Alta Live with Author Jane Smiley
April 26, 2023 | 12:30 pm
Jane Smiley fans, get excited! The Pulitzer Prize–winning author’s forthcoming book, The Questions that Matter Most: Reading, Writing, and the Exercise of Freedom, explores a number of provocations around class, race, and gender in the Western literary imagination and—most importantly—reflects on how the autonomy of a reader’s interpretation of any work of literature makes reading an inherently political act. (Is anyone else suddenly inspired to pick up another book?)
Smiley joins Alta Journal editorial director Blaise Zerega to discuss her new collection, explore the connection between the writer and the reader, and answer your questions. Do not miss this exciting and intimate conversation.
Register HereAbout the Speaker
Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley is a novelist and essayist. Her novel A Thousand Acres won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992, and her novel The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton won the 1999 Spur Award for Best Novel of the West. She has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1987. Her novel Horse Heaven was short-listed for the Orange Prize in 2002, and her novel Some Luck was longlisted for the 2014 National Book Award. She has written for numerous magazines and newspapers, including the New Yorker, the New York Times, Harper’s, and the Nation. Her most recent novel, A Dangerous Business, was published in 2022. She lives in Carmel Valley, California.
