Award-winning author Laila Lalami headlines “Culturally Speaking”event at St. Joseph County Public Library

Laila Lalami headlined the St. Joseph County Public Library’s “Culturally Speaking” series during a free event at the Main Library in downtown South Bend on Wednesday, April 15. Held in the Community Learning Center’s Leighton Auditorium, the discussion focused on Lalami’s career and her newest novel, “The Dream Hotel.”

“We bring in authors that give a diverse perspective,” said Stephanie Murphy, SJCPL executive director. “It’s about hearing their stories and where they came from. I just finished one of her first books, ‘Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits,’ and I love it. I am excited to meet her and hear what she has to say.”

Lalami, a University of California, Riverside professor and Pulitzer Prize finalist, has explored the immigrant experience since moving from Morocco in 1992. With several award-winning titles to her name, her appearance offered a rich addition to a regional lineup focused on global perspectives.

“It is exciting to be here,” Lalami said. “I think it is very meaningful to me to have this event here. I think libraries are revolutionary. In an era where we’re constantly being asked to use AI at our jobs or to get easy answers, I think libraries are spaces where we get to actually question things, look for answers and maybe go down a different path to find that answer.”

Lalami opened her career retrospective by connecting her personal history to this critique of technology. She discussed how her writing explores identity and displacement while contrasting the convenience of artificial intelligence with the deeper inquiry found in literature. Lalami described “The Dream Hotel,” a speculative thriller following a woman detained for her subconscious thoughts, as a tool to explore characters’ emotional lives rather than provide comfort.

“I want people to read ‘The Dream Hotel’ because that’s exactly what reading does for you; it’s to bring up questions,” Lalami said. “It’s not there to comfort you or to tell you everything is going to be okay. It is there to get you to explore the emotional lives of characters and to create a world that is entire and contained.”

The project marks a genre shift for Lalami following acclaimed works such as “The Moor’s Account” and “The Other Americans,” which earned several honors including the American Book Award. Beyond her fiction, Lalami’s essays appear in The New York Times, The Guardian and Harper’s. The program concluded shortly after 7 p.m. with a book signing.

“I am excited about seeing the readers at this event,” Lalami said. “I always enjoy meeting people. I find it is always interesting to see what questions they come up with.”

SJCPL’s “Culturally Speaking” series connects the South Bend and broader Michiana community with storytellers who challenge global perspectives. Sponsored by The Pokagon Fund, the program is free and open to the public. Previous speakers in the 2025 and 2026 season included authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Slocumb.While a library card is not required to attend, SJCPL recommends registering in advance at sjcpl.org/programs/culturally-speaking to secure a seat. For more information about other upcoming events and library resources, visit sjcpl.org.