luncheon with the authors 2026
The Society of the Arts (SOTA) proudly presents its eleventh annual fundraising event Luncheon with the Authors on October 15, 2026. The event will be held at Renaissance Hotel Allentown.
Three nationally-acclaimed authors will share remarks, participate in a panel discussion, and sign books for attendees.
SOTA's Luncheon with the Authors gives the public an excellent opportunity to participate in an engaging discussion by three authors about their books, meet and speak personally with them, and pose questions during the panel discussion.
The SOTA “Luncheon With The Authors” Committee members spend months reading more than one dozen books before deciding on the three authors, basing their choices not only on the authors' storytelling abilities, but also on how they would be as a panelist in providing a lively discussion with the event attendees.
Luncheon With The Authors benefits educational programs at the Allentown Art Museum, the SOTA Print Fund and the SOTA Education Endowment. Books purchased through SOTA also benefit the Allentown Art Museum.
Cocktails with the Authors
Cocktails with the Authors
October 14, 2026 | 6-8PM
Allentown Art Museum
Cocktails the Authors is an evening meet and greet at the museum! This exclusive happy hour is the perfect opportunity for our guests who cannot make a daytime event or simply want to mingle with our authors in casual but intimate setting. Limited to only fifty guests, Cocktails with the Authors offers one-on-one time with our featured authors, book signings, a docent-led tour at the Allentown Art Museum, small bites, and delicious drinks.
Don't miss out on this unique opportunity!
The details
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Luncheon with the Authors 2026 will be held
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Thursday, October 15, 2026 from 11am to 2pm.
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The event will be held at Renaissance Allentown Hotel in downtown Allentown.
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If you need a gluten free entrée or have other dietary restrictions, please indicate that in note to seller at checkout or email sotawebmaster123@gmail.com
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Parking at the Renaissance Allentown Hotel will be validated for guests. Please see parking information here or view parking video here.
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Please do not use AAM parking for the Luncheon event.
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Cocktails with the Authors will be held Wednesday, October 14, 2026 from 6-8 PM at the Allentown Art Museum.
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No physical ticket will be delivered to purchaser. Purchaser and guest names will be at event check-in. Please visit the registration desk upon entry.
Thank you to our sponsors!
We deeply appreciate your generous support for the Luncheon with the Authors, which has made this event possible and more impactful.
Your commitment to our community is truly invaluable. Thank you for being an essential part of this memorable experience!
the authors
Susan Rieger
Like Mother Like Mother
Detroit, 1960. Lila Pereira is two years old when her angry, abusive father has her mother committed to an asylum. Lila never sees her mother again. Three decades later, having mustered everything she has—brains, charm, talent, blond hair—Lila rises to the pinnacle of American media as the powerful, brilliant executive editor of The Washington Globe. Lila unapologetically prioritizes her career, leaving the rearing of her daughters to her generous husband, Joe. He doesn’t mind—until he does.
But Grace, their youngest daughter, feels abandoned. She wishes her mother would attend PTA meetings, not White House correspondents’ dinners. As she grows up, she cannot shake her resentment. She wants out from under Lila’s shadow, yet the more she resists, the more Lila seems to shape her life. Grace becomes a successful reporter, even publishing a bestselling book about her mother. In the process of writing it, she realizes how little she knows about her own family. Did Lila’s mother, Grace’s grandmother, die in that asylum? Is refusal to look back the only way to create a future? How can you ever be yourself, Grace wonders, if you don’t know where you came from?
Spanning generations, and populated by complex, unforgettable characters, Like Mother, Like Mother is an exhilarating, portrait of family, marriage, ambition, power, the stories we inherit, and the lies we tell to become the people we believe we’re meant to be.
Susan Rieger is a graduate of Columbia Law School. She has worked as a residential college dean at Yale and as an associate provost at Columbia. She has taught law to undergraduates at both schools and written frequently about the law for newspapers and magazines. She is the author of The Heirs and The Divorce Papers. She lives in New York City with her husband.
Stephanie Dray
Becoming Madame Secretary
Raised on tales of her revolutionary ancestors, Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century, armed with her trusty parasol and an unyielding determination to make a difference.
When she’s not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists, and activists, including the millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, the flirtatious budding author Sinclair Lewis, and the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls deeply in love.
But when Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, sparks fly in all the wrong directions. She thinks he’s a rich, arrogant dilettante who gets by on a handsome face and a famous name. He thinks she’s a priggish bluestocking and insufferable do-gooder. Neither knows it yet, but over the next twenty years, they will form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House.
Frances is destined to rise in a political world dominated by men, facing down the Great Depression as FDR’s most trusted lieutenant—even as she struggles to balance the demands of a public career with marriage and motherhood. And when vicious political attacks mount and personal tragedies threaten to derail her ambitions, she must decide what she’s willing to do—and what she’s willing to sacrifice—to save a nation.
STEPHANIE DRAY is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal & USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. Her award-winning work has been translated into ten languages and tops lists for the most anticipated reads of the year. She lives in Maryland with her husband, cats, and history books.
Paria Hassouri
Harvesting Rosewater
As the first female chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Mount Sinai, Farah Afshar is struggling with the demands of her job while adjusting to her newly divorced and empty-nester status. When the pretext of improper hijab leads to the arrest and death of Mahsa Amini, a global awareness of women's fight for freedom in Iran ensues, triggering memories of the Islamic Revolution and Iran-Iraq War that Farah has held for forty years-along with a secret she has never shared with anyone.
Bombarded by the heightened momentum of the Women, Life, Freedom movement and threatened by a malpractice lawsuit, Farah's life begins to unravel. Will escaping to wine country for a period of solitude and self-discovery be the answer, or is her only hope for moving forward-with her children, her career, and herself-sharing her truth with everyone? Most importantly, can they forgive her once they know what she did?
Moving between Manhattan, Tehran, and Paso Robles, Harvesting Rosewater explores how our unresolved histories infiltrate our adult lives, disrupting our search for identity, with the weight of living a dual existence ultimately confronting us in midlife.
Paria Hassouri is a pediatrician and mother of three young adults. She is also a marathoner, activist, wine enthusiast(bold reds preferred), storyteller, carbohydrate lover, avid reader(Jane Austen meet Cheryl Strayed), feminist, validator, and shoe addict--not necessarily in that order. A proud Iranian-American, she spent most of her formative years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her personal essays have been published on multiple sites including the New York Times, Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Huffington Post. She currently resides in Los Angeles where she provides gender-affirming care for trans youth.
