Teju Cole is a novelist, essayist, and photographer. He was the photography critic of the New York Times Magazine from 2015 until 2019. He is currently the Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing at Harvard and a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine. His photography and writing have received numerous awards. His most recent novel, Tremor (2023), was named a book of the year by Time, the Washington Post, and the Financial Times, among others. It was shortlisted for the National Critics Circle Book Award and was awarded the 2024 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction. In 2021, Cole published the photobook Golden Apple of the Sun and the essay collection Black Paper, which was longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay and named a book of the year by the Paris Review and Artnet, among others.

John Gossage is a photographer and bookmaker. Over the course of his nearly five-decade-long career, Gossage’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, and he has published over 30 books. In 2002, Gossage started his own publishing company, Loosestrife Editions. In 2021, he received the Guggenheim Fellowship.

The lecture is Thursday, Jan. 15 at 4:30 p.m. at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. Doors open at 4 p.m. Free and open to all.

The Thiebaud Endowed Lecture is organized by the Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Program and co-sponsored by the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.

The Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Lecture in the Theory, Practice and Criticism of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture celebrate the Thiebauds’ longtime commitment to educating the eye and hand, along with the mind. The annual lecture series presents practicing artists, along with critics, curators, writers, historians, and museum professionals.