Author and journalist Patrick Radden Keefe presented the PEN/Audible Literary Award to Sarah Jessica Parker at the 2025 PEN America Literary Gala.
A few years back I had this wonderful surprise one day when my wife sent me a paparazzi photo. It was, on one level, a very familiar sort of iconic New York image — a classic Manhattan streetscape, traffic whizzing by, and Sarah Jessica Parker, trying to hail a taxi, looking fabulous. But in this picture, she was holding a book… My book. So this seemed like a thrilling little bit of serendipitous product placement. My publisher was delighted. But, as I have subsequently come to learn, Sarah Jessica grew up with a mother, Barbra, who had a rule, which is that her children should never leave the house without a library book in hand. So even as an adult, she always has a book with her. In fact, she once suggested that if anybody tried to take a book away from her it would be like “removing my arm.” About a decade ago there was an uproar, when she was photographed at a Rangers game at Madison Square Garden with her face buried in a Maggie Shipstead novel. To know Sarah Jessica, or to follow her on social media, is to be on the receiving end of a torrent of great book recommendations. This woman reads a lot. And she’s a fierce champion of authors, and bookstores, and libraries, and literary culture. She’s also now a publisher, with her own imprint, SJP Lit, which has already released half a dozen terrific novels, and has more on the way. It is an honor and a thrill for me to present the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award to the great Sarah Jessica Parker.
