Author Talk: Matthew Desmond - Poverty, by America

New Canaan Library is pleased to present a special speaking engagement with Matthew Desmond, acclaimed sociologist and Pulitzer Prize winning author of Evicted. Mr. Desmond will introduce his latest book, Poverty, by America, the #1 nonfiction book on the New York Times Nonfiction Bestseller list.  The event will be preceded by a reception at 6:30 PM.

Noted as one of the most anticipated books of 2023 by The Washington Post, Time, Esquire, Newsweek, and Minneapolis Star Tribune, among others, Poverty, by America makes a “provocative and compelling” (NPR) argument about why poverty persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.

Moderating will be Nancy Coughlin, Chief Executive Officer of Person to Person, a non-profit agency dedicated to providing individuals and families with essential resources to help them overcome daily challenges and put them on a path toward economic stability.  

Matthew Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2010 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he joined the Harvard Society of Fellows as a Junior Fellow. In addition to Poverty, by America, he is the author of four books, including Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016), which won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, Carnegie Medal, and PEN / John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. The principal investigator of The Eviction Lab, Desmond’s research focuses on poverty in America, city life, housing insecurity, public policy, racial inequality, and ethnography. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, and the William Julius Wilson Early Career Award.

Nancy Coughlin joined Person to Person in June of 2019, bringing expertise and experience in food insecurity, anti-poverty, and women’s and children’s issues. Prior to joining P2P, Nancy served for seven years as the Executive Director at Neighbor to Neighbor, a Greenwich-based organization dedicated to providing food and clothing to low-income families and children. Ms. Coughlin received a BA in psychology from the University of New Hampshire, and a J.D. from the Suffolk University Law School. In 2012, Coughlin was selected as one of 10 inaugural Executive Leadership Group (ELG) members by Fairfield County’s Community Foundation.