WITH THANKS TO WELLS FARGO
“…compulsively readable and vividly written – it kept me awake long past my bedtime.” — Sarah J. Maas

Conform by Ariel Sullivan is the first work of fiction celebrated by Jenna Bush Hager’s new publishing venture, Thousand Voices.

Described as "The Hunger Games meets romantasy,” Conform is a sweeping dystopian romance saga of love and rebellion, set in a post-apocalyptic future where a woman’s worth is measured by her ability to procreate. Join Ariel Sullivan and Jenna Bush Hager as they discuss this smart, genre-bending novel.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

The New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-winning, Booker Prize-longlisted author of Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann discusses his darkly eerie novel about connection, disconnection and destruction, Twist.

A writer travels to Cape Town to embark on a sea voyage to repair a broken internet cable at the bottom of the ocean when the ship's mysterious captain disappears. As the mission falters, it becomes clear that things are not as they first seemed.

Colum McCann will be in conversation with Irish actor and playwright, Shane O’Reilly, whose play Her Father’s Voice is forthcoming with Bloomsbury / Methuen Drama.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

National Book Award-winning author of South to America, Imani Perry, named “The most important interpreter of Black life in our time” by Eddie S. Glaude Jr, discusses her latest book Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People.

Tracing the way that blue is woven through Black history, from Miles Davis to Toni Morrison, her book echoes Louis Armstrong’s question, “What did I do to be so Black and Blue?” Imani Perry uses the world’s favorite color as a springboard for an emotional, cultural, and spiritual journey that transcends politics or ideology.

Imani Perry will be in conversation with novelist Dolen Perkins-Valdez.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

PRESENTED WITH MOTHER EMANUEL AME CHURCH, with a special appearance by the Mother Emanuel Choir
Ten years after the tragic massacre that shocked the nation, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Kevin Sack discusses his new book, Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church, with bestselling author and scholar Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. The book explores the 200-year history of Charleston’s Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.

Following the conversation, the Mother Emanuel Choir, led by Dr. Wayne Singleton, will perform a choral program that reflects the church’s history through song.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Directed by Stephen Daldry
Screenplay by David Hare
Music by Philip Glass
Starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman

Released in 2002, The Hours, adapted from a novel of the same name by Michael Cunningham, follows three women in different eras whose lives are connected by Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel, Mrs. Dalloway. A hundred years since its publication, Mrs. Dalloway is still considered a pivotal work, inspiring other art forms, including this film for which Nicole Kidman received an Oscar. 

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway, set on a single day in the life of a woman preparing for a party in 1920s London, with a parallel storyline featuring an ex WW1 soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress, continues to stimulate creativity a century after its publication: inspiring books, films, a ballet and even an opera.

Michael Cunningham, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning The Hours and more recently Day (both influenced by Mrs. Dalloway) and Jenny Offill, author of Weather and Dept. of Speculation, who wrote an introduction to the Penguin Classic edition of Mrs. Dalloway, celebrate the novel’s legacy and discuss why it continues to attract devotees.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, rare books dealer and book specialist on the History Channel reality show Pawn Stars, Rebecca Romney discusses her latest publication, Jane Austen’s Bookshelf.

The book investigates the disappearance of Austen’s heroines—women writers who were erased from the Western canon—to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten, despite frequently being significant authors. Romney collects the once-famed works of these forgotten writers and physically recreates Austen’s bookshelf—in conversation with antiquarian book dealer Sunday Steinkirchner.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION
Aria Aber joins us to discuss her novel Good Girl. This powerful debut plunges the reader into a raging battle between a young Afghan woman’s cultural identity and desire for freedom. Good Girl describes Nila’s attempt to leave behind the legacy of her immigrant parents by reinventing herself within Berlin’s artistic community. “This is an emotive, psychedelic novel whose writing is both poetic and politically powerful” (Diana Evans, Women’s Prize judge).

Aria Aber was born and raised in Germany and now lives in the United States. She has also published an award-winning poetry collection.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Tim Bouverie, author of the acclaimed Appeasement, returns to the Festival to discuss his revelatory new history Allies at War, which focuses on the checkered, multinational relationships between the WW2 allies—primarily Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin—who won the war and made the peace. Was this incongruous coalition, divided by ideology, rivalry and politics, a triumph of diplomacy? Or did it store up trouble for the future?

Tim Bouverie discusses his highly readable and often amusing new book with BBC Radio 4’s The Long View presenter, Jonathan Freedland, and considers whether the Big Three alliance contains lessons for our times.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Glory Edim, founder of the renowned book club Well-Read Black Girl, which reaches a community of half a million readers dedicated to celebrating the written work of Black women, joins us to discuss her latest book, Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise Of The Books That Saved Me.

The memoir is a dramatic and intricate portrait of family, community, and resilience, and an ode to the power of books to help us understand ourselves. Glory Edim grew up in Virginia to Nigerian parents. She will be in conversation with award-winning Jamaican poet and author of the acclaimed memoir How To Say Babylon, Safiya Sinclair.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

THEATRE 
FAMILY PROGRAMMING
PERFORMANCE BY BRANAR THEATER COMPANY
“Ulysses for children: has the world gone mad?... Branar has gone and done it.”—The Irish Times.

