Burning the Midnight Oil: Academic Thrillers

Burning the Midnight Oil: Academic Thrillers

Room: North Wing Music Room - 2nd Floor

Building: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - Main (Oakland)

Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Books: After the presentation, attendees are welcome to purchase a book and/or get their book signed at the tent outside.

Pre-registration: Closes on Thursday, 5/28, at 12 PM. Pre-registered attendees will receive priority seating. Walk-ins are welcome if capacity allows.

Moderator: Olive Fellows

Description

Explore what happens when ambitions turn deadly in this discussion of Academic Thrillers with Canwen Xu, Anna Bruno, and Lacey N. Dunham. From Columbia, a secluded all-women's college, and a prep school in a wealthy Pittsburgh suburb, find out what really happens behind ivy-covered walls.

Author Biographies

Canwen Xu is a writer living in New York City. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Chalkbeat Magazine, Kansas City Star, and more. Her TEDx talk, titled “I Am Not Your Asian Stereotype,” has been watched over 3 million times. She graduated from Columbia University in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and computer science.

Anna is the author of the novels Fine Young People and Ordinary Hazards. Her essays have been featured in NPR, WBUR, Electric Lit, LitHub, Dappled Things, Necessary Fiction, and The Des Moines Register. She holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, an MBA from Cornell University, and a BA from Stanford University. She lives in Iowa City with her husband, two sons, and blue heeler.

Lacey N. Dunham is the author of the novel The Belles (2025), named a Best Book of 2025 by Library Journal and Crime Reads, and the forthcoming sapphic southern gothic Fall of the House of Graystone (2027), both from Atria / Simon & Schuster. Named a 2025 Writer to Watch by Poets & Writers Magazine, Dunham lives in Washington, DC with too many books, but only two cats.

Moderator Biography

Olive Fellows is a Pittsburgh-based book reviewer and literary content creator. Her work has appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Harvard Review, The Rumpus, and Words Without Borders. She shares thoughtful, wide-ranging reading life commentary on her YouTube channel, abookolive, with a focus on adult fiction and nonfiction.

For more information about the Pgh Book Festival, check out the website here.