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Editors Jane Carr and Lori Harrison-Kahan, in conversation with Valerie Popp, discuss "The Case of Lizzie Borden and Other Writings," a comprehensive collection of writings by Elizabeth Garver Jordan.

About the book:

"The Case of Lizzie Borden and Other Writings" is the first to collect Garver Jordan’s fiction and journalism, much of which has been out of print for over a century. Jordan began her career as a reporter, making her name as one of few women journalists to cover the Lizzie Borden murder trial for the New York World in 1893. Jordan’s distinctive, narrative-driven coverage of the Borden and other high-profile murder cases brought her national visibility, and she turned increasingly to fiction writing. Drawing on her experiences as a true-crime reporter and newspaper editor, she published detective novels and short story collections such as "Tales of the City Room" that explored the fine line between women’s criminality and crimes against women. Employing popular genre conventions as a means of dealing with women’s issues, Jordan exposed gendered abuse in the workplace and the prevalence of sexual violence. "The Case of Lizzie Borden and Other Writings" encourages readers to draw a historical trajectory from Jordan’s pioneering literary activism to the writings of contemporary journalists and novelists whose work continues to fuel discussions of gender, feminism, and crime, raising questions about who gets to tell women’s stories, especially in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

In Conversation:

Jane Greenway Carr is a senior editor with CNN Opinion whose work has also appeared in The Atlantic, Slate and Vox among other publications. She was previously a contributing editor and fellow at the think tank New America and a lecturer in the English Department at New York University. She is the co-editor of “The Case of Lizzie Borden and Other Writings: Tales of a Newspaper Woman.”

Lori Harrison-Kahan is a professor in the English Department at Boston College and has received multiple awards for recovering forgotten literary works by women. In addition to co-editing "The Case of Lizzie Borden and Other Writings" with Jane Carr, she is the editor of "The Superwoman and Other Writings" by Miriam Michelson, co-editor of "Heirs of Yesterday" by Emma Wolf, co-editor of "Matrilineal Dissent: Women Writers and Jewish American Literary History" and author of "The White Negress: Literature, Minstrelsy, and the Black-Jewish Imaginary." Harrison-Kahan graduated from Princeton University and earned a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

Valerie Popp is a public humanities expert, scholar, teacher, and program designer. She currently works as the Director of Programs and Sustainability for Journalism + Design at The New School in New York City, where she develops, funds, and manages cohort-based initiatives that center community colleges and other higher education institutions as hubs for local news. Prior to joining J+D in 2024, Popp held senior program officer roles at the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies. A proud first-generation college graduate, she has a B.A. in English literature from Yale University and a M.A. and Ph.D. in English literature from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her scholarship on modernist and contemporary American and British literature has appeared in Contemporary Literature, African American Review, and Wasafiri, among other places.

This event was recorded on September 29, 2024.

The author presents his new book in conversation with Princeton University's Sam Wang. "Making Democracy Count" explains how we can repair our democracy by rebuilding the mechanisms that power it.

About the book (from the publisher):

What’s the best way to determine what most voters want when multiple candidates are running? What’s the fairest way to allocate legislative seats to different constituencies? What’s the least distorted way to draw voting districts? Not the way we do things now. Democracy is mathematical to its very foundations. Yet most of the methods in use are a historical grab bag of the shortsighted, the cynical, the innumerate, and the outright discriminatory. Making Democracy Count sheds new light on our electoral systems, revealing how a deeper understanding of their mathematics is the key to creating civic infrastructure that works for everyone.

In this timely guide, Ismar Volić empowers us to use mathematical thinking as an objective, nonpartisan framework that rises above the noise and rancor of today’s divided public square. Examining our representative democracy using powerful clarifying concepts, Volić shows why our current voting system stifles political diversity, why the size of the House of Representatives contributes to its paralysis, why gerrymandering is a sinister instrument that entrenches partisanship and disenfranchisement, why the Electoral College must be rethought, and what can work better and why. Volić also discusses the legal and constitutional practicalities involved and proposes a road map for repairing the mathematical structures that undergird representative government.

"Making Democracy Count" gives us the concrete knowledge and the confidence to advocate for a more just, equitable, and inclusive democracy.

In conversation:

Ismar Volić is professor of mathematics and director of the Institute for Mathematics and Democracy at Wellesley College. His work has appeared in publications such as The Hill, Cognoscenti, and Education Week.

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Sam Wang is professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton University. His laboratory research focuses on learning from birth to adulthood, at levels ranging from single synapses to the whole brain. He is the author of two books about the brain: "Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys But Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life" and "Welcome to Your Child’s Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College."

This event was recorded on September 26, 2024

Community leaders, authors and advocates of all ages will read from banned books in a show of support for communities and individuals dealing with censorship.

