2026 Bookmarks Festival: Closing Keynote with Jodi Picoult

Bookmarks is excited to host Jodi Picoult as the closing keynote to cap off our 21st Annual Festival of Books and Authors!

Jodi Picoult will share more about her new book Hollow Bones in a conversation with Virginia Evans, author of The Correspondent. There will be a Q&A featuring pre-submitted questions from the audience; please include any questions for Jodi Picoult in your order form.

Tickets are $40 (plus taxes & fees) and include a signed copy of Hollow Bones and a professional photo with the author. The authors will not be signing or personalizing copies at the event.

This closing keynote with Jodi Picoult is presented by Fader Real Estate.

For more information about the Bookmarks Festival, check out our website and start planning your visit.

Have any questions? Check out our page and email [email protected] for further inquiries.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name comes a riveting novel about the risks we take to protect the ones we love in a world where crisis is always just around the corner.
When Molly Fitzgerald was only two months old, her mother went to an appointment at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and never came home. Her father and the stepmother who raised her couldn't have loved her more, but she still grew up with a healthy dread of disasters.
Now an adult, she runs the Rhode Island Department for Emergency Preparedness, mapping out ways to save lives during storms, epidemics, and airplane crashes. She and her husband, Jesse—a police polygraph expert with his own history of crisis—have found a love that is a solace in a dangerous world. But then the unexpected upends their new marriage, leading them both to question everything they thought they knew.
Moving between past and present, Hollow Bones tells an epic story of the lies we tell ourselves as we write the narratives of our lives, the plans we design to protect ourselves at the worst moments, and the ties that bind mothers and daughters.

Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-nine novels, renowned for combining richly drawn characters with timely and thought-provoking themes. Her 30th novel, Hollow Bones, will publish on September 15, 2026. Her books, including Mad Honey (co-written with Jennifer Finney Boylan), Wish You Were Here, The Book of Two Ways, A Spark of Light, Small Great Things, Leaving Time, and My Sister’s Keeper, have been translated widely and have reached millions of readers around the world. She has also co-authored two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page, with her daughter Samantha van Leer.

Picoult’s work is celebrated not only for its emotional depth and meticulous research but also for tackling complex moral and ethical issues with nuance and compassion. Whether writing about reproductive rights, racism, school shootings, or end-of-life choices, she invites readers into intimate, often controversial spaces that challenge assumptions and spark conversation.

In addition to her literary achievements, Picoult is a passionate and vocal advocate for intellectual freedom and the freedom to read. She has emerged as one of our nation’s most outspoken opponents of book banning, working with organizations such as PEN America and Unite Against Book Bans to defend the right to read. Her essays and speeches on the subject have resonated with educators, librarians, and readers nationwide.

Virginia Evans is from the east coast of the United States. She attended James Madison University for her bachelor’s in English literature, as well as Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, for her master’s of philosophy in creative writing. Now she lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with her husband, two children, and her Red Labrador, Brigid. She is the author of the #1 New York Times-bestselling novel The Correspondent.

Wait Chapel is located on the campus of Wake Forest University. This venue seats approximately 2250 audience members in traditional tiered theatre-style seating. Areas for wheelchair users and their companions will be reserved.

Visitor parking can be found in Parking Lots A, P, and Q. The nearest accessible parking is in Parking Lots A and P as well as street parking on Wake Forest Rd. For more information see the Visitor Parking page of the WFU website. There are multiple accessible entrances. Wait Chapel is equipped with all gender (single user) restrooms.

Wake Forest University has no responsibility for the conduct of any program or activity offered by Bookmarks. Wake Forest functions only as a site for the event and will provide many of the services specified for the event such as facilities, food and house. The University assumes no responsibility for any damage, injury or loss to any person or property, from any cause whatsoever, except to the extent such liability results from the sole negligence of Wake Forest.