REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: The TED Conference

Alan T. Saracevic
The San Francisco Chronicle
March 1, 2008

But it was Eggers who stole the show. In a hilarious, rambling speech that had the crowd roaring with laughter and applauding in appreciation, the 37-year-old writer made his wish:

"I wish that you - you personally and every creative individual and organization you know - will find a way to directly engage with a public school in your area and that you'll then tell the story of how you got involved, so that within a year we have 1,000 examples of transformative change."

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826 Valencia: Pirates, writers in training

Steve Duin
The Oregonian
February 24, 2008

For the professional buccaneer, there's really no question as to where to go for the best in affordable pirate supplies. At 826 Valencia in the Mission District, there are eye patches, parrots, peg legs, hook protectors and planks by the foot. There are helpful guides on the pirates' code of ethics ("Cannons Shall Not Be Fired in Vain") and unacceptable slang ("Well, tickle my pits").

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Pirates, Creativity, Science, and the Chance to Write.

David Ng
The Science Creative Quarterly
Winter, 2008

This was my first pirate store. Amusing because “pirates” is not a subject that often comes up, especially given my role as a scientist looking for unconventional ways to “talk science.” Therefore, to speak of a geneticist (my particular area of expertise) visiting a place of commerce that sells buckles, lard, and eye patches might sound a little absurd - or at least a trifle mysterious.

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Celebrating young writers

Daun Daemon
The News & Observer
October 7, 2007

A parent's expectations must soar at the sight of a title like "Exactly Ten Beavers, Nine Fairies, Eight Dreams, Seven Knights, Six Princesses, Five Dogs, Four Otters, Three Old Men, Two Robots, One Traveling Shoe & Everything Else It Takes to Make a Great Children's Story Book (More or Less)."

To those looking for new material to instruct and entertain their kids, the titular list is especially alluring -- surely, every child will find stories to satisfy his or her curiosity. With 56 illustrated tales, the volume is bound to hold a kid's attention for longer than 60 seconds.

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Eggers wins Heinz award

Charles Storch
Chicago Tribune
September 12, 2007

Dave Eggers, an author and advocate for fresh literary voices and fledgling writers, is one of six winners of this year's $250,000 Heinz Awards, cited for hisleadership in the arts and humanities.

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826 Valencia's Five-Year Anniversary Fair

SFist
August 26, 2007

With their usual whimsy, those folks from 826 Valenicia celebrated their five-year anniversary on 8/26. They did so with a community festival at Mission Playground, which is right near the store. Entry was free; folks purchased tickets to engage in many of the activities. Kids and adult-sized kids engaged in music, games, pie-eating contests, and tried their hand at dunking folks. Seemed like everyone was having a swell time for a swell cause. (For those of you not in the know, 826 Valencia is a nonprofit organization that helps students develop their writing skills; they've always got something cool going on, too)

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Daring Dozen 2007: Twelve who are reshaping the future of education

Carol Guensburg
Edutopia
Summer 2007

As a public school teacher for nearly a decade, Nínive Clements Calegari learned firsthand, and often the hard way, that kids need one-on-one feedback to improve their writing -- a fact that large classes, constant lesson planning, and myriad administrative responsibilities get in the way of, no matter how determined the educator is.

Conquest of the Word Masters

Diane Dunkelberger
Benefit Magazine
November/December 2006

Eggers and Calegari's is a tale of how to take a successful, homegrown nonprofit on the road. In the last two years alone, they have added five new chapters (in New York, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Seattle, and Chicago) for a total of six-much to the surprise of Eggers himself. Early on, he says, "I didn't think for a second that it would grow beyond the Mission." In a nonprofit world where it is rare to expand so quickly, the founders, along with the extraordinarily dedicated staff, have managed to build a strong national organization while allowing each site to develop its own unique character.

Pen Pals: A growing network of workshops gets kids dashing out the door to write

Elizabeth Ody
Edutopia
November 2005

Imagine a place children go after school where it’s cool to do your homework, where working hard is fun, and where one-on-one help from supportive adults is always available. Sound a bit utopian? Not if you live near one of the nationally proliferating writing and literacy workshops known as 826.

Special Issue: The TIME 100

New York – The editors of TIME Magazine name the 100 most influential people in the world now, in the new issue (on newsstands Monday, April 11th.) The “people who shape our world” are profiled in five categories: “Leaders and Revolutionaries,” “Builders and Titans,” “Artists and Entertainers,” “Scientists and Thinkers,” and “Heroes and Icons.”

DAVE EGGERS, Writer and Magazine Founder: Eggers’ enterprises are refreshingly dedicated to the idea that writers can actually change things in more than an abstract sense. Expect Eggers to keep up his neck-breaking pace of staggering intensity, writes TIME’s media critic James Poniewozik.

Projects for a new American literacy: Four local organizations rework the arithmetic of reading and writing

By David Moisl
San Francisco Bay Guardian

READING MIGHT BE America's favorite pastime if not for the fact that "reading a book requires a degree of active attention and engagement," as Dana Gioia, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, puts it in the introduction to "Reading at Risk," a survey about America's reading habits.

Teens once ‘Waiting to be Heard’ blossom in print

By Jane Ganahl, Chronical Staff Writer
SFgate.com
Saturday, May 15, 2004

Courtney King turns to Page 9 of the spanking-new book and heaves a satisfied sigh. There it is: her first published work. And she's only 18.

"It's exciting," she says, not taking her eyes off the page. "It's like something new is starting in my life."

A heartwarming work of literary altruism

Jane Ganahl, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, August 2, 2002

Dave Eggers, one of the brightest writing stars in the literary firmament,
could be enjoying the high life offered an author of his growing stature: the parties, the talk shows, the lucrative speeches.

Instead, the 32-year-old best-selling author of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" commutes every day from his Marin County home for an unpaid job at the 826 Valencia writing lab, investing his time and considerable fortune to help less privileged young people learn the craft that has fueled his career.