Join Me at East Hampton Library’s Authors Night 2026 on August 8th

Let me tell you what I want you to do this summer. On Saturday, August 8, 2026, I want you to walk under a grand tent at Herrick Park in the Village of East Hampton, find the table with my name on it, and ask me the question you’d actually like answered.

I’ll be one of 100 authors at East Hampton Library’s 22nd Annual Authors Night, signing copies of my memoir, Persia, Politics & Prison: A Life in Three Parts. If you’d like to be there too, and I hope you will, tickets are on sale now at authorsnight.org.

What Your Evening Will Look Like

If you’ve never been, Authors Night is the premier literary event of the Hamptons, and it has earned that title over two decades. What began as a modest library fundraiser has grown into one of the largest and most successful library-author events in the country—the kind of evening where you might find a Pulitzer winner at one table, a debut novelist at the next, and a hundred conversations happening at once under a single tent.

The Authors Reception begins at 5:00 PM: hors d’oeuvres, wine, and authors across every genre—all there for you to meet. There are no velvet ropes and no formal program. You wander from table to table, strike up conversations, buy the books that catch your eye, and have them personally inscribed on the spot.

Then, at 8:00 PM, if you reserve a seat at one of the author dinners, you’ll continue the evening at a private Hamptons home, dining in honor of one or more of the guest authors. It’s the kind of unhurried, around-the-table conversation that no bookstore reading can offer.

Why I Want You at My Table

You may already know pieces of my story. Perhaps you’ve read the book, or my recent interview with Leaders Magazine, or you simply remember the headlines. My life has run from the sun-drenched heights of Park Avenue to the dismal depths of a Brooklyn prison known as “the dungeon”—from friendships with U.S. presidents and a nomination to serve as a U.S. ambassador, to a 12-year sentence for bank fraud and nearly a decade behind the fence. And before any of that, there was the 1979 revolution that stripped my family of nearly everything we had built in Iran.

I wrote Persia, Politics & Prison because I believed each of those three worlds—the Iranian-American experience, the inner workings of American politics, and the reality of the federal penal system—deserved an honest accounting from someone who had lived inside all of them. One reviewer called the book’s arc Dickensian, and I take the point: it’s a story of rise, fall, and what a person chooses to build from the wreckage. But I didn’t write it to settle scores or polish my reputation. I wrote it because the truth, told plainly, is more useful than either.

Here’s what I’ve learned since my release: the conversations that matter most don’t happen from a stage. I’ve come to enjoy speaking to audiences about resilience and reinvention, but the exchanges I remember happen when someone leans across a signing table and asks the question they were half-afraid to ask out loud. What is it actually like to lose everything? What did prison teach you that Park Avenue couldn’t? Do you ever stop carrying it?

Bring me those questions. I’d rather have ten minutes of honest conversation with you than sign a hundred books in silence. And if you’ve followed my writing on what actually stops recidivism or the banking blacklists that trap former felons, this is your chance to press me on any of it, face to face.

Where Your Ticket Money Goes

I want you to know what you’re funding when you buy your ticket.

Authors Night is the East Hampton Library’s flagship fundraiser, and the proceeds keep the library’s programs and services free for the entire community, all year long. That word “free” is worth pausing on. In prison, I watched men teach themselves to read in a law library. I watched others earn their high school equivalency with books someone had thought to put on a shelf. Access to books is not a luxury or a nicety—for a great many people, it is the difference between a future and none at all.

I spend much of my time now advocating for prison reform in America and for the institutions that offer people a way forward—I serve on the board of The Fortune Society, which does exactly that for men and women leaving prison. Libraries belong in that same category. A library card asks nothing about your past. It doesn’t run a background check. It simply opens a door.

So when you attend, you’re not just spending a summer evening well. You’re funding open doors—and after the life I’ve lived, I can tell you there is no better investment.

Plan Your Evening

• When: Saturday, August 8, 2026. The Authors Reception starts at 5:00 PM; dinners follow at 8:00 PM.
• Where: Under the tent at Herrick Park, in the middle of the Village of East Hampton, NY. The Lumber Lane Parking Lot is your best bet for parking.
• Books: Available for purchase at the event—come find my table and I’ll inscribe your copy of Persia, Politics & Prison personally.
• Tickets: Available now at authorsnight.org, for both the reception and the author dinners.

Don’t Wait on This One

The tent holds a crowd, but the dinners in particular fill quickly, and the event is only weeks away. If any part of you is thinking about coming, get your tickets now—then come find me on August 8th.

Bring your questions. Bring your skepticism, if you have it. I’ll bring the honest answers, a pen, and a stack of books.

I’ll see you under the tent.

About the Author

Hassan Nemazee operated in international finance before serving a federal prison sentence. Today he advocates for pragmatic, economically focused prison reform in America, serves on the board of directors of The Fortune Society, and speaks to audiences nationwide about resilience and reinvention. Discover his full story in his memoir, Persia, Politics & Prison: A Life in Three Parts, and explore his recent press and interviews.

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