What Just Happened? Writers Discuss the Post-Election Moment

Two days after the US presidential election, writers and activists around the country will partner with beloved bookstores to address the questions: What just happened? What is happening now? What must happen next? We end this day of conversation with a national round-table discussion bringing together former US Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, Salman Rushdie, Rebecca Solnit, and Paul Auster, to address those three same questions.

*Please note that we will not be offering a live audience Q&A during this webinar. If you have questions for our guests, please email them in advance to [email protected]. We'll try to address as many questions as we can during the discussion.

Paul Auster is the author of more than two dozen books, among them The New York TrilogyThe Invention of SolitudeLeviathanSunset Park, and The Book of Illusions. His latest novel, 4 3 2 1, was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.

Salman Rushdie is the award-winning author of fifteen works of fiction and four volumes of nonfiction. He is a past president of PEN America and Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. Born in India, he has lived in New York City for over 20 years and has been a US citizen since 2016.

Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books on feminism, Western history, popular power, social change and insurrection, wandering and walking, and hope and disaster. A product of the California public education system from kindergarten to graduate school, she is a columnist at the Guardian and a regular contributor to Literary Hub.

Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey served two terms as the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States (2012-2014). She is the author of five collections of poetry and two works of nonfiction, most recently the memoir Memorial Drive. She is Board of Trustees Professor of English at Northwestern University.