Winter Words with Ann Patchett and Elizabeth McCracken – Paepcke Auditorium & Livestreamed
2024-01-11 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Denver) | Paepcke Auditorium, 1000 N 3rd St., Aspen, CO, 81611, United States
Buy Winter Words Tickets + Passes

IN-PERSON SEASON PASS: $80
Attend three in-person events at Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen and one in-person event at TACAW in Basalt

VIRTUAL SEASON PASS: $40
Join all four Winter Words events via livestream

INDIVIDUAL EVENT TICKETS: $30
Join any of the four events in-person

MORE WAYS TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Visit Explore Booksellers (221 E. Main St., Aspen), 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Monday-Sunday, or stop by the Aspen Words lunchtime box office in the Red Brick Center for the Arts (110 E. Hallam St., Aspen), on Wednesdays from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

The 2024 Winter Words season debuts with acclaimed, award-winning author Ann Patchett and her longtime literary friend, Elizabeth McCracken in conversation. Patchett returns to the Aspen Words stage and will discuss her latest work, “Tom Lake,” a “Reese’s Book Club” selection. The novel is a meditation on young love, married love, and the lives parents have led before children. McCracken is the author of eight books including her most recent novel, “The Hero of This Book.”
Patchett and McCracken are two highly accomplished authors; don’t miss their discussion about their work and lives and the intersection of how family dynamics and other intimate relationships serve as their inspiration.
Event location: Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen (1000 N 3rd St). Parking is limited.
Doors: 5:30 p.m. | Talk: 6:00-7:00 p.m. | Book signing to follow. Explore Booksellers will be selling books.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Ann Patchett is the author of nine novels, “The Patron Saint of Liars,” “Taft,” “The Magician’s Assistant,” “Bel Canto,” “Run, State of Wonder,” “Commonwealth,” “The Dutch House” and “Tom Lake.” She was the editor of “Best American Short Stories, 2006,” and has written four books of nonfiction–“Truth & Beauty,” about her friendship with the writer Lucy Grealy, “What Now?” an expansion of her graduation address at Sarah Lawrence College, “This is the Story of a Happy Marriage,” a collection of essays examining the theme of commitment and “These Precious Days,” essays on home, family, friendship and writing. In 2019, she published her first children’s book, “Lambslide,” illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser, followed by “Escape Goat” in 2020.
A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Patchett has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a National Humanities Medal, England’s Women’s Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Book Sense Book of the Year, a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize, The Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the American Bookseller’s Association’s Most Engaging Author Award and the Women’s National Book Association’s Award. Her novel, “The Dutch House,” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her books have been both New York Times Notable Books and New York Times bestsellers. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages.
In November 2011, she opened Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, with her business partner Karen Hayes. She has since become a spokesperson for independent booksellers, championing books and bookstores on NPR, The Colbert Report (including the series finale), Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, The Martha Stewart Show and The CBS Early Show, among many others. Along with James Patterson, she was the honorary chair of World Book Night. In 2012, she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Elizabeth McCracken is the author of eight books: “Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry,” “The Giant’s House,” “Niagara Falls All Over Again,” “An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination,” “Thunderstruck & Other Stories,” “Bowlaway,” “The Souvenir Museum” and “The Hero of This Book.” She’s received grants and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Liguria Study Center, the American Academy in Berlin, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. “Thunderstruck & Other Stories” won the 2015 Story Prize. Her work has been published in The Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, The O. Henry Prize, The New York Times Magazine, and many other places.

Thanks to our partners at Explore Booksellers and Bookbinders Basalt,
Aspen Words members receive 20% off Winter Words book titles.

