Garrison Keillor | Julia Glass | John Updike | Daniel Handler
Richard Price | Jim Lehrer | Rita Dove | Michael Pollan
Andrew Sean Greer

SPECIAL EVENT
Garrison Keillor
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Crest Theatre | 1:00 p.m.
A Prairie Home Companion | Radio Hall of Fame
Liberty (September 2008), Pontoon,
Homegrown Democrat

Garrison Keillor is the host and author of A Prairie Home Companion, the National Public Radio show that has warmed the hearts of listeners for three decades. And now Keillor’s newest book, Liberty, A Lake Wobegon Novel, brings readers more “good loving people who drive each other crazy.” After publishing his first story in the New Yorker in 1970, Keillor began his prolific writing career and has authored 17 books including his most recent New York Times bestseller, Pontoon. He has also written for The Atlantic Monthly and Salon.com. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and New York City.

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SIX-LECTURE SERIES
Julia Glass
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Crest Theatre | 7:30 p.m.
National Book Award | Bestselling Author
I See You Everywhere (October 2008), Three Junes,
The Whole World Over

Julia Glass's first novel, Three Junes, won the 2002 National Book Award for Fiction, was a selection of Good Morning America's Book Club, and was a Book Sense Bestseller. Her second novel, The Whole World Over, was also a Book Sense Pick and Bestseller. Her fiction has been honored with a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, three Nelson Algren Fiction Awards, the Tobias Wolff Award, and the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Medal for Best Novella. She lives in Massachusetts with her family.

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John Updike
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Crest Theatre | 7:30 p.m.
Pulitzer Prize | National Book Award | National Book Critics Circle Award
The Widows of Eastwick (October 2008), The Witches of Eastwick, Rabbit series

Widely recognized for his careful craftsmanship and prolific output, John Updike is the author of more than 50 books, including collections of short stories, poems, and criticism. Hundreds of his stories, reviews, and poems have appeared in The New Yorker since 1954. Updike is the recipient of the National Medal of Arts and his books have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the American Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the Howells Medal, among other honors. He is the father of four children and since 1957 has lived in Massachusetts.

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Daniel Handler
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Crest Theatre | 7:30 p.m.
Bestselling Author | a.k.a. Lemony Snicket
Adverbs, The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth,
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography

Daniel Handler is the author of three literary novels, as well as the bestselling sequence of books for children, known collectively as A Series of Unfortunate Events (written under the name Lemony Snicket), which sold more than 53 million copies and formed the basis of a film starring Jim Carrey. He has written for The New York Times, among other publications, and is also a composer and screenwriter. Handler will be appearing as himself – not the persona of Lemony Snicket “who ruined forever his dream of a scruffy, anonymous, bohemian life.” He lives in San Francisco with his wife, illustrator Lisa Brown.

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Richard Price
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Crest Theatre | 7:30 p.m.
Edgar Award| National Book Critics Circle Award |
Oscar Nominee
Lush Life, Clockers, Freedomland (Novels),
The Wire (HBO), The Color of Money, Sea of Love,
Shaft (Screenplays)

Richard Price is the author of seven novels, including Bloodbrothers, Clockers, and Freedomland, all of which have been adapted into film. He’s written numerous screenplays, including The Color of Money for which he was nominated for an Oscar, and he is often featured in cameo roles in the films he writes. Price won a 2007 Edgar Award for his writing on the HBO series The Wire. He has written for The New York Times, Esquire Magazine, The New Yorker, the Village Voice, and Rolling Stone. He has taught writing at Columbia, Yale and New York University and he lives in New York City.

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Jim Lehrer
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Crest Theatre | 7:30 p.m.
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer |
National Humanities Medal
Oh, Johnny (April 2009), Mack to the Rescue, Eureka

Jim Lehrer is the acclaimed bestselling author of both fiction and non-fiction books, including 18 novels, two memoirs and three plays. He is the executive director and anchor for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, and he has been the moderator for 10 nationally televised debates among candidates for the presidential elections. He has been inducted into the Television Hall of Fame, honored with the National Humanities Medal, elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science, and has won two Emmys. Lehrer lives in Washington, D.C. and is married to novelist Kate Lehrer.

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BUY TICKETS

Rita Dove
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Crest Theatre | 7:30 p.m.
Former U.S. Poet Laureate | Pulitzer Prize |
Common Wealth Award
Sonata Mulattica (May 2009), American Smooth,
On the Bus with Rosa Parks

Former U.S. Poet Laureate and Special Consultant in Poetry for the Library of Congress, Rita Dove also served as the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2004-2006. She has published more than 13 books, including poetry, essays, a collection of short stories, a novel and a play. Her poetry collection, Thomas and Beulah, won the Pulitzer Prize, and she is the recipient of 22 honorary doctorates, as well as the National Humanities Medal from the White House, the Heinz Award, and the Duke Ellington Lifetime Achievement Award, among many others. Dove is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia.

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SOLD OUT

SPECIAL EVENT
Michael Pollan
In conversation with AG Kawamura, Secretary
California Department of Food and Agriculture

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Westminster Presbyterian Church | 7:30 p.m.
Earth to Table Reception | 6:00 p.m.

In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma,
The Botany of Desire

Michael Pollan has been writing about food, agriculture, and gardens for the past twenty years, exploring the ecology of eating to unveil why we consume what we consume in the twenty-first century. His recent bestseller, In Defense of Food, highlights his simple manifesto – “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Pollan’s bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, expand our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.

He is the author of the bestselling book The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, named one of the ten best books of 2006 by the New York Times and the Washington Post. Also an activist and a Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley, Pollan is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and has been awarded the California Book Award, Northern California Book Award, the James Beard Award for best food writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

“Michael Pollan [is the] designated repository for the nation’s food conscience.”  –The New York Times

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COMMUNITY EVENT
Open to the Public
University Union Ballroom | 1:00 p.m.
In Partnership with Sacramento State University

Andrew Sean Greer
Monday, April 20, 2009
Bestselling Author | California Book Award |
National Endowment for the Arts Award
The Story of a Marriage, The Confessions of Max Tivoli,
The Path of Minor Planets

Andrew Sean Greer is the bestselling author of The Story of a Marriage, a lyrical novel about love and longing, and the political, sexual, and racial tensions set against the backdrop of the early 50s. The New York Times Book Review hails it as “Wondrously unsettling…A timeless story of conflicting loyalties.” Greer’s previous bestseller, The Confessions of Max Tivoli, garnered coast-to-coast recognition and awards. Greer’s stories have been anthologized and have appeared in Esquire, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, and other national publications. He lives in San Francisco.

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