Lydia Millet

Event has passed

Mayor’s Book Club event: Lydia Millet

When:
Wednesday,
April
30,
2025 |
7 p.m.
Where:
Austin Central Library

Join us in welcoming New York Times best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Lydia Millet whose memoir “We Loved It All” is a selection for this year’s Mayor’s Book Club.

Millet will be joined by ocean scientist Juli Berwald in a conversation.

A book signing will follow with books available for purchase on site from Black Pearl Books.

Millet’s anti-memoir “We Loved It All” explores the pain and joy of being a parent, child, and human at a moment when the richness of the planet’s life is deeply threatened. Emerging from Millet’s quarter century of wildlife and climate advocacy, the book marries scenes from her life with moments of nearness to “the others” — the animals and plants with whom we share the earth.

Lydia Millet has written more than a dozen novels and story collections. Her novel “A Children’s Bible” was a New York Times Best 10 Books of 2020 selection and shortlisted for the National Book Award. In 2019 her story collection “Fight No More” received an Award of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and her collection “Love in Infant Monkeys” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2010. She also writes essays, opinion pieces, book reviews, and other ephemera and has worked as an editor and staff writer at the Center for Biological Diversity since 1999. She lives in the desert outside Tucson with her family

Juli Berwald is an ocean scientist and science writer based in Austin. She is the author of the science memoir “Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and “The Art of Growing a Backbone.”

Jena Stude

Interim Treasurer

Jena Stude is Vice President of Development at Good + West Residential. Prior to joining Good + West in 2021, Jena was an Investment Manager at Blueprint Local, a real estate private equity firm, overseeing direct real estate investments in Texas. Before Blueprint Local, Jena was an Associate Director at the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO) from 2013-2019. Jena previously held similar positions at Ascension Health, a large non-profit hospital system based in St. Louis, Missouri and the University of Arizona Investment Office. Jena holds a B.S. in Business Administration and an M.S. in Finance from the University of Arizona.

Frank Livaudais

Board Vice President

Frank Livaudais is also Vice President of Enterprise Engineering for Cloudflare, an internet security company in downtown Austin. An avid runner and reader, he has run more than 250 marathons (including races in all 50 U.S. states, six countries, and four continents). Frank tries to read 100+ books a year. He lives in Austin with his wife Shelley, son Christopher and one fairly naughty vizsla.

Tom Oney

Board President

Tom Oney is Chief People Officer and Executive Vice President of External Affairs for the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA). He oversees LCRA’s Human Resources team and all of LCRA’s public-facing and advocacy functions, including Communications, Community Resources, Environmental Affairs, Public Affairs, and Regulatory Affairs. Tom also advocates before the Texas Legislature on behalf of LCRA and led LCRA’s public policy team during the 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021 Texas legislative sessions.

Tom was born and raised in Waco, Texas, and received his Bachelor of Arts in political science from Baylor University in 1996. He received his Juris Doctor cum laude from Tulane University School of Law in 1999. Tom currently represents LCRA on the board of directors of the Association of Electric Companies of Texas and serves as president of the board of directors of both the Austin Library Foundation and Green Doors, an award-winning non-profit benefiting homeless people in Central Texas.