Join us to hear Patrick Radden Keefe, one of the most important authors of our time, deliver a public lecture in Alumni Hall, moderated by Gillian Turnbull.
Keefe’s book Say Nothing was a detailed investigation of the disappearance of Jean McConville during The Troubles in Ireland; it was recently adapted for television with FX for Disney Plus and Hulu, and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Arthur Ross Gold Medal from the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Orwell Prize for Political Writing. Empire of Pain, his deeply researched investigation of the Sackler family, the FDA and the American pharmacology industry, was awarded the Baillie Gifford Prize, was shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year, was a Barack Obama Favorite Book of the Year, and was listed as one of the 10 Best Books of 2021 by the Washington Post, Amazon, Slate, Vulture, People and Entertainment Weekly. It also provided material for the television show Dopesick, and Keefe appeared in Crime of the Century, a documentary on the opioid crisis. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his podcast on the song “Wind of Change” is a winding 8-episode tale of espionage and international intrigue during the Cold War.
A longtime New Yorker feature writer, Keefe is highly regarded in the MFA program; his work is held up as a model, both for its in-depth research and compelling narratives, in the curriculum. His background—from an MSc at the London School of Economics to Yale Law School to a prestigious writing career—and a body of work telling the most urgent stories of our time will be inspirational to our students aspiring to achieve similar impact with their books. The lecture will be preceded by a book signing at 5:45, and will be followed by a Q&A.
