Library Live.
We are thrilled to welcome these brilliant authors to our 2026-2027 series. Library Live is for adventurous readers who enjoy hearing from established literary figures and emerging talent. Novelists, poets, historians, journalists, biographers, memoirists and more share their ideas firsthand with our community. Participate, engage, and be challenged by our presentations with today’s most gifted scribes.
Special Event: Library Foundation of Newport Beach in support of Newport Beach Art Week presents
Tim Greiving
John Williams: A Composer’s Life
Thursday, August 13, 7:00pm
In John Williams: A Composer’s Life, the first biography of the renowned film composer, author Tim Greiving offers an engaging account of a man whose body of work is universally beloved, but whose personal life has remained very private. Williams wrote the memorable scores and hummable themes for a staggering number of popular touchstones across multiple generations–among them Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, and the Harry Potter series–and earned more Oscar nominations than any individual artist in the history of the motion picture Academy. With unprecedented access to the famously private artist, Greiving attempted to plumb the depths of both the music and the man.
Tim Greiving is an arts journalist in Los Angeles who specializes in film music. He regularly contributes to NPR, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post. He has written program notes for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Royal Albert Hall, and the Walt Disney Company, and liner notes for more than one hundred soundtrack albums from Intrada, Varèse Sarabande, and La-La Land Records. Greiving contributes to the Visual History Program for the Academy and teaches film music history at USC Thornton.
Registration open to public on July 24, 2026
Thanks to our promotional sponsor Newport Beach Film Festival
The Library Foundation of Newport Beach is pleased to announce Library Live Author Series September 2026 – April 2027
Stephen Witt
The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip
Thursday, October 15, 7:00pm
New Yorker contributor Stephen Witt is one of the leading historians of artificial intelligence. His book The Thinking Machine, a history of Nvidia, hit the bestseller lists in multiple countries, and features half-a-dozen exclusive interviews with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Stephen has unparalleled insight into what made Jensen the most successful businessman of his era, and what made Nvidia the most valuable corporation on Earth.
Stephen is an award-winning television producer, and his previous book and documentary, How Music Got Free, told the story of the underground mp3 revolution. He has unique insight on how AI will affect creative industries, and how creative producers should position themselves to take advantage of this generational technological shift. In addition to his work with the New Yorker, Stephen appears regularly on NPR and in the opinion pages of the New York Times.
Susan Orlean
Joyride
Thursday, November 5, 7:00pm
Joyride is Orlean’s ninth book and her first memoir, often described as her most personal and vulnerable work. At its center is a guiding idea she states plainly: “the story of my life is the story of my stories.” Joyride is a magic carpet ride through Orlean’s life and career, where every day is an opportunity for discovery and every moment holds the potential for wonder. Throughout her storied career, her curiosity draws her to explore the most ordinary and extraordinary of places, from going deep inside the head of a regular ten-year-old boy for a legendary profile (The American Man Age Ten) to reporting on a woman who owns twenty-seven tigers, from capturing the routine magic of Saturday night to climbing Mt. Fuji.
Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992. She is widely known for books such as The Orchid Thief and The Library Book. Her writing has also appeared in Vogue, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Outside. Orlean’s early career began in Portland, Oregon, at Willamette Week, followed by roles at Boston Phoenix and the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, before she joined The New Yorker. Her other books include Saturday Night, The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup, My Kind of Place, Rin Tin Tin, and On Animals. The Orchid Thief was adapted into the 2002 film Adaptation, with Meryl Streep portraying Orlean.
Lauren Groff
Brawler
Thursday, March 11, 7:00pm
Read alone, each story in Lauren Groff’s electric collection is an individual triumph, bold, agile, and packed with power. Read together, they hum in exhilarating resonance. Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region — from New England to Florida to California — these nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared theme: the ceaseless battle between humans’ dark and light angels.
Lauren Groff is the award-winning and bestselling author of the celebrated short story collections, Delicate Edible Birds, Florida, a finalist for the National Book Award, and Brawler, as well as several novels- The Monsters of Templeton, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers, Arcadia, winner of the Medici Book Club Prize, Fates and Furies, a finalist for the National Book Award and Amazon’s pick for Best Book of the Year, and the instant New York Times bestsellers Matrix and The Vaster Wilds. Groff is a captivating and thoughtful speaker who loves connecting with audiences over discussion of her bestselling works. She is also a co-owner of the independent bookstore The Lynx.
Patrick Ryan
Buckeye
Thursday, April 8, 7:00pm
Buckeye is sweeping yet intimate, resplendent with moments of deep emotion and characters who linger like voices in an old house—familiar, insistent, impossible to ignore. Set against the bright promise and shadowed reckonings of postwar America, it is a transportive story of what we owe to those we love, what we hide to survive, and what it takes to be forgiven.
Patrick Ryan is the editor of the literary magazine One Story and author of the New York Times-bestselling novel and Read With Jenna pick, Buckeye. He has also written award-winning short stories, including the collections Send Me and The Dream Life of Astronauts. In his warm, engaging talks, Ryan explores history, identity, and imagination, leaving audiences inspired to see their own stories with fresh clarity and meaning.
LECTURE DETAILS / TICKETS
The Lectures will be held in the Witte Hall, 998 Avocado Avenue, Newport Beach
Thursday, 7:00pm – 8:30pm || Doors open at 6:30pm
Lecture, Book Sale & Signing, Refreshments
Library Live Season Pass $120*
*Members can buy season pass July 2026
Individual Ticket: General $40
Library Foundation members at the Book Collector ($250) and above level get a discount on individual tickets.
REGISTRATION / BOOK PURCHASE
Individual Ticket on sale September 1, 2026 || Box office closes at 2pm on the day of the event
Opportunity to buy a signed copy of the speakers’ publications at the event
QUESTIONS
Contact Programs@LibraryFoundationNB.org or 949-717-3892.
VIDEO ARCHIVE FOR PAST PROGRAMS – MEMBERS ONLY
2026-2027 Distinguished Authors Society
Linda Beers
Lauren Blackwood
Jean Campbell
Malin & Chris Fletcher
Emily Ford
Diane & Colin Forkner
Carol Gaetano
Diane Hafer
Myrna Hamid
Barbara Hamkalo
Sara Hinman
Eric Johnston
Judith Johnston
Marilyn Krahe
Lisa LaMond
Dara Lopata
Lucinda Marder
Cheryl Maxon
Joyce Rosenblum
Julie Sbicca
Latika Sethi
2026 – 2027 Library Live Committee
Loren Blackwood
Karen Clark
Patricia Dreyfus, Chair
Emily Ford
Amy Fulford
Elizabeth Hanauer
Dorothy Larson (Library Trustee Liaison)
Liz Manji
Cindy Share
Ann Stephens
Adrian Windsor