Join us for an insightful evening with acclaimed writers James P. Lenfestey and Sarah Ruhl—two resonant voices reflecting on life, memory, mentorship, and the power of writing. Lenfestey will read from his newest book Time Remaining (Milkweed, 2025)—a stirring meditation on aging, memory, and the enduring beauty of language in life’s later chapters. Ruhl will read from her newest collection of deeply personal essays, Lessons from My Teachers (Simon & Schuster, 2025), that documents the profound and lasting impacts of the bonds between a teacher and a student.

Readings in Kray Hall with a reception to follow in the Viscusi Reading Room..

About the Authors:

James P. Lenfestey is the author of Seeking the Cave: A Pilgrimage to Cold Mountain, a Minnesota Book Award finalist, and multiple collections of essays and poems, including A Marriage Book. He is also the editor of multiple anthologies, including Robert Bly in This World (University of Minnesota Press). Lenfestey is a former college English instructor, alternative school administrator, marketing communications consultant, and editorial writer for the Star Tribune, where he won several Page One awards for excellence. As a journalist, he covers education, energy policy, and climate science. He is chair of the Literary Witnesses poetry series, teaches at the Mackinac Island Poetry Festival, and lives in Minneapolis with his wife.

Sarah Ruhl is an award-winning American playwright, author, essayist, and professor. Her plays include The Oldest Boy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016), Dear Elizabeth (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016), Stage Kiss (Concord Theatricals, 2015). Her plays In The Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) (Theatre Communications Group, 2010) and The Clean House (Samuel French, 2007) were finalists for the Pulitzer prize in 2010 and 2005. Her plays have been produced worldwide and translated into fourteen languages. Originally from Chicago, Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She is the recipient of a Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a PEN Center Award for mid-career playwrights, a Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, and a Lilly Award. She is a member of 13P and New Dramatists and won the MacArthur Fellowship in 2006. She teaches at Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family. Photo by Greg Constanzo.