Thank you to our season presenting sponsors
Diane & William Hunckler
Beth & Josh Mondry
Helen & Wally Obermeyer

Thanks also to our local partners:

Winter Words with Sasha DiGiulian – Paepcke Auditorium & Livestreamed
2024-02-06 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Denver) | Paepcke Auditorium, 1000 N 3rd St., Aspen, CO, 81611, United States
Buy Winter Words Tickets + Passes

IN-PERSON SEASON PASS: $80
Attend three in-person events at Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen and one in-person event at TACAW in Basalt

VIRTUAL SEASON PASS: $40
Join all four Winter Words events via livestream

INDIVIDUAL EVENT TICKETS: $30
Join any of the four events in-person

MORE WAYS TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Visit Explore Booksellers (221 E. Main St., Aspen), 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Monday-Sunday, or stop by the Aspen Words lunchtime box office in the Red Brick Center for the Arts (110 E. Hallam St., Aspen), on Wednesdays from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

World-champion climber Sasha Digiulian joins Aspen Words to present excerpts from her memoir, “Take the Lead: Hanging On, Letting Go, and Conquering Life’s Hardest Climbs,” her first book on the subjects of navigating a male-dominated sport, dealing with body dysmorphia in the age of social media, and channeling a competitive spirit into entrepreneurship. If you love Tommy Caldwell’s “Push,” this evening of literature, the examination of risk-taking, and stimulating conversation is not to be missed.
Moderator: Caroline Tory, Aspen Words managing director
Event location: Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen (1000 N 3rd St). Parking is limited.
Doors: 5:30 p.m. | Talk: 6:00-7:00 p.m. | Book-signing to follow. Explore Booksellers will be selling books.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sasha DiGiulian is a world champion climber and three-time U.S. national champion. At thirty years old, she’s traveled to over fifty countries and accomplished over thirty first female ascents. In 2016, she graduated from Columbia University with a focus on journalism and business and in 2022 became the founder and CEO of SEND Bars, a superfood nutrition bar company. In addition to being featured in dozens of magazines and new media pieces, she wrote for many publications including Outside magazine, National Geographic, Rock and Ice, Self, Seventeen and Crave. Sasha is an outspoken environmental activist and a global athlete ambassador for Right to Play, Protect Our Winters and Up2Us Sports. She served on the board of the Women’s Sports Foundation for six years and travels globally for expeditions, speaking engagements, sporting events and commercial work.

Thanks to our partners at Explore Booksellers and Bookbinders Basalt,
Aspen Words members receive 20% off Winter Words book titles.

Thank you to our season presenting sponsors
Diane & William Hunckler
Beth & Josh Mondry
Helen & Wally Obermeyer

Thanks also to our local partners:

Winter Words with Safiya Sinclair – TACAW in Basalt & Livestreamed
2024-02-29 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Denver) | TACAW, 400 Robinson St., Basalt, CO, 81621
Buy Winter Words Tickets + Passes

IN-PERSON SEASON PASS: $80
Attend three in-person events at Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen and one in-person event at TACAW in Basalt

VIRTUAL SEASON PASS: $40
Join all four Winter Words events via livestream

INDIVIDUAL EVENT TICKETS: $30
Join any of the four events in-person

MORE WAYS TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Visit Explore Booksellers (221 E. Main St., Aspen), 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Monday-Sunday, or stop by the Aspen Words lunchtime box office in the Red Brick Center for the Arts (110 E. Hallam St., Aspen), on Wednesdays from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

What is it like to leave everything you know behind? Join Aspen Words at TACAW for Winter Words with memoirist and award-winning poet Safiya Sinclair, as she discusses her new book, “How to Say Babylon.” This Read with Jenna TODAY show book club pick examines the author’s rigid Rastafarian upbringing and her efforts to break free from the patriarchal structure which defined her youth.
Moderator: Mitzi Rapkin, host of First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing
Event location: TACAW 400 Robinson Street Basalt, CO 81621. Parking is limited.
Doors: 5:30 p.m. | Talk: 6:00-7:00 p.m. | Book-signing to follow. Explore Booksellers will be selling books.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Safiya Sinclair was born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She is the author of the memoir “How to Say Babylon,” forthcoming from Simon & Schuster in October 2023. She is also the author of the poetry collection “Cannibal,” winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, the Phillis Wheatley Book Award and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. “Cannibal” was selected as one of the American Library Association’s Notable Books of the Year and was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Seamus Heaney First Book Award in the UK and was longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize.
Sinclair’s other honors include a Pushcart Prize, fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, MacDowell, Yaddo, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The Nation, Poetry, Kenyon Review, the Oxford American and elsewhere.

