Our calendar combines in-person and livestreamed events. Click on any event title for more details and to register where required.

Events are added throughout the season. Join our mailing list to get the word first.

Registration is required for all events unless individual listings state otherwise, and space is limited. Please see individual listings for details on time, format, and location. Many events are open to the public, with some for members only; check individual listings for details. For Members' Room events, check-in begins thirty minutes prior to the stated start time. Registrants are asked not to arrive for check-in prior to that time. A seat cannot be guaranteed after an event has begun.

All start times are U.S. Eastern.

Exhibitions | Special Events | Performances | Lectures, Conversations & Panels | Poetry | The Writing Life | Seminars & Reading Groups | Children's & Young Adult Events | Informal & Informational Gatherings

Exhibitions

Quack! Quack! The Wonderful World of Robert Quackenbush

Open to the public in the Peluso Family Exhibition Gallery
March 2-December 31, 2023

Starring in the Library’s first children’s book exhibition are the famous "ducktective" Miss Mallard and other amazing creatures brought to life by writer and illustrator Robert Quackenbush. Books and archival material from the Quackenbush collection introduce visitors to Quackenbush’s delightful world of characters and clues, with insight into his creativity and artistic process.

Quack! Quack! Questions!

Saturday, December 9, 2:00 PM
Peluso Family Exhibition Gallery | open to the public | free of charge | drop in
Drop by any of these Saturdays to see our cheery family-friendly exhibition and chat with the expert. You can catch Margery Quackenbush on three select Saturdays answering your questions about Robert Quackenbush and his art in the gallery.

Holiday Happy Hour: Quack! Quack! Closing Reception

Wednesday, December 13, 5:30-7:00 PM | Members' Room | for members and their guests | free of charge | drop in
End your day with wine and light refreshments in the beautiful Members' Room. Library members and their guests are welcome.

A Belief in Books: The 270th Anniversary Exhibition

open to the public in the Peluso Family Exhibition Gallery January 18-December 31, 2024
opening reception for members and guests January 17

Established in 1754, the New York Society Library is the city's oldest cultural institution and one of the first libraries in the United States. The Library founders were all committed to Enlightenment values - but also to the idea that slavery was part of the natural world order. The ships that carried books from London also carried enslaved Africans to the American and Caribbean colonies. A Belief in Books examines this history in the context of books from the Library's collection between 1754 and the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.

Special Events

Live Pup Portrait Pop-Up with Christina Ruggieri

Saturday, December 9, 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM | open to the public | $65 per portrait | reservations required for custom portraits
Artist and Library member Christina Ruggieri will be on hand to sketch a custom portrait of your or a loved one’s dog - the perfect holiday gift. 100% of proceeds benefit the Library. Reservations are required for custom portraits, but all are welcome to drop by to see the process of creation, enter a raffle for prizes, and get inspired to create their own art! (All slots for art commissions are now full.)

Celebration of Member Writers, December 2023

Tuesday, December 12, 6:00 PM | Members’ Room | for members and guests | free of charge | registration required
Members and guests are cordially invited to a celebration of Library members who have published books in 2023.

Performances

Special Musical Performance: Nano Raies - I Have a Story to Tell

Sunday, December 10, 2:00 PM | Members' Room | open to the public | free of charge | registration required
Syrian American singer-songwriter Nano Raies presents an afternoon of songs of hope for troubling times, representing her own culture and inspired by others, with pianist Russell Kranes, plus Ameer Armaly on oud, Alber Baseel on percussion, and double bassist Marwan Allam.

Lectures, Conversations & Panels

John Sargent, Turning Pages: The Adventures and Misadventures of a Publisher

Tuesday, January 9, 6:00 PM | Members' Room - $15 per person | Livestream - $10 per person | open to the public | registration required
Take a peek behind the curtain of some of the biggest publishing moments in the past several decades with forty-year industry veteran John Sargent.

New! Sarah Ogilvie, The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary

Sunday, January 21, 2:00 PM | Livestream (online only) | open to the public | $10 per person | registration required
The Oxford English Dictionary is one of humankind’s greatest achievements, and yet, curiously, its creators are almost never considered. Who were the people behind this unprecedented book? The Dictionary People is a celebration of words, language, and people, whose eccentricities and obsessions, triumphs, and failures enriched the English language.

