The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University brings the world's leading authors to the university's uptown campus for a multi-day celebration for book lovers of all ages.

The fourth annual New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University will take place March 27-29, 2025, on Tulane's uptown campus. The festival is free and open to the public. Submissions for application to the 2025 festival are closed and authors will be announced closer to the end of the year.

Schedule of Events:

Thursday, March 27, 2025

5:00 pm - 7:00 pm: Opening Night at the New Orleans Book Festival

Friday, March 28, 2025

10:00 am - 10:45 am: Documenting New Orleans Street Culture: Just Because You Can, Should You? - Cheryl Gerber, Charice Harrison-Nelson + Eric Waters - Moderated by: Echo Olander
10:00 am - 10:45 am: Lead Like You Mean It: Lessons on Integrity and Purpose from the C-Suite - Laysha Ward - Moderated by: Michelle Miller
10:00 am - 10:45 am: A Stage for All: The Power of The Public Theater - Oskar Eustis - Moderated by: Michael Cerveris
10:00 am - 10:45 am: Mind Matters: Mental Health, Stigma and Solutions - Serena Chaudhry + Tripp Friedler - Moderated by: Clancy DuBos
10:00 am - 10:45 am: Environmental Advocacy: Politics, Policy and The Path Forward - Jay Hakes + Trish O'Kane - Moderated by: Mark Schleifstein
10:00 am - 11:00 am: On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service - A Conversation with Dr. Anthony Fauci - Moderated by: Walter Isaacson
10:00 am - 11:00 am: The Mississippi River: History, Geography and the Future of a Vital Lifeline - Richard Campanella + Boyce Upholt - Moderated by: Robert Thomas
11:00 am - 11:45 am: The Last Flight from Havana: Marie Quintana - Moderated by: Lucy Bustamante
11:00 am - 11:45 am: Sharing Space: An Astronaut's Guide to Mission, Wonder and Making Change - Cady Coleman - Moderated by: Sarah Gelman
11:00 am - 11:45 am: Between Dreams and Memory: Fiction that Defies Boundaries - ‘Pemi Aguda, Cebo Campbell + Cristina Rivera Garza - Moderated by: Rien Fertel
11:00 am - 11:45 am: Archie Manning: A New Orleans Saints Legacy On and Off the Field - Moderated by: Cooper Manning
11:00 am - 11:45 am: The Friday Afternoon Club: A Conversation with Griffin Dunne - Moderated by: Molly Jong-Fast
11:00 am - 11:45 am: Truth-Telling in Troubled Times: The Role of the Public Intellectual - Daniel Black, Imani Perry + Bakari Sellers - Moderated by: Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
11:30 am - 12:30 pm: Warfare Strategy and Leadership: A Conversation with Gen. David H. Petraeus - Moderated by: Max Boot
11:30 am - 12:30 pm: A Life in News: Connie Chung on her Life and Career - Moderated by: Betsy Fischer Martin
12:00 pm - 12:45 pm: The Pursuit of Meaning: Balancing Achievement, Purpose and the Power of the Mind - Adam Sandel - Moderated by: Arthel Neville
12:00 pm - 12:45 pm: The Writer's Road: From Idea to Bestseller and Beyond - Priscilla Painton, Matthew Snyder + Binky Urban - Moderated by: Dwight Garner
12:00 pm - 12:45 pm: Writing the Apocalypse and After - Martha Park, Joselyn Takacs + Madeleine Watts - Moderated by: Nathaniel Rich
12:00 pm - 12:45 pm: Sky Full of Elephants: A Conversation with Debut Novelist Cebo Campbell - Moderated by: Daniel Black
12:00 pm - 12:45 pm: Gumbo to Gourmet: The Stories Behind New Orleans' Greatest Kitchens - Marcelle Bienvenu, Eric Cook, E.J. Lagasse + Donald Link - Moderated by: Edgar "Dook" Chase
