Spring 2018

Both women have a lot in common, especially in their core values. Both Reverend Blackmon and Rabbi Talve understand the basic need to bear witness – to show up and support people being shut out by a system that was built to exclude them. That’s why Rabbi Talve was on that first “Marriage Equality” bus bound for Iowa where she legally married a couple, and that’s why Reverend Blackmon went to Charlottesville. They see a need and they act.

Rachel Pruchno, the distinguished developmental psychologist and expert on aging, knows all too well how mental illness not only ravages the sufferer, it also devastates their families. For her, the tragic effects of mental illness on a family were experienced not once but twice: first when her mother’s battle with manic depression ended in suicide; and again as a mother with a deeply troubled daughter whose mental afflictions led to her death.

As a doctoral student of religious studies at Harvard, Elaine Pagels found her own “forbidden fruit,” which came in the form of secret writings that were decreed heretical a very long time ago.

Though Mary Shelley didn’t predict climate change in Frankenstein, Wysession sees similarities between the actions of the eponymous scientist and our excessive production of greenhouse gasses.

Esseks, director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & HIV Project for the ACLU, will deliver the keynote address for the 13th annual Midwest LGBTQ Rights Conference. This year’s conference theme is “Queer and Present Danger: Advancing LGBTQ Rights in Difficult Times.”

A veteran journalist, Hagan is a writer and contributing editor of “New York” magazine, and has written for “The Wall Street Journal,” and “Rolling Stone Magazine,” as well as a host of other publications. He has published long-form profiles and investigative exposes of some of the most significant figures and subjects of our time, among them: Hillary Clinton after serving as Secretary of State; Karl Rove, the Bush family, Henry Kissinger, Dan Rather, Goldman Sachs, “The New York Times”; and Twitter.

Block is a native of Plano, Texas now living in Brooklyn. His novels have been translated into 10 languages, and his stories and non-fiction have appeared in many publications, including “The New York Times,” “The Guardian,” “GRANTA,” and “The New Yorker’s” Page-Turner; and on NPR’s Radiolab.

Hopwood’s memoir, “Law Man” will be available for purchase at the book signing immediately following his presentation.

Wessel’s presentation, “The View from Washington: Economic Policy One Year into the Trump Presidency,” will cover topics such as productivity growth, fiscal and monetary policy, and inequality and politics.