By Barbara Falconer Newhall
Want to have some fun? Sip a cocktail in interesting company? Bid in a silent auction for Warriors tickets or a visit to Disneyland? Meet some cool Bay Area authors — like Don Lattin, Joyce Maynard and, um, me?
You can do all that and support the terrific public libraries of Walnut Creek, California.
As you might know, Walnut Creek is my old stomping grounds. It’s there, on the religion beat of what was then the Contra Costa Times, that I first heard the siren song to write my book, Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith.
To join the party, simply accept this invitation to attend the Walnut Creek Library Foundation’s ninth Annual Authors Gala, on Saturday evening, April 28th.
Take your choice — grab one of the few remaining dinner tickets (the author’s tables are sold out), or just come for the reception. Reception attendees will enjoy appetizers, drinks, the silent auction and a chance to meet some of the 20 authors participating in the gala. You can also purchase their books for signing.
The Bay Area authors include . . .
Shanna Farrell is an interviewer at UC Berkeley’s Oral History Center and the author of Bay Area Cocktails: A History of Culture, Community and Craft.
Don Lattin is an award-winning journalist and author of six books. His Changing Our Minds – Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy chronicles a quiet revolution in our understanding of how psychedelic drugs work. Don also wrote the foreword to Wrestling with God.
Joyce Maynard is the popular author of sixteen novels, including To Die For and Labor Day, and the bestselling memoir At Home in the World. Her memoir, The Best of Us, is a heart-wrenching reflection on love and great loss.
Emily Murphy is the author of the foodie-centric garden blog Pass The Pistil. Her new book, Grow What You Love, is a simple guide to growing vegetables, herbs and more.
Caroline Paul is the author of Lost Cat, a True Story of Love, Desperation and GPS Technology and Fighting Fire, a memoir about her 13-plus years as a San Francisco firefighter.
Jason Turbow authored Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic, which addresses the Oakland A’s of the 1970s—a revolutionary band of brawling Hall of Famers—who won three straight championships and knocked baseball into the modern age.
Christopher Sindt teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at St. Mary’s College of California. His System and Population is a lyrical account of the proposed damming of California’s American River.
See you there.