Authors & Ideas

Charles Fishman

Charles Fishman is the acclaimed author of One Giant Leap, A Curious Mind (with Brian Grazer), The Wal-Mart Effect and The Big Thirst. He is a three-time winner of the Gerald Loeb Award, the most prestigious prize in business journalism. A renowned investigative and explanatory journalist, Fishman spent six months covering the Challenger space shuttle disaster as a national reporter for the Washington Post, and has reported on space ever since, for The Atlantic, Fast Company and Smithsonian. His best-seller The Wal-Mart Effect explains how the world’s largest company really works.

Lynne Olson

Lynne Olson is a New York Times best-selling author of eight books of history, most of which deal in some way with World War II and Britain’s crucial role in that conflict. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has called Olson “our era’s foremost chronicler of World War II politics and diplomacy.”

Her latest book, Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against the Nazis, was published by Random House. Two of Olson’s previous books, Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II,

1939-1941, and Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour, were also New York Times best-sellers. Those Angry Days was named by the New York Times and Kirkus as one of the best books of 2013.

Born in Hawaii, Olson graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a journalist for 10 years, first with the Associated Press as a national features writer in New York, a foreign correspondent in AP’s Moscow bureau, and a political reporter in Washington. She left the AP to join the Washington bureau of the Baltimore Sun, where she covered national politics and eventually the White House. An engaging speaker, Olson has lectured at many private and government organizations, universities and colleges, and libraries.

Fran Lebowitz

Fran Lebowitz stands out as one of our most insightful social commentators. Her essays and interviews offer her acerbic views on current events and the media— as well as pet peeves including tourists, baggage-claim areas, after-shave lotion, adults who roller skate, children who speak French, or anyone who is unduly tan. The New York Times Book Review calls Lebowitz an “important humorist in the classic tradi- tion.”A purveyor of urban cool, Lebowitz is a cultural satirist whom many call the heir to Dorothy Parker.

Lebowitz worked odd jobs before being hired by Andy Warhol as a columnist for Interview, followed by a stint at Mademoiselle Her first book, a collection of essays titled Metropolitan Life, was a best-seller, as was a second collection, Social Studies. By turns ironic, deadpan, sarcastic, wry, wisecracking and waggish, Lebowitz’s prose is wickedly entertaining. Her two books are collected in the Fran Lebowitz Reader and she is also the author of the children’s book, Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas

Lebowitz can be seen in various documentary films including the “American Experience” series on New York City, as well as “Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures” (2016),“Regarding Susan Sontag” (2014) and “Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol” (1990). In 2010 Martin Scorsese directed a documentary about Lebowitz for HBO titled “Public Speaking.”A limited documentary series,“Pretend It’s a City,” also directed by Martin Scorsese, premiered on Netflix in 2021, and was nominated for the 2021 Emmys. Lebowitz was named to Vanity Fair’s International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 2008. She remains a style icon. Lebowitz lives in New York City, as she does not believe that she would be allowed to live anywhere else.

Boca Ballet Theatre 561-995-0709 mail@bocaballet.org

Boca Raton Museum of Art 561-392-2500 info@bocamuseum.org

Boca Raton Historical Society & The Schmidt Boca Raton History Museum 561-395-6766 office@bocahistory.org

Florida Atlantic University College of Arts & Letters 561-297-3810 theatre@fau.edu

Festival of the Arts Boca 561-571-5270 info@festivalboca.org

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Gumbo Limbo Nature Center 561-544-8605 info@gumbolimbo.org

The HARID Conservatory 561-997-2677 info@harid.edu

Lynn University 561-237-9000 tickets@lynn.edu

Mizner Park Amphitheater 561-393-7984 AdiNorscio@myboca.us

Sugar Sand Park 561-347-3900 sugarsandpark@myboca.us

The SYMPHONIA 561-376-3848 info@thesymphonia.org