Brown Advisory Presents: Author Amor Towles in Conversation with UVA President Jim Ryan

The University of Virginia and Virginia Humanities are pleased to present this conversation between bestselling author Amor Towles and UVA President Jim Ryan.

Mr. Towles’ novels Rules of Civility, A Gentleman in Moscow, and The Lincoln Highway, and his collection of shorter fiction called Table for Two have collectively sold more than six million copies and been translated into more than thirty languages. Both Bill Gates and President Barack Obama included A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway on their annual book recommendation lists.  

His most recent work, Table for Two, includes six short stories and a novella featuring the alluring protagonist of Rules of Civility, Evelyn Ross. An immediate bestseller, The New York Times called it “a winner,” and the Star Tribune said “[his] new book could be his best yet.” 

This free event is made possible through the generous support of Brown Advisory, an independent investment management and strategic advisory firm. Books will be available for purchase at the event, but there will be no book signing and no signed books available.

Author Biography:
Born and raised in the Boston area, Amor Towles graduated from Yale and received an MA in English from Stanford. Having worked as an investment professional for over twenty years, he now devotes himself full time to writing in Manhattan, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Rules of Civility (2011) was a New York Times bestseller and was named by The Wall Street Journal as one of the best books of the year. The book’s French translation received the 2012 Prix Fitzgerald.

A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) was on The New York Times bestseller list for two years and was named one of the best books of 2016 by the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the San Francisco Chronicle, and NPR. In 2024, Paramount+ released a mini series based on the novel which stars Ewan McGregor.

The Lincoln Highway (2021) debuted at #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list. The book is being adapted as a feature film by Warner Brothers with Chris Storer, the creator of The Bear, writing and directing.

Table for Two (2024), a collection of six short stories and the novella “Eve in Hollywood”, was a New York Times Best Seller. Towles’ short stories have appeared in The Paris Review (#112), Granta (#148), British Vogue, and Audible Originals. Towles wrote the introduction to Scribner’s 75th anniversary edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night and the Penguin Classics edition of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. “As for Clothing”, Towles’s essay on Walden, appears in the anthology Now Comes Good Sailing: Writers Reflect on Henry David Thoreau.

Jim Ryan Biography:
James E. Ryan is the ninth president of the University of Virginia, starting in August 2018. He led the creation of a strategic plan, secured funding for a School of Data Science, the Karsh Institute of Democracy, and a new Performing Arts Center, and launched a capital campaign raising over $5 billion. He expanded access by offering tuition-free education for students from Virginia families earning less than $100,000 and full coverage for those earning less than $50,000.

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