2014-15 speaker series will be held in Case Western Reserve University’s new Tinkham Veale University Center
The William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage Series (Writers Center Stage), presented by the Cuyahoga County Public Library Foundation and its academic partner Case Western Reserve University, returns for its 11th season in September. The series is the signature fundraiser for the Cuyahoga County Public Library Foundation and helps support Cuyahoga County Public Library, the top-rated large library system in Library Journal’s annual Index of Public Library Services for five consecutive years.
Writers Center Stage will have a new home in the 2014-15 season, Case Western Reserve University’s new Tinkham Veale University Center, northwest of the Kelvin Smith Library.
“We look forward to deepening our partnership with Case Western Reserve University and bringing some of the literary world’s most prolific and respected voices to their campus in the 2014-15 Writers Center Stage season. What better place to explore new ideas and find inspiration from talented speakers than in a dynamic new learning space that welcomes and encourages community involvement,” said Cuyahoga County Public Library Executive Director Sari Feldman.
All shows will be held at 7:30 p.m. and will be followed by a Q&A session and book signing.
The 2014-15 William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage Series
ZADIE SMITH
Tuesday, Sept. 30
Award-winning British writer Zadie Smith opens the 2014-2015 William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage Series. Smith is best known for her novels, including White Teeth, for which she won the Guardian First Book Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize; The Autograph Man; and On Beauty, for which she won the Orange Prize for Fiction and a 2006 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. Her recent novel, NW, was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.
DENNIS LEHANE
Thursday, Oct. 23
Boston-based writer Dennis Lehane has published a collection of short stories and 10 critically acclaimed novels, three of which have been adapted into award-winning films: Shutter Island, Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone. Lehane earned the Edgar Award and Writers Guild of America Award for his work as a writer for the hit HBO television series The Wire. His latest novel, Live by Night, won the 2013 Edgar Award for Best Novel of the Year.
ELIZABETH GILBERT
Monday, Nov. 17
Elizabeth Gilbert is best known for her memoir Eat, Pray, Love, which sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and became so popular that Time Magazine named Gilbert one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Her other works include the memoir Committed: A Love Story, an international bestseller; the short story collection Pilgrims, for which she won the Pushcart Prize; and the biography The Last American Man, a National Book Award finalist. In 2013 Gilbert published her second novel, The Signature of All Things, which was named one of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times and NPR.
KHALED HOSSEINI
Thursday, March 5
Afghan-born novelist and physician Khaled Hosseini left the medical profession to pursue his passion for writing. His first two novels, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, have sold more than 38 million copies worldwide and have been published in more than 70 countries. In 2006, Hosseini was named a Goodwill Envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency. Inspired by a trip he made to Afghanistan, he established a foundation that provides humanitarian assistance to the Afghani people. He published his much-anticipated third novel, And the Mountains Echoed, in 2013.
CHANG-RAE LEE
Tuesday, March 24
Korean-American novelist Chang-rae Lee has published five critically acclaimed novels, including Native Speaker, for which he won the PEN/Hemingway Award for first fiction; A Gesture Life, for which he won a 2000 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; Aloft;and The Surrendered, which won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Lee is the director of the creative writing program at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts. His latest novel is On Such a Full Sea.
MARY ROACH
Wednesday, April 22
Best-selling journalist and author Mary Roach is known for writing humorous, insightful explorations of science and the human body. She has published five works of nonfiction, including Packing for Mars; Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers; Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex; and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, a New York Times Notable book. Roach’s work has been published in National Geographic, Wired and New Scientist. Her latest is Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal.
2014-15 William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage Series Subscription Packages
Subscription packages for all six 2014-15 shows are now available. To purchase tickets, please call 216.749.9483. For information, visit writerscenterstage.org.
Benefactorsubscription packages with premium seating at all six shows are $250, and include parking in the covered Campus Center Garage adjacent to Severance Hall for every show, optional valet parking service and admission to an exclusive event during the season.
Subscriber subscription packages with preferred seating at all six shows are $130, and include parking in the covered Campus Center Garage adjacent to Severance Hall for every show, for the 2014-15 season only.