Celebrating the Power of the Written Word to Create Change
Goddard Riverside’s Book Chats give you deeper insight into some of the most important issues of the day. These interviews take you inside the author’s mind and uncover thoughts and experiences that didn’t make it into the book. You’ll also have a chance to ask your own questions!
Each year we interview the winners of the Goddard Riverside CBC Youth Book Prize for Social Justice and Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice. We also schedule additional book events when we have the chance to bring you an interesting author.

Book Chat: “Invisible Child: Poverty Survival and Hope in an American City”
Join us on September 18th for a discussion and audience Q&A with Andrea Elliott, winner of the 2022 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice for Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City. The event will begin at 6:30 PM at Fordham University in the Lowenstein 12th floor lounge (113 West 60th Street).
Ms. Elliot will be joined by Lydia Polgreen as the discussion’s moderator.
Andrea Elliott is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who has documented the lives of poor Americans, Muslim immigrants and other people on the margins of power. She is an investigative reporter for The New York Times and the author of Invisible Child, which won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. She is also the recipient of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, a George Polk award, an Overseas Press Club award and was awarded a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.
Lydia Polgreen became an Opinion columnist for The New York Times in 2022. She is also a host on the weekly Opinion podcast, “Matter of Opinion.” Ms. Polgreen was a 2006 recipient of the George Polk Award for foreign reporting, in recognition of her travels deep into the war-torn western regions of Sudan to report on the carnage in Darfur. She received the 2008 Livingston Award for international reporting for her series “The Spoils,” an account of how the scramble for Africa’s mineral wealth has brought misery and exploitation. In 2011 she was awarded the Columbia University Medal for Excellence. Ms. Polgreen is returning to The Times from Gimlet, a podcast studio at Spotify, where she has been managing director. She left The Times in 2017 to be editor in chief of HuffPost, leading a team of hundreds of journalists publishing 16 editions across the globe in nine languages. In her 15-year career at The Times, she was an associate managing editor, deputy international editor, South Africa bureau chief, a New Delhi correspondent and chief of the West Africa bureau.
RSVP for FREE today!
Recent Book Chats
Watch our most recent book chat below and learn about our past book chats via the sidebar.
Past Events
Book Prize Book Chats 2023
In-person interactive discussions and live Q&A with our 2022 Youth and Adult Book Prize winners.
Book Prize Book Chats 2022
In-person and Virtual interactive discussions and live Q&A with our 2021 Youth and Adult Book Prize winners.
Book Chat: Baby, Unplugged: One Mother’s Search for Balance, Reason, and Sanity in the Digital Age
An in-person discussion with Author Sophie Brickman and Goddard Riverside Board Member Besty Newell on March 8, 2022.
Book Prize Book Chats 2021
Virtual interactive discussions and live Q&A with our 2020 Youth and Adult Book Prize winners.
Book Prize Book Chat 2020
Virtual interactive discussion and live Q&A with our two 2019 Adult Book Prize winners.
Book Chat: How to Raise a Reader
Virtual interactive discussion and live Q&A with co-author Maria Russo.
Book Prize Book Chat 2019
In-person discussion with our 2018 Adult Book Prize winner, Bernice Yeung. Held at our Bernie Wohl Center on November 14, 2019.
Book Prize Book Chat 2018
In-person discussion with our 2017 Adult Book Prize winner, Susan Burton. Moderated by Pulitzer Prize Winner James Forman, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America; Professor of Law, Yale Law School. Held at our Bernie Wohl Center on November 15, 2018.