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Previous Speakers

Following is a list of previous speakers presented by Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures since 2009:

2023

Mary Crossley
Natasha Tarpley
Sara Shepard
Patricia Lockwood
Ibram X. Kendi
Ruth Ozeki
Zoje Stage
Idra Novey
Joy Harjo

Clint Smith
Max Brallier
Hanif Abdurraquib
Suzanne Simard
Bonnie Garmus
Hanya Yanagihara
Emily Kline
Leon Ford

2022

Terry Miller
Douglas Stuart
Ed Simon
Ayad Akhtar
Bruce Ledewitz
Ken Gormley
George Saunders
Maxwell King & Louise Lippincott
Robin Wall Kimmerer
The No Club
Isabel Wilkerson
Are the Arts Essential?
Tuhin Das
Rita Williams-Garcia

Mickey Rowe
Judith Vollmer/Mihaela Moscaliuc
Ruth Ware
Jen Spyra
Abdulrazak Gurnah
Anthony Doerr
Jasmine Warga
Marylynne Pitz/Laura Malt Schneiderman
Candice Millard
Clint Smith
John Woodrow Cox
Neil Baldwin
Patrick Radden Keefe

2021

David Treuer
Laurie Halse Anderson
Pam Munoz Ryan
Karen Russell
Naomi Shihab Nye
Ron Donoughe
Ocean Vuong
Bernardine Evaristo
Kazuo Ishiguro and Madeline Miller
Alaina E Roberts
Heather McGhee
Brian Broome
S. Brook Corfman
Bill Cowher
Andy Norman

Gregg Behr
Maggie Smith
Joy Harjo
Brit Bennet
Tom Rea
Brian Primack
Elizabeth Acevedo
Charles Yu
Kelly Yang
Mark Oppenheimer
Lawrence Wright
Sharon Draper
Maggie O’Farrell
Yaa Gyasi

2020

David Harris
Chip Walter
Carmen Maria Machado
Jim Rugg
Dan Gemeinhart
Tommy Orange
Sara Pipher Gilliam
Colum McCann
Linda Sue Park
Esi Edugyan
Jarrett Krosoczka
Michael Ondaatje
David Sibley
Blake Gopnik
Marisel Vera
Shannon Reed
Chris Frantz
Stephen Heyman
Suzanne Nossel

Anna Bruno
Deesha Philyaw
Robin DiAngelo
Susan Choi
Rebecca Senf
Caroline Kim & Alexander Chee
Terry Tempest Williams
Lois Lowry
Lee Gutkind
Laila Lalami
Mo Rocca
Margaret Atwood
Lily King
Jerry Craft
Brian Greene
Jodi Kantor
Ta-Nehisi Coates & Damon Young
Lauren Tarshis

2019

Erin Entrada Kelly
John Fried
Jill Lepore
Jonah Winter
Ottessa Moshfegh
Jennifer L. Holm
Ilya Kaminsky
Valeria Luiselli
Matt Schatz
Ashton Applewhite
Claudia Rankine & Carrie Mae Weems
Min Jin Lee
Damon Young
Stephen Belber
Sloane Crosley
Ilja Nieuwland
Michael Wurster
Adam Savage
Michael Pollan
Adam Ehrlich Sachs

Neal Stepehnson
James Patterson
Beth Macy
Jeff Gordinier
A is for Archive with Blake Gopnik
Angie Cruz
Sigrid Nunez
Jonathan Van Ness
Jewell Parker Rhodes
Stephen Chbosky
Ibram X Kendi
Julie Lythcott-Haims
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Frank Santoro
Madeline Miller
Sonia Sanchez & Marilyn Nelson
Douglas Cooper
Reza Aslan
Winnie Frolik
Richard Powers

2018

Nicola Yoon
Paul Beatty
Bryan Collier
Cori Thomas
Mo Willems
Mark Whitaker
Susan Faludi
Melissa Sweet
Mohsin Hamid
Cecile Richards
Jad Abumrad
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Li Young Lee
Lidia Matticchio Bastianich
Arundhati Roy
Scott Stern
Elizabeth Rosner
Daniel Borzutzky
Sarah Menkedick
Fredrik Backman

Pete Souza
Eliza Griswold
Rachel Masilamani
Rob Ruck
Sydelle Pearl
Dan Kamin
Tammy Ryan
Joyce Carol Oates
Meg Medina
Anita Sarkeesian and Ebony Adams
Luis Alberto Urrea
Neal Shusterman
Katherine Boo
Jason Reynolds
Masha Gessen
Tracy K Smith
Tayari Jones
Sharon Flake
Linda Tashbook
Dave Eggers

2017

Patricia Polacco
Chris Bohjalian
Helen Macdonald
Chris Grabenstein
Lauren Groff
Christina Baker Kline
Roxane Gay
Gene Luen Yang
Timothy Egan
Annie Proulx
Nathan Hill
Jake Oresick
Amor Towles
Scott Turow
Jonathan Safran Foer
Pete Peterson and Douglas Branson
Colm Toibin
Bill Steigerwald
Chris Colfer
Daniel Lowe

Marissa Landrigan
Niki Kapsambelis
Dav Pilkey
Nicole Krauss
Nancy Isenberg
Katherine Applegate
Sherman Alexie
Eric Dorfman
Ron Chernow
City Theatre & PigPen Theatre with
The Old Man and The Old Moon
Isabel Allende
Bernd Brunner
Richard Russo
Katherine Paterson
Jennifer Egan

