Writer’s Symposium by the Sea is proud to partner with Warwick’s to host Anne Patchett in a conversation with Dean Nelson about her newest book, Whistler on February 24, 2027 in PLNU Brown Chapel.
Ann Patchett is a celebrated American novelist whose fiction and nonfiction works have garnered national attention. She is a Pulitzer prize finalist, a Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, and a champion for local bookstores.
Patchett is the author of ten novels, The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magician’s Assistant, Bel Canto, Run, State of Wonder, Commonwealth, The Dutch House, Tom Lake, and Whistler.
Patchett was a guest editor of Best American Short Stories and has written four books of nonfiction–Truth & Beauty, What now?, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, and These Precious Days. She has collaborated with illustrator Robin Preiss Glasser on three children’s books, Lambslide, Escape Goat, and The Verts.
“Reading fiction not only develops our imagination and creativity, it gives us the skills to be alone. It gives us the ability to feel empathy for people we've never met, living lives we couldn't possibly experience for ourselves, because the book puts us inside the character's skin.” ― Ann Patchett, “The Triumph of the Readers,” Wall Street Journal
In the midst of a literary crisis, Patchett claims the act of reading as a radical act of love for others. “Books are the rock on which I built my church,” she says. She describes the art of the novel as weaving a tapestry of stories together to allow one to enter into another life, and show how one can change. Patchett is an advocate of storytelling, advocating for the “essential skill” of listening to build empathy in her 2026 Ted Talk, The Love of My Life (and Why I Need to Share It with You).
Patchett brings a precision to her storytelling that shows the dynamics of personhood, stories about “people who are not perfect, trying their best and showing up for each other,” she stated in an interview with Elle Magazine. Her dedication to connecting people to reading serves her both in her stories and in running her bookstore, Parnassus Books, in Nashville, Tennessee, which she opened in 2011. “I’ve come to believe if you’re interested in living in a society where people read, it’s also your responsibility to cultivate readers,” she states.
DETAILS & TICKETS
$46.32 (includes fees): 1 General Admission, One copy of Whistler
$63.29 (includes fees): 2 General Admission, One copy of Whistler
$15: One General Admission (no book) ticket
*PLNU Staff, Faculty, and Student discounts available. For details email WritersSymposium@pointloma.edu
Check-In opens at 6:15PM with live music.
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About Whistler
The acclaimed, prize-winning #1 New York Times bestselling writer returns with a moving, luminous novel that reminds us of the sweetness and impermanence of life and the power of connection to defy time.
Patchett’s newest book, Whistler, illuminates the power of connection by exploring the relationship between Daphne Fuller and her former stepfather, Eddie Triplett. The two meet coincidentally, years after a fateful incident that interrupted the trajectory of each of their lives. Once reunited, they realize they have no intention of separating, understanding the importance of being seen and accepted by another person.
When Daphne Fuller and her husband Jonathan visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they notice an older, white-haired gentleman following them. The man turns out to be Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, who had been married to her mother for a little more than year when Daphne was nine. Now fifty-three, Daphne hasn’t seen Eddie for many years, not since the fateful event that changed the direction of both their lives. Meeting again, time falls away; while their relationship was brief, it had a profound impact on them both, and now that they are reunited, they have no intention of ever being separated again.
Whistler is a story about two adults looking back over the choices they made, and the choices that were made for them. It’s a story about bravery, memory, the often small yet consequential moments that define our lives, and the endless stream of loss that in time comes for us all. Beautiful in its simplicity, it is ultimately about how love endures, and how the feeling of being known by one other person, even for a short period of time, can change everything.