The Art of Narrative Nonfiction

Much is made of the artistry required to write a masterly novel. But what of nonfiction? What are the techniques for turning a garden-variety biography into one that wins both a National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize? Tonight's panel, featuring award-winning nonfiction authors, will explore that question and more. Moderated by David Ewing Duncan, bestselling author of seven books, including the recent Experimental Man: What One Man’s Body Reveals About His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World.

Tamim Ansary, Frances Dinkelspiel, Richard Rhodes, and T.J. Stiles

Kidquake: Grades 6-8

SESSIONS ARE FULL

Join acclaimed children’s book authors, illustrators, poets, and workshop leaders for a morning of readings, discussion, and special workshops designed to help fuel the imagination of kids from 6th to 8th grade.


Assembly, 10-11 am: N. H. Senzai, Jon Voelkel, Pamela Craik Voelkel, and three students from the Creative Writing Department at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (SOTA)
Workshops, 11:15 am-noon: D. Scot Miller and students from the Creative Writing program at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts

McSweeney's Fall Harvest

McSweeney's yields its fall harvest. Join authors as they read from their respective new books out this fall from the San Francisco-based publisher. The authors will also have a conversation with McSweeney's longtime editor (and author himself) Eli Horowitz and answer questions from the audience.

Hilton Als, Adam Levin, Peter Orner, and Darin Strauss

Virtual Reality: The Effect of Fiction on Your Mind

What do you really know about the characters you meet on the page? Are you sure it’s healthy to visit imaginary worlds—even if they come from someone else’s imagination? And how well do authors know the characters they invent? These questions and yours will be addressed by our panel: a neurologist-novelist and expert on how we know what we know, the most prolific reader in the Northern Hemisphere, a novelist famous for the intensity of her characters, an authority on the cognitive aspects of fiction, and a memoirist who has experienced mental illness and whose father was a great American writer.

Admission: $12 general public, free to members of Mechanics Institute; reservations at (415) 393-0100 or rsvp@milibrary.org

Robert Burton, Elaine Petrocelli, Michelle Richmond, Blakey Vermeule, and Mark Vonnegut

Flight of Poets

Wine and poetry have always made a delicious duet. At this reading, curated by Tess Taylor and Hollie Hardy, internationally renowned sommelier Christopher Sawyer pairs six talented local poets with six great wines carefully selected to illuminate their work.

Doors open 6:30 pm; tickets available at the door only.

21 and over

Camille T. Dungy, Robin Ekiss, Paul Hoover, Ada Limón, Zachary Mason, Christopher Sawyer, and Matthew Siegel

Lit & Lunch: Carolina de Robertis presented by Center for the Art of Translation

The Center for the Art of Translation hosts Carolina De Robertis in the opening reading of their annual Lit & Lunch series at 111 Minna. De Robertis will discuss translating the contemporary Chilean novella, Bonsai, which was named one of the Ten Best Translated Books of 2008 by Three Percent.

Kidquake: K-2

SESSIONS ARE FULL


Join acclaimed children’s book authors, illustrators, poets, and workshop leaders for a morning of readings, discussion, and special workshops designed to help fuel the imagination of kids from kindergarten to 2nd grade.


Assembly, 10-11 am: Jon Agee, Lisa Brown, Maya Christina Gonzalez, Laura Regan, and Belle Yang
Workshops, 10-10:45 am: Peter Lilenthal, and Dawn Marie Knopf
Assembly,  11:15 am-12:15 pm: Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, Nadia Krilanovich, Truong Tran (canceled), Amy Novesky, and Deborah Underwood
Workshops, 11:15-noon: Jon Agee and Laura Regan