A full room for author Marilynne Robinson, pictured during audience Q&A moderated by Associate Professor of English Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé.
On Tuesday, January 28, 2025, the School of Liberal Arts welcomed Pulitzer Prize-winner Marilynne Robinson as the fourth visiting author in its Carole Barnette Boudreaux ’65 Great Writers Series, where she was greeted by an at-capacity theater on campus for her public talk.
Robinson is the recipient of a 2012 National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama, for “her grace and intelligence in writing.” She is the author of Gilead, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award; Home, winner of the Orange Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Lila, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.
The annual literary series is supported by the Carole Barnette Boudreaux ’65 Creative Writer Endowed Fund that Tulane alumni Carole B. and Kenneth J. Boudreaux generously gifted in 2018. Barnette Boudreaux received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Newcomb College in 1965 before completing a Master of Education at the University of New Orleans in 1973.
Dean Brian Edwards introduces Robinson; Robinson greets Carole Barnette Boudreaux.
In talking about the breadth of the series, Dean Brian Edwards noted, “The goal is not only to explore the literary work of these authors, but to engage with the ideas they are probing through their own work, from technology and AI to the environmental crisis to political refugees.” Since beginning with Viet Thanh Nguyen in 2021, its programming has continued to grow through collaborations with relevant academic faculty, citywide libraries, and special student interest groups — all intended to augment the keynote lecture and offer further opportunities for Tulanians to engage with the visiting writer.
“Marilynne Robinson is a novelist of exceptional depth and beauty, and a thinker about belief, faith, and the American landscape who has opened so many vistas. Her deep exploration of religion, history, and identity assert the importance of the humanities.”
- Dean Brian T. Edwards
As Robinson took the podium, she announced that she had rewritten the entire essay just days prior — giving a well-received disclaimer that it wasn't very long — in favor of a longer question and answer period, which she admitted she loves. She addressed expected themes like religion and characterization, but also posed questions around hope and AI, suggesting that the only thing that will be lost to efficiency is meaning.
L: Robinson delivers essay in Lake Theater; R: student working group.
Her reading ended with a discussion with English Associate Professor Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé, who asked a set of questions tying Robinson’s beliefs with her lifelong activities as a teacher, as a persuasive writer, and as an active citizen.
“My experience of your literary work is that it asks the reader to rise to the occasion of interpretation. Your writing challenges us to think hard [...] and has so much to do with opening our eyes and asking us to think, very often concerned with correcting misreadings and misunderstandings,” said Zumhagen-Yekplé. From there, audience members continued to engage with the author as she took ensuing questions.
Leading up to Robinson’s visit, two faculty & staff reading groups — one focused on Housekeeping and helmed by Professor of English, Communication, and Gender & Sexuality Studies Kate Baldwin, and one addressing Gilead and moderated by Zumhagen-Yekplé — were hosted by the Dean's Office. Attendees were also invited to meet Robinson during a roundtable discussion titled “Faith and Belief in Literature,” led by Michael Kuczynski, Pierce Butler Chair in the Department of English, and Ronna Burger, Catherine & Henry J. Gaisman Chair in the Department of Philosophy.
On the day of her lecture, Robinson had an intimate Q&A with a group of creative writing and literature students — undergraduate and graduate alike — including Leah Starr (SLA '25), who later co-authored a Hullaballoo recap piece of the series with Maya Shields (SLA '26). In their article, the two Tulane journalists close with an impactful quote from classmate Ellie Goodall (SLA '24): "I left Lake Theatre feeling fortunate to be part of an institution full of opportunities to hear from the brightest minds of our time. Marilynne Robinson struck me as a one-of-a-kind intellectual.”
Ellie Goodall (SLA ’24) speaks with Marilynne Robinson as her book is signed.