Thanks to our partners at Explore Booksellers and Bookbinders Basalt,
Aspen Words members receive 20% off Winter Words book titles.

Thank you to our season presenting sponsors
Diane & William Hunckler
Beth & Josh Mondry
Helen & Wally Obermeyer

Thanks also to our local partners:

Winter Words with Abraham Verghese – Paepcke Auditorium & Livestreamed
2024-03-14 18:00 - 19:00 UTC | Paepcke Auditorium, 1000 N 3rd St., Aspen, CO, 81611, United States
Buy Winter Words Tickets + Passes

IN-PERSON SEASON PASS: $80
Attend three in-person events at Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen and one in-person event at TACAW in Basalt

VIRTUAL SEASON PASS: $40
Join all four Winter Words events via livestream

INDIVIDUAL EVENT TICKETS: $30
Join any of the four events in-person

MORE WAYS TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Visit Explore Booksellers (221 E. Main St., Aspen), 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Monday-Sunday, or stop by the Aspen Words lunchtime box office in the Red Brick Center for the Arts (110 E. Hallam St., Aspen), on Wednesdays from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Bestselling author of “Cutting for Stone,” Abraham Verghese wraps up the 2024 Winter Words season, presenting his latest work, “The Covenant of Water,” also a New York Times bestseller, as well as an Oprah’s Book Club selection and the subject of a six-part podcast series hosted by Oprah Winfrey. This mystical work of fiction follows three generations of a family which experiences mysterious tragedy on the South Indian coast. Verghese will talk about his inspiration for the novel and how his deep and knowledgeable background in the medical field influences his work.
Moderator: Elisabeth Egan, author and a New York Times books editor
Event location: Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen (1000 N 3rd St). Parking is limited.
Doors: 5:30 p.m. | Talk: 6:00-7:00 p.m. | Book-signing to follow. Explore Booksellers will be selling books.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Abraham Verghese, MD, MACP, is Professor and Linda R. Meier and Joan F. Lane Provostial Professor and Vice Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the School of Medicine at Stanford University. He is also a bestselling author of “Cutting for Stone,” and the recently released “The Covenant of Water” as well as a physician with a reputation for his focus on healing in an era where technology often overwhelms the human side of medicine. He received the Heinz Award in 2014 and was awarded the National Humanities Medal, presented by President Barack Obama, in 2015.
Born in Addis Ababa in 1955, the second of three sons of Indian parents recruited by Emperor Haile Selassie to teach in Ethiopia, he grew up near the capital and began his medical training there. When the emperor was deposed, Verghese briefly joined his parents in the United States, working as an orderly, or nursing assistant, in a series of hospitals and nursing homes before completing his medical education in India at Madras Medical College. His experiences of civil unrest and his time as a hospital orderly were to leave a significant mark on his life and work.
After graduation, he left India for a medical residency in the United States and, like many other foreign medical graduates, he found only the less popular hospitals and communities open to him, an experience he described in a 1997 New Yorker article, “The Cowpath to America.”
Abraham Verghese’s early years as an orderly, his care of terminal AIDS patients and the insights he gained from the deep relationships he formed and the suffering he witnessed were transformative. Though he wrote a seminal scientific paper, he felt the sometimes cold and unimaginative language of science could not begin to capture the nature of the experience for patients and families, nor did it convey his own feelings as he witnessed their journeys. These were the cumulative experiences around which his first book, “My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story,” is centered.
As his interest in writing grew, he took time off from medicine to study at the Iowa Writers Workshop, where he earned an MFA in 1991. Since then, his work has appeared in the New Yorker, Texas Monthly, Atlantic, The New York Times, The New York Times magazine, Granta, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal, among others.
After leaving Iowa, Verghese became professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in El Paso, Texas, where he lived for the next 11 years. In El Paso, he finished his first book, chosen as one of the Best Books of the Year by TIME and later filmed for Showtime as “My Own Country,” directed by Mira Nair and starring Naveen Andrews. His second bestselling book, “The Tennis Partner: A Story of Friendship and Loss,” explored his friend and frequent tennis partner’s losing struggle with addiction. “The Tennis Partner” was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
In his writing and work, Abraham Verghese continues to emphasize the importance of bedside medicine and physical examination in an era of advanced medical technology. He contends that the patient in the bed often gets less attention than the patient data in the computer. His December 2008 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Culture Shock: Patient as Icon, Icon as Patient,” clearly lays out his viewpoint.
In speaking about his novel, “Cutting for Stone,” he also addressed the issue: “I wanted the reader to see how entering medicine was a passionate quest, a romantic pursuit, a spiritual calling, a privileged yet hazardous undertaking. It’s a view of medicine I don’t think too many young people see in the West because, frankly, in the sterile hallways of modern medical-industrial complexes, where physicians and nurses are hunkered down behind computer monitors and patients are whisked off here and there for all manner of tests, that side of medicine gets lost.”
Today, as a popular invited speaker, Verghese has more forums beyond his writing in which to share his views on patient care. He speaks widely on the subject, as well as giving talks and readings from his books. At the Stanford School of Medicine, he has led the effort to establish the Stanford 25, where residents and students are taught techniques and skills to recognize the basic phenotypic expressions of disease that manifest as abnormal physical signs.

