Why There Are Words celebrates five years of presenting fabulous readings by fabulous authors. Join us on this momentous occasion when we kick off the beginning of our 6th year January 8 at Studio 333 in Sausalito. Doors open at 7 pm; readings begin at 7:15. $10.
Tom Barbash is the author of the short story collection, Stay Up With Me, an Amazon Editor’s Best Book of the Year, and the novel, The Last Good Chance, which was a Publishers Weekly and Anniston Star Best Book of the Year, and winner of the California Book Award. His nonfiction book, On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and 9/11: A Story of Loss and Renewal, was a New York Times bestseller. He has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo. His stories and articles have been published in The Best American Non-Required Reading, Tin House, McSweeney’s, OneStory, Narrative, The Missouri Review, VQR, Men’s Journal, ESPN the Magazine, The Observer, The New York Times, Bookforum, The Believer, and other publications, and have been performed on National Public Radio for “Selected Shorts.” He currently teaches in the MFA program in writing at California College of the Arts.
Ann Packer is the acclaimed author of two collections of short fiction, Swim Back to Me and Mendocino and Other Stories, and two bestselling novels, Songs Without Words and The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, which received the Kate Chopin Literary Award among many other prizes and honors. Her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and in the O. Henry Prize Stories anthologies, and her novels have been translated into a dozen languages and published around the world. She lives in San Carlos, California.
Rob Roberge is the author of four books of fiction, The Cost of Living, Working Backwards from the Worst Moment of my Life, More Then They Could Chew, and Drive, and the upcoming memoir, LIAR (Crown, 2016). His work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including ZYZZYVA, Chelsea, Black Clock, Other Voices, Alaska Quarterly Review, and the “Ten Writers Worth Knowing” issue of The Literary Review. He plays guitar and sings with several LA bands, including, among others, the punk pioneers, The Urinals. He lives in southern California and teaches at the UCR/Palm Desert low-residency MFA program.
Jason Roberts is the author of A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveler (HarperCollins), and the forthcoming Two Shipwrecks: Survival, Obsession and Courage in Lands Beyond the Sea (Norton). He is the winner of the Van Zorn Prize for emerging writers, sponsored and awarded by Michael Chabon, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Guardian First Book Award.
Lalita Tademy is the New York Times bestselling author of three historical novels. Her debut, Cane River, was Oprah’s summer Book Pick in 2001, translated into 11 languages, and became San Francisco’s One City, One Book in 2007. Stanford University recently selected Cane River as assigned reading for all incoming freshmen in 2015. Her second novel, Red River, was released to critical acclaim in 2007. Her third novel, Citizens Creek, was published in November 2014. She has been featured in People Magazine, O Magazine, More Magazine, Good Housekeeping, The Today Show, The Early Show, CNN, and the Oprah Winfrey Show, and has appeared as a speaker for the Library of Congress and National Book Festival, the California Governor’s Conference for Women, African American Librarians – Black Caucus, Louisiana Library Association, Professional Businesswomen of California, National Association of Principals for Girls, and as a San Francisco Library Laureate. She lives in northern California with her husband, Barry Williams.
Ayelet Waldman is the author of Love and Treasure, Red Hook Road and The New York Times bestseller Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities and Occasional Moments of Grace. Her novel Love and Other Impossible Pursuits was adapted into a film called “The Other Woman” starring Natalie Portman. Her personal essays and profiles of such public figures as Hillary Clinton have been published in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Vogue, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Her radio commentaries have appeared on All Things Considered and This American Life. Her books are published throughout the world, in countries as disparate as England and Thailand, the Netherlands and China, Russia and Israel, South Korea, and Italy.
Why There Are Words takes place every second Thursday of the month, when people come from San Francisco, the North Bay, the East Bay, the South Bay–everywhere–to crowd the house. Peg Alford Pursell is the founder and curator.
