Bestselling Canadian novelist and essayist Emily St. John Mandel will discuss her work — including “Station Eleven,” a 2014 novel about a global pandemic’s aftermath —? at 6 p.m. on Oct. 17 at Transylvania University in Lexington.

The event is part of this year’s Bale Boone Symposium organized by the Gaines Center for the Humanities at the University of Kentucky.

Mandel will participate in a moderated conversation with Gaines Center director Michelle Sizemore, who says Mandel’s “work could not be more relevant for our time.”?

In “Station Eleven,” which has been translated in 33 languages and was adapted into an HBO miniseries, “a global pandemic ravages the human population and survivors search for meaning and purpose after civilization’s collapse. The story follows the remarkable journey of the Traveling Symphony, a Shakespeare troupe dedicated to making and sharing art amid the devastation.

“The group’s mantra, ?Survival is Insufficient,’ reinforces not only the basic needs of food, shelter, clean air and water, and health care for our lives, but simultaneously, the necessity of the arts and humanities for our existence,” said Sizemore.

Former President Barack Obama named “The Glass Hotel” one of his favorites books of 2020. In it the Canadian novelist “weaves several narratives together as it tells a story of financial corruption, greed and a massive Ponzi scheme,” according to CBC Books. Some of the plot unfolds in Mandel’s native Vancouver.

Like all Gaines Center events, Mandel’s appearance will be open to the public, but registration is required at “An Evening with Emily St. John Mandel.”?

A book signing will follow the discussion.