Registration has closed. This is an outdoor lecture, so there is standing room available, or non-registered attendees are welcome to bring a camp chair and set up around the periphery of the event. We are also livestreaming - see below for link to join us online.

The annual Hemingway Distinguished Lecture is presented each July, honoring the month of Ernest Hemingway’s birth and death. The event celebrates the power of words and the creative spirit in a landscape that Hemingway loved.

This year's lecture welcome HAMPTON SIDES, best-known for his gripping non-fiction adventure stories set in war or depicting epic expeditions of discovery and exploration. He is the author of the bestselling histories Ghost Soldiers, Blood and Thunder, Hellhound On His Trail, In the Kingdom of Ice, and On Desperate Ground, a chronicle of the extraordinary feats of heroism by Marines called on to do the impossible during the greatest battle of the Korean War. His latest history, The Wide Wide Sea, was published in 2024 and was named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by the New York Times.

Sides is editor-at-large for Outside and a frequent contributor to National Geographic and other magazines. His journalistic work, collected in numerous published anthologies, has been twice nominated for National Magazine Awards for feature writing. A native of Memphis and a Yale graduate, Hampton is the 2015 Miller Distinguished Scholar at the Santa Fe Institute and an advisory board member of the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference and the Author’s Guild. He is also a partner of Atalaya Productions, an independent film company that develops non-fiction and historical stories for the screen. A frequent lecturer, Hampton divides his time between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Colorado College, where he teaches narrative non-fiction and serves as Journalist in Residence.

This lecture will be presented outdoors on the Library's Donaldson Robb Family Lawn. Chairs will be set up for this event, so attendees do not need to bring their own. A book signing with Iconoclast Books will follow.

This program will be livestreamed, and the recording will be available for two weeks only.

Seating is limited, so registration is required to join us in person, and registration is required to receive the Vimeo link to watch online.

NOTE: Percival Everett was originally scheduled to delivery this lecture, but his visit has now been postponed.