Past Library Lunch Programs

2023 Write of Passage Tayari Jones
Ocean Vuong
Tara Westover
David Remnick
(moderator)
2022 Back Onstage: Inspiration and Creativity Isabella Boylston
André De Shields
Tony Kushner
David Remnick
(moderator)
2021 Long Story Short Nicole Krauss
Zadie Smith
Elizabeth Strout
David Remnick
(moderator)
2019 Historically Speaking Jennifer Egan
Min Jin Lee
Colm Tóibín
David Remnick
(moderator)
2018 The Art of the Memoir Elizabeth Alexander
Daniel Mendelsohn
David Remnick
(moderator)
2017 Lunch Poems Robert Pinsky
Jorie Graham
Kevin Young
Paul Muldoon
2016 A New York State of Mind
Hilton Als
Samantha Bee 
Adam Gopnik
 
2015 Writing Funny Andy Borowitz
Colin Jost
Susanna Wolff
David Remnick (moderator)
2014 A Sense of Place Jeffrey Eugenides
Zadie Smith
David Remnick (moderator)
2013 A Conversation on the Classics Rebecca Mead
Gary Shteyngart
David Remnick (moderator)
2012 The Making of the Making of a President: Politics as Art John Heilemann, Danny Strong   Rep. Harold Ford, Jr.  

2011

New York Then and Now:1911-2011

Nora Ephron

Hermione Lee

2010 All Eyes on Her: The Queen Mother and the 20th Century William Shawcross Amanda Foreman (interviewer)
2009 Not For Children Only Mary Ann Hoberman
Salman Rushdie
Chris Van Allsburg
Adam Gopnik (moderator)
2008 A Funny Thing Happened at the Library Jenny Allen
Andy Borowitz
Ian Frazier
Fran Lebowitz
Calvin Trillin
David Remnick (moderator)
2007 The French Connection Adam Gopnik
Simon Schama
Caroline Weber
Joan Juliet Buck (moderator)
2006 Memoir: Truth? Consequences? Mary Karr
Frank McCourt
Robert MacNeil (moderator)
J.R. Moehringer
Jeannette Walls
2005 Starting Over, Glancing Back: The Immigrant Experience in Literature Gish Jen
Jhumpa Lahiri
Gary Shteyngart
Dick Cavett (moderator)
2004 Love, Lust and Literature Michael Cunningham
Azar Nafisi
Shirley Hazzard
Jonathan Galassi
2003 My Country 'tis of Thee: Defining American Identity Joan Juliet Buck
Chuck Close
Lee Cullum
Russell Simmons
Harold Evans (moderator)
2002 America: What's Next? Michael Beschloss
Jamaica Kincaid
Jim Hoagland
Nicholas Lemann
Jim Lehrer (moderator)
2001 The New Money: A Cultural Transformation Barbara Taylor Bradford
Ron Chernow
James B. Stewart
Wendy Wasserstein
Paula Zahn (moderator)
2000 Celebrity: Our Cultural Obsession Marie Brenner
Dominick Dunne
Neal Gabler
Walter Isaacson
Diane Sawyer (moderator)
1999 Millennium: The Search for Meaning Thomas Cahill
Peter John Gomes
Francine du Plessix Gray
Burton Visotzky
Charles Osgood (moderator)
1998 What's Cooking? Food in Life and Literature Isabel Allende
Ruth Reichl
Calvin Trillin
Alice Waters
Sally Quinn (moderator)
1997 Why Jane Austen? Why Now? The Classics Return Russell Baker
David Denby
Ismail Merchant
Daphne Merkin
Roger Rosenblatt (moderator)
1996 New York, New York Ken Auletta
E.L. Doctorow
Dominick Dunne
Kitty Carlisle Hart
Harold Evans (moderator)
1995 America the Courtroom Floyd Abrams
Linda Fairstein
Terry Moran
Jeffrey Toobin
Charles R. Nesson (moderator)
1994 The Play's the Thing Tony Kushner
Terrence McNally
Wendy Wasserstein
August Wilson
A. R. Gurney (moderator)
1993 The First 85 Days: The Changing of the Guard Tom Brokaw
Tom Wicker
Gary Wills
Judy Woodruff
Charlie Rose (moderator)
1992 Two Sexes Separated By a Common Language Erica Jong
Robert MacNeil
Sally Quinn
Roger Rosenblatt
Liz Smith (moderator)
1991 Can You Believe Everything You Read? Don Hewitt
Hugh Sidey
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Kati Marton
James Hoge (moderator)
1990 Censored: Writers Under Attack Judy Blume
Kitty Kelley
Gay Talese
Bob Woodward
Benno C. Schmidt, Jr. (moderator)
1989 Intimate Relations: Writers Reflect on Their Parents Haywood Hale Broun
Susan Cheever
Jonathan Schwartz
Sara Lawrence Lightfoot
Robert MacNeil (moderator)
1988 Funny Bone in the Politic Roy Blount, Jr.
Tom Brokaw
Pat Oliphant
Mark Shields
Liz Smith (moderator)
1986 American Perspectives: A Discussion of Where We Came From/Where We Are Rita Mae Brown
James Carroll
Pat Conroy
J. Anthony Lukas
Cynthia Ozick
Donna Shalala (moderator)
1985 High Crimes and Misdemeanors Shana Alexander
Mary Higgins Clark
Tony Hillerman
Gregory McDonald
Robert Parker
Calvin Trillin (moderator)
1984 Other People's Lives: The Look at the World of Biography Robert Caro
Robert Massie
Nancy Milford
Paul Nagel
David McCullogh (moderator)
1983 Books Into Reels: The Author's Experience E.L. Doctorow
Judith Rossner
William Styron
Brendan Gill (moderator)
1982 Laugh at the Library Russell Baker
Peter DeVries
Nora Ephron
Fran Lebowitz
Thomas Meehan
Calvin Trillin (moderator)
1981 Two Countries Separated By a Common Language David B. Guralnik
Rosemary Harris
Alan Pryce-Jones
Samuel S. Vaughn
William F. Buckley, Jr