Innovative international family theater joins the festival lineup this year with James Joyce’s epic novel Ulysses brought to life by Branar, one of Ireland’s leading theater companies producing children’s shows. You’ll See is an inventive theater piece combining live performance, intricate paper design, and an original score.

For audiences aged 8 and upwards (including adults who haven’t gotten around to reading Ulysses yet), this is theater that will excite both young and old. Yes, I said, yes!

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Joyce Carol Oates, “surely on any shortlist of America’s greatest living writers” (The New York Times), recipient of the National Humanities Medal, author of over 60 novels, including the National Book Award-winning Blonde, her fictional life of Marilyn Monroe, and We Were the Mulvaneys, selected by Oprah's book club, has just published her first whodunnit, Fox. The book is a spellbinding drama of psychological suspense concerning the disappearance of a charismatic teacher from a prestigious boarding school.

In conversation with Jean Hanff Korelitz, author of best-selling thrillers The Plot and The Sequel.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Jonathan Freedland, best-selling author of The Escape Artist, award winning Guardian journalist, BBC broadcaster, and former Washington correspondent, discusses his new non-fiction thriller, The Traitors Circle. The book is the true story of secret rebels against Hitler, drawn from Berlin high society, who chose to stand up against tyranny.

Written like a novel, it is a page-turning account of resistance, heroism, betrayal and tragedy, which sheds light on one of the most dramatic and little-known episodes of WW2. The suspenseful and inspiring story resonates with a question: what makes a person trade personal safety in order to stand up against tyranny?

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Pulitzer Prize-finalist, historian, and foreign-policy analyst, Max Boot discusses his “monumental and impressive biography that illuminates the untold story of Ronald Reagan” (Robert Mann). Son of the Midwest, movie star, and mesmerizing politician―America’s fortieth president comes to three-dimensional life in this gripping and profoundly revisionist biography.

Max Boot draws from over one hundred of the fortieth president’s aides, friends, and family members, as well as thousands of newly available documents that “beautifully catches the essence of who he was” (Stuart K. Spencer). He discusses his groundbreaking biography with The New York Times bestselling author and co-founder of Spy magazine, Kurt Andersen.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

International human rights barrister, Professor of Law in London and at Harvard, award-winning author of East West Street, Philippe Sands discusses his enthralling book, 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia.

Blending memoir, history, detective story and a courtroom drama (in which he took part), Sands uncovers connections between the 1998 London arrest of Chilean dictator Pinochet, mass murder in South America, and atrocities in the Nazi era. He considers the role of international law in holding leaders accountable for crimes against humanity, and reflects on the concept of ‘impunity’, issues relevant to our own times.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Deborah Treisman, fiction editor of The New Yorker, discusses a celebratory selection of short stories from the last 100 years of the magazine with award-winning short story writer and novelist Nathan Englander.

An influential showcase for literature and instantly recognizable thanks to its iconic covers, the legendary magazine has launched dozens of careers in fiction. Join Treisman and Englander as they discuss this storied anthology featuring works by J. D. Salinger, Shirley Jackson, Vladimir Nabokov, Jamaica Kincaid, George Saunders, Zadie Smith, and more.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Astronaut Charles F. Bolden and space scientist Les Johnson share stories of space exploration, innovation, and discovery, offering the audience insights on humanity’s quest to understand—and thrive in—the cosmos.

In his book Traveler’s Guide to the Stars, Les Johnson explores the science behind interstellar travel and grants readers a passport to distant worlds. Written for young readers, Star Sailor by Charles F. Bolden details his experiences as an astronaut working for NASA, revealing the power that it takes to reach the stars.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

Acclaimed authors Sue Halpern, author of What We Leave Behind, Gish Jen, author of Bad Bad Girl, and Dolen-Perkins Valdez, author of Happyland convene for a conversation on family legacy in fiction. The work of all three writers conjures up worlds where their protagonists find themselves variously in opposition or in communion with family history and legacy. We explore how these writers think about fiction as a mode to shape identity across generations and cultures.

In conversation with New York Review of Books essayist and literary critic, Regina Marler.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.

PRESENTED WITH THE SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER
From the acclaimed environmentalist, activist, and author of the groundbreaking The End of Nature comes a call to harness the power of the sun and rewrite our future. In his latest book, Here Comes the Sun, Bill McKibben sees the possibility in our moment of climate crisis—and the potential solar power provides. The sun is more than just a path out of the climate crisis: it is a chance to reorder the world.

Bill McKibben will be in conversation with Leilani Brown, a fellow colleague at Middlebury College.

Many Festival events are filmed and recorded for archival and research purposes, and occasionally for further distribution, such as promotional opportunities, on our website, and for network television. The films might sometimes include recognizable shots of members of the audience and/or interviews with patrons before or after the live events. Purchase of this ticket implies your permission to be filmed.