Francine Prose describes herself as a “sentence person” – a best-selling author, reviewer, distinguished writer in residence at Bard College, and former president of PEN American Center, the New York-based free speech organization.

One of the country’s leading literary figures, she sits down with Library Director Crosby Kemper III for a public conversation about her work; her latest novel, Mister Monkey; and what she views as an ever more critical need for the written word in today’s America. The presentation continues the María Rosa Menocal Lecture Series established in memory of Kemper’s late wife, a longtime faculty member at Yale University who was a friend and New York City neighbor of Prose.

The series originally was made possible by a grant from the personal foundation of the Library director’s father, the late R. Crosby Kemper Jr.