier Zamora

Memoirist, poet, and author of Solito, and a winner of the 2023 American Book Award.

Michelle Zauner

Frontwoman of Japanese Breakfast and author of New York Times bestselling Crying in H Mart

Gabrielle Zevin

New York Times-bestselling author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow