VersoFest Author Talk: Claire Dederer on ‘Monsters,’ a Look at What to Do with Great Art by Bad People

Event Details

Best-selling memoirist, essayist, and critic Claire Dederer takes the VersoFest Saturday stage, in conversation with acclaimed journalist Hilarie M. Sheets. Dederer’s books include the national best-seller Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, the critically acclaimed Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning, and The New York Times best-seller Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses.

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma is Dederer’s recent nonfiction book investigating good art made by bad people. A hybrid of essay, criticism, and memoir, Monsters is based on her globally viral 2017 essay for the Paris Review, “What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?”

Copies of Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma will be available for sale on-site.

VersoFest is The Westport Library’s annual music and media conference and festival where knowledge is shared and inspiration is discovered. This year’s festival includes a kickoff storytellers with Susanna Hoffs (March 6), a conversation with folk-rock icon Ani DiFranco (March 26), a concert performance by Wyclef Jean (March 27), a VersoFest book talk with celebrated actress/performer Gina Gershon (March 28), and much, much more.

Why You Should Come

If you’ve ever loved a song, admired a painting, or been moved by a film — only to discover its creator did something terrible — you know the uncomfortable tension Dederer explores in her latest work.

At VersoFest 2026, in our unique Trefz Forum space, you’ll have the rare opportunity to hear one of our most incisive cultural critics grapple with some of the pressing questions of our time: Can we separate art from artist? Should we?

About Claire Dederer

Claire Dederer is a memoirist, essayist, and critic. Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma (Knopf, 2023) was named a New York Times Notable Book and a best book of 2023 by The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Elle, Esquire, Oprah Daily, and many other outlets.

Dederer is a longtime contributor to The New York Times. Her essays, criticism, and reviews have also appeared in The Paris Review, The Atlantic, The Nation, New York Magazine, and many other publications. She began her career as the chief film critic for Seattle Weekly.

Dederer is the recipient of a Hedgebrook residency and a Lannan Foundation residency. She lives in Seattle.

About Hilarie M. Sheets

Hilarie M. Sheets is a New York-based journalist and art critic, with a particular interest in public art and the stories of underrepresented artists. She covers the art world regularly for The New York Times and is a contributing editor to Galerie magazine. Her work also appears in The Art Newspaper, Elle Décor, and Cultured, among other publications.

About VersoFest

VersoFest is The Westport Library’s annual music and media conference and festival where knowledge is shared and inspiration is discovered — a forum for media creators, artists, and fans to converge.

This year’s festival, our fifth, is shaping up to be the best yet, headlined by a February 27 kickoff concert by rising rock band The Thing, our March 6 VersoFest storytellers evening with Bangles co-founder Susanna Hoffs, the March 26 Verso Visionary conversation with folk-rock icon Ani DiFranco, and a special March 27 Friday night performance featuring Grammy Award-winning artist, producer, composer and Fugees co-founder Wyclef Jean.

VersoFest 2026 weekend guests include actress, author, and performer Gina Gershon; David J (Bauhaus, Love and Rockets); Adria Petty on the legacy of her dad, Tom Petty, and the legendary Heartbreakers; a VersoFest author talk with Claire Dederer on her book, Monster; a conversation with renowned music promoter Peter Shapiro (Capitol Theare, Brooklyn Bowl); an appearance by the African dance and music troupe Cumbe Dance; and an interactive art installation exhibited by award-winning, video-based artist Holly Danger.

Visit our VersoFest website to see the lineup and schedule for 2026 (with announcements on all guests coming throughout January and into February).