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2025 Literary Hosts

2025 Literary Hosts

An artistic image of an open book with the text PEN America Literary Gala in yellow and white. The event is at the American Museum of Natural History on May 15, 2025.
  • A woman with curly hair adorned with a white flower, wearing a black outfit with a white collar, smiles softly against a plain black background.

    Masih Alinejad

    Masih Alinejad is an Iranian-American journalist, women’s rights activist and author of best-selling memoir, The Wind in My Hair.

  • Marie Arana

    Marie Arana is a Peruvian-American author of nonfiction and fiction, senior advisor to two U.S. Librarians of Congress, the inaugural literary director of the Library…

  • A man with a salt-and-pepper beard and mustache, wearing a black coat, stands against a leafy green wall, looking thoughtfully upward.

    Charles M. Blow

    Charles M. Blow is an author, journalist, cultural critic and political commentator.

  • A woman with short curly hair smiles, standing against a solid purple background. She wears a long green cardigan, black top and pants, and a chunky turquoise necklace. Her hands are loosely clasped in front of her.

    Judy Blume

    Judy Blume’s twenty-five books for young readers and her four widely read novels for adults have been published in forty languages.

  • A person with short, light brown hair, wearing a white top, looks over their shoulder towards the camera with a neutral expression. The background is dark with reddish lighting.

    Nina Burleigh

    Nina Burleigh is a journalist, best-selling author, documentary producer, and publisher of a substack on politics called American Freakshow.  A contributing editor at The New Republic and…

  • A woman with long blonde hair wearing a white, voluminous outfit poses against a white background, resting her chin on her hand and looking thoughtfully at the camera.

    Candace Bushnell

    Candace Bushnell is famously the author of Sex and the City, published in 1996, the basis for the TV phenomenon Sex and the City, spawning…

  • An older man wearing glasses, a blue dress shirt, and a dark suit jacket with a purple tie smiles in front of a large bookshelf filled with books.

    Robert Caro

    For his biographies of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson, Robert A. Caro has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the National Book Award.

  • A woman with shoulder-length light brown hair and glasses rests her chin on her hand, smiling slightly. She is wearing a navy blue sweater and sitting in front of brownstone steps.

    Roz Chast

    Roz Chast is a longtime cartoonist from The New Yorker magazine.

  • A woman with short gray hair, wearing a dark green blouse, sits at a reflective table in a dimly lit room with large windows and soft natural light. She is smiling and looking slightly to the side.

    Susan Choi

    Susan Choi is an American novelist. Choi’s first novel, The Foreign Student, won the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction.

  • A man wearing a navy blue CBS News jacket stands outdoors in front of a colorful mural and a blurred building, looking directly at the camera with a slight smile.

    Robert Costa

    Robert Costa is a national correspondent for “CBS News Sunday Morning” and chief Washington analyst for CBS News.

  • A grayscale photo of a middle-aged person with short, textured hair, resting their chin on their fist. They wear several bracelets and rings, and have a thoughtful expression. The background is simple and out of focus.

    Michael Cunningham

    Michael Cunningham is the author of the novels A Home at the End of the World, Flesh and Blood, The Hours, Specimen Days, and By…

  • A person with a shaved head and an earring in their left ear is wearing a pinstripe suit, a white shirt, and a pink tie, posed against a smooth purple background.

    Taye Diggs

    Taye Diggs is an American actor, choreographer, and teacher who has appeared in Broadway musicals, TV shows, and films.

  • A woman with curly brown hair, wearing blue eyeshadow, red lipstick, a black pendant necklace, and a striped top, smiles softly at the camera in a warmly lit indoor setting.

    Rita Dove

    Rita Dove is a Presidential Scholar who has authored a novel, a book of short stories, essays, and numerous volumes of poetry.

  • A man wearing a hat and a blazer sits in a blue booth at a diner, holding a white coffee mug and gazing thoughtfully out the window.