12:00 pm - 12:45 pm: The Power of the Written Word: Literature's Role in Shaping Culture and Connection - The Atlantic
01:00 pm - 01:45 pm: Dirty Nerdy: A Conversation with Comedy Writer and Comedian Jessi Klein - Moderated by: Mike Sacks
01:00 pm - 01:45 pm: Superdome at 50: A Behind the Scenes Look at the Past and Future - Jeff Duncan, Dennis Lauscha + Doug Thornton - Moderated by: Mark Romig - Introduction by: Gayle Benson
01:00 pm - 01:45 pm: The Global Table: African Cuisine's Influence and Evolution - Biruk Alemayehu, Serigne Mbaye + Alexander Smalls - Moderated by: Michelle Miller
01:00 pm - 01:45 pm: I Once Was Lost: A Conversation with Don Lemon - Moderated by: Dean Baquet
01:00 pm - 01:45 pm: Living It, Writing It: Memoir and the Journey of Reflection - Sarah LaBrie, Bernice McFadden + Cristina Rivera Garza - Moderated by: Kathryn Schulz
01:00 pm - 02:00 pm: The Code Breaker: A Conversation with Jennifer Doudna - Moderated by: Walter Isaacson
01:00 pm - 02:00 pm: Bridging the Divide: A Bipartisan Discussion on america's Future - David Axelrod + Karl Rove - Moderated by: Elaina Plott Calabro
02:00 pm - 02:45 pm: Remembering John Lewis: A Conversation with Eddie S. Glaude Jr. + David Greenberg
02:00 pm - 02:45 pm: Foreign Agents: How Money Moves Power - Casey Michel - Moderated by: Jason Berry
02:00 pm - 02:45 pm: Power and Purpose: Darren Walker on Philanthropy and Social Justice - Moderated by: Charles M. Blow
02:00 pm - 02:45 pm: New Orleans, New Flavors: Cultural Fusions on the Plate - Nina Compton + Nini Nguyen - Moderated by: Kevin Belton
02:00 pm - 02:45 pm: Reckoning with the Past: Fiction, Family and Hard Truths - Crystal Hana Kim, Rachel Khong + Madeleine Watts - Moderated by: Katy Simpson Smith
02:30 pm - 03:30 pm: Who is Government? - W. Kamau Bell, Casey Cep, Michael Lewis + Sarah Vowell - Moderated by: David Shipley
02:30 pm - 03:30 pm: Shaking it Up: AI, Social Media, Legacy Media and the "new" News - Ken Auletta, Dean Baquet, Molly Jong-Fast + Nate Silver - Moderated by: Andy Lack
03:00 pm - 03:45 pm: Bayous, Backroads and Beyond: Fiction Set in Louisiana - Danielle Arceneaux, Joselyn Takacs + David Weill, MD - Moderated by: Michael Strecker
03:00 pm - 03:45 pm: Centers of Progress: 40 Cities that Changed the World - Allan Carey + Chelsea Follett
03:00 pm - 03:45 pm: Black in Blues: A Conversation with Imani Perry - Moderated by: Sarah Lewis
03:00 pm - 03:45 pm: Reshaping Communities Through the Arts - Oskar Eustis + Darren Walker - Moderated by: Kate Levin
03:00 pm - 03:45 pm: New Orleans History and Geography - A Conversation with Richard Campanella + Lawrence Powell
04:00 pm - 04:45 pm: Katrina 20: The Stories We Tell, The Truths We Hold - Jarvis DeBerry, Jeff Duncan + Cheryl Gerber - Moderated by: Lucy Bustamante
04:00 pm - 04:45 pm: Faith, Science and Ethics: Dr. Francis Collins on the Big Questions - Moderated by: Don Lemon
04:00 pm - 04:45 pm: The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror and the Rise of the Modern Detective - Steven Johnson - Moderated by: Rich Cohen
04:00 pm - 04:45 pm: Be not alarmed, Madam: The Letters of Pride and Prejudice - Barbara Heller - Moderated by: Merry Toups
04:00 pm - 04:45 pm: From ‘Sugar' to ‘Firstborn Girls': An Essence Book Project Interview with Bernice McFadden - Moderated by: Jacinta Saffold
04:00 pm - 04:45 pm: Lead and Succeed: A Conversation with Scott Cowen - Moderated by: Yvette Jones
04:00 pm - 05:00 pm: The Small and the Mighty: A Conversation with Sharon McMahon - Moderated by: Annette Gordon-Reed

