Booking and details
Purchase accessDates On demand through Tue, Jun 30, 2026
Venue Virtual, on demand
Tickets $15
Duration 60 minutes
The lecture is produced by the Eudora Welty Foundation in partnership with the Folger Shakespeare Library.
The Folger Shakespeare Library and the Eudora Welty Foundation welcomed one of America’s most beloved storytellers, author Kate DiCamillo, to deliver the 2026 Welty Lecture, inspired by the writing and life of famed author Eudora Welty.
DiCamillo talks about her career as a best-selling author, including stories about her early experiences with the publishing industry to her writing influences and the evolution of her work.
Some of DiCamillo’s best-known novels include Because of Winn-Dixie (2000), The Tale of Despereaux (2003), and Flora & Ulysses (2013), which have all been adapted into popular family films. She is a former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and a two-time Newbery Medalist.
Enjoy on-demand streaming of the lecture, which was recorded live at the Folger Shakespeare Library on Thursday, March 26, 2026.
The Lecture, with an introduction by novelist Ann Patchett, is available for viewing from April 6 through June 30, 2026.
About the speakers
Kate DiCamillo
Kate DiCamillo is one of America’s most beloved storytellers. She is a former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and a two-time Newbery Medalist. Born in Philadelphia, she grew up in Florida and now lives in Minneapolis.
Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett is the author of novels, nonfiction, and picture books. She is the owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2021 she gave the Eudora Welty lecture in Miss Welty’s home in Jackson. Kate DiCamillo is her dearest friend.
About the Eudora Welty Foundation
The Eudora Welty Foundation was established to assist the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to achieve its goals of celebrating the legacy of Eudora Welty, enhancing appreciation of her work, and encouraging reading and the efforts of young writers. The Foundation’s broad mission is to fund educational and research activities and to develop programs that will enhance Eudora Welty’s legacy and ensure that her work continues to be recognized as among the greatest in American literature. To visitors from across America and around the world, the Welty Home provides a literary experience to enhance the understanding of Welty’s life and work. Welty’s fiction affirms that the imagination can be a powerful force to combat suffering, both physical and spiritual. Programming emphasizes Welty’s striking intellect and creative powers, her devotion to the humanities, the place of literature in our lives, and the role of the writer in our society. Learn more