Booking and details
Get TicketsDates Thu, Apr 15, 2027 at 7:30pm
Venue Folger Theatre
Tickets $30
Please note: Children under the age of 4 are not permitted.
The Folger Shakespeare Library and the Eudora Welty Foundation welcome author Alice McDermott, to deliver the 2027 Welty Lecture, inspired by the writing and life of famed author Eudora Welty. McDermott will talk 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.
McDermott is the author of nine novels including Charming Billy, winner of the National Book Award, and That Night, At Weddings and Wakes, and After This, which were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She is also the author of the essay collection What About the Baby?: Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction.
The lecture, which will be followed by a book-signing and wine reception, is produced with the Eudora Welty Foundation.
About the speaker
Alice McDermott
Alice McDermott is the author of nine novels, all published by FSG, including Charming Billy, winner of the National Book Award, and That Night, At Weddings and Wakes, and After This, which were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She is also the author of the essay collection What About the Baby?: Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction. Her stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, and other publications. She lives outside Washington, DC.
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
Photo galleries from past lectures
The 2026 Eudora Welty Lecture with Kate DiCamillo
The 2025 Eudora Welty Lecture with Amor Towles