This conversation features best-selling author Colm Tóibín, interviewed by Silas House, former Kentucky Poet Laureate (2023-2025). They discuss Tóibín’s book “Long Island” before a live audience at the University of Louisville, Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on April 14th, 2025, at the Kentucky Center in Louisville.

Irish novelist, playwright, and essayist Colm Tóibín has written eleven novels, including the most recent, Long Island, which is the quietly heartbreaking sequel to his novel Brooklyn. Tóibín is a Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and was named the Laureate for Irish Fiction for 2022–2024 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Tóibín has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize. Silas House is a bestselling author of seven novels, one book of creative nonfiction, and four plays. His most recent novel, “Lark Ascending”, was a Booklist Editors' Choice and is the winner of the Southern Book Prize, and other honors. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Time, The New York Times, and many others.

This conversation features best-selling author Sebastian Junger, interviewed by NPR Podcast Host Rachel Martin. They discuss Junger’s book “In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face-to-Face with the Idea of an Afterlife” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on February 3rd, 2025, at the Kentucky Center in Louisville.

Sebastian Junger is a bestselling author of many books, award-winning journalist, and documentary filmmaker. Junger’s bestselling book “The Perfect Storm” was made into a major motion picture. His latest book “In My Time of Dying” is part medical drama, part searing autobiography, and part rational inquiry into the mystery of death. Rachel Martin is the co-creator and host of the NPR podcast Wild Card, an interview game show about life’s biggest questions. Martin spent six years as a host of NPR’s Morning Edition and was the founding host of NPR’s award-winning morning news podcast Up First.

This conversation features CNN Anchor and Chief Security Analyst Jim Sciutto, interviewed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jane Perlez. They discuss Sciutto’s book “The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China, and the Next World War” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on November 25th, 2024, at the Kentucky Center in Louisville.

Jim Sciutto is an anchor for CNN Newsroom. He has reported from more than fifty countries across the globe and has earned Emmy Awards and the Edward R. Murrow Award, among many others. Sciutto’s latest book, “The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China, and the Next World War,” details the realities of this new post–post–Cold War era, the increasingly aligned Russian and Chinese governments, and the flashpoint of a new, global nuclear arms race.

Jane Perlez was a long-time foreign correspondent for The New York Times, serving as Beijing Bureau Chief until 2019. Perlez was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 2009 for coverage of the war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She is currently a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, and producer and host of the podcast Face-Off: U.S. vs China.

This conversation features musician, activist and poet Joan Baez, interviewed by journalist and radio host Diane Rehm. They discuss Baez’s book “When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance: Poems,” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on October 21st, 2024 at the Kentucky Center in Louisville.

Joan Baez has performed for more than 60 years, releasing more than 30 albums. She has been honored with both the Recording Academy and the Latin Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award, and her 1960 debut album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Amnesty International presented her with its first Joan Baez Award for Outstanding Inspirational Service in the Global Fight for Human Rights. Her first book of poetry “When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance: Poems,” connects fans to the real heart of who Joan Baez is as a person, as a daughter and sister, and as an artist who has inspired millions.

Diane Rehm is a journalist and host of the Diane Rehm: On My Mind podcast. She also hosts a monthly book club series, Diane Rehm Book Club, at WAMU, the NPR member station in Washington, D.C. Rehm is the former NPR talk show host of The Diane Rehm Show, which was distributed nationally and internationally, with a weekly on-air audience of nearly three million.

This conversation features bestselling author Amor Towles, interviewed by New York Times Book Critic Alexandra Jacobs. They discuss Towles’ book “Table for Two: Fictions” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on September 30, 2024, at The Kentucky Center in Louisville.

Amor Towles is the author of The New York Times bestsellers “The Lincoln Highway,” “A Gentleman in Moscow,” and “Rules of Civility.” His novels have collectively sold millions of copies and have been translated into more than 35 languages. In “Table for Two,” Towles shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, “Table for Two” is another glittering addition to Towles’ canon of stylish and transporting fiction.

Alexandra Jacobs is a book critic for The New York Times and the author of “Still Here: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch.” She has contributed to many other publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Observer, and Entertainment Weekly.

