Forty Years On, Literacy Partners Reminds New York That Reading Is Still Radical

At a $1.3 million gala where Lesley Stahl received the night’s most resonant ovation, four champions of the written word were honored at Chelsea Piers, while a student’s story proved why the work actually matters

Lesley Stahl (Photo Credit: BFA / Madeleine Thomas)

The applause at Pier Sixty that evening carried more weight than a typical gala welcome. When Lesley Stahl walked to the podium to host Literacy Partners’ 2026 Evening of Readings and Gala Dinner, the room rose in a way that felt less ceremonial and more personal. Given the turbulence surrounding CBS in recent months, perhaps New York’s literary and philanthropic world chose this particular night to show one of broadcast journalism’s most durable figures exactly where she stood with her peers. She received them with the composure of someone who has sat across from six presidents. Which, of course, she has.

This was, in any case, a night built for larger gestures. Literacy Partners, the New York-based nonprofit that advances literacy across two generations simultaneously, was marking its 40th annual gala, first established in 1986 by Liz Smith, the legendary gossip columnist who understood, before almost anyone else, that culture and community were never really separable. That the organization has endured four decades while helping adults, parents, and caregivers build reading and language skills is, I’d argue, one of the more quietly radical stories in New York philanthropy. Quietly, because literacy work rarely earns the splashy headlines it probably deserves.

The event raised $1.3 million.

Patricia Cornwell (Photo Credit: BFA / Madeleine Thomas)

Four honorees anchored the program, each representing a different thread in what might loosely be called the American reading life. Patricia Cornwell, whose crime fiction has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide and essentially invented the modern forensic thriller as readers now know it, received the Lifetime Achievement Award. There’s real satisfaction in watching a genre pioneer get her flowers from the literary establishment, even if Cornwell has never needed anyone’s validation to fill a bookstore. Her career, spanning decades and dozens of novels, has kept readers up well past midnight and, by extension, kept independent booksellers solvent.

Sabastian Niles, president and chief legal officer of Salesforce, accepted the Distinguished Leadership in Literacy Award in recognition of a career that treats access and opportunity as non-negotiable rather than aspirational. His presence on the dais suggested something worth noting: that corporate leadership and genuine social investment can, when properly aligned, mean more than a well-timed press release.

Barbara Tober (Photo Credit: BFA / Madeleine Thomas)

Barbara Tober received the Lizzie Award, named in honor of Liz Smith herself. As editor-in-chief of BRIDES magazine for more than 30 years, Tober presided over one of publishing’s longest and most consistent editorial runs, which is, depending on your perspective, either an extraordinary achievement or proof that she simply understood her readers better than almost anyone else in the business. As a patron of the arts and a lifelong New Yorker, she has long occupied that rare intersection where culture and civic engagement blur together productively.

Sherrie Westin, president and CEO of Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that gave the world Sesame Street, accepted the Champion of Literacy Award. The choice feels appropriately circular: Sesame Street has spent more than 50 years teaching children to read, count, and treat one another decently, so honoring Westin at a literacy gala registers less as an accolade and more as a statement of shared mission. Early literacy and lifelong opportunity aren’t, as it turns out, separable ideas.

Sherrie Westin (Photo Credit: BFA / Madeleine Thomas)

What may have moved the room most, though, was neither the awards nor the auction. A Literacy Partners student took the stage to describe her journey from learning English as an adult to guiding fellow students through their own literacy work. She’s also pursuing a career in healthcare, and she noted that her children are thriving in school. It’s worth sitting with that for a moment: one woman’s decision to walk into an adult literacy class has apparently reshaped the trajectory of an entire family. The organization calls this its two-generation model. On that evidence, the approach seems to be working.

“This gathering demonstrated that when we come together, a better future is possible,” said Asaf Bar-Tura, Literacy Partners’ chief executive, in remarks that, for once, didn’t feel like boilerplate. “Literacy is a gateway to social mobility and economic opportunity. The Literacy Partners community will continue to insist on a nation where everyone has the opportunity to read, work, engage, and thrive.”

Jean Shafiroff (Photo Credit: BFA / Madeleine Thomas)

Notable guests included David Westin, Jean Shafiroff, and Bill Buford.

For an organization turning 40 in a political climate where public education, immigration services, and community programs face pressure from multiple directions, a $1.3 million fundraising night represents more than a good evening. It may represent a closer refusal to accept the alternative.