A trenchant observer of democracy, Masha Gessen is the author of twelve books, including the National Book Award-winning The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia and Surviving Autocracy. Their coverage of current political unfoldings in Russia, LGBTQ+ rights, and the rise of autocratic leaders appears regularly in the pages of The New Yorker and the New York Times. Q&A with Margaret O’Mara, Professor of History at the University of Washington.

A graphic novelist, tattoo artist, illustrator, and filmmaker, James Spooner directed the seminal documentary AFRO-PUNK. His graphic novel, The High Desert, weaves in the Black roots of punk rock and a vivid interlude in the thriving eighties DIY and punk scene in NYC’s East Village. He co-founded the Afropunk Festival, which currently boasts audiences in the hundreds of thousands globally.

“One of the most soulful and perceptive writers of our time,” Pico Iyer is a renowned travel writer beloved for his gift of perspective. In a new culminating work, The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, Iyer brings together the outer world and the inner to offer us a surprising, original, often beautiful exploration of how we might come upon paradise in the midst of our very real lives. Q&A with Ruchika Tulshyan.

“There is a crisis of violence in our communities,” says Connie Walker, an award-winning Cree journalist from Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan. In her podcasts Stolen and Missing & Murdered, Walker investigates cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. In Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s (Season 2), Walker unearths how her family’s story fits into one of Canada’s darkest chapters: the residential school system. Q&A with journalist Wudan Yan.

One of the most acclaimed writers of our time, Louise Penny is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the beloved Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. With a CWA Dagger and seven Agatha Awards to her name, as well as her reputation as a master plotter, Penny is sure to thrill and delight with her latest release.

Join us for a conversation with legendary actor and best-selling author Tom Hanks about his first novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, about the making of a star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film—and the humble comic books that inspired it. All tickets, with the exception of a limited number of Pay What You Can tickets, include a copy of The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, shipped to the ticket holder’s door by our partner bookstore, Third Place Books.