Ayad Akhtar at The Brattle Theatre

Wednesday, October 14, 2026 · 6:00 PM

The Brattle Theatre — 40 Brattle St., Cambridge, MA

Harvard Book Store welcomes Ayad Akhtar —Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright, and acclaimed author of American Dervish and Homeland Elegies— for a discussion of his new novel, The Radiance . He will be joined in conversation by Indira Lakshmanan —co-host of NPR & WBUR’s Here & Now . Ayad Akhtar is a novelist and playwright. His work has been published and performed in over two dozen languages. He is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for Fiction, and an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among other honors. Akhtar is the author of the novels American Dervish , a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, and Homeland Elegies , named one of 10 Best Books of 2020 by The New York Times . He has also authored the plays McNeal , Junk , Disgraced , The Who & The What , and The Invisible Hand. Akhtar was named the New York State Author in 2021. Photo Credit: Vincent Tullo Indira Lakshmanan is co-host of NPR & WBUR’s Here & Now . A veteran foreign correspondent and political reporter with decades of experience covering global events and U.S. policy, Lakshmanan has previously contributed to numerous NPR shows as a guest…