The 47th Annual Bucksbaum Distinguished Lectureship

An Evening with John Green

Drake University is honored to welcome #1 New York Times bestselling author John Green for the Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished Lectureship. Green is known for his beloved and acclaimed novels, including The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, and Turtles All the Way Down. His latest work, Everything is Tuberculosis, is a deeply human social and scientific history that illuminates the critical healthcare inequities that allow this curable, treatable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing 1.5 million people every year. As part of the Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished Lectureship Series, Green will deliver a lecture on Thursday, April 2, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. in the Knapp Center.

Date: April 2, 2026
Location: Knapp Center, Drake University
Time: Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Lecture begins at 7:00 p.m.
Other Details: The event is free and open to the public. A clear bag policy will be enforced at the venue.

Livestream: Can't make it to the event? The lecture will be livestreamed at live.drake.edu, and a recording will be posted online after the lecture.

About the Author

John Green is a #1 New York Times bestselling author whose novels include Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, The Fault in Our Stars, Turtles All the Way Down, and Everything is Tuberculosis. He also co-authored Will Grayson, Will Grayson with David Levithan. His books have been published in more than 55 languages and have more than 24 million copies in print. Green is the 2006 recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award, a 2009 Edgar Award winner, and has twice been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Film and television adaptations of his works include the movies The Fault in Our Stars (2014) and Paper Towns (2015), and the limited series Looking for Alaska (2019) on Hulu.

Browse previous lectures, dates, and topics.

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The Martin Bucksbaum Lectureship Series is made possible by a gift from the late Melva and Martin Bucksbaum. The Martin Bucksbaum Lectureship Committee includes Dr. Kelly Bruhn (chair), Dr. Alanah Mitchell, Dr. Neil Hamilton, Mary Scanlon, Pam Bass-Bookey, Janis Ruan, Marcia Wanamaker, Eleanor Zeff, Bob Riley, Julie Stewart, Liz Hatfield, Dr. Richard Deming, Dr. Cassity Gutierrez, Shawna Kasner-Hannam, Paul LeFort, and Allie Koenigsfeld. Thanks to a recent additional gift from the Bucksbaums, the well-established lecture series now includes two lectureship tracks—the Bucksbaum Lectureship in Business, launched in Fall 2023, and the original Bucksbaum Distinguished Lectureship. 

Questions? For more information, contact Erica Hartschen, at 515-271-4990 or erica.hartschen@drake.edu.