Poetry

New! Gregory Pardlo, Spectral Evidence: Poems

Monday, February 5, 6:00 PM | Members' Room - $15 | Livestream - $10 | open to the public | registration required
A powerful meditation on Blackness, beauty, faith, and the force of law, from the beloved award-winning author of Digest and Air Traffic.

The Writing Life

Writing Life Daytime Talk: Translator as Critic, Translator as Agent with Leslie Camhi and Brian Robert Moore

Tuesday, December 19, 3:30 PM | Whitridge Room | for members only | free of charge | registration required

The practice of literary translation is rarely carried out in isolation. Celebrated translators Leslie Camhi and Brian Robert Moore will speak to how their work as translators relates to other professional identities, including those of reader, writer and critic. At the same time, a translator can be an author’s best advocate, pitching their work to publishers and magazines, and assuming many of the essential practical functions of an agent.

Celebration of Member Writers, December 2023

Tuesday, December 12, 6:00 PM | Members’ Room | for members and guests | free of charge | registration required
Members and guests are cordially invited to a celebration of Library members who have published books in 2023.

Seminars & Reading Groups

FULLY REGISTERED: Another Half Year with Henry James, taught by Jane Mallison

Wednesdays September 27, October 25, November 29, January 31, February 28, March 27, 11:00 AM
Whitridge Room | for members only | $100 for the six sessions | registration required
“Never say you know the last word about any human heart.” That’s one of the great sentences of this great writer, Henry James (1843-1916). In this seminar – which welcomes both experienced readers of James and novices – we discover many more.

Let’s Read Shakespeare for Fun

Sundays October 1, November 5, December 3, January 7, February 4, March 3, 2:00-5:00 PM, Whitridge Room
for members and their guests | free of charge | registration required
We gather monthly to read aloud a play by William Shakespeare. This informal meetup aims to include anyone with an interest in the Bard; theatrical experience is welcome but not needed.

Seminar: The Personal In A Political World: The Fiction of Magda Szabó, with Nicholas Birns

Thursdays October 5, November 9, December 14, 11:00 AM
Whitridge Room | for members only | $75 per person | registration required
Magda Szabó (1917-2007) is the most famous and most translated Hungarian novelist, and her work presents a vision of the personal in a political world that constitutes a revelatory perspective on modernity. This seminar discusses three of her books written from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Seminar: The Odyssey with Donald McDonough

Tuesdays, November 7 and December 12, 11:00 AM | Whitridge Room | for members only | $50 for the two sessions | registration required
Homer's Odyssey plays against the Iliad's siege of Troy. Ten years later, Troy has been destroyed, Helen rescued, but Odysseus is not home. In 24 books or chapters, the epic poet tells us his tale of exile.

Children's and Young Adult Events

New! Storytime with Emma Otheguy

Sunday, January 28, 3:00 PM | Recommended for ages 4 & older | Open to the public | Registration required

Join us for a special story and craft event with Emma Otheguy to celebrate her vibrant picture book Martina Has Too Many Tías! When a quiet girl feels overwhelmed by her rambunctious family, she finds a magical land of solititude only to discover what truly makes her feel at home in this lively bilingual story that reimagines the beloved Caribbean folktale "La Cucaracha Martina."

SEE THE FULL CHILDREN'S CALENDAR HERE.

View our playlist of recorded children's events here.

Informal and Informational Gatherings

Holiday Happy Hour: Quack! Quack! Closing Reception

Wednesday, December 13, 5:30-7:30 PM | Members' Room | for members and their guests | free of charge | drop in
End your day with wine and light refreshments in the beautiful Members' Room. Library members and their guests are welcome.

Member Orientation

Thursday, January 11, 5:30 PM, Whitridge Room | for members only | drop in
It's your Library. Learn about all the ways to make use of our collections, building, and services in a friendly presentation/Q&A with a staff member. Sessions last 45-60 minutes.

Teatime

weekdays, 3:00 to 3:30 PM
Reference Room | open to the public | free of charge; donations welcome | drop in
Take a break for tea, coffee, and cookies in our first-floor public Reference Room.

Writing Life events in 2023 and 2024 are generously underwritten by Jenny Lawrence.

Quack! Quack! is generously supported by a gift in memory of Susan Goodstein Lerner. A Belief in Books is generously supported by The Felicia Fund, The H.W. Wilson Foundation, and Humanities New York.

The December 10 musical performance is generously underwritten by Alexander Sanger in honor of Jeannette Watson Sanger.

This holiday season, the Library will be closed December 25, December 26, and January 1. Otherwise we observe regular hours.