Beyond Words: An Evening with Brooke Shields

The Friends and Foundation of Princeton Public Library are thrilled to announce the first program in our 2025 Beyond Words event series, “An Evening with Brooke Shields” on the Princeton University campus. Beyond Words plays a vital role in raising funds that fuel the mission of the library. Your support contributes directly to expanding our collections and ensuring access to valuable resources for all.

Join us for an evening with actress, model, icon, activist and Princeton University alum Brooke Shields to discuss her new book, “Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman.” Brooke Shields will appear in conversation with author and poet, Idra Novey.

Wednesday, Jan. 15 | 7 p.m.
Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall
68 Nassau St., on the Princeton University campus

Thank you to The Princeton University Office of Community and Regional Affairs for being our venue sponsor for this event.

Thank you to our library supporters for helping make this event possible.

Literary Heroes

Dina Lewisohn Shaw

Library Lovers

Mimi Omiecinski
Jessica Durrie


About “Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old”

From generational icon Brooke Shields comes an intimate and empowering exploration of aging that flips the script on the idea of what it means for a woman to grow older.

Brooke Shields has spent a lifetime in the public eye. Growing up as a child actor and model, her every feature was scrutinized, her every decision judged. Today, Brooke faces a different kind of scrutiny: that of being a “woman of a certain age.” And yet, for Brooke, the passage of time has brought freedom.

At 59, she feels more comfortable in her skin, more empowered and confident than she did decades ago in those famous Calvin Kleins. Now, in “Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old,“ she’s changing the narrative about women and aging.


About Idra Novey

Brooke Shields will appear in conversation with Idra Novey. Idra is a novelist, poet, and translator. Her novel “Take What You Need” was a New York Times Notable Book of 2023 and named a Best Book of the Year with The New Yorker, L.A. Times, Boston Globe, NPR, Today, and Yiyun Li’s Author Pick at The Guardian. Her first novel Ways to Disappear was a finalist for the L.A. Times First Fiction Prize and winner of the 2016 Brooklyn Public Library Prize and the Sami Rohr Prize. 

Her fiction and poetry have been translated into a dozen languages and she’s written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and The Guardian. In 2022, she received a Pushcart Prize for her story “The Glacier” published in The Yale Review.


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