Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Wednesday 08 May
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
This event will now take place at Athenaeum 2 Upstairs.
'The boundary between society and the library is porous,' Susan Orlean has written. 'Nothing good is kept out of the library, and nothing bad.'
What do libraries mean to us – as public places and civic institutions? Why do attacks on libraries evoke a special kind of horror? And what do libraries represent in the collective imagination and in literary history?
In partnership with State Library Victoria, we're presenting two great American thinkers who have spent years of their lives immersed in the world of libraries. Paul Holdengräber was the former curator of conversations at the New York Public Library, and is the founding executive director of the Onassis Foundation LA, a centre for dialogue in Los Angeles which is an outpost of the Onassis headquarters in Athens. Susan Orlean is a bestselling author and New Yorker staff writer whose latest work, The Library Book, combines memoir with an investigation of the unsolved 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire.
Join us for an extravagantly nerdy conversation, cataloguing the past, present and future of public libraries; why we love them, and why we can’t do without them. Hosted by Kate Torney.
This event will be Auslan interpreted.
Dymocks Camberwell will be our bookseller at this event.
Presented in partnership with State Library Victoria.
Featuring
Paul Holdengräber
Paul Holdengräber is the Founding Executive Director of the Onassis Foundation LA (OLA), an outpost of the Onassis headquarters in Athens that began its work as a ‘center of dialogue’ earlier this year. Prior to working at OLA, he was the founder and director of New York Public Library (NYPL)’s Public Programming, and the host of LIVE from the NYPL.
A seasoned interviewer, Holdengräber is known for encouraging his guests to step outside their areas of specialisation and into wider-reaching discussions. His conversational partners have included Patti Smith; Zadie Smith; Jay-Z, Wes Anderson; Salman Rushdie; Christopher Hitchens; RuPaul; David Remnick; Pete Townshend and Werner Herzog.
Over the course of Holdengräber’s tenure at the Library, about 200,000 people attended interviews at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Holdengräber has written essays and articles for journals in France, Germany, Spain, and the United States. He also taught at various universities including Williams College and Claremont Graduate University.
He has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University, and the French government awarded him the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2003. In addition to his work at OLA, Holdengräber sits on The Sun Valley Writers Conference Board of Directors, The Onassis Foundation Board of Directors, and The Paul & Daisy Soros Board of Directors. He hosts the podcast A Phone Call from Paul on Literary Hub.
Susan Orlean
Hailed a 'national treasure' by the Washington Post, Susan Orlean is the acclaimed, bestselling author of Rin Tin Tin and The Orchid Thief, which was made into the Academy Award-winning film Adaptation.
In The Library Book she reopens the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history, and delivers a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution—our libraries. Orlean has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 1992.
Kate Torney OAM
Kate Torney has extensive experience in the Australian media, cultural and philanthropic sectors, having spent 20 years at the ABC, including six as News Director, six years as Chief Executive of the State Library of Victoria and now as CEO of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation
Opened in 1856, the State Library is now one of the most visited libraries in the world and Kate led an $88 million redevelopment to reimagine services and stunning heritage spaces for the 21st century.
During Kate’s time at the ABC, she led a team of 1,400 reporters and production colleagues across Australia and globally. She also oversaw the major review that led to the ABC’s successful re-orientation towards digital platforms, including the launch of the ABC News channel and the expansion of ABC News online.
In October 2021, Kate joined the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation which supports the work of some of the world’s leading cancer researchers.
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