What do we do at the borders of what we know? As we near the 200th anniversary of Zarafa’s journey to Paris, the first giraffe in Europe since the Medicis, join writer and illustrator A. Kendra Greene for an essayist’s illumination of curiosity and encounter, from medieval reports of the camelopard to the first photographic evidence of ghost giraffes.

About the speaker:

A. Kendra Greene is a writer and book artist based in Dallas. She is the author and illustrator of The Museum of Whales You Will Never See, first published by Penguin and Granta, and now translated into German and French. With publications from Atlas Obscura to Zyzzyva, her work has been presented at the Smithsonian, exhibited at The Reading Room, collected as far away as Qatar, and supported by fellowships from Fulbright, MacDowell, and the Library Innovation Lab at Harvard. Tin House will unleash a collection of her essays in curiosity, No Less Strange or Wonderful, in Winter 2025.

At the Library as a Scholar of Note, Greene is working on a nonfiction book-length project on Hell, or l’enfer.

Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speakers will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.

Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.