Pulitzer-Prize Winning Journalist and Author Nicholas Kristof to Speak at Stern Lecture

Written by Mackenzie Manley, Content Specialist, Downtown Main Library 

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Nicholas Kristof is your 2025 Mary S. Stern lecturer. Having reported from over 150 countries, Kristof is sure to keep listeners on the edge of their seats through his moving, insightful storytelling about century-defining events.  

Kristof will speak at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 30, at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. Tickets will go on sale in August, priced from $5 to $15. 

Chasing Hope 

Kristof’s candid memoir, Chasing Hope, follows his career at The New York Times as a reporter, foreign correspondent, bureau chief, and now columnist, becoming one of the foremost reporters of his generation.  

His reporting has taken him from Hong Kong, Bejing, and Tokyo, to India, Africa, and Europe. Kristoff has witnessed and written about events like the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the Yemeni civil war, and the Darfur genocide in Sudan.  

In his memoir, Kristof writes about people he’s met along the way, including fellow journalists, who have allowed him to remain optimistic.  

Chasing Hope

One of Chasing Hopes fans is none other than Microsoft’s Bill Gates. He recently named Chasing Hope among the memoirs that helped him shape his own, Source Code. Of Kristof, Gates wrote: “In this terrific memoir, Nick writes about how he stays optimistic about the world despite everything he’s seen. His book made me think: The world would be better off with more Nick Kristofs.” 

Read or listen to other books, eBooks, and audiobooks by Kristof free with your Library card:  

Tightrope

A Path Appears

Half the Sky

Thunder From the East

China Wakes

Bringing Thought Leaders to Our Community 

The late Mary S. Stern endowed an annual lecture series for the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library, through The Library Foundation, to support bringing internationally renowned thought leaders to our community. As part of Stern's legacy, tickets for the lecture series will be priced to ensure today's thinkers are accessible to as many people as possible.  

Kristof joins David Grann (2024), Isabel Wilkerson (2023), Walter Isaacson (2022), Doris Kearns Goodwin (2021), and Bryan Stevenson (2019) as Mary S. Stern Lecture Series lecturers. 

Learn more about the Mary S. Stern Lecture Series at CHPL.org/stern.