September 29, 2009

Frank Deford

Author and commentator, Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. Voted Sports Writer of the Year ten times by Sports Illustrated, his legendary career at the magazine spans almost half a century. Author of fifteen books, his 1981 novel Everybody’s All American was made into a major motion picture starring Dennis Quaid, and was named one of the top 25 sports books of all-time by Sports Illustrated. Among his many honors he has received an Emmy and a National Magazine Award. His latest novel, The Entitled, was published in 2007. Mr. Deford my be heard as a commentator every Wednesday on NPR’s Morning Edition, and is a regular correspondent on television, appearing on the HBO show Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. Mr. Deford became involved with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation after his daughter Alexander was diagnosed with the illness. After her death he chronicled her life in a book, The Life of a Child, which was made into a movie starring Craig T. Nelson. Mr. Deford is a graduate of Princeton University and currently lives in Connecticut with his wife Carol.

Rescheduled June 9, 2010

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes with deep feeling and vivid intensity about events that took place in her native Nigeria before her birth. Chinua Achebe says of her, "We do not usually associate wisdom with beginners, but here is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie knows what is at stake, and what to do about it. She is fearless, or she would not have taken on the intimidating horror of Nigeria's civil war. Adichie came almost fully made." She was a 2005-2006 Hodder Fellow at Princeton, and received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008 recognizing her exceptional creativity and accomplishment. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, was published in 2003 when she was twenty-six years old, and won the Best First Novel in the 2005 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, named for the flag of the short-lived and turbulent Biafra nation, was published in 2006 by Knopf and won the Orange Prize for fiction. She won an O’Henry Award in 2003, and her short stories have appeared in Granta, Prospect and the Iowa Review. Ms. Adichie’s latest book, a collection of short stories titled The Thing Around Your Neck was published in 2009. She currently divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.

February 16, 2010

Annie Proulx

Annie Proulx published her first novel, Postcards, at the age of 56 after many years as a freelance journalist and short story writer. The book won the Pen/Faulkner Award and launched an inspirational literary ascension. Two years later she won the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for her second novel, The Shipping News, which was made into a major motion picture in 2001 starring Kevin Spacey and Judi Dench. Her O’Henry Award honored short story, Brokeback Mountain, which was adapted into an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning film starring Jake Gyllenhall and the late Heath Ledger. Ms. Proulx has been award both an NEA and Guggenheim Fellowship. A longtime resident of Wyoming, Ms. Proulx recently announced that she would be moving to New Mexico to escape the harsh winters.

April 7, 2010

Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon believes that three things are required for success as a novelist: talent, luck, and discipline. As he says, “Discipline is the one element of those three things that you can control, and so that is the one that you have to focus on controlling, and you just have to hope and trust in the other two.” Fortunately, Chabon managed to acquire all three. His first two novels, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys, were both bestsellers, and Wonder Boys was adapted into a critically acclaimed film. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, his third novel, was selected for the American Library Association’s Notable Books of 2000 and was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It won the New York Society Library Prize for Fiction, the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award, the Commonwealth Club Gold Medal, and the Pulitzer Prize. His first young adult novel, Summerland, won the 2003 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature. His short story "Son of the Wolfman" was chosen for the 1999 O. Henry collection and for a National Magazine Award. Chabon’s novella The Final Solution (2004) was awarded the 2005 National Jewish Book Award and also the 2003 Aga Khan Prize for Fiction by The Paris Review. His most recent novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, was nominated for an Edgar Award; it also won the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2008. A new collection of essays, entitled Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures & Regrets of a Husband, Father & Son, is due out in October 2009. He lives with his wife and children in Berkeley.