Breakfast Keynote: Lesley Stahl and Ann Patchett in Conversation

Lesley Stahl is one of America’s most recognized and experienced broadcast journalists.  Her career has been marked by political scoops, surprising features and award-winning foreign reporting.  She has been a 60 Minutes correspondent since 1991; the 2016-17 season marks her 26th on the broadcast.  Prior to joining 60 Minutes, Stahl served as CBS News White House correspondent during the Carter, Reagan and part of the George H.W. Bush presidencies.  She also hosted Face the Nation from 1983-91 and co-anchored American Tonight from 1989 to 1990.  She is married to author and screenwriter Aaron Latham.  They have one daughter and two granddaughters. Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting was published by Blue Rider Press in April, 2016.

Ann Patchett is the author of The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magician’s Assistant, Bel Canto, Run, and State of Wonder. She was the editor of Best American Short Stories, 2006, and has written three books of nonfiction, Truth & Beauty, What Now?, and the essay collection This is the Story of a Happy Marriage. She has won numerous prizes, including the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction, and her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. Her newest book, Commonwealth, was published by Harper is September, 2016. In August 2016, she became the Co-Ambassador for the nonprofit Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc). Binc helps booksellers facing financial crises. Patchett is the co-owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives with her husband, Karl VanDevender, and their dog, Sparky.