In March, McFarlin Library at The University of Tulsa hosted its third and final McFarlin Fellows speaker for the academic year. American writer Sigrid Nunez was honored for her work and was joined by Jennifer Croft, associate professor of English, for a fascinating conversation about Nunez’s stories and her writing process.
The McFarlin Fellows is the oldest continuously active giving society affiliated with the library, having been established in 1992. Fellows have generously chosen to support the growth of McFarlin’s Department of Special Collections and University Archives with an annual commitment of $2,000. These donations are used to acquire rare books and manuscripts and support an annual lecture series that features significant scholars and authors of the day.
Past speakers have included Nobel Laureate Sir V.S. Naipaul, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Mary Robinson (then President of Ireland), Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, and documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.
Nunez has published nine novels, most recently “The Vulnerables.” Her 2018 book, “The Friend,” was a New York Times bestseller that won the 2018 National Book Award and was a finalist for the 2019 Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Prize. In France, it was longlisted for the 2019 Prix Femina and named a finalist for the 2019 Prix du Meilleure Livre. The New York Times listed “The Friend” among the 100 Best Books of the 21st century.
Two of Nunez’s novels – “The Friend,” starring Naomi Watts, Bill Murray, and Noma Dumezweni, and “What Are You Going Through,” featuring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton – have been adapted into films that were released last year.
For the 2025-26 academic year, Daniel Mendelsohn will be the first of three McFarlin Fellows speakers. An internationally bestselling author, critic, essayist, and translator, Mendelsohn has been a prolific contributor of essays, reviews, and articles to many publications, most frequently The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, the latter of which he was named editor-at-large in 2019. He is also the director of the Robert B. Silvers Foundation, a charitable trust that supports writers of nonfiction, essay, and criticism.