East Tennessee State University is proud to announce that internationally acclaimed author and educator John Green will serve as the keynote speaker for the 2026 Festival of Ideas, to be held on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. in the ETSU Foundation Grand Hall at the ETSU Martin Center for the Arts.
Admission to this event will be free, and ticket reservations will be available this fall at the Festival of Ideas website.
Green is the No. 1 New York Times best-selling author of several acclaimed books, including “The Anthropocene Reviewed,” ETSU’s 2025–26 Common Read selection. His work has been translated into more than 55 languages, with over 24 million copies in print.
Some of his other best-selling works include “Looking for Alaska,” “An Abundance of Katherines,” “Paper Towns,” “The Fault in Our Stars,” “Turtles All the Way Down,” and his latest book, “Everything is Tuberculosis.”
In addition to his literary accomplishments, Green is the co-founder of the popular educational YouTube channel Crash Course, which has amassed over 10 million subscribers and 1.2 billion views.
“We are thrilled to welcome John Green to campus,” Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle, ETSU provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs. “His writing and digital work resonate with learners of all ages, and his visit will be a cornerstone of our yearlong engagement with ‘The Anthropocene Reviewed.’”
ETSU launched the Festival of Ideas in 2019 as a platform to bring thought leaders from across disciplines to campus, encouraging meaningful dialogue and intellectual exchange among students, faculty and the wider community.
To kick off campus-wide conversation around this year’s Common Read, ETSU will also host a workshop and discussion of “The Anthropocene Reviewed” on Wednesday, Sept. 17, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., led by Dr. Kevin O'Donnell, professor of English in the Department of Literature and Language. The workshop will be held in ETSU’s Lamb Hall, room 131.
This workshop, titled “John Green's ‘The Anthropocene Reviewed’: Podcasts, Vlogs, and the Madness of Literary Essays since Montaigne” is free and open to the public.
ETSU is home to a vibrant arts community, hosting dozens of concerts, exhibitions and performances throughout the year.