As a Book Sanctuary City in a state where a Freedom to Read Act is advancing through the Legislature, Princeton enjoys strong protections against censorship. The library believes these protections bring a responsibility to advance the cause of intellectual freedom everywhere.

At this event, community leaders, advocates and readers of all ages will gather to honor books that have been challenged or banned throughout history. They will read excerpts from classics that have shaped the literary landscape as well as contemporary works that spark important conversations and illuminate diverse perspectives, lives and ideas.

Presented in partnership with Princeton University Press and Labyrinth Books and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This event was recorded on September 23, 2024

This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library. The author, a graduate of Princeton University, will discuss and sign copies of her debut novel "We Carry the Sea in Our Hands" with A.M. Homes.

About the Book (from the publisher): Abby Rodier was a “drop-box baby,” a Korean orphan whose mother could not take care of her and left her as an infant. Abby’s tumultuous experience in the American foster care system has led her to live a solitary and guarded life, closed off to almost everyone except her best friend Iseul, whose parents took Abby into their home as a child.

Abby’s work studying the origins of life in sea slugs and bacteria leads her to wonder about her birth parents and question her place in this world. It's not long before Abby stumbles upon a biological discovery that will change the course of her life. Meanwhile, Iseul’s devotion to their ill brother leads to an entanglement between her work as an investigative journalist and the murky world of black-market medicine.

After a tragic event, Abby’s life is thrown into a tailspin. With the rug pulled from under her feet, she spirals into a disorientation of grief, apparitions, and compulsions. With the help of those around her, Abby must embark on a journey to understand her true roots and make peace with her present.

About the Author: Janie Kim grew up in San Diego, California, and studied molecular biology at Princeton University, went on a Fulbright research grant to Denmark, and is now a biology PhD student at Stanford University. She likes ocean critters that are fun-sized, or, better yet, microscopic (funner-sized).She writes about these and other topics in microbiology for "Small Things Considered." Her first novel "We Carry the Sea In Our Hands," was published in July 2024.

About the Moderator: A.M. Homes is a prolific writer who collaborates with visual artists, composers, and filmmakers on projects ranging from full-scale operas to television series to museum exhibitions. The author of 13 books of fiction, nonfiction, and short stories, A.M. won the Women’s Prize for Fiction for her 2013 novel, “May We Be Forgiven,” and her memoir, “The Mistress’s Daughter,” was published to international acclaim. She is a Professor of the Practice in the Program in Creative Writing at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts

This event was recorded on September 17, 2024.

This event was presented in Partnership by Princeton Public Library and Princeton University Press. Editor John McMurtrie presents "Literary Journeys," an illustrated guide to over 75 important journeys in world literature.

About the book (from the publisher):
From Homer’s "Odyssey," Chaucer’s "Canterbury Tales," and Cervantes’s "Don Quixote" to Melville’s "Moby-Dick," Kerouac’s "On the Road," and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s "Americanah," some of the most powerful works of fiction center on a journey. Extending to the ends of the earth and spanning from ancient Greece to today, "Literary Journeys" is an enthralling book that takes you on a voyage of discovery through some of the most important journeys in literature. In original essays, an international team of literary critics, scholars, and other writers explore exciting, dangerous, tragic, and uplifting journeys in more than seventy-five classic and popular works of fiction from around the world. Chronologically arranged and gorgeously illustrated throughout with paintings, engravings, photographs, and maps in full color, this captivating book will appeal to readers who have travelled widely, who are planning a trip, or who love armchair travel. Contributors include Robert McCrum, Susan Shillinglaw, Maya Jaggi, Robert Holden, Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Alan Taylor, Michael Bourne, Sarah Mesle—and dozens more.

About the author:
John McMurtrie is the newly appointed nonfiction editor at Kirkus Reviews. Prior to this, he was editor at McSweeney’s Publishing and former books editor at the San Francisco Chronicle. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and Literary Hub.

Presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This event was recorded on September 12, 2024.

This event is presented in partnership by Princeton Public Library and Sustainable Princeton. Planner Jon A. Carnegie and policy analyst Alex Ambrose discuss the concept of the 15-minute neighborhood and how it could make Princeton a more convenient and sustainable place to live.

FROM THE PRESENTER: In addition to being an important contribution to New Jersey’s efforts to achieve its goals of reducing pollution that causes climate change,15-minute neighborhoods provide residents with easy access to parks, schools, gathering places, social services, places to buy healthy fresh food and, in some cases, public transit, within a comfortable walk or bike ride. Attend this Sustainable Minds session to learn about 15-minute neighborhoods, case studies in New Jersey, and what planning and policy opportunities are available to make Princeton a 15-minute neighborhood.