6-9 PM
Join us for this evening seminar about the process of writing and publishing a novel. Our moderator 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 moderator:
Ted Weinstein is a literary agent with broad experience on both the business and editorial sides of publishing. Before opening the agency he held senior publishing positions in licensing, marketing, publicity and business development with several major publishing companies. He is also a widely published author, has been the music critic for NPR's All Things Considered and a commentator for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Bay Guardian, SF Weekly and Might Magazine. He received his B.A. cum laude in philosophy from Yale College and his Master's degree in Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Management. He is a member of the Association of Authors' Representatives, the Authors Guild, the Northern California Science Writers Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the American Historical Association, and he is on the board of directors of GreenInfo Network.
About the panelists:
Andrew Sean Greer is the author of the national bestseller The Confessions of Max Tivoli, as well as a story collection, How It Was for Me, and one previous novel: The Path of Minor Planets. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire and The Paris Review. He has been the recipient of an NEA Fellowship, a California Book Award, and a New York Public Library Young Lions Award. His new novel, The Story of a Marriage, will be out in May. He lives in San Francisco.
Ann Packer is the author of two bestselling novels, Songs Without Words and The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, which won a Great Lakes Book Award and the Kate Chopin Literary Award. A past recipient of a James Michener Award and a National Endowment for the Art fellowship, she is also the author of Mendocino and Other Stories, a collection that contains work that appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares and Prize Stories 1992: The O. Henry Awards, among other magazines and anthologies.
Michelle Richmond is the author of The Year of Fog, which is currently in development with Newmarket Films, Dream of the Blue Room, and the story collection The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress. Her third novel, No One You Know, will be published in Spring 2008. Her work has appeared in Glimmer Train, Playboy, The Missouri Review, The Believer, and elsewhere. Richmond lives with her husband and son in San Francisco, where she teaches creative writing.
Alan Rinzler is a book editor who has worked with such notable authors as Toni Morrison, Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Robbins, and Robert Ludlum throughout the course of his career. Currently serving as the Executive Editor at Jossey-Bass/John Wiley & Sons in San Francisco, he has also filled the positions of Director of Trade Publishing at Bantam Books, Vice President and Associate Publisher of Rolling Stone Magazine, President of Straight Arrow, Rolling Stone's book division, and editor at Simon and Schuster, Macmillan, Holt and the Grove Press. He will bring his expertise in the process of publication and his knowledge of the inner workings of the book industry to our panel discussion.
This seminar promises to be invaluable for writers in any stage of the writing process.