This conversation features journalist and author Bianca Bosker, discussing her book, “Get the Picture” with writer Patrick Bringley.

Bianca Bosker is The New York Times bestselling author of “Cork Dork” and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. In “Get the Picture,” Bosker throws herself into the nerve center of art, and the people who live for it: gallerists, collectors, curators, and of course artists themselves. Probing everything from cave paintings to Instagram, and the science of sight to the importance of beauty, Get the Picture examines art’s role in our culture, our economy, and our hearts. Bosker’s writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Best American Travel Writing, and has been recognized with awards from the New York Press Club, Society of Professional Journalists, and more.

Patrick Bringley is the author of “All the Beauty in the World,” a memoir about his decade working as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, the Financial Times, Audible, and The Sunday Times (London), which selected it as the outstanding art book of 2023. Bringley has spoken at museums across the country, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the National Gallery of Art, and is adapting his book into a one-man play premiering this fall at the Charleston Literary Festival.

This conversation features renowned singer Renée Fleming, interviewed by author Richard Powers. They discuss Fleming’s book “Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on April 8, 2024 at The Kentucky Center in Louisville, Ky.

Renée Fleming is one of the most acclaimed singers of our time, performing on the stages of the world’s greatest opera houses and concert halls. She is also a leading advocate for research at the intersection of arts, health, and neuroscience. Her book, “Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness” contains essays from preeminent scientists, therapists, educators, and physicians about the powerful impact of music and the arts on health and the human experience.

Richard Powers is the author of 13 novels. His 2019 book, “The Overstory” was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

This conversation features best-selling author and book store owner Ann Patchett, interviewed by author and professor Kevin Wilson. They discuss Patchett’s book “Tom Lake” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on February 12th, 2024 at the Kentucky Center in Louisville.

ANN PATCHETT is the author of nine novels, four books of nonfiction and one children’s book. Patchett has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a National Humanities Medal, England’s Women’s Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Book Sense Book of the Year, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her novel “The Dutch House” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In November, 2011, she opened Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee. She has since become a spokesperson for independent booksellers, championing books and bookstores.

KEVIN WILSON is the author of two story collections, and four novels. His book “Nothing to See Here” was a New York Times bestseller and a “Read with Jenna” book club selection. His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Southern Review, One Story, A Public Space, and has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2020 and 2021, as well as The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012. Wilson is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of the South.

This conversation features renowned lawyer and Professor of Law at Yale and Georgetown Universities, Stephen Bright, interviewed by Pulitzer Prize-winner and Yale Law Professor James Forman Jr. They discuss Bright’s book, “The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on November 13th, 2023 at the Kentucky Center in Louisville.

Bright is a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School and a Visiting Professor at Georgetown Law. He has tried capital cases in many states, including four capital cases before the United States Supreme Court. He previously served as president of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. Subjects of his litigation, teaching and writing include capital punishment, legal representation for the poor, and racial discrimination in the criminal courts. Bright has received the American Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Award.

Social Justice activist Bryan Stevenson, in the foreword, called Bright’s new book “an urgently needed analysis of our collective failure…”

James Forman Jr. is a Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Forman’s scholarship focuses on schools, police, and prisons. Forman’s first book, “Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America", was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Forman was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He is the son of renowned civil rights leader James Forman.

This conversation features best-selling author Jill Lepore and U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin discussing Lepore’s book, “The Deadline: Essays,” before a live audience at the Kentucky Author Forum. This conversation was recorded on September 11th, 2023 at the Kentucky Center in Louisville.

Jill Lepore is a professor of history and of law at Harvard University. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her many books include the best-selling “These Truths: A History of the United States,” was named one of Time magazine’s top ten non-fiction books of the decade. Lepore’s “The Deadline: Essays” collects forty-six of her essays that offer a prismatic portrait of Americans’ techno-utopianism, frantic fractiousness, and unprecedented yet armed aimlessness.

Congressman Jamie Raskin represents Maryland’s 8th Congressional District. He serves as the Ranking Member on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Raskin also served on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. He has authored several books, including the New York Times #1 best-seller, “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy.”