Library Talks

In this episode of Library Talks , acclaimed novelist Gish Jen joins Library Talks to discuss her latest book Bad Bad Girl. She is joined by fellow novelist Weike Wang.   Bad Bad Girl began as a memoir of her late mother, Loo Shu-hsin, before evolving into a fictionalized portrait of their turbulent mother-daughter relationship. As a child Shu-hsin learns how little her life is valued as a woman i...

In this episode of Library Talks , join Dua Lipa for a live discussion of Flesh by David Szalay, a book club pick for Service95—the global lifestyle platform and weekly newsletter she founded.   Longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, Flesh tells the rags-to-riches story of Istvan, a lonely young man raised on a Hungarian housing estate, whose rise from obscurity to success is ultimately derailed by...

In this episode of Library Talks ,  Educator NYPL staff member and author Brian Jones joins Library Talks to discuss his new book Black History Is for Everyone. He is joined by Dr. Bettina L. Love and Jesse Hagopian.   In Black History Is for Everyone , Brian Jones offers a meditation on the power of Black history, using his own experiences as a lifelong learner and classroom teacher to question e...

In this episode of Library Talks , in honor of The New Yorker's 100th anniversary, editor David Remnick is joined by Henry Finder, Tyler Foggatt, Susan Morrison, and Daniel Zalewski for a rare editorial roundtable. They offer an insider's view into how articles are assigned, crafted, and brought to life—from first pitch to final publication—and how the magazine reflects and builds on its storied p...

In this episode of Library Talks , American historian Jill Lepore joins Library Talks to discuss her latest book We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution. She is joined by constitutional law expert Jamal Greene.   On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding, Jill Lepore 's We the People reexamines this foundational text not as a static artifact but as a living document sh...

In this episode of Library Talks , m ultidisciplinary artist and theologian, Tricia Hersey joins Library Talks to discuss her latest book We Will Rest!: The Art of Escape. She is joined by Glory Edim, author of Well Read Black Girl.  Tricia Hersey is the founder of The Nap Ministry. She is the global pioneer and originator of the "rest as resistance" and "rest as reparations" frameworks, and colla...

In this episode of Library Talks , Author and editor Lauren O'Neill-Butler joins Library Talks to discuss her latest book, The War of Art: A History of Artists' Protest in America.    The War of Art tells the history of artist-led activism and the global political and aesthetic debates of the 1960s to the present. In contrast to the financialized art market and celebrity artists, the book explores...

In this episode of Library Talks , Miriam Toews, the internationally bestselling author of Women Talking and Fight Night discusses writing about her own life in nonfiction for the first time.   Miriam Toews had written nine books, but when the organizer of a literary festival prompted her to answer the question "Why do you write?" Toews found that every attempted response only proved that the ques...

In this episode of Library Talks ,  Research scientist Joshua Miele joins Library Talks to discuss his memoir Connecting Dots: A Blind Life. He is joined by Andrew Leland, author of the memoir The Country of the Blind.   Throughout his life, Miele has found increasingly inventive ways to succeed in a world built for the sighted, and to help others to do the same. At first reluctant to even think o...

In this episode of Library Talks , award-winning writer and multidisciplinary artist Eloghosa Osunde joins the podcast for a conversation about their new novel Necessary Fiction with the editor of Necessary Fiction Jake Morrissey. Necessary Fiction takes place across Lagos, one of Africa's largest urban areas and one of the world's most dynamic cities, Osunde's characters seek out love for self an...

In this episode of Library Talks , writer, activist, and speaker Raquel Willis joins Library Talks to discuss her memoir The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation. She's joined by fellow writer Mecca Jamilah Sullivan. In The Risk It Takes to Bloom, Raquel Willis recounts with passion and candor her experiences straddling the Obama and Trump eras, the possibility of transformation after th...

In this episode of Library Talks , Writer and director Malcolm D. Lee Joins Library Talks to discuss his debut novel The Best Man: Unfinished Business. He's joined by his coauthor Jayne Allen in a discussion moderated by radio and television host Bevy Smith. The beloved characters from Malcom D Lee's The Best Man movies and hit television series reunite in the first in the trilogy, The Best Man: U...

In this episode of Library Talks , Novelist and features editor at The Verge Kevin Nguyen joins Library Talks to discuss his second novel Mỹ Documents Mỹ Documents follows four Vietnamese cousins whose lives are upended after a terrorist attack incites a government crackdown that targets their community through mass internment of Vietnamese-American citizens. Nguyen relies on the history of Japane...

In this episode of Library Talks , Acclaimed translator and playwright Jeremy Tiang joins Library Talks to discuss his debut novel and winner of the Singapore Literature Prize State of Emergency. Jeremy Tiang is a novelist and playwright, and the translator of over thirty books from Chinese. His debut novel State of Emergency follows an extended family from the 1940s to the present day as they nav...

In this episode of Library Talks , National book award finalist Jonas Hassen Khemiri talks to Tess Gunty about his latest book, The Sisters. Narrated in six parts, each spanning a period ranging from a year to a day to a single minute, Jonas Hassen Khemiri's The Sisters is a big, vivid family saga of the highest order   Jonas Hassen Khemiri worked on The Sisters during his 2021-2022 Fellowship at...

In this episode of Library Talks, New York's funniest LGBTQ performers take the stage for a one-night-only celebration of queer comedy, community, and joy. Hosted by Bobby Hankinson, Kweendom is an all-LGBTQ comedy show featuring some of the city's sharpest queer comedians and storytellers. Born from Hankinson's frustration with lineups lacking authentic queer representation, Kweendom centers a wi...

Former U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King, Jr talks to Lisette Nieves about his latest book, Teacher by Teacher.

In this episode of Library Talks , author and climate scientist Kate Marvel explores her latest book, Human Nature, with David Wallace-Wells, Monica Youn, and Lauren Kurtz through talks, performances, and more   Each chapter of Kate Marvel's new book, Human Nature , employs a different emotion to explore the science and stories behind climate change. Kate Marvel shares some of the hope, heartbreak...

In this episode of Library Talks , poets and critics read from and discuss the new anthology, Super Gay Poems: LGBTQIA+ Poetry after Stonewall .  In  Super Gay Poems, Stephanie Burt curates a boundary-pushing anthology of 51 poems by LGBTQIA+ writers, tracing the evolution of queer poetry since the Stonewall Riots. From sonnets to shaped poems, elegies to joyful provocations, the collection featur...

In this episode of Library Talks , acclaimed journalist and National Book Award finalist Barbara Demick talks to Jessica Bruder about her latest book, Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins Barbara Demick investigates the origins, shocking cruelty, and legacy of China's one-child rule; the rise of international adoption and th...

In this episode of Library Talks , author Madeleine Thien talks to  Jiayang Fan about her latest book, The Book of Records. The Book of Records is a novel that leaps across generations, ideas, and centuries, as if different eras were separated by only a door. Madeleine Thien worked on The Book of Records during her 2021-2022 Fellowship at the Library's Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Schol...

In this episode of Library Talks , Author and Journalist Claire Hoffman sits down with fellow journalist Jelani Cobb to talk about her latest book, Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson Sister, Sinner chronicles the dramatic rise, disappearance, and near-fall of Aimee Semple McPherson. A pioneer of Pentecostalism and founder of the Foursquare Ch...

Bestselling author and historian Russell Shorto talks to Aidan Flax-Clark about his latest book, Taking Manhattan.

Acclaimed poet Haleh Liza Gafori discusses her latest translations of Rumi's lyric poetry in Water with prize-winning poet Maya C. Popa