Saturday, March 29, 2025

10:00 am - 10:45 am: Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating and Eating While Reading - Dwight Garner - Moderated by: Joe Yonan
10:00 am - 10:45 am: Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection - Charles Duhigg
10:00 am - 10:45 am: Mystery, Magic, Myth and the Power of Imagination - A Special Family Day Session with Mia Araujo, Marti Dumas, M.R. Fournet, Adam Karlin + Rachel Marsh - Moderated by: Lindsay Cronk
10:00 am - 10:45 am: Vanishing Coast: Stories of Place, Power and Preservation - Virginia Hanusik + Boyce Upholt - Moderated by: Brian Edwards
10:00 am - 10:45 am: Legacy in Action: Preserving Black History at amistad - Carolyn Barber-Pierre + Kathe Hambrick - Moderated by: Kim Boyle
10:00 am - 10:45 am: The War Below: Lithium, Copper and the Global Battle For Power - Ernest Scheyder - Moderated by: Richard Adkerson
10:00 am - 11:00 am: Reagan: His Life and Legend - Max Boot - Moderated by: Sharon McMahon
10:00 am - 11:00 am: Power and Principle: A Conversation with Anne Applebaum and Gen. Mark A. Milley
11:00 am - 11:45 am: Reimagining the Future: Feminist Visions for a More Just World - Rachel Cargle, Sarah Jaffe + Samhita Mukhopadhyay - Moderated by: Anneliese Singh
11:00 am - 11:45 am: From First Draft to Hardcover: The Life Cycle of a Book - ‘Pemi Aguda, Katherine Fausset, Crystal Hana Kim + Renée Zuckerbrot - Moderated by: Kate Baldwin
11:00 am - 11:45 am: Birding to Change the World -Trish O'Kane - Moderated by: Rien Fertel
11:00 am - 11:45 am: Black Women's Agency in the New World: Preserving and Transforming Culture Through american History - Freddi Williams Evans, Annette Gordon-Reed + Jessica Marie Johnson - Moderated by: Imani Perry
11:30 am - 12:30 pm: War: A Conversation with Bob Woodward - Moderated by: Betsy Fischer Martin
11:30 am - 12:30 pm: Educated: A Conversation with Tara Westover - Moderated by: Lily Cole
12:00 pm - 12:45 pm: Notorious: Portraits of Stars from Hollywood, Culture, Fashion and Tech - Maureen Dowd - Moderated by: Ken Auletta
12:00 pm - 12:45 pm: Together: The Power of Human Connection - A Conversation With Dr. Vivek Murthy - Moderated by: President Michael A. Fitts
12:00 pm - 12:45 pm: P.6 Curating the Catalogue- Keith Calhoun + Chandra McCormick - Moderated by: Kara Oldige
12:00 pm - 12:45 pm: Painting the Town: The Importance of Color in Historic New Orleans Architecture - Danielle Del Sol, Chris Granger + John Pope - Moderated by: Susan Langenhennig
12:00 pm - 12:45 pm: The Intelligence Revolution: How AI and Big Data are Changing the World - Steven Johnson + Nicholas Mattei - Moderated by: Robin Forman
12:00 pm - 12:45 pm: My Black Country: Country Music's Black Past, Present and Future - Alice Randall - Moderated by: Melissa A. Weber
01:00 pm - 01:45 pm: The Power of Perception: Race, Class and the american Narrative - W. Kamau Bell, Charles Blow + Sarah Lewis - Moderated by: Mitch Landrieu
01:00 pm - 01:45 pm: Whodunnit: True Crime and Crime Fiction - Danielle Arceneaux, Rich Cohen + Gary Phillips - Moderated by: Ethan Brown
01:00 pm - 01:45 pm: 20 Years Later: Post-Katrina Music in New Orleans - Chris Thomas King + Dr. Michael White - Moderated by: Jason Berry
