Miami Book Fair’s ‘Evenings With’ series weaves personal tales. Here’s how to get tickets

Miami Book Fair’s schedule goes online Tuesday so fans can peruse the authors who are coming to town for the fair, which takes place Nov. 17-24. Tuesday fans can also buy tickets to some of the most popular events at the fair— the “Evenings With” series.

This year’s series is full of plenty of true-life tales to be shared including stories from journalists: TV news personality Don Lemon; former CBS News anchor Connie Chung who appears in a conversation with her husband of 40 years and television personality Maury Povich; Israeli journalist and survivor of Oct. 7, Amir Tibon; and conflict journalist Clarissa Ward who has reported from the front lines of some of the most dangerous places on earth. And, of course, there are more.

All “Evening With” events are ticketed and include a copy of the book. Presentations take place on Miami Dade College’s Wolfson campus at Chapman, Building 3, 2nd floor, 254 NE Fourth St., Miami.

Tickets are available here: https://www.miamibookfair.com/program/evenings-with.

DON LEMON ON “I WAS LOST: MY SEARCH FOR GOD IN AMERICA”

Don Lemon
Don Lemon

4 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 17, $35

After almost two decades on CNN, longtime host Don Lemon was fired in 2023 just two months after he said on air that then Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley and other women over the age of 50 weren’t in their prime. In his memoir, he digs into his upbringing in Louisiana, his complicated relationship with religion as a gay man, and stepping back from the spotlight to take a personal inventory.

AMIR TIBON ON “THE GATES OF GAZA”

Amir Tibon
Amir Tibon

5:30 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 17, $35

The Israel news journalist will never forget the sounds around him as he hid in a safe room of his home on Oct. 7 with his wife and two daughters not knowing if they would survive. He could hear fighters looking for people to kill and kidnap his friends and neighbors in a kibbutz adjacent to the Gaza Strip. And then the incredible rescue aided by Tibon’s 61-year-old father, a retired IDF general.

ALICE MCDERMOTT ON “ABSOLUTION”

Alice McDermott
Alice McDermott

7 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 17, free event as a Miami Book Fair welcome, registration required, book not included.

The fiction writer discusses her instant New York Times bestseller and book of the year heralded by everyone from Oprah to Vogue magazine. Told through the lives of two women, Tricia and Charlene, who find themselves in Saigon in 1963, the book offers a different point of view of women in the Vietnam War.

ERIK LARSON ON “THE DEMON OF UNREST”

Erik Larson
Erik Larson

8 p.m., Monday, Nov. 18, $35

In his note to readers, the author says that it was while he was researching his book on the American Civil War when the Jan. 6 assault happened on the camera. “I had the eerie feeling the present and the past had merged.” Here he examines the five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War and has insight about the political horror stories of the past and how they might play out today.

CLARISSA WARD: “ON ALL FRONTS: THE EDUCATION OF A JOURNALIST”

Clarissa Ward
Clarissa Ward

8 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 20, $25

The chief international correspondent for CNN shares stories of being on the front lines in Damascas, Syria, a blonde-haired woman with a camera on her first assignment. And that was only the beginning.

CONNIE CHUNG IN CONVERSATION WITH MAURY POVICH

Connie Chung
Connie Chung



8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 21, $35

Candid about sexism and racism in television news, the powerful Dan Rather who didn’t want to share the spotlight, and a 40-year marriage to well-known talk show host Maury Povich who joins her in conversation, the former CBS news anchor has lots to talk about.

AMY TAN ON “THE BACKYARD BIRD CHRONICLES”

Amy Tan
Amy Tan

6 p.m., Friday, Nov. 22, $35

“The Joy Luck Club” author lost herself in nature and found herself writing a new book, but it didn’t begin that way. It was supposed to be a journal with sketches. Her story is about unraveling the complicated world around her, a world she says was turning uglier and uglier by the day, through birdwatching.