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Former first lady of the United States Jill Biden will discuss her new memoir, View from the East Wing, on Monday, June 8, at Vanderbilt University. Biden will be in conversation with veteran broadcast journalist Demetria Kalodimos beginning at 6:30 p.m. in Langford Auditorium. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets for the talk are $45.50 each and include one general admission seat and a copy of View from the East Wing with a signed bookplate. There will be no signing line for book personalizations at this event. Ten dollars from each ticket purchase will support the 2026 Southern Festival of Books, presented by Vanderbilt University in partnership with Humanities Tennessee Oct. 17–18.
The June 8 discussion is hosted by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, Dialogue Vanderbilt and the Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center in collaboration with Parnassus Books. The talk is part of Dialogue Vanderbilt’s “250 Conversations on America: Civil Discourse in Action,” a yearlong series celebrating our nation’s 250th anniversary and Vanderbilt’s enduring commitment to open dialogue.
About the book
Biden became first lady at a complicated moment in U.S. history, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the shadow of the Jan. 6 insurrection. These were the circumstances under which she set up office in the East Wing, where she hit the ground running. Throughout her husband’s presidency, Biden remained a tireless advocate for several causes, including women’s health, military families, vaccine awareness, cancer initiatives, and education. She made history as the first-ever first lady to hold an outside job while her husband was in office, continuing to work as a professor at a nearby community college. Yet all the while, she saw herself as an ordinary woman living an extraordinary life.
In View from the East Wing, Biden shares her White House experiences for the first time, in her own words. She reflects on the Biden presidency and its impact on her family. She brings readers behind the scenes—from Camp David to Air Force One, from grading papers in the Rose Garden to witnessing the abrupt end of her husband’s bid for reelection. This is the story of a woman dedicated to her roles as a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, teacher and first lady of the United States.
About the author
Biden, who served as first lady of the United States from 2021 to 2025, is the author of the 2019 New York Times bestselling memoir Where the Light Enters, as well as the children’s books Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops; Joey: The Story of Joe Biden; and Willow the White House Cat. She was second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. Biden chairs the Milken Institute’s Women’s Health Network. She lives with her husband, former President Joe Biden, in Wilmington, Delaware, with their cat, Willow, and two new additions: black Labrador-mix puppies named Boo and Scout.