Sally Hayden — This Is Also a Love Story: A Reporter's Search for Goodness in a Cruel World - with James Palmer

Sally Hayden discusses *This Is Also a Love Story*, her account of finding love, connection, generosity, and courage amid war, displacement, climate crisis, inequality, and humanitarian disaster. Drawing on stories from around the world, Hayden considers how the choices people make for those they love can challenge dehumanization and offer a different way of understanding global news.

Hayden, an Irish journalist covering migration, conflict, and humanitarian crises, will be in conversation with James Palmer, deputy editor at *Foreign Policy* and author of books on Mongolia and the Tangshan earthquake. The program is based on Hayden’s forthcoming book, which follows people including a Nigerian mother resisting her daughter’s forced marriage to Boko Haram militants, Syrian women searching for missing family members, a couple separated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and people in Japan continuing to write to loved ones lost in the 2011 tsunami.

When: October 4, 2026, at 3:00 p.m.

Venue: Politics and Prose at 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008.

Tickets: Free. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Participants: Sally Hayden, in conversation with James Palmer.

About Sally Hayden: Hayden’s journalism has appeared in *The New York Times*, *The Irish Times*, *The Washington Post*, *Financial Times*, *The Guardian*, CNN International, Al Jazeera, *Time*, the BBC, and other international outlets. Her first book, *My Fourth Time, We Drowned*, won the Orwell Prize and Irish Book of the Year and was a finalist for the Baillie Gifford Prize and the New York Public Library’s Helene Bernstein Book Award for excellence in journalism.

About James Palmer: Palmer is a deputy editor at *Foreign Policy* and writes its weekly China Brief newsletter. He is the author of *The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia* and *The Death of Mao: The Tangshan Earthquake and the Birth of the New China*. He won the Shiva Naipaul Prize for travel writing in 2003.

Accessibility: To request accommodations or ask about accessibility, email events@politics-prose.com, ideally at least one week before the event. The venue will make an effort to accommodate requests made up to the event time.

Related book: *This Is Also a Love Story: A Reporter’s Search for Goodness in a Cruel World* is available in hardcover for $30.00.