2024 - 2025 Pen Pals Season Line-Up
Box Office
Phone:
(612) 543-8112
Current Hours:
M - Th: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
F: 9 a.m. - 12 noon
Individual Tickets:
$49 - $59
Virtual Access Only Tickets:
$35
Email:
FriendsEvents@hclib.org
Buy Tickets Online
In-person tickets to most lectures in the 2024-25 season are sold out. Click here to join the in-person wait list.
Check out the Friends Fall Events Guide!
Our policies as of August 1, 2023 are below, and may be revised at any time, in accordance with guidance from the CDC and state health agencies. Ticket holders will be notified via email with any event protocol updates.
- Masks are no longer required, but are welcomed, at Pen Pals lectures. Masking for post-lecture book signings will be determined on a by-event basis.
- A virtual backup option will be provided to all ticket holders for events in the 2024-25 season, should they prefer to view from home. Ticket holders to both sessions will automatically receive access to a livestream of the evening event, and a link to an on-demand recording will be sent the day following. This recording will be viewable for three days.
Friends of HCL strives to make our Pen Pals lectures accessible to all patrons. Below is a description of available services and amenities. Please call our box office ((612) 543-8112) with questions.
Captioning
Open Captioning (OC) provides a live, real-time transcription of Pen Pals lectures. The service is open to all audience members for viewing without any special equipment necessary. An open captioning monitor screen will be located on the right-hand side of the main floor for all lectures.
Closed Captioning (CC) provides a similar transcription for virtual events on Zoom. To activate during a Zoom presentation, click the icon and select “Show Subtitles.”
Assistive Listening Devices
Assistive Listening Devices amplify and clarify sound by cutting down ambient noise, and may be used from any seat at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. Devices, headphones, and earbuds may be borrowed from the Pen Pals box office at all lectures.
Accessible Seating
Accessible and companion seating can be reserved on the main floor and balcony levels of Hopkins Center for the Arts. Please call our box office directly to purchase accessible and companion seating.
Accessible Parking
Accessible parking is available at the rear of Hopkins Center for the Arts and on the street level of the public parking ramp.
All in-person Pen Pals programs are held at the Hopkins Center for the Arts—offering great sound and sight lines for the entire house. Just 15 minutes from downtown Minneapolis and 28 minutes from Saint Paul, Hopkins Center for the Arts offers free convenient parking as well as numerous nearby restaurants. Please click the button below to download a detailed directions and parking guide.
Hopkin Center for the Arts
1111 Mainstreet
Hopkins, MN 55343
Worn copies of a favorite book clutched in a hand; a heart giddy with joy upon getting a favorite author’s photograph; a car ride home, lively with discussion about an author’s story and writing process--these once-in-a-lifetime moments and connections are what bring audiences back to Pen Pals year after year.
Starting in 1997, Pen Pals has brought some of the best and brightest literary minds to the Minnesota literary community, fostering thought-provoking conversation, creating genuine connection, and building community through a shared love of books.
Pen Pals has been an important fixture in the Minnesota literary community as well as a source of funding for the library. Proceeds from these talks with masters of contemporary literature benefit Hennepin County Library, helping to bring resources and opportunities to people from across the county.
What difference does a ticket make?
Past Seasons
Since 1997, Friends of HCL has brought the best and brightest in literary talent to the Pen Pals stage. Explore the legendary writers featured in past seasons.
2023 - 2024
Colm Tóibín
Ed Yong
Bonnie Garmus
Geraldine Brooks
Abraham Verghese
2022 - 2023
Michelle Zauner
Maggie O’Farrell
Annette Gordon-Reed
John Irving
Kristin Hannah
2021 - 2022
Anthony Doerr
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Brit Bennett
Richard Powers
Emily St. John Mandel
2020 - 2021
Colum McCann
Nikki Giovanni
Yaa Gyasi
Susan Choi
Erik Larson
2019 - 2020
Susan Orlean
Ann Patchett
Esi Edugyan
Reza Aslan
Tommy Orange
2018 - 2019
Timothy Egan
Amor Towles
Min Jin Lee
Lauren Groff
Celeste Ng
2017 - 2018
Alan Alda
Jennifer Egan
Dan Rather
Colson Whitehead
Jesmyn Ward
2016 - 2017
Anna Quindlen
Billy Collins
Lee Child
Elizabeth Strout
James McBride
2015 - 2016
Judy Blume
Marlon James
Jon Meacham
Terry Tempest Williams
Anthony Doerr
2014 - 2015
Joyce Carol Oates
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Kevin Kling
Jodi Picoult
Chip Kidd
2013 - 2014
George Saunders
A.S. Byatt
Luis Alberto Urrea
Art Spiegelman
Tracy K. Smith
2012 - 2013
Salman Rushdie
Alice Kaplan
Roz Chast
Dennis Lehane
Armistead Maupin
2011 - 2012
Jhumpa Lahiri
Michael Ondaatje
Wallace Shawn
Brian Greene
Arthur Phillips
2010 - 2011
Lorna Landvik
Bill Bryson
Ann Patchett
Mark Doty
Dave Eggers
2009 - 2010
Erik Larson
Azar Nafisi
Michael Chabon
William Kent Krueger
Sarah Vowell
2008 - 2009
Michael Beschloss
Alexandra Fuller
Richard Russo
Tony Kushner
Tim O'Brien
2007 - 2008
Kaye Gibbons
Tracy Kidder
Daniel Handler
Yann Martel
Robert Alexander
2006 - 2007
Amy Tan
David McCullough
Vince Flynn
Rick Bragg
Bruce Feiler
2005 - 2006
Richard Ford
Alexander McCall Smith
Khaled Hosseini
Anchee Min
2004 - 2005
Anna Deavere Smith
Frances Mayes
Stephen L. Carter
Donald Hall
Isabel Allende
2003 - 2004
David Halberstam
Alice Sebold
Edward Albee
Naomi Shihab Nye
Jane Hamilton
2002 - 2003
William Styron
Wendy Wasserstein
Anne Lamott
Billy Collins
Calvin Trillin
2001 - 2002
Anne Fadiman
John Updike
Susan Sontag
Roberty Pinsky
Dave Barry
2000 - 2001
Rebecca Wells
Scott Turow
Margaret Atwood
Ernest Gaines
Jane Hamilton
1999 - 2000
Molly Ivins
Wally Lamb
Tom Wolfe
Russell Banks
Ray Bradbury
1998 - 1999
Mary Higgins Clark
Louise Erdrich
Ursula Hegi
Anna Quindlen
David McCullough
1997 - 1998
Amy Tan
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Frank McCourt
Pat Conroy
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Thank You to Our 2024-25 Season Sponsors
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