Vauhini Vara is a novelist and journalist who has covered technology for the Wall Street Journal and written extensively on Artificial Intelligence. She was named a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist for her sci-fi/dystopian novel, The Immortal King Rao. Born into a family of Dalit coconut farmers in India in the 1950s, King Rao, the novel’s protagonist, becomes the most accomplished tech CEO in the world and, eventually, the leader of a global, corporate-led government.

The New York Times reviewer called it, “a monumental achievement: beautiful and brilliant, heartbreaking and wise.” Vara is also the author of a new book of short stories, This Is Salvaged (Sept. 2023).

Tuesday, October 17
4:30 p.m. — Craft Talk
7:30 p.m. — Conversation / Q&A
Both events in the Multi-Purpose Room, Campus Center West Addition, University at Albany