We are delighted to welcome Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn to Montclair for the opening event of Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival 2020. They will discuss their latest book, Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, with former NJ gubernatorial candidate and Montclair resident, Jim Johnson.

In Tightrope, the authors of the acclaimed, best-selling Half the Sky issue a plea—deeply personal and told through the lives of real Americans—to address the crisis in working-class America, while focusing on solutions to mend a half century of governmental failure. With their superb, nuanced reportage, Kristof and WuDunn have written a book that is both riveting and impossible to ignore.

“This is a must-read that will shake you to your core. It’s a Dante-esque tour of a forgotten America…Tightrope shows how we can and must do better.”—Katie Couric

Tickets ($40) include a copy of Tightrope. The talk will take place from 7-8pm. The VIP admission ($100) includes a post-event cocktail party with the authors (8-9pm), priority entry and reserved seating. Tickets available here.

Doors open at 6.15pm.

Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the first husband and wife to share a Pulitzer Prize for journalism, have co-authored four previous books: A Path Appears, Half the Sky, Thunder from the East, and China Wakes. They were awarded a Pulitzer in 1990 for their coverage of China, as well as the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Lifetime Achievement Award. Now an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, Kristof was previously bureau chief in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo. He won his second Pulitzer in 2006 for his columns on Darfur. WuDunn worked at the Times as a business editor and foreign correspondent in Tokyo and Beijing, and now works in finance and consulting.

Jim Johnson is an American politician, attorney, and community activist, who was formerly an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and Under Secretary of the Treasury for Enforcement, where he received the Hamilton Award, the Department of Treasury’s highest award. He was a Democratic Party candidate in the 2017 New Jersey gubernatorial race.

This event is part of Succeed2gether’s fourth annual Montclair Literary Festival, which will take place from March 25 to 29, 2020. Please visit succeed2gether.org/montclair-literary-festival/ for more details of the program, which will feature more than 100 authors. The festival is a fundraiser for Montclair-based non-profit Succeed2gether, which offers after-school one-on-one tutoring and enrichment classes with the aim of closing the education opportunity gap in Essex County.

The festival organizing committee wishes to thank event partners Succeed2gether staff, First Congregational Church, and Watchung Booksellers, and festival sponsors Rao’s, Montclair State University, West of Hudson Realty Group, and community members.