November 12, 2008

Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan writes about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: food, gardens, agriculture, drugs, and architecture. In 2006, The New York Times selected Mr. Pollan's The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, as one of the five best books of the year. Mr. Pollan's latest book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, was released in early 2008 to popular and critical acclaim. His other books are no less groundbreaking: Second Nature and The Botany of Desire. Take note, Idaho: Mr. Pollan once wrote, "Without the potato, the balance of European power might never have tilted north." A former editor of Harper's Magazine and a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine, he is a Professor of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.

February 4, 2009

Aimee Bender with Anthony Doerr

Known for her surreal and fantastic plots, Aimee Bender's tales of magical realism are infectiously fun, deeply moving, and full of surprises. Her precocious short story debut, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, was a New York Times notable book in 1998, followed by her first novel An Invisible Sign of My Own (2001). The recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, Ms. Bender's collection of stories, Willful Creatures (2005), was nominated by The Believer as one of the best books of the year. Her work has appeared in Harper's, McSweeney's, The Paris Review, and many other publications as well as being featured on NPR's This American Life. Idaho's Writer-in-Residence, Tony Doerr, (The Shell Collector, About Grace, Four Seasons in Rome) will join Aimee on stage for a very memorable evening.

March 16, 2009

Joan Didion

Novelist, film writer, journalist and essayist, Joan Didion burst onto the national literary scene in 1968 with the publication of Slouching Towards Bethlehem, a collection of "new journalism" pieces about the emerging California counterculture. Along with her late husband, John Gregory Dunne, Ms. Didion has written scripts for such films as A Star Is Born and Up Close and Personal. She won the 2005 National Book Award for The Year of Magical Thinking, a vivid personal account of love and grief upon the loss of a partner after 40 years of professional collaboration and marriage. Ms. Didion received the 2007 National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters for "her distinctive blend of spare, elegant prose and fierce intelligence." A direct descendant of 1850's Sacramento Valley pioneers, she is hailed as one of the shrewdest observers of America's political and cultural life.

April 28, 2009

Alexander McCall Smith

Perhaps best known for his internationally acclaimed No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, now a film directed by Anthony Minghella, Alexander McCall Smith has also written more than 60 books, including works on medical law, criminal law and philosophy, short story collections, a number of immensely popular children's books, and other serial novels taking place in Germany and Scotland. "There is a role for books that say to people that life is potentially amusing, and that there are possibilities of goodness and kindness - that kindness needn't be dull, that it can also be elevating and moving," Mr. McCall Smith said in a 2004 New York Times interview. He wrote on the side while teaching as Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh and serving on numerous bioethics and genetic panels. The winner of many literary awards including the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger in the Library Award, and the British Book Authors Award, Mr. McCall Smith now devotes full time to his writing. His hobbies include playing wind instruments in the amateur orchestra he co-founded called the Really Terrible Orchestra.