Thanks to our partners at Explore Booksellers and Bookbinders Basalt,
Aspen Words members receive 20% off Winter Words book titles.

Thank you to our season presenting sponsors
Diane & William Hunckler
Beth & Josh Mondry
Helen & Wally Obermeyer

Thanks also to our local partners:

Launching the Line Up and Tickets for the Winter Words Speaker Series 2026
2025-12-02 10:00 - 19:00 (America/Denver)
On December 2, Aspen Words will release the official Winter Words 2026 lineup and tickets for the Winter Words Speaker Series. Tickets will be available to purchase online starting December 2.
Join us in person at the Red Brick on December 4 from 5–7 p.m. to purchase tickets.
Save the Dates!

Wednesday, January 28 | Paepcke Auditorium | 6–7 p.m.

Wednesday, February 4 | Paepcke Auditorium | 6–7 p.m.

Wednesday, February 11 | TACAW | 6–7 p.m.

The Winter Words 2026 speaker series brings celebrated writers to Aspen for moderated discussions about their work, creative process, and the stories that shape our world.
Aspen Words looks forward to sharing this memorable literary experience with you!

Winter Words Speaker Series Tickets for Sale In-Person
2025-12-04 17:00 - 19:00 (America/Denver)
On December 4, Aspen Words will be selling tickets for the Winter Words Speaker Series in person at the Red Brick Center for the Arts from 5–7 p.m.
Red Brick Center for the Arts110 E Hallam StreetAspen, CO 81611Tickets will be available at the Aspen Words office, Suite #109.
Tickets will also be available to purchase online starting December 2.
Save the Dates!

Wednesday, January 28 | Paepcke Auditorium | 6–7 p.m.

Wednesday, February 4 | Paepcke Auditorium | 6–7 p.m.

Wednesday, February 11 | TACAW | 6–7 p.m.

The Winter Words 2026 speaker series brings celebrated writers to Aspen for moderated discussions about their work, creative process, and the stories that shape our world.
Aspen Words looks forward to sharing this memorable literary experience with you!

