Dear Festival Friends,

By now it should be obvious that here at the Festival storytellers are our idols. We reserve an extra-tall pedestal for journalists, arguably the most important storytellers of all in times like these. Journalists are a bulwark against ignorance and complacency, and as media outlets disappear and people retreat further into information echo chambers, we need them more than ever.

We’re therefore honored to welcome two members of the Fourth Estate whose work always leaves us feeling smarter and better equipped to deal with the chaotic world: Patrick Radden Keefe and Lynsey Addario. Together they represent the finest in print and photo journalism, and they’ll be joining us at the Festival May 17-19 to share war stories both literal and metaphoric.

Keefe is a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker whose books have landed on countless best-of lists, including Barack Obama’s (twice!). His New York Times bestseller Empire of Pain, a damning portrait of the Sackler family and its prominent role in fueling the opioid crisis, was instrumental in educating the public about how greed and self-serving politics contributed to the addiction and overdose death of thousands. It also inspired the 2023 Netflix series “Painkiller,” as well as the HBO documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.”

The stunning Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Ireland was another Times bestseller. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, and was named by Entertainment Weekly as one of the ten best nonfiction books of the decade. Say Nothing has been adapted into a limited series for FX and is expected to premier on Hulu later this year. In all of his work, including his latest book, Rogue: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks, and his brilliant limited-series podcast, Wind of Change, Keefe pulls back the curtain on people who typically lurk in the shadows, hatching plots and doing damage. The stories he uncovers are so captivating they inspire the kind of internet combing that can eat up hours of your life. (Google “Wind of Change” and “CIA” and your family will see you again sometime next week.) We can’t wait to go down more rabbit holes with him at the Festival.

Though you might not recognize her name, chances are high you know Lynsey Addario’s work. One of the finest photojournalists of our time, Addario proves that you don’t need words to tell a powerful story. But you do need guts. Winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur “Genius” grant, and named one of the five most influential photographers of the last 25 years by American Photo magazine, Addario evolved from a young girl fascinated with her first Nikon to one of the few women to enter the intimidating boys’ club of conflict photography. Her career shifted to high gear in the wake of 9/11, when news outlets took sudden interest in her images of women living under Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Addario went on to produce some of the most enduring images from the Iraq war, getting kidnapped and almost killed in the process. Addario describes the harrowing events of those years—and the vulnerable people most affected by them—in her bestselling memoir, It’s What I Do, which chronicles her life on the front lines and ponders how to reconcile the danger of her job with being a wife and mother. Her second book, Of Love and War, is a collection of photographs so evocative they’re like mini documentaries.

“At the end of the day, a compelling story will get people’s attention, but if you just bombard people with images of violence, they’re not gonna care,” Addario has said. “It’s about humanizing the story. It’s about showing an intimate view and giving people a way to enter the story and to care.” 

Here’s to journalists like Keefe and Addario who not only capture our attention but make us care, deeply. Tickets to see both of them—along with many other world-class storytellers—are available through our website. But don’t wait—the Festival is just two weeks away, and events are selling out.

A heartfelt thank you to our Hospitality Partners

If you’re coming to Santa Fe for the Festival, our hospitality partners are ready to host you. For a complete list, click here.