    Jonathan Evison

    Jonathan Evison is the New York Times Bestselling author of the ten novels, including All About Lulu, West of Here, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving,…

  • Jennifer Finney Boylan

    JENNIFER FINNEY BOYLAN is the author of 18 books, including Mad Honey, co-authored with Jodi Picoult. Her memoir, She’s Not There was the first bestselling…

  • A man wearing glasses and a dark shirt stands against a plain light-colored wall, covering the lower half of his face with his hand.

    Ben Folds

    Ben Folds is widely regarded as one of the major music influencers of our generation.

  • A woman with long brown hair, wearing a pink striped shirt, sits at a wooden table with an open book in front of her, smiling. Bookshelves filled with colorful books are in the background.

    Jeannie Suk Gersen

    Jeannie Suk Gersen is the John H. Watson, Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where she has taught constitutional law, criminal law and…

  • A woman with long, braided hair and wearing a sheer, off-the-shoulder beige top sits against a wooden background, resting her chin on her hand and looking confidently at the camera.

    Nikole Hannah-Jones

    Nikole Hannah-Jones is the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project and a staff  writer at The New York Times Magazine.

  • A woman with curly hair stands outdoors in front of a stone wall and greenery, wearing a black short-sleeve dress with her arms crossed, looking confidently at the camera.

    Saidiya Hartman

    Saidiya Hartman is the author of Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America; Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave…

  • Tom Healy

    Tom Healy is the author of three books of poetry, Velvet, Animal Spirits and What the Right Hand Knows, a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and the Lambda…

  • A middle-aged man with short curly hair wearing a white dress shirt and navy blazer, standing in front of a blurred background featuring colorful, out-of-focus figures.

    Sebastian Junger

    Sebastian Junger is a #1 New York Times Bestselling author.

  • Zachary Karabell

    Zachary Karabell is the founder of the Progress Network at New America, president of River Twice Capital, an investor in Shakespeare & Co. bookstores and…

  • A man with short, wavy hair and a serious expression looks directly at the camera. He is wearing a dark sweater and the background is plain and light-colored. The photo is in black and white.

    Patrick Radden Keefe

    Patrick Radden Keefe is a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of the New York Times bestsellers Say Nothing, Empire of Pain, and Rogues.

  • A man with short gray hair, wearing black glasses, a dark shirt, and a blue blazer, looks thoughtfully to the side against a dark background.

    Amitava Kumar

    Amitava Kumar’s books of nonfiction include Husband of a Fanatic, A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb, and A Matter…

  • A man with short dark hair and a receding hairline smiles at the camera. He is wearing a black T-shirt and standing outdoors with green trees in the background.

    David Levithan

    David Levithan is the author of many acclaimed, best-selling queer YA novels, including Boy Meets Boy, Every Day and Two Boys Kissing. 

  • A woman with long brown hair wearing a black blazer and green top smiles confidently at the camera, standing against a wooden plank background.

    Sarah MacLean

    Sarah MacLean is the author of sixteen New York Times bestselling novels that have been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

  • Kate Manning

    Kate Manning’s third novel, Gilded Mountain, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, an Indie Next Pick, and a Best Book of 2022.

  • Allison Markin Powell

    Allison Markin Powell has been awarded grants from English PEN and the NEA, and the 2020 PEN America Translation Prize for The Ten Loves of…

  • Dinaw Mengestu

    Dinaw Mengestu is the award-winning author of two previous novels, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (2007) and How to Read the Air (2010). He…

  • A person with short blond hair, tortoiseshell glasses, and a pearl necklace smiles gently while tilting their head, standing outdoors with blurred autumn foliage in the background.

    Denne Michele Norris

    Denne Michele Norris is the editor-in-chief of Electric Literature and winner of the 2022 Whiting Literary Magazine Prize.

