Memoirs
Featured writers: Sarah Hartshorne, Bill Kurtis, Walter Pryor, and Donna Seaman
A model, a news anchor, and a lawyer walk into a…panel discussion about their recent acclaimed memoirs. Sarah Hartshorne dishes on her time as a contestant on America’s Next Top Model in her book You Wanna Be on Top? Longtime television journalist Bill Kurtis shares insights into the life of a news reporter in Whirlwind. And in This Leaves Me Okay, attorney Walter Pryor pens a powerful memoir inspired by letters from his grandmother. Moderated by renowned book critic and Editor-in-Chief at Booklist Donna Seaman, who chronicles her own life of reading in her memoir River of Books.
Book signing times (all signings take place in the First Floor Lobby of the library)
🖊️Sarah Hartshorne: 3:00 – 3:20
🖊️Bill Kurtis: 3:00 – 3:20
🖊️Walter Pryor: 3:30 – 3:50
About the writers:
SARAH HARTSHORNE is best known as the plus-size contestant on Cycle 9 of America’s Next Top Model. She was also voted Least Annoying Contestant of her cycle by the now defunct annoyingornot.com. After the show, she modeled all over the world for clients like Glamour, Vogue, Skechers and more. Since “retiring” from modeling she’s performed standup all over NYC, toured the country as part of the Vagical Mystery Tour and AbortionAF as well as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
BILL KURTIS celebrates 60 years as an acclaimed television journalist. He is the host and producer of hundreds of documentaries, through his own multimedia production company, KURTIS PRODUCTIONS. He is well known nationally for his role as a news anchor on the CBS network and in Chicago on CBS 2/ WBBM-TV. He created the Peabody-award winning series “The New Explorers” for PBS and “Cold Case Files” for A&E. He has been recognized for breaking the story of the effects of Agent Orange on Viet Nam Veterans with two one hour documentaries. He is also the author The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice and On Assignment which includes photographs he took on assignments that took him around the world.
WALTER PRYOR is a product of the South, the Black Church, and a strong family unit of resilient, formidable women. He is a cum laude graduate of Hendrix College, the only Black student in the college’s history to have been awarded the President’s Medal, and a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center. His professional career has spanned a myriad of sectors in the legal arena, having worked in both large and small law firms, the U.S. Department of Justice, Capitol Hill, corporations, and higher education. He is passionate about education and has devoted a significant amount of time to volunteer work in that space. Pryor currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Hendrix College as vice chair and the Board of Directors of the Washington Children’s Foundation. He has also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Latin School of Chicago, the Board of Directors of Legal Prep Charter Academies in Chicago, and the Board of Trustees of National Collegiate Preparatory Public Charter High School in Washington, D.C. He and his wife Juliette have two adult children, Adjua and Wade Osei, and divide their time between Chicago, Charlotte, and Martha’s Vineyard. This Leaves Me Okay (Heliotrope Books, 2025) is his first book.
DONNA SEAMAN is the Editor-in-Chief at Booklist, a member of the Content Leadership Team for the American Writers Museum, an adjunct professor for Northwestern University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program, School of Professional Studies, and a recipient of the Louis Shores Award for excellence in book reviewing, the James Friend Memorial Award for Literary Criticism, and the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award. Seaman created the anthology In Our Nature: Stories of Wildness; her author interviews are collected in Writers on the Air: Conversations About Books, and she is the author of Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists. She lives in Chicago. Visit: https://www.donnaseaman.com
River of Books: A Life in Reading
by Donna Seaman
River of Books recounts Seaman’s journey in becoming an editor for Booklist, a reviewer, an author, and a literary citizen, and lays bare how she nourished both body and soul in working with books. Seaman makes palpable the power and self-recognition that she discovered in a life dedicated to reading.
This Leaves Me Okay: Race, Legacy, and Letters From My Grandmother
by Walter Pryor
This Leaves Me Okay by Walter Pryor is a poignant memoir inspired by letters he received over almost 30 years from his grandmother, Lucille “Mama Ceal” Eldridge—a woman of limited education and who worked as a maid. The book explores Black life in the rural South through Jim Crow to Civil Rights to modern day, focusing on themes of generational trauma & strength, resilience, hope, legacy, and identity. Detailing Mama Ceal’s wisdom and sacrifice for her family amidst systemic racism and personal tragedy, Pryor’s narrative reveals how his grandmother’s love shaped him and the trajectory of their family.
Whirlwind: My Life Reporting the News
by Bill Kurtis
Whirlwind: My Life Reporting the News is television journalist Bill Kurtis’ memoir that recounts the biggest stories he covered and uncovered in his 60 year career. They were the stories that captured the nation’s attention for decades seen through the reflective eyes of the reporting that covered them.
You Wanna Be on Top?: A Memoir of Makeovers, Manipulation, and Not Becoming America’s Next Top Model
by Sarah Hartshorne
In this revealing memoir, a fan favorite America’s Next Top Model contestant pulls back the curtain on the iconic but deeply flawed reality competition show, exposing the manipulation and chaos behind the scenes.