THE ADVENTURES STARTED HERE

The Adventures Started Here

Writers Reading for Twain

A fundraiser to benefit The Mark Twain House & Museum

Tuesday, September 23

The Lincoln Financial Auditorium at 

The Mark Twain Museum Center

6 - 7 p.m. Reception

7 - 9 p.m. Readings

9 - 9:30 p.m. Book signings

Admission: $40/Reading and book signing

$100/Reception, reading and book signing

For reservations call 860.280.3152 or email info@marktwainhouse.org

FEATURING

Tasha Alexander - Author of And Only to Deceive, A Poisoned Season, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and A Fatal Waltz. Based on the sequel to the Academy Award-winning Elizabeth, Elizabeth: The Golden Age tells the thrilling tale of an era—the story of one woman's crusade to control love, crush enemies, and secure her position as a beloved icon of the Western world.

Philip Beard - His first novel, Dear Zoe, was a Borders "Original Voices" selection, a Book Sense pick and was named by the American Library Association’s Booklist as one of the Ten Best First Novels of the Year. It was also selected by School Library Journal as a Best Adult Book for High School Students. His second novel, Lost in the Garden, was nominated for the USGA’s International Book Award.

Andy Carroll - is the editor of several New York Times bestsellers, including Behind the Lines and War Letters. His most recent book is Operation Homecoming, which inspired the 2008 Oscar-nominated documentary of the same name. Andy is also the founder of the Legacy Project, a national, all-volunteer initiative that encourages Americans to preserve wartime correspondence.  He is also the co-founder, with the late Nobel Laureate Joseph Brodsky, of the American Poetry & Literacy Project, which distributes free poetry books in public venues nationwide. Since 1993, the APL Project has handed out more than 1,000,000 new books.

Jon Clinch - Author of Finn which was named an ALA Notable Book for 2008 and was chosen as one of the year's top novels by the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, Book Sense and Amazon.com. Finn also won the Philadelphia Athenaeum Literacy Award and was shortlisted for both the National Book Critics Circle's first-ever Best Recommended List and the Sargent First Novel Prize.

David Gates - is the author of the novels Jernigan and Preston Falls and a collection of stories, The Wonders of the Invisible World. His fiction has appeared in such magazines as The New Yorker, Esquire, GQ and Ploughshares. He is a former Senior Editor at Newsweek, where he wrote about books and music; other nonfiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, BookForum, GQ, The Oxford American, Tin House, H.O.W. and the Journal of Country Music. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, and his books have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Robert Hicks - his first novel, The Widow of the South, was born out of his many years of work at the Historic Carnton Plantation and his passion for the preservation of the remaining fragments of the battlefield in Franklin, Tennessee. In writing the novel, his hope was to bring national attention back to this moment in our nation’s history, the impact those five bloody hours played in making us a nation, and in the preservation of the sites tied to the story. The Widow of the South was launched in 2005 to overwhelming critical success, entering the NY Times best-sellers list after only one week out. In December 2005, the Nashville Tennessean named him ‘Tennessean of the Year’ for the impact The Widow of the South has had on Tennessee, heritage tourism and preservation.

Kristy Kiernan - Her first novel, Catching Genius, was published in March of 2007 and has become a book club favorite. Her second novel, Matters of Faith, will be published in August of 2008 and has garnered great advance reviews.

Phillip Lopate - has written three personal essay collections -- Bachelorhood (1981), Against Joie de Vivre (1989), and Portrait of My Body (1996); two novels, Confessions of Summer (1979) and The Rug Merchant (1987); two poetry collections, The Eyes Don't Always Want to Stay Open (1972) and The Daily Round (1976); a memoir of his teaching experiences, Being With Children (1975); a collection of his movie criticism, Totally Tenderly Tragically (Doubleday-Anchor); an urbanist meditation, Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan (2004); and a biographical monograph, Rudy Burckhardt: Photographer and Filmmaker(2004) In addition, there is a Phillip Lopate reader, Getting Personal: Selected Writings.

Amy MacKinnon – is a former congressional aide whose commentaries have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Seattle Times, and on National Public Radio. She began her writing career at age eleven when she nominated her dad to the National Father of the Year Committee. He won. Her debut novel, Tethered, is to be published by Shaye Areheart Books/Random House in August 2008, and was chosen by Borders for their Original Voices program.

Stewart O'Nan - His dozen novels include the award-winning Snow Angels, A Prayer for the Dying, The Good Wife, and Last Night at the Lobster. He's also the author of New England nonfiction favorites The Circus Fire and, with Stephen King, Faithful, the story of the 2004 Boston Red Sox. Stewart O’Nan is a current resident of the Hartford area and a former Professor at Trinity College.

Tom Perrotta - is the author of five previous work of fiction: Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, Election, and the New York Times bestselling Joe College and Little Children. Election was made into the acclaimed 1999 movie directed by Alexander Payne and starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon. Little Children was released as a movie directed by Todd Field and starring Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly in 2006. Perrotta has worked as a screenwriter and a journalist writing for several major publications including the New York Times Book Review, Rolling Stone and GQ. He has taught writing at Yale and Harvard.

Arthur Philips - His first novel, Prague, a national bestseller, was named a New York Times Notable Book, and received The Los Angeles Times/Art Seidenbaum Award for best first novel. His second novel, The Egyptologist, was a national and international bestseller, and was on more than a dozen "Best of 2004" lists. Angelica, his third novel, was a national bestseller and made The Washington Post's best fiction of 2007. His next novel, The Song Is You, will be published next spring. He has been a child actor, a jazz musician, a speechwriter, a dismally failed entrepreneur, and a five-time Jeopardy! champion.

It is only because of Jon Clinch's efforts that we are able to offer such an impressive list of authors under the same roof for this unforgettable evening. Everyone involved has graciously offered to volunteer their time as well as pay for their own travel costs in the hope of beginning a national outreach effort of authors supporting Twain. We are grateful for this remarkable group and hope that they inspire others to step forward and help save this national treasure.

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