Rebecca Makkai Visiting as Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Tulane's Newcomb Institute

October 26, 2023

Newcomb Institute is bringing Rebecca Makkai, the award-winning author of I Have Some Questions for You and other outstanding novels, to Tulane as the 2023 Zale-Kimmerling Writer-in-Residence. This program started in 1985 and has brought several influential authors to campus, including Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, Ann Patchett, and Lauren Groff; Rebecca Makkai is an apt addition to this long list of women.

The event is on Monday, November 06, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM in Kendall Cram Lecture Hall of the LBC. A brief reading from I Have Some Questions for You will be followed by a conversation between Makkai and Tulane English Professor Zachary Lazar.

The Zale-Kimmerling Writer-in-Residence Program brings inspiring authors to Tulane to encourage gender equity in research across all fields. Rebecca Makkai wrote the novels I Have Some Questions for You, The Great Believers, The Hundred-Year House, The Borrower, and the story collection Music for Wartime. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. The Great Believers received an American Library Association Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and more. It was included in the Ten Best Books of 2018 list by The New York Times.  
 
I Have Some Questions for You is a mystery novel that explores one woman’s confrontation with her past. This timely, mesmerizing narrative is populated by a memorable ensemble of characters, making it an irresistible, suspenseful read. 
 
“Through the Zale-Kimmerling Writer-in-Residence Program, we hope to foster a culture of reading for pleasure and to give our community access to truly excellent and inspiring writers. Rebecca Makkai’s books raise really big questions about memory, truth, and community, and they are really a joy to read.” — Laura Wolford, Associate Director and Director of Operations at Newcomb Institute 
 
The Zale-Kimmerling Writer-in-Residence initiative was founded by Dana Zale Gerard (NC’ 85) and has been sustained by an annual contribution from the M.B. and Edna Zale Foundation in Dallas, Texas. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers have also supported the program since 2006. In 2010, the program achieved full endowment status thanks to a generous donation from Martha McCarty Wells (NC’ 63) and was officially named the Zale-Kimmerling Writer-in-Residence program.