01:00 pm - 01:45 pm: The Complex Terrain of Contemporary African Art - amanda Maples, Tumelo Mosaka + Erika Witt - Moderated by: Maurita N. Poole
01:00 pm - 01:45 pm: So You Want to Get Your Comedy Published - Emma Allen, Christopher Monks, Lauren Moser + Beth Newell - Moderated by: Mike Sacks
01:00 pm - 01:45 pm: Work, Power and Purpose: Women Changing the Leadership Playbook - Alison Fragale + Samhita Mukhopadhyay - Moderated by: Sarah Jaffe
01:00 pm - 02:00 pm: An Unfinished Love Story - Doris Kearns Goodwin - Moderated by: Walter Isaacson
02:00 pm - 02:45 pm: Navigating the NIL Era: Opportunities and Challenges in College Sports - Oliver Luck + Jon Sumrall - Moderated by: Gabe Feldman
02:00 pm - 02:45 pm: Beyond the Dream: The Radical Legacies of Freedom Fighters - Edda Fields-Black, David Greenberg, Tamara Payne + Joy-Ann Reid - Moderated by: Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
02:00 pm - 02:45 pm: United for Books: Defending the Right to Read - Megan Holt + amanda Jones - Moderated by: Lindsay Cronk
02:00 pm - 02:45 pm: Finding my Voice: A Conversation with Valerie Jarrett - Moderated by: James Bennet
02:00 pm - 02:45 pm: The Science of Personal Power: How to Build Confidence, Create Success and Obtain Freedom - Chris Lipp - Moderated by: Michelle Johnston
02:00 pm - 02:45 pm: Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens - Rajiv Shah - Moderated by: Mitch Landrieu
02:30 pm - 03:30 pm: From Bestsellers to Blockbusters: A Conversation with John Grisham + Michael Lewis - Moderated by: Michael Lynton
02:30 pm - 03:30 pm: Happily Ever After? Love and Romance in Fiction - Alison Espach + Casey McQuiston - Moderated by: Alice Randall
03:00 pm - 03:45 pm: Unlearning to Learn: Safiya Sinclair and Tara Westover on Self-Discovery - Moderated by: Molly Jong-Fast
03:00 pm - 03:45 pm: Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution - Cat Bohannon - Moderated by: Anneliese Singh
03:00 pm - 03:45 pm: Move Fast, Break Government? The Risks of Silicon Valley Thinking in Public Policy - Kim Scott - Moderated by: Rob Lalka
03:00 pm - 03:45 pm: The State of the Union: A Deep Dive into america's Political Landscape - Jonathan Alter, Jonathan Martin + Tim Miller - Moderated by: Stephanie Grace
04:00 pm - 04:45 pm: Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story that Awakened america - Joy-Ann Reid - Moderated by: Charles Blow
04:00 pm - 04:45 pm: Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley are Transforming the Future of Warfare - Christopher Kirchhoff - Moderated by: Michael Wallace
04:00 pm - 04:45 pm: Making the Case for New Orleans as america's Sandwich Capital - Tara Francolini, Nini Nguyen, Dan Stein + Julie Vaucresson - Moderated by: Brett Martin
04:00 pm - 05:00 pm: Democracy and its Discontents: A Look at Why america Has Become Polarized - Doris Kearns Goodwin + Michael Sandel - Moderated by: Walter Isaacson
04:00 pm - 05:00 pm: On The Edge: The Art of Risking Everything Nate Silver - Moderated by: Rajiv Shah
04:45 pm - 06:15 pm: Closing Musical Reception Featuring Deacon John

Date:
March 27 - 29, 2025

Location:
Tulane University,
6823 Street Charles Avenue,
New Orleans, LA 70118

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