麻豆直播’s second annual Writers and Readers Festival offered a uniquely heartfelt keynote this year with The Books That Built Our Souls, a conversation featuring legendary actress and publisher Sarah Jessica Parker, her mother Barbara Forste and bestselling author Adriana Trigiani. Introduced by renowned novelist and Adelphi alum Alice Hoffman, the event was a celebration of literary masterpieces that shaped all of us, the audience included.
Forste, a lifelong literacy and arts advocate, spoke candidly about her early love of libraries. She shared that growing up, you needed to print your name to get a library card. At only about four years old, she couldn’t write anything else, but she learned how to write her name to be able to get lost in the pages of the wonderful stories. During wartime rationing, she recalled waiting in long lines with her mother and visiting the library as a kind of reward. Going to the library was like her treat for behaving.
Raising eight children as a single mother, Forste made sure that all her kids always left the house with a book. They brought them everywhere, even to cultural events, where discounted tickets and amazing free city programming helped Forste expose her children and build a lifelong passion for the arts. Parker recalled that this practice stuck—at first because performances like the symphony were “boring” when they were kids but, eventually, the books became their own solace from everyday life.
Parker spoke with deep affection about her work as a publisher, highlighting A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza as the first title she published: “And it’s honestly one of my favourite books I ever read,” she explained.聽
She was fearful of turning books into films too quickly, saying, “I just wanted their books to be published鈥 wanted to make the argument for the word first.” However, over time, she’s become more open to the cinematic potential of the stories she champions. , reflects her commitment to global, inclusive, conversation-sparking literature.
One especially personal moment came when Parker spoke about seeing A Chorus Line as a child: “That was the show that really got me. Something about A Chorus Line made me feel like that was my story.” It was a full-circle tribute to the arts that shaped her and the mother who made sure she and her siblings always had a story to hold on to.
Photography courtesy of 麻豆直播.
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