The 2026 Cheuse Lecture: Stories of Sanctuary by Colm Tóibín
Thursday, April 23, 2026 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM EDT
Stacy C Sherwood Comm Center, Fairfax VA
Photo credits: Colm Tóibín by Reynaldo Rivera. Malte Herwig by Christina Körte, Molden Verlag
Landmark Lecture by Acclaimed Author Colm Tóibín
Fairfax, VA | April 23, 2026
The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center is hosting its fourth public Lecture of Ideas on April 23rd, 2025 at 7:00 pm at the Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center, 3740 Blenheim Boulevard (formerly Old Lee Hwy). This year’s featured speaker is internationally acclaimed Irish writer Colm Tóibín. The lecture is free and open to the public but RSVP is required.
Program Overview:
6:30 PM – Doors open
7:00 PM – Lecture: “Stories of Sanctuary” (40 minutes)
7:45 PM – Conversation and Q&A with Malte Herwig
8:30 PM – Book signing and pop-up exhibition, The Travel Door Project, by artist Steven Luu
About the Anniversary Lecture:
Colm Tóibín, an award-winning novelist, essayist, and critic, is the author of eleven novels, including Brooklyn, The Master, and The Magician, as well as numerous works of nonfiction and criticism. His forthcoming short story collection is The News from Dublin (March 31, 2026).
Hosting this signature event in the City of Fairfax presents a remarkable opportunity to foster connections across our region and beyond. Colm Tóibín’s work explores themes of sanctuary, exile, and identity—from The Magician to his writings on the Irish experience in America. I was captivated by Tóibín’s description of former Washington Post publisher Agnes Meyer’s persuasive ‘rescue’ of Nobel prize winning German writer Thomas Mann from Europe in The Magician. Meyer, who was of German origin, was the mother of newspaper legend Katharine Graham, who is buried in Oak Hill cemetery in Washington. Mann himself, had a Brazilian mother, and grew up in Munich.
Through this lecture, we hope to explore how literature helps us understand goodness, evil, belonging, and the idea of a ‘Republic of Imagination’ that transcends borders.
As we witness ongoing global migrations, literature offers a vital lens through which to understand both history and the present. Tóibín’s engagement with figures like Thomas Mann and James Baldwin invites us to examine exile, citizenship, and creative life across cultures. Tóibín’s breadth and scope of work speaks powerfully to our moment and to audiences in the Washington D.C. region.
Tóibín will be joined in conversation by Malte Herwig, an award-winning German author, journalist, and broadcaster. Herwig is the author of seven books, including Post-War Lies: Germany and Hitler’s Long Shadow, and creator of the acclaimed podcast Faking Hitler. His work spans major international publications and media outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and the BBC. His new film, on his grandfather, who was in one of the first German battalions to enter Poland, in September, will premier with the Cheuse Center the day after the lecture, at the Goethe-Institut Washington.
The events of the Festival are organized and curated by the Cheuse Center. Lecture sponsors include William Miller & Elizabeth Vermilye, the Goethe-Institut Washington, Solasnua, Mason Exhibitions and the Embassy of Ireland; in partnership with the City of Fairfax, ArtsFairfax, and the Fairfax County Public Library. Books will be available through Bards Alley Bookshop on site.
About the Cheuse Lecture Series:
Founded in 2023, the Cheuse Lecture of Ideas series brings leading international writers into conversation with audiences across Northern Virginia and greater Washington, D.C. region. The series highlights literature’s role in shaping civic and cultural dialogue, drawing attendees from more than 22 cities each year. The center previously featured Azar Nafisi, Nikki Giovanni, and Dinaw Mengestu.
About the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center
Founded in 2016 at George Mason University, the Cheuse Center is a global community of writers, translators, and readers. Its mission is to connect international and American voices through fellowships, residencies, and public programs that foster cultural exchange and civic engagement. The Center has hosted more than 500 writers and supported emerging voices through international travel fellowships.
Named in honor of author and longtime NPR book critic and George Mason Professor, Alan Cheuse, the Center continues his vision of literary engagement across borders, promoting curiosity, empathy, and dialogue through the written word.
Additional Cheuse Anniversary Events:
The lecture is part of the Cheuse Center’s 10th anniversary celebration, which includes:
April 24: A film screening and discussion of Malte Herwig’s The Girl with the Golden Hair (Goethe-Institut, Washington, D.C.)
April 25: Grzegorz Kwiatkoski and Leeya Mehta lead a George Saunders inspired literary reading and guided cemetery tour in Georgetown
About Colm Tóibín:
The Irish writer Colm Tóibín grew up in a home where, he once said, there was "a great deal of silence". He has since made a career of talking to the world through his many volumes of fiction and non-fiction, drama, and poetry.
An international bestseller, his novel Brooklyn is the unforgettable story a young Irish immigrant and the complications surrounding love and family which she finds in the early 1950s. Brooklyn was given the Costa Novel Award, while the Observer named it one of "The 10 best historical novels". In 2019, the book was ranked 51st on the Guardian's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century. In 2015, Tóibín’s celebrated novel was turned into a film starring Saoirse Ronan which garnered four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.
