College & University

Our talented speakers are skilled at connecting with young audiences, and schools often select them for freshmen-year experience programs, convocations, and distinguished speaker series. They are inspiring lecturers who strive to relate to today’s youth and student groups.

Distinguished Lecturers

Peter Carey

Two-time Booker Prize-winner, National Book Award finalist, and celebrated novelist

Dan Chaon

National Book Award finalist and bestselling author of literary novels and short story collections

Charles Duhigg

Award winning journalist and media commentator

Jennifer Egan

Critically Acclaimed Novelist and Author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad

Russ Feingold

Former United States Senator from Wisconsin

Carlotta Walls LaNier

Youngest of the Little Rock Nine, Civil Rights Advocate

Robert K. Massie

Internationally renowned historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer

Meg Meeker, M.D.

Pediatrician and nationally recognized parenting expert

Simon Sebag Montefiore

Noted historian and international bestselling author of Jerusalem and Young Stalin

Edmund Morris

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Presidential Biographer

Thomas Mullen

Winner of the James Fenimore Cooper Prize and celebrated historical novelist

Joseph O’Neill

Author of the PEN/Faulkner Award-Winning Novel Netherland

Orhan Pamuk

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

John Prendergast

Human Rights Activist and Cofounder of the Anti-Genocide Group, The Enough Project

John Richardson

Picasso Expert and Author of the Life of Picasso Series

Karen Russell

Author of the acclaimed bestseller Swamplandia!

Mary Doria Russell

Prize-winning novelist and international bestseller

Richard Russo

Author of the Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novel Empire Falls

Esmeralda Santiago

Essayist, Award-Winning Screenwriter and Author of the Bestselling novel Conquistadora

Jeff Shaara

New York Times bestselling author of historical and military fiction

Gay Talese

Ground-Breaking Journalist and Renowned Writer

Abraham Verghese

Renowned Physician, Teacher and Author of Cutting for Stone

Dr. James D. Watson

Nobel Prize-Winning Scientist Who Discovered, Along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, the Structure of DNA

Isabel Wilkerson

Pulitzer Prize Winner and author of the critically acclaimed bestseller, The Warmth of Other Suns