Talking Volumes 27th season announced for fall 2026
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Talking Volumes, a partnership of MPR News and the Minnesota Star Tribune, returns for a landmark 27th season in a brand-new home: The O’Shaughnessy Auditorium at St. Catherine University in St. Paul.
Hosted by award-winning journalists MPR News Kerri Miller and Catharine Richert, each evening offers an in-depth conversation with an author about their latest books, their creative process and the stories shaping our lives.
All tickets are $35 for the general public and $30 for MPR members, Minnesota Star Tribune subscribers and O’Shaughnessy subscribers. Visit mpr.org/events for tickets, seating options and more information.
Marlon James, ‘The Disappearers’
Saturday, Sept. 12, 7 p.m. - Find tickets here
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The season opens with Booker Prize–winning author Marlon James, whose new novel follows eight gay men in 1980s Kingston, Jamaica, as they rehearse for a play — and survive a brutal mob attack that changes everything.
“The Disappearers” is a riveting, deeply human story of fear, rage and recovery, and an unflinching look at queer life in Jamaica during the 1980s and 1990s.
Lucy Foley, ‘Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel’
Friday, Sept. 25, 7 p.m. - Find tickets here
Lucy Foley, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of “The Guest List,” brings her favorite Agatha Christie creation, Miss Marple, to the glamorous, snowbound Grand Alpine Hotel high in the Swiss Alps.
The first book in Foley’s new Miss Marple Mysteries series, it’s a mystery that feels gloriously escapist yet utterly relevant to our times.
Min Jin Lee, ‘American Hagwon’
Sunday, Oct. 4, 7 p.m. - Find tickets here
Min Jin Lee, the National Book Award finalist and bestselling author of “Pachinko,” returns with a sweeping, intimate epic about the Koh family’s journey from Seoul to Sydney to southern California.
“American Hagwon” reckons with ambition and sacrifice, personal dreams and family duty, across generations chasing the promise that education leads to security.
Emily St. John Mandel, ‘Exit Party’
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 7 p.m. - Find tickets here
The award-winning, bestselling author of “Station Eleven” and “Sea of Tranquility” returns with a breathtaking novel of doubles, shadow worlds and fractured timelines.
Set in a near-future Los Angeles, “Exit Party” follows a woman searching for answers after a man vanishes from a party without a trace.
Colson Whitehead, ‘Cool Machine’
Wednesday, Nov. 11, 7 p.m. - Find tickets here
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead closes out the season with the next chapter of his Harlem Trilogy.
“Cool Machine” follows furniture dealer and master fence Ray Carney back into New York City’s criminal underworld, in Whitehead’s signature pitch-perfect prose. This conversation will be hosted by MPR News correspondent Catharine Richert.
