Free Library Podcast

In conversation with Ellen Yin A New York Times bestselling children's author and illustrator, Grace Lin earned the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, the Theodor Geisel Honor for Ling and Ting, and the Caldecott Honor for A Big Mooncake for Little Star. Her novel When the Sea Turned to Silver was a National Book Award Finalist. Recognized by former President Obama's administration as a Champion of Change for Asian American and Pacific Islander Art and Storytelling, Lin was awarded the Children's Literature Legacy Award from the American Library Association. She also provides commentary for New England Public Radio, book reviews for The New York Times, and she hosts the podcasts kidlitwomen* and Kids Ask Authors. In Chinese Menu, she serves up insights on the history, legends, and myths behind favorite American Chinese dishes. High Street Hospitality Group founder and co-owner Ellen Yin operates some of the country's most acclaimed eateries, including a.kitchen + bar, Fork, High Street Restaurant & Bakery, The Wonton Project, and High Street Hoagies. In 2023 she was named ''Outstanding Restaurateur'' by the James Beard Foundation Awards. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, she is involved with several community-centric organizations, including the Sisterly Love Collective and the Independent Restaurant Coalition, and she sits on the Board of ''The Philadelphia Award.'' Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees. (recorded 2/12/2024)

In conversation with Asali Solomon Ayana Mathis is the author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, ''a remarkable page-turner of a novel'' (Chicago Tribune) that follows the harrowing fortunes of a 15-year-old from Georgia to Philadelphia during the Great Migration. A New York Times bestseller, an NPR Best Book of 2013, and a selection for Oprah's Book Club 2.0, it has been translated into 16 languages. Mathis is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and has published fiction in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Guernica, and Rolling Stone, among other places. She teaches writing in Hunter College's MFA program. Set in turbulent 1980s Philadelphia and the small town of Bonaparte, Alabama, The Unsettled tells the tale of a mother, grandmother, and son struggling to save their identities, birthright, and future. Asali Solomon's latest novel, The Days of Afrekete has been called ''a feat of engineering'' by the New York Times. She is also the author of Disgruntled and Get Down: stories. Her previous novel, Disgruntled, was named a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle and The Denver Post. She is the recipient of a Pew Fellowship, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, and the National Book Foundation's ''5 Under 35'' honor. Her work has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine, Vibe, Essence, The Paris Review Daily, McSweeney's, on NPR, and in several anthologies including The Best Short Stories of 2021: The O. Henry Prize Collection. Solomon is the Bertrand K. Wilbur Chair in the Humanities at Haverford, where she is a Professor of English and director of Creative Writing. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 10/10/2023)

Jennifer Weiner is the no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen ''funny, fanciful, extremely poignant'' (The Boston Globe) novels, including That Summer, Mrs. Everything, Who Do You Love, All Fall Down, In Her Shoes, and Good in Bed. She is also the writer of two young adult books about a tiny Bigfoot and an essay collection titled Hungry Heart, an intimate and honest meditation on yearning, fulfillment, and her many identities. Her other work has been published in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. In The Breakaway, Weiner tells the story of Abby Stern, a woman who finds empowerment during a group bike trip from New York City to Niagara Falls. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 8/30/2023)

In conversation with Robert E. Hamilton, Head of Eurasia Research - Eurasia Program, Foreign Policy Research Institute Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Endowed Lecture The White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times, David E. Sanger has been a member of three Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist teams, including in 2017 for international reporting. His bestselling books include The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power; Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power; and The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age, which was adapted into an award-winning HBO documentary. Sanger is also a regular contributor to CNN and teaches national security policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. In New Cold Wars, he offers an in-depth account of the United States' high-stakes struggles against two very dissimilar adversaries-Xi Jinping's China and Vladimir Putin's Russia. Colonel (Retired) Robert E. Hamilton, Ph.D., is the Head of Research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Eurasia Program and an Associate Professor of Eurasian Studies at the U.S. Army War College. In a 30-year career in the U.S. Army, spent primarily as an Eurasian Foreign Area Officer, he served overseas in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Germany, Belarus, Qatar, Afghanistan, the Republic of Georgia, Pakistan and Kuwait. He is the author of numerous articles and monographs on conflict and security issues, focusing principally on the former Soviet Union and the Balkans. He is a graduate of the German Armed Forces Staff College and the U.S. Army War College and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy, a Master's Degree in Contemporary Russian Studies and a Ph.D. in Political Science, both from the University of Virginia. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 4/18/2024)