Artificial Intelligence & Human Resilience in Bruce Holsinger’s Culpability

Virtual Event with Captions, Free and Open to All

Overview

Lifetime Learning is excited to feature Bruce Holsinger, author and UVA English Professor, for a dynamic discussion of Holsinger’s latest novel, Culpability. This gripping story explores the promises and dangers of AI through the lens of a family caught in a tragic accident. Oprah Winfrey called it “riveting until the very last shocking sentence!” Bruce will share insights into the novel, the role of AI in our lives, and how we navigate resilience in uncertain times. The conversation will be moderated by Anna Katherine Clay, UVA Professor of Media Studies. Both faculty are with the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Read the book before the event! Copies of Culpability are available online or in store at the UVA Bookstore.

Speaker Biographies

Bruce Holsinger, Linden Kent Memorial Professor of English, Department of English, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; Editor, New Literary History

Bruce Holsinger is the author of Culpability, the 116th selection of Oprah’s Book Club and hailed by Oprah Winfrey as “a must-read for all generations.” His four previous novels include The Gifted School, which won the Colorado Book Award, and The Displacements, the inaugural title in the United Nations Read for Action Book Club. He’s also written many works of nonfiction, most recently On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital Age. His essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and many other publications, and he has been profiled on NPR’s Weekend Edition, Here & Now, and Marketplace. He is Linden Kent Memorial Professor of English at the University of Virginia, where he has taught for twenty years. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Anna Katherine (Clemmons) Clay, Assistant Professor of Practice, Department of Media Studies, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Anna Katherine (Clemmons) Clay is a national freelance writer and an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Media Studies department at the University of Virginia. Early in her career, she spent a decade as a writer, reporter and producer for ESPN; as a freelance writer today, she has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Bloomberg Businessweek and many more.

Her courses at the University of Virginia include Sports Journalism, Friday Night Lights, Multimedia Storytelling, Sports Media Production and a Journalism capstone for 4th year Media Studies majors. She is a frequent runner and an avid reader—Culpability was by far her favorite book of 2025 (so far). She lives in Charlottesville with her husband, Matt, a double 'Hoo who teaches Latin at CHS and CMS, and their two sons, Connor (12) and Sam (10).