The follow up to Brooklyn is Long Island. A New York Times bestseller, the book was chosen for Oprah’s Book Club, and received star reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist. In their rave review the Star Tribune called the novel “a wonder, rich with yearning and regret.” Long Island continues the story of Eilis Lacey, first introduced in his acclaimed novel Brooklyn.
Tóibín is also the author of The Heather Blazing, Nora Webster, House of Names, and The Blackwater Lightship. The latter was shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Prize and the Booker Prize, and later made into a film starring Angela Lansbury. A standalone edition of his story A Long Winter from his short story collection Mothers and Sons was published by Scribner on November 11, 2025. A forthcoming film of A Long Winter directed by Andrew Haigh is currently in production. His next work of fiction will be a collection of stories titled The News from Dublin (Scribner, March 31, 2026).
His fifth novel, The Master, is a fictional account of the inner life of the American writer Henry James. It was awarded the International Dublin Literary Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, Stonewall Book Award, and Lambda Literary Award. The New Yorker noted the novel’s portrait of a creative mind at work struck other writers as uncanny, while Cynthia Ozick praised Tóibín’s “writer’s wizardry.” Tóibín’s devotion to James led him to author All A Novelist Needs: Colm Tóibín on Henry James, a collection of critical essays.
More recently, Tóibín's longtime interest in the German writer Thomas Mann led him to write The Magician, a New York Times Notable Book which was named the Best Book of the Year by NPR, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Time magazine stated, Tóibín had crafted “a complex but empathetic portrayal of a writer in a lifelong battle against his innermost desires, his family, and the tumultuous times they endure.” The Magician was given the Rathbones Folio Prize.
Tóibín's literary conversation with the world explores a number of significant themes: the nature of Irish society, living in exile, the legacy of Catholicism, the process of creativity, and the preservation of personal identity, especially when confronted by loss.
Colm Tóibín (pronounced “cuh-lem toe-bean”) is many things – not only a novelist, but also a short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. Among his works of non-fiction are The Modern Library: the 200 Best Novels Since 1950 (with Carmen Callil), a book on the Irish revival, Lady Gregory’s Toothbrush, New Ways to Kill Your Mother: Writers and Their Families, Love in a Dark Time: And Other Explorations of Gay Lives and Literature, and A Guest at the Feast: Essays. His book On Elizabeth Bishop was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. He also wrote On James Baldwin. His book of poetry is titled Vinegar Hill. A book of essays, including his ‘Laureate Lectures’ titled Ship in Full Sale was published in Ireland by Gallery Press on September 4, 2025. Among the books he has edited are The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction and An Arrow in Flight (Scribner, March 3, 2026) short stories by Mary Lavin selected and introduced by Tóibín.
Over the years, Tóibín's plays have been staged in Ireland and on Broadway. The Testament of Mary, which Tóibín based on his novella of the same name, was nominated for three Tony Awards, including Best Play. He has also written the libretti for Lady Gregory in America, The Master with music by Alberto Caruso, and Urban Legends with music by Andrew Synnott.
Tóibín has been honored with the E. M. Forster Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Irish PEN Award for contribution to Irish literature, Dayton Literary Peace Prize Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement, Premio Malaparte (Italy), Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award, David Cohen Prize for Literature, and the Bodley Medal. In 2022 the Arts Council of Ireland appointed him Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024. In 2024 he received the Medal of Honor for Achievement in Literature from the National Arts Club.
Tóibín is Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He has curated exhibits for the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan, and, with his agent, Peter Straus, runs a small publishing imprint in Dublin, Tuskar Rock Press.
Colm Tóibín lives in Ireland and the United States.
About Malte Herwig:
Malte Herwig is the author of seven books, including the bestsellers "Post-War Lies: Germany and Hitler’s Long Shadow" and "The Woman Who Says No". He is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and reporter working for German and English media (German Public Television, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Spiegel, Guardian, New York Times, BBC). In 2019, he created and hosted the No. 1 Apple podcast "Faking Hitler" on the forged Hitler diaries scandal.
Herwig was born in Kassel, Germany. From 2000 to 2003 he was a Fellow at Merton College at Oxford and in 2002 received his doctorate degree with a thesis on Thomas Mann called Bildungsbürger auf Abwegen: Naturwissenschaft im Werk Thomas Manns. In 2004, Herwig's dissertation won the first Thomas Mann Prize from the Thomas Mann Society in Lübeck.
His articles have appeared widely in U.S., British and German publications, including The New York Times, The Observer, Vanity Fair, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. In 2008, Herwig was the first to publish some of Vladimir Nabokov's original index cards from the author's last unfinished novel The Original of Laura. In the accompanying article, Herwig concluded that "Laura", although fragmentary, was "vintage Nabokov". He is the author of several books, among them a biography of Austrian poet Peter Handke and a study of the greatest Nazi cover-up in post-war Germany, "Die Flakhelfer", which was published in English in 2014. Known for his interviews, Herwig was the only journalist to get an interview with former SS-Captain Erich Priebke, which he conducted in Priebke's flat in Rome shortly before the latter's death on 11 October 2013. Referring to Hannah Arendt's famous phrase about the Nazis when she covered the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel, The New York Times quoted Herwig as saying he wanted to use “the last chance to investigate that supposed banality of evil with a living person.”. Sensationally, the 100-year-old Priebke told Herwig he had renounced national socialism and deeply regretted his involvement in war crimes.
