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This year’s Tolles lecture began with a song, as award-winning cartoonist, professor, and writer Lynda Barry serenaded those gathered with a musical form of her bio. She explained that public speaking can be nerve-racking, and since singing is the scariest thing she could do in front of a crowd, it would only be uphill from there.

This year’s Tolles Lecture featured a fusion of hip hop, power, protest, and humanity thanks to award-winning Indigenous DJ and producer Dan “DJ Shub” General.

Novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest Ruth Ozeki presented the Tolles Lecture on Oct. 6. Evan Robinson '23 discusses the talk, during which he says the audience "was treated to rich and engaging comments from a remarkably impressive speaker."

Pieces of advice zoomed by the audience at the speed of sound during Pulitzer Prize-winning author Suzan-Lori Parks' Tolle lecture at Hamilton on Saturday, March 5.

From discussing what it means to become a well-known Black author to the nuances of writing during a pandemic, Roxane Gay and Kiese Laymon offered a conversation brimming with honesty and camaraderie for an otherwise isolated, at-home audience.

The Hamilton community warmly welcomed Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen on April 9 as part of the Winton Tolles Lecture Series. A group of students and faculty members joined Nguyen for dinner in the Philip Spencer House to talk before convening in the Chapel for his presentation titled “Refugee Stories and American Greatness.”

After pondering different job opportunities for which his long, skinny fingers would be useful – pianist? No, how could he sit in a chair with no lumbar support, no hand rests? Hand model? Free washes, free hand cream, but how could he indulge in the model lifestyle? Finally, he considered becoming a surgeon... but then he heard how long operations were, so that was out – Colson Whitehead realized he had no choice but to become a writer.