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.

A century and a half later, we find ourselves asking some of the same questions in new form. Can a machine write in an American voice? What does authorship mean when the page can write itself? And what is creativity, really, when one of the parties at the table is no longer 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, formerly book critic at the Washington Post

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

Additional panelists to be announced.