The Books You Will Love On The Page And On Our Stage

Imagine listening in on a candid chat between one of the greatest Broadway performers of her generation and her sister; a New York Times bestselling author whose latest tough woman character will be embodied on the screen by Sharon Stone; a New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist played by Renee Zellweger when her semi-autobiographical novel became a movie; another New York Times bestselling writer who is also an actress; and a restless mom who turned her love of reading into a podcast, her own publishing company — and now her own memoir.

You don’t have to imagine because Idina Menzel, Cara Mentzel, Lisa Barr, Anna Quindlen, Jenny Mollen and Zibby Owens will be on our stage for that conversation about their latest books, their newest characters and what it means to be a powerful woman in the 21st century.

A Tony, Drama Desk and Obie Award winner, Idina Menzel starred in Rent, Wicked, Glee,  Enchanted and Uncut Gems, among many other Broadway and TV shows, and has released six studio albums. She and her sister, Cara Mentzel, are authors of Loud Mouse, a children’s book about finding your voice.

Zibby Owens’ Bookends is her memoir about finding her own voice and rewriting her story after being stressed out by a friend’s death and by motherhood. She found her calling by creating the podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, editing the anthology Moms Don’t Have Time To and founding the publisher Zibby Books.

Author of The Unbreakables and Fugitive Colors, Lisa Barr was formerly a journalist at The Jerusalem Post and the Chicago Sun-Times. Her latest book, Women on Fire, follows an ambitious young journalist embroiled in an international art scandal around a Nazi-looted work – forcing the ultimate showdown between passion and possession, lovers and liars, history and truth.

Costar of the series Amateur Night, Jenny Mollen turned her comedy chops into the New York Times bestsellers I Like You Just the Way I Am and Live Fast Die Hot. Her new City of Likes follows a copywriter who falls under the sway of a hip momfluencer and ultimately has to face what is real . . . and what counts.

Former columnist for both the New York Times and Newsweek, Anna Quindlen is the bestselling author of 20 works of fiction, nonfiction and self-help. Her most recent, Write for Your Life, issues a clarion call for all of us to write our own stories, to reflect on what has been and thus strike a blow for our futures.