Kentucky Author Forum kicks off with Dani Shapiro, Robert Siegel

The University of Louisville Kentucky Author Forum will present Dani Shapiro, author of Inheritance, and Robert Siegel, host of NPR's All Things Considered, Sept. 25 at the Kentucky Center. 

In addition to Inheritance, Shapiro has penned memoirs Hourglass, Still Writing, Devotion, and Slow Motion, as well as five novels including Black & White and Family History.

Shapiro’s short fiction, essays, and journalistic pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, One Story, Elle, Vogue, O Magazine, The New York Times Book Review and the op-ed pages of the New York Times.

Siegel was the senior host of NPR’s award-winning evening newsmagazine All Things Considered. In 2018, Siegel was awarded the Edward Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism. Siegel has been honored with three Silver Batons from Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University, as well as the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award. He is a contributor to Moment Magazine.

Inheritance is a memoir about the staggering family secret uncovered by a genealogy test: an exploration of the urgent ethical questions surrounding fertility treatments and DNA testing, and a profound inquiry of paternity, identity and love.

The Kentucky Author Forum will kick off at 5 p.m. with Brown-Forman wine and cheese and a Carmichael's book sale in the lobby. Siegel will interview Shapiro at 6 p.m., followed by an audience Q&A at 7 p.m. Tickets for all events before 8 p.m. are $20.

A ticketed dinner in honor of Shapiro and Siegel begins at 7:30 p.m. and costs $120. More information is available online.

The University of Louisville Kentucky Author Forums are distributed to PBS member stations nationwide, under the title Great Conversations. The Kentucky Author Forum series is produced by Mary Moss Greenebaum, and is sponsored by the James Graham Brown Foundation, Brown-Forman and The Humana Foundation.