Chad L. Williams is the author of Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era, winner of the Liberty Legacy Foundation Award from the Organization of American Historians. The Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History and African and African American Studies at Brandeis University, he has earned fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, the Ford Foundation, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He is the co-editor of Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism and Racial Violence, and has contributed articles and opinion pieces to a variety of publications, including The Washington Post, Time, and The Atlantic. In The Wounded World, Williams draws from a deep pool of source material to recount the story of W. E. B. Du Bois’ disillusionment with his country for its betrayal of Black American veterans of World War I.

A scholar of American and African American intellectual, cultural and social history, Mia Bay is the Roy F. and Jeanette P. Nichols Professor of American History at University of Pennsylvania. Her books include The White Image in the Black Mind: African-American Ideas about White People, 1830-1925; To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells; and Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance, winner of the Bancroft Prize. She is currently finishing a book on the history of African American ideas about Thomas Jefferson.

Pine Tree Foundation Endowed Lecture

Exuding “the comfort and charm of a beloved encyclopedia come to life” (The New Yorker), Simon Winchester is the bestselling author of nearly 30 nonfiction books that explore some of the world’s most consequential people, places, and historical events, including The Professor and the Madman, Krakatoa, The Men Who United the States, Atlantic, Pacific, The Perfectionists, and Land. An Oxford-trained former field geologist in Uganda and a war correspondent for The Guardian and The Sunday Times, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2006. Spanning in time from the creation of ancient Babylonian cuneiform tablets to the advent of Wikipedia, Knowing What We Know examines how humanity acquires, records, and distributes knowledge.

A Wall Street Journal correspondent for two decades, Neil King Jr. reported from more than 50 countries, served as the newspaper’s chief diplomatic correspondent, national political reporter, and global economics editor in Washington, D.C., and was part of a Wall Street Journal team that earned a Pulitzer Prize for its 9/11 coverage. He formerly wrote for the Tampa Tribune and the Prague Post, and he is the founder and editor of Gotham Canoe, an online journal dedicated to exploring nature and nearby wildernesses. Inspired by his search for meaning amidst the nation’s increasing political and social divides as well as by his own long battle with cancer, American Ramble follows King’s revelatory 26-day walk from Washington, D.C., through Philadelphia and its surrounding environment, to New York’s Central Park.

Signe Wilkinson is a widely syndicated cartoonist and the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. Formerly based at The Philadelphia Inquirer, she is the recipient of three Overseas Press Club Awards. With Jonathan Zimmerman, she co-authored the book Free Speech: And Why You Should Give a Damn.

One Book One Philadelpha 2023 kicks off on April 20 at 6:00 p.m. with an in-person community fair at Parkway Central Library! In the lobby and the terrace, there will be activities and information from groups like Asian Americans United, Asian Arts Initiative, and Fishadelphia, a lion dance by the Philadelphia Suns, and food samples by vendors from Southeast Asian Market. Following the fair, join us at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium for a conversation between "Interior Chinatown" author Charles Yu, tuning in remotely, and Manager of Civic Engagement and Programs Terence Washington. Book Harvest, OBOP 2023 Official Bookseller, will be on site with copies of this year's selections for sale.

Click here to register for the in-person event.

Click here to register to join the 7:30 conversation remotely as a webinar.

Charles Yu is the author of four books, including Interior Chinatown (the winner of the 2020 National Book Award for fiction), and the novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (a New York Times Notable Book and a Time magazine best book of the year). He received the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award and was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the HBO series, Westworld. He has also written for shows on FX, AMC, and HBO. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired, among other publications. Together with TaiwaneseAmerican.org, he established the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Writing Prizes, in honor of his parents.

Terence Washington is the Manager of Civic Engagement and Programs for the Free Library of Philadelphia. After leaving the Air Force, he got a master’s in art history at Williams College before working as an arts administrator, curator, and educator. He has done full-time and freelance work with the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the NXTHVN residency, the Readying the Museum initiative, DC Arts Center, The Phillips Collection, Mass MoCA, and elsewhere. He thinks everyone should read Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom.

MICHELLE ZAUNER is best known as a singer and guitarist who creates dreamy, shoegaze-inspired indie pop under the name Japanese Breakfast. She has won acclaim from major music outlets around the world for releases like Psychopomp (2016) and Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017).