First presented in 2016, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award is one of the nation's leading literary honors. The award carries a $25,000 cash prize, underwritten by David and Michelle Baldacci, and recognizes distinguished fiction that tells American stories in a uniquely American voice — one that reflects Mark Twain's incisive curiosity and humanity.

This year's ceremony marks the 10th anniversary of the award. The evening includes an exclusive 25-person VIP reception inside the Mark Twain House, a pre-program reception in Hal Holbrook Hall, and the award presentation before an audience of 175 readers, writers, and friends of the museum.

Mark Twain was one of the first famous American authors to embrace the typewriter.

He also lost a fortune betting on the Paige Compositor, an automated typesetting machine that was supposed to revolutionize publishing and never worked. Twain, in other words, lived both sides of the disruption-by-machine question, thinking deeply about technology, those who benefit from creating and using it, and those whose lives and livelihoods are disrupted and even destroyed in the process.

A century and a half later, confronted by a new disruptive technology, we find ourselves asking some of the same questions Twain did. What is creativity? What do we value in creative work? What is the relationship between authorship and ownership, especially when the page seems to write itself? What is the relationship between author and reader when either party may not be human? Ultimately, how does generative AI force us to think about what it means to write, what it means to be creative, and what it means to be human?

On Saturday, November 7, the museum hosts a day-long hybrid symposium exploring these questions through a series of conversations with authors, scholars, journalists, and educators. The day runs from 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM.

Confirmed Participants

• John Warner, moderator — writer, editor, and a leading voice on teaching writing in the age of AI

• David Baldacci, novelist

• Ron Charles, book critic, formerly of the Washington Post

• Dr. Bhamati Viswanathan, Visiting Assistant Professor at Suffolk University Law School

Additional panelists to be announced.