Dennis Lehane Is Emerson’s 2017 Commencement Speaker

Image via Dennis Lehane on Facebook

Award-winning author Dennis Lehane will deliver the Emerson College’s commencement address in May, the school announced Wednesday.

Lehane, a Dorchester native, has published more than a dozen novels, all of which became international bestsellers. Four of his books—Mystic River; Gone, Baby, Gone; Shutter Island; and Live By Night—have been made into feature films. He was also a staff writer on the critically acclaimed early-Aughts HBO series The Wire, as well as a writer-producer on the fourth season of Boardwalk Empire.

Lehane’s new book, His next book, a psychological thriller about a girl in Northampton titled Since We Fell, is due out May 9.

Emerson will also present honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees to equality advocate and Brandeis University professor Anita Hill, poet and playwright Claudia Rankine, and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient David McCullough.

Emerson will conduct its commencement ceremony at Boston University’s Agganis Arena on May 14. It will be livestreamed here.