6-9 PM
Join us for an evening discussion on writing and publishing the novel. Our moderator, Oscar Villalon, book editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, will lead an expert panel in a conversation about the trials, tribulations and thrills of working on longer fiction.
In addition to reflecting on the writing process, the panelists will address issues related to the publishing aspects of writing, such as contacting agents and working with publishing houses. Each panelist comes to 826 with a unique experience and approach to the novel, and their combined expertise should prove an invaluable resource for aspiring and seasoned writers alike. No details will be spared, all pertinent secrets will be revealed.
About the panelists:
Armistead Maupin started his writing career as a journalist for the Associated Press, but it was the daily newspaper serial, Tales of the City, which launched him to international recognition. Collected in a series of six books including Baby Cakes and Sure of You, the stories of San Francisco life in the 1970s are a entertaining glimpse at the liberated city by the bay. His recent novel, the New York Times bestseller The Night Listener, has been adapted for the screen by the author and will hit theaters later this summer.
Ayelet Waldman is the author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Daughter's Keeper and the Mommy-Track Mysteries. Her personal essays have been published in a wide variety of periodicals, including the New York Times, Elle Magazine, and the Guardian. She has a regular column on Salon.com. Love and Other Impossible Pursuits has been optioned for the movies, with a screenplay written by Don Roos, the writer and director of The Opposite of Sex and Happy Endings.
Peter Orner is the 2002-2003 winner of the Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His story collection, Esther Stories, was a New York Times Notable Book, a Finalist for the Pen/Hemingway Award, and winner of the Samuel Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction. Orner's new novel, The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, was published this spring.
Tara Weaver is a freelance writer and editor. Her writing has appeared in the Traveler’s Tales publications A Woman’s Asia and 30 Days in the South Pacific and she is currently at work on a novel. In her role as a developmental editor she assists writers through the publication process with both editorial suggestions and career advice. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Mills College in Oakland and is a founding partner of Creative Storefront.