Zadie Smith's novels speak to a wide audience of races, ethnicity and nationalities. Her first book, White Teeth, (2000) was an international bestseller when she was still a student at Cambridge University. Drawing on her mother's experiences in her native Jamaica, White Teeth has won multiple awards, including the 2000 Whitbread Award, the Guardian First Book Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.

A public reception for Smith will be held at 6:15 p.m. in Ray Courtyard will precede the reading.