Writers Center Stage spring events featuring authors Yotam Ottolenghi, Brit Bennett, Tara Westover and Terry Tempest Williams
The William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage Series provides intimate access to the literary world’s best writers. The 17th season of this popular series continues in spring 2021 with three virtual events. As the academic partner for the series, CWRU students are able to attend these virtual events for free.
Yotam Ottolenghi
March 3 at 7 p.m.
For chef, writer and restaurateur Yotam Ottolenghi, food is about more than what we eat. It is about a sense of place and home. Ottolenghi is widely beloved for his internationally best-selling cookbooks, including Plenty, Jerusalem, Plenty More and Ottolenghi Simple. Jerusalem was awarded Cookbook of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals and Best International Cookbook by the James Beard Foundation. Ottolenghi will be in conversation with Chef Rocco Whalen of Fahrenheit, and will conduct a cooking demo from his latest book, Ottolenghi Flavor.
Register for the March 3 virtual event with Yotam Ottolenghi.
Brit Bennett
April 15 at 7 p.m.
When Brit Bennett’s debut novel, The Mothers, was published in the fall of 2016, critics and readers were immediately dazzled. It was clear that an exciting new voice in fiction had arrived. Her second novel, The Vanishing Half, was an instant No. 1 New York Times best-seller and longlisted for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction. Before publishing her novel, Bennett had already built an impressive platform as a social commentator. Her essay in Jezebel, following the Ferguson riots, was shared over a million times. Her work has also been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and The Paris Review.
Register for the April 15 virtual event with Brit Bennett.
Tara Westover and Terry Tempest Williams
May 6 at 7 p.m.
Tara Westover’s 2018 memoir, Educated, debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list and remained there for more than a year. The book explores Westover’s struggle to reconcile her desire for education and autonomy with her desire to be loyal to her family. To date, Educated has sold more than 3 million copies and has been translated into 36 languages. For the book’s staggering impact, Time magazine named Westover one of the 100 most influential people of 2018.
Writer/naturalist/activist Terry Tempest Williams is known for her fierce advocacy and impassioned, lyrical prose. She is the author of the environmental literature classic, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place; Finding Beauty in a Broken World; and the best-seller, The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks. In 2019, Williams was given The Robert Kirsch Award, a lifetime achievement prize given to a writer with a substantial connection to the American West. Her latest book is Erosion: Essays of Undoing.
Register for the May 6 virtual event with Tara Westover and Terry Tempest Williams.
About the series
The 2020-21 William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage Series is presented by the Cuyahoga County Public Library Foundation and academic partner, Case Western Reserve University. CWRU students can get details and RSVP for all events on the University Events CampusGroups page.