Whose Truth? Writers and Readers Forum

In an era shaped by artificial intelligence, contested truths, and information overload, Whose Truth? Writers and Readers Forum brings together leading voices to explore how writers responsibly tell stories about real people and events. Co-organized by The Authors Guild Foundation, panelists will examine the ethics and craft of memoir, biography, narrative history, and fiction — and how memory, research, interpretation, and imagination shape what we call truth. The Whose Truth? Forum includes three panel discussions followed by a festive Meet-the-Authors reception on The Mount’s Terrace. Join us! TICKETS are available for both the full conference and individual panel discussions. Please note: access to the Meet-the-Authors reception is included exclusively with the full conference ticket. SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE: 1:00 PM | Session One: Approaching History Historical storytelling can illuminate the past — but it can also reshape it through creative interpretation, characterization, and selective detail. Historian David W. Blight will be joined in conversation by historian and former journalist David Conrad-Pérez, moderated by Holly Jackson, PhD, on where imagination ends and historical responsibility begins. 2:30 pm | Session Two: Writing About Real People Writing about real lives requires imagination, research, and restraint. Novelist and biographer Michelle Young, novelist Gish Jen, and media attorney Nancy Wolff will discuss how biographers portray difficult truths about complicated, flawed individuals without veering into harm, caricature, or defamation. Moderated by Joe Donahue, WAMC. 4:00 pm | Session Three: Authorship in the Age of AI From the writer’s desk to the reader’s hands, artificial intelligence is reshaping how stories and ideas are produced, circulated, and trusted. Writers Jia Tolentino and Maris Kreizman will explore how AI is changing the ways writers write and readers read, moderated by Mary Rasenberger. 5:30 pm | Meet-the-Authors Reception Mingle with the day’s featured authors at this exclusive reception on The Mount’s Terrace, where you can enjoy seasonal refreshments and continued conversation. IMPORTANT EVENT INFORMATION: Tickets are available for both the full conference and individual panel discussions. Please note: access to the Meet-the-Authors reception is included exclusively with the full conference ticket. This half-day Forum talk takes place in The Mount’s Stable Auditorium, a 140-seat, climate-controlled, indoor venue adjacent to the parking lot. Seating for all programs at The Mount is first-come, first-served. If you have seating preferences, we recommend arriving fifteen minutes early. Accessible seating is available. To discuss arrangements, please contact us by phone: 413-551-5111 x5; or email: [email protected]. For more information about accessibility, review The Mount’s accessibility webpage. A book signing will follow this event. Books can be purchased at the event from The Mount Gift & Bookstore or in advance via Bookshop.org Questions? Email: [email protected]; or phone: 413-551-5111 x2 David W. Blight is Sterling Professor of History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. He previously taught at North Central College in Illinois, Harvard University, and Amherst College. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, including Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom; American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era; Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory; and annotated editions of Douglass’s first two autobiographies. He has worked on Douglass much of his professional life, and been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize, and the Frederick Douglass Prize, among others. David Conrad-Pérez is a historian and former journalist whose work examines the forces that shape the media, philanthropy, and public life. He serves as research director for the Center for Media & Social Impact at American University. He is a former producer for New York Public Radio’s On the Media and Public Radio International’s The World. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. Fire in the Heart of the City is his first book. Holly Jackson is an associate professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, as well as a number of scholarly venues. In 2019, she published American Radicals: How Nineteenth-Century Protest Shaped a Nation. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Gish Jen is the author of six novels, two books of stories, and two works of nonfiction. Her honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and the Fulbright Foundation, as well as the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction and the Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her stories have been chosen for The Best American Short Stories five times, including The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Bad Bad Girl, her latest novel, was named the best-reviewed work of fiction in 2025 by Lit Hub and is a finalist for the 2026 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Maris Kreizman is an essayist and columnist for Literary Hub whose work has appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, and Esquire. She hosted The Maris Review, an intimate author interview podcast, from 2018 to 2023. A former board member of the National Book Critics Circle, she has served as a judge for the annual NBCC Awards as well as for the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award. She is the creator of Slaughterhouse 90210, a blog and book that celebrate the intersection of literature and pop culture. She was previously the editorial director of Book of the Month, the editorial director of digital content at barnesandnoble.com, and a publishing outreach lead at Kickstarter. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and her books. Mary Rasenberger is the CEO of the Authors Guild and Authors Guild Foundation. Prior to joining the Guild in November 2014, Mary practiced law for over 25 years in roles that spanned private practice, the government, and the corporate sector, as a recognized expert in copyright and media law. Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker, the author of the essay collection Trick Mirror, and a screenwriter. Formerly, she was the deputy editor at Jezebel and a contributing editor at the Hairpin. She grew up in Texas, received her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia, and got her MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan. In 2020, she received a Whiting Award as well as the Jeannette Haien Ballard Prize. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times Magazine and Pitchfork, among other places. She lives in Brooklyn. Nancy Wolff is a partner at the intellectual property, media and entertainment law firm of Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard, LLP located in New York, NY, and Beverly Hills, CA. She represents a wide range of creative individuals and companies in all areas of digital media, art law, licensing, and publishing and serves as counsel to the Digital Media Licensing Association. Nancy is co-chair of the firm’s Litigation Department and co-chair of the firm’s Art Law Group based on her deep knowledge of copyright, defamation, and other third-party rights. Michelle Young is an award-winning journalist and author. Her latest book, The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of World War II Resistance Hero Rose Valland was named a Best Book of 2025 by the New York Public Library, Library Journal, and Hyperallergic, and was named an Honor Book by the Massachusetts Book Awards. The Art Spy was also a finalist for the Marfield Prize and The Lambda Literary Prize and was longlisted for the American Library of Paris Book Award. Michelle’s work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Airmail, The Forward and Town & Country. She is a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia University, and lives in the Berkshires. The Authors Guild Foundation is the charitable arm of the Authors Guild, the nation’s oldest and largest professional organization for published writers. The Foundation supports working writers, advocates for free expression, and hosts literary events that highlight the importance of a rich, diverse American literary culture and the authors that contribute to it.