PLY Author Hernan Diaz to Appear at Studebaker Theater

Chicago's historic Fine Arts Building and Exile in Bookville will co-present an evening with Hernan Diaz, the Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Trust—one of The New York Times's 100 Best Books of the Century—on Sunday, October 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the Studebaker Theater (410 S. Michigan Avenue).

Diaz will be in conversation with Greta Johnsen about his new novel, Ply, a breathtaking glimpse into the future that questions the place of technology in the American experiment. Combining Dickensian odyssey, family drama, and scientific thriller, Ply poignantly charts the tenuous boundaries of selfhood and the distance that inevitably stands between people and those they love.

Diaz's Pulitzer winner Trust is currently being adapted into an HBO limited series starring Kate Winslet.

Tickets for An evening with Pulitzer Prize winner Hernan Diaz at the Studebaker Theater (410 S. Michigan Avenue) on Sunday, October 11 at 6:30 p.m. are now on sale for $55 and include a pre-signed hardcover edition of Ply. Limited single tickets without a copy of the book are available for $25 by calling the box office directly. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit fineartsbuilding.com/hernan-diaz or call 312-753-3210.

In addition to pre-signed copies of Ply, Exile in Bookville will have pre-signed copies of additional Hernan Diaz titles available for sale at the Studebaker Theater event. Diaz will not be signing or personalizing books during this event.

Hernan Diaz is the Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times bestselling author of Trust, one of The New York Times's 100 Best Books of the Century. His previous novel, In the Distance, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has received the John Updike Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Kirkus Prize, a Whiting Award, and a fellowship from the New York Public Library's Cullman Center. His work has been translated into 37 languages.

Greta Johnsen is an interviewer, podcast host, event moderator, and book person. She co-hosts HBO's Official Game of Thrones Podcast, writes the GRETAGRAM newsletter on Substack, and is host and creator of the podcast Happy To Be Here.. She also works as a program producer for Chicago Humanities. She can also be heard on podcasts like Pop Culture Happy Hour and City Cast Chicago.

About Ply by Hernan Diaz

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Trust turns to the future with a novel that examines the place of technology in the American imagination. Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to coexist with nature. Following a childhood defined by loss, survival, and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone who steals electricity from the grid to sell it on the black market. It's a high-risk life, one that brings her into a rich art and music scene where she powers underground concerts. It also leads her to a colossal scientific invention that could change the very fabric of reality.

After rewriting America's past with his two previous novels, Hernan Diaz defies expectations with his third and gives us a breathtaking glimpse into the future. A major achievement from a major contemporary writer, Ply questions the place of technology in the American experiment with a plot that grabs both heart and mind. It is a novel of ideas built from a story of people. Combining Dickensian odyssey, family drama, and scientific thriller, Ply poignantly charts the tenuous boundaries of selfhood and the distance that inevitably stands between us and those we love.

About the Fine Arts Building and Studebaker Theater

The Fine Arts Building, which celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2023, is a home for art in all forms: from pioneers like Poetry magazine's founding publisher Harriet Monroe, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, sculptor Lorado Taft and the Chicago Little Theatre, to the ongoing legacies of painters, musicians, booksellers, puppeteers, dancers, photographers and craftspeople who inhabit the building today, the Fine Arts Building is buzzing with more than a century of Chicago creativity and innovation.