2016

Elizabeth Strout
Robert Sabuda
Douglas Brinkley
Diane Rehm
SL Price
Alice Hoffman
Colson Whitehead
Kwame Alexander
Alan Cumming
Patti Smith
Ann Patchett
Fierce Reads: Marissa Meyer, Emma Mills, Caleb Roehrig, and Anna Banks
Sharon Washington
Siddhartha Mukherjee
Candice Millard
Ann M. Martin
Sherrie Flick
Jeffrey Toobin
Matthew Desmond

Mary-Louise Parker
Siobhan Vivian, Jonathan Auxier, and Nick Courage
David Sibley
Judy Blume
Theresa Brown
Nancy Moses
Chris Cleave
Sam Hazo & Parneshia Jones
Anthony Doerr
Hanya Yanagihara
Gregory Pardlo and Yona Harvey
John Robison
Anna Ziegler
Daniel James Brown
Jacqueline Woodson
Stephan Pastis
Emily St. John Mandel
Bryan Stevenson
Kevin Henkes
Keith Reddin

2015

Andrew Solomon
Lois Lowry
Elizabeth Kolbert
Cece Bell
David Mitchell
Peter Oresick & Sarah Rose Nordgren
Ruth Reichl
Margaret Atwood
Kate DiCamillo
Gerald Stern
Anita Diamant
Rainbow Rowell
Héctor Tobar
Louise Penny
Mary Jo Sonntag

Terrance Hayes
Philip Beard
Robert Yune
Jesse Andrews
Celeste Ng
Chuck Palahniuk
Richard Flanagan
Alexandra Fuller
Steve Berry
Dennis Lehane
Sheri Fink
Andrea Davis Pinkney
Jesmyn Ward
Andrew Roberts

2014

Kent Nelson
Richard Ford
RJ Palacio
Gregory Maguire
Elizabeth Gilbert
Jon Klassen & Mac Barnett
Jodi Picoult
Simon Winchester
James McBride
Tom Sweterlitsch
Elizabeth Wein

Kathleen George
Jacob Bacharach
Wil Haygood
Ann Patchett
Rachel Renee Russell
Colum McCann
Shane Evans
Helene Cooper
Sonia Sotomayor
Ayelet Waldman

2013

George Saunders
Amy Tan
James Dashner
David Nasaw
Daniel Handler
Ian Frazier
Siobhan Vivian & Jenny Han
Sue Grafton
Terry McMillan
Anthony Wallace
Michael Moss
Allison Amend

Chip Walter
Yona Harvey
Nathaniel Philbrick
RZA
Geraldine Brooks
Paula McLain
Christopher Paul Curtis
Rebecca Skloot & David “Sonny” Lacks
Sarah Dessen
Jared Diamond

2012

Ellen Goodman
Sharon Creech
Candice Millard
Beth Bosworth
Téa Obreht
Neil Gaiman
Jeffrey Eugenides
Tom Angleberger
Jeffrey Toobin
Andrew Clements
Erik Larson
Wes Moore

Nora Zelevansky
Michael Sims
Ron Tanner
Stewart O’Nan & Jane McCafferty
Judy Collins
Lisa See
Stephen Dau
Abraham Verghese
Sebastian Junger
Walter Dean Myers & Christopher Myers
Michele Norris & Isabel Wilkerson
Lincoln Peirce

2011

Michael Lisicky
Madeleine Albright
Gayle Forman
Ann Patchett
Megan McDonald
Chuck Palahniuk
Jonathan Franzen
Shannon Cain
Rick Riordan
John Lithgow
Seymour Hersh

Theresa Brown
Keith Donohue
Nathaniel Philbrick
Matthew Gallaway
Cornelia Funke
Stacy Schiff
Yann Martel
Tracy Kidder
Kadir Nelson
Sapphire
John Green

2010

Lee Child
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Madhur Jaffrey
Katherine Paterson
Justice Stephen Breyer
Mary Karr
Annie Barrows
Ann Patchett & Renée Fleming

Joy Ike & C.M. Burroughs
David Lipsky
Gregory Maguire
Audrey Niffenegger
Sharon Flake
Elizabeth Alexander
Barry Lopez
Jeff Kinney

2009

Lidia Bastianich
Sara Pennypacker
Junot Díaz
Tom Wolfe
Wendell & Florence Minor
Paul Theroux
Lorrie Moore
Elizabeth Gilbert
Nam Le
Judith Jones

Marjane Satrapi
Steven Kellogg
Walter Dean Myers
Billy Collins
Beverly Jenkins
Janet Browne
Katherine Ayers
Devra Davis
John Adams

A Selection of Speakers 1991-2008

Anthony Bourdain
Bill Bryson
Michael Chabon
Annie Dillard
Louise Erdrich
Betty Friedan
Jane Goodall
Spalding Gray
Kazuo Ishiguro
Erica Jong
Stephen King
Barbara Kingsolver
Jhumpa Lahiri
Spike Lee
Jonathan Lethem
David Macaulay
Norman Mailer

Frank McCourt
David McCullough
Arthur Miller
Susan Orlean
Jacques Pepin
George Plimpton
David Sedaris
Susan Sontag
Gloria Steinem
Studs Terkel
John Updike
Kurt Vonnegut
Wendy Wasserstein
John Edgar Wideman
August Wilson
Tom Wolfe