The William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage Series, presented by the Cuyahoga County Public Library Foundation and its academic partner Case Western Reserve University, returns for its 14th season in September. The series is the signature event for the Cuyahoga County Public Library Foundation and helps support Cuyahoga County Public Library.
All events in the 2017-18 series will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Case Western Reserve University’s Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at The Temple – Tifereth Israel, located at 1855 Ansel Road, Cleveland.
Series subscriptions to the 2017-18 William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage Series are on sale now. A subscription guarantees a seat at each event. Visit www.writerscenterstage.org or call 216-368-6062 to purchase tickets by phone. The schedule is as follows:
Colson Whitehead
Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017
Colson Whitehead is the author of six novels, including the number one New York Times best-seller The Underground Railroad, for which he received the literary world triple-crown: the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction, the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. Whitehead’s other novels include John Henry Days, for which he received Cleveland’s prestigious Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; and Apex Hides the Hurt, for which he received the PEN/Oakland Award. His reviews, essays and fiction have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper’s and Granta. Whitehead is also a past recipient of the MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship. This event coincides with 2017 Cleveland Book Week.
Patti Smith
In conversation with Maureen Corrigan
Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017
Patti Smith is a legendary American writer, performer and visual artist. She first gained recognition in the 1970s for her revolutionary mergence of poetry and rock music. Her seminal album Horses has been hailed as one of the top 100 albums of all time. In 2010, Smith won the National Book Award for her memoir, Just Kids, the moving story of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Her latest book is the memoir M Train.
Patti Smith will be interviewed onstage by Maureen Corrigan, one of America’s most distinguished book critics. For more than 20 years, Corrigan has been the book critic for National Public Radio’s Fresh Air. Her reviews have been published in The Washington Post, The Village Voice, The New York Times and The Boston Globe, among other publications. Corrigan has authored two nonfiction books, Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading and So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures, which was named one of the 10 best books of the year by Library Journal.
Margaret Atwood
Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017
Canadian writer Margaret Atwood is the author of more than 40 books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. She is best known for her novels, including The Handmaid’s Tale, for which she received the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Governor General’s Award; Cat’s Eye; Oryx and Crake; and The Blind Assassin, for which she received the Booker Prize. In 2001, Atwood was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame. Atwood received the 2017 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle. Her latest novel is Hag-Seed.
Maria Semple
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Best-selling author Maria Semple has written three novels, including Where’d You Go, Bernadette, which spent a year on The New York Times best-sellers list and won the American Library Association’s Alex Award, which is given to books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults. Semple began her career as a screenwriter for such successful television shows as Beverly Hills, 90210; Saturday Night Live; and Ellen. She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for her work on the series Mad About You, and for a Writers Guild of America Award for her work on Arrested Development. Her latest novel is Today Will Be Different.
David Grann
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
David Grann is a number one New York Times best-selling author and an award-winning staff writer for The New Yorker magazine. His first book, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and named one of the best books of 2009. It recounts the exploits of British explorer Captain Percy Fawcett who disappeared in 1925 while looking for an ancient lost city in the Amazon jungle, and the explorers who subsequently vanished trying to retrace his journey. Grann’s writing has appeared in such notable publications as The Atlantic, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. His latest book is Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.
John Irving
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
John Irving is one of the literary world’s most popular and respected writers. He is the author of 14 novels, including the international best-seller The World According to Garp, for which he won the National Book Award; A Prayer for Owen Meany; A Widow for One Year; and The Cider House Rules. In 1999, Irving won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his script for The Cider House Rules. In 2001, Irving was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His latest novel, Avenue of Mysteries, is a New York Times best-seller.