  • Lynn Nottage

    Lynn Nottage is a playwright and a screenwriter, and the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Her recent work includes Floyd’s (Guthrie) and…

  • Woman with curly dark hair, teal glasses, and colorful earrings stands in front of a red brick wall, wearing a black leather jacket and dark top. She is looking slightly to the side with a neutral expression.

    Emily Nussbaum

    Emily Nussbaum is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she’s worked since 2011, originally as the magazine’s television critic.

  • George Packer

    George Packer is a US journalist, award winning author, playwright and a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of 10 books, including…

  • Jodi Picoult

    Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-nine novels.

  • Francine Prose

    Francine Prose is the author of twenty works of fiction. Her novel A Changed Man won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Blue Angel was…

  • A smiling man in a brown blazer and gray shirt stands in front of blurred bookshelves.

    Michael S. Roth

    Michael S. Roth (’78) became the 16th president of Wesleyan University in 2007, after having served as Hartley Burr Alexander Professor of Humanities at Scripps…

  • A woman with shoulder-length blonde hair wearing a mustard yellow blazer, a white top, and a gold chain necklace, smiling in front of a neutral, wavy-patterned background.

    Susanna Salk

    Susanna Salk is the author of many design books.

  • A woman with long gray hair and glasses is smiling slightly. She is wearing a maroon top with floral embroidery and is seated in a car.

    Esmeralda Santiago

    Esmeralda Santiago is the author of three best-selling memoirs: When I was Puerto Rican, Almost a Woman, and The Turkish Lover.

  • Laura Secor

    Laura Secor has written about Iran for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Foreign Affairs, The New Republic, and other publications.

  • A man in a suit and glasses sits with his chin resting on his hand, looking at the camera and smiling slightly. He is wearing a wristwatch and has tousled hair. The photo is black and white.

    Gary Shteyngart

    Gary Shteyngart’s debut novel, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, won the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction.

  • A woman with straight dark hair wearing a red wrap dress looks thoughtfully into the distance against a dark green background. She has a neutral expression and wears a watch on her wrist.

    Julie Suk

    Julie C. Suk is the author of two books, We the Women: The Unstoppable Mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment (2020) and After Misogyny: How…

  • A smiling woman with short dark hair and a green patterned dress sits indoors, wearing a large statement necklace. Warm light fills the background, which is softly blurred.

    Amy Tan

    Amy Tan is the author of several novels, including The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter’s Daughter.

  • A man with light gray hair and a beard, wearing a dark turtleneck sweater, sits outdoors in front of a tree and a metal fence, smiling slightly at the camera.

    James Thackara

    James Thackara is an American writer who published three novels – America’s Children, Ahab’s Daughter, and The Book of Kings.

  • A woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes wearing a dark jacket stands outdoors in front of leafy green foliage, looking directly at the camera with a neutral expression.

    Dawn Tripp

    Dawn Tripp is the nationally bestselling author of the novel Jackie and the novel Georgia, finalist for the New England Book Award and winner of…

  • A person with a shaved head and glasses is smiling, wearing a light blue checkered shirt. The background is plain gray.

    Ali Velshi

    Ali Velshi is an award winning journalist, host of “Velshi” and Chief Correspondent for MSNBC, and a weekly economics contributor to NPR’s “Here And Now.”

  • A woman with long brown hair stands against a dark background, wearing a colorful floral-patterned dress with sheer sleeves. She has a relaxed expression and her arms are crossed gently.

    Emily Witt

    Emily Witt has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2018.

  • Meg Wolitzer

    Meg Wolitzer is a New York Times bestselling author whose novels include The Wife, The Ten-Year Nap,The Interestings, and The Female Persuasion.

  • A woman with long, blonde hair with pink tips is lying on a bed, holding a phone and smiling at the camera. She is wearing a navy blue top, and the room is softly lit with warm, natural light.

    Rebecca Yarros

    Rebecca Yarros is the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal  bestselling author of over twenty novels including Fourth Wing and In the Likely Event.