Winter Words with Susan Orlean
2026-01-28 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Denver) | Paepcke Auditorium, 1000 N 3rd St., Aspen, CO, 81611, United States
Bestselling author and beloved New Yorker writer Susan Orlean will discuss “Joyride,” a magic carpet ride through her life and career. The book is also a time machine to a bygone era of journalism, from Orlean’s bright start in the golden age of alt-weeklies to her career-making days working alongside icons such as Tina Brown, David Remnick, Anna Wintour and other forces who shaped the media industry as we know it today. “Joyride” is a must-read for anyone who hungers to start, build and sustain a creative life. Orlean inspires us to seek out daily inspiration and rediscover the marvels that surround us.
Moderated by Christine Benedetti
About the Author

Susan Orlean is the New York Times bestselling author of “Joyride,” “The Library Book,” “Rin Tin Tin,” “Saturday Night,” “The Orchid Thief,” which was made into the Academy Award–winning film “Adaptation,” and other books. She has been called “a national treasure” by TheWashington Post and “a latter-day Tocqueville” by The New York Times. Her deeply moving explorations of American stories both familiar and obscure have earned her a reputation as one of America’s most distinctive journalistic voices. A staff writer for The New Yorker for over 30 years and a former contributing editor at Rolling Stone and Vogue, she has been praised as “an exceptional essayist” (Publishers Weekly) and a writerwho “approaches her subjects with intense curiosity and fairness” (Bookmarks).

Winter Words with Lily King
2026-02-04 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Denver) | Paepcke Auditorium, 1000 N 3rd St., Aspen, CO, 81611, United States
Join acclaimed author Lily King (“Writers & Lovers,” “Euphoria”) as she discusses her latest novel, “Heart the Lover,” an instant New York Times bestseller. Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans of King have come to adore, “Heart the Lover” is a deeply moving story that celebrates love, friendship and the transformative nature of forgiveness. The novel is King at her very best, affirming her as an astute chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.
Moderated by Mitzi Rapkin
About the Author

Lily King is the award-winning author of six novels, including most recently, “Heart the Lover.” She has also published a collection of short stories, “Five Tuesdays in Winter.” Her 2020 novel, “Writers & Lovers,” won the New England Society Book Awards and was a New York Times Notable Book and chosen as a top-10 best book of 2020 by The Washington Post, NPR, People Magazine and The Los Angeles Times. Her 2014 novel, “Euphoria,” won the Kirkus Award, the New England Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award. “Euphoria” was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by The New York Times Book Review. It was included in TIME’s Top 10 Fiction Books of 2014, as well as on Amazon, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly and Salon’s Best Books of 2014.

Winter Words with Tara Roberts
2026-02-11 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Denver) | TACAW, 400 Robinson St., Basalt, CO, 81621
Adventurer and storyteller Tara Roberts will discuss her searing memoir, “Written in the Waters,” which recounts her epic journey to trace the global slave trade across the Atlantic Ocean. Roberts, a National Geographic Explorer in Residence, spent years diving with and telling stories about a group of Black scuba divers searching for slave shipwrecks around the world. For fans of Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild” and Jesmyn Ward’s “Men We Reaped,” Roberts’ memoir is a powerful blend of personal and cultural history.

About the Author

Tara Roberts follows, dives with and tells stories about Black scuba divers as they search for and help document slave shipwrecks around the world. Her journey was turned into an award-winning National Geographic-produced podcast called “Into the Depths.” Tara became the first Black female explorer ever to be featured on the cover of the magazine and was named the Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year. Currently, Tara is an Explorer in Residence at Nat Geo. She is the author of “Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home and Belonging.” Tara is also a former magazine editor and indie publisher, a nonprofit communications director and editor of several nonfiction books for girls. She calls Atlanta home but loves to hit the road. Her motto is: have suitcase, will travel.
