3 Minutes or Less: Life Lessons from America’s Greatest Writers

Each October at the PEN Gala, well-known authors take the stage of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Theatre to ponder the meaning of such universal mysteries as “obsession,” “illusion,” “first love,” and more. Each author is given only three minutes or less to speak.

Alice Hoffman, Allan Gurganus, American Literature, Anita Shreve, Annie Dillard, Chang-rae Lee, Charles Johnson, Deborah Tannen, Francine Prose, Gail Godwin, George Plimpton, Jane Hamilton, Jane Smiley, John Edgar Wideman., Joyce Carol Oates, Larry McMurtry, Maurice Sendak, Russell Banks, Sue Miller, Susan Isaacs, T. Coraghessan Boyle, William Kennedy, William Styron