Stephen Chbosky

Saturday, June 8 at 7:30 p.m.

Stephen Chbosky wrote and directed the feature film adaptation of his novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he graduated from the University of Southern California’s Filmic Writing Program. His first film, The Four Corners of Nowhere, premiered at Sundance Film Festival. He wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed film adaptation of Rent; and co-created the post-apocalyptic television drama, Jericho. He also edited Pieces, a collection of short stories for Pocket Books.

Elizabeth Berg

Sunday, June 9 at 7:30 p.m.

Elizabeth Berg is a New York Times Bestselling author. Durable Goods and Joy School were both selected as one of the American Library Association's Best Books of the Year. Talk Before Sleep was shortlisted for the American Bookseller’s Book of the Year. Open House was an Oprah’s Book Club Selection. In 1997, Elizabeth won the New England Booksellers Award for her body of work. She was made a “literary light” by the Boston Public Library, has been honored by the Chicago Public Library, and was given the AMC Cancer Research Center’s Illuminator Award for shedding light on breast cancer resulting in increased public awareness and concern.  She adapted her novel The Pull of the Moon into a play, which has twice been performed in Chicago. She has been translated into 27 languages.

Elizabeth submitted her first poem to American Girl magazine when she was nine years old. It was rejected, and it took twenty-five years before she submitted anything again. Before Elizabeth became a writer, she was a registered nurse for ten years, and that was her “school” for writing—taking care of patients taught her a lot about human nature, about hope and fear and love and loss and regret and triumph and especially about relationships--all things that she tends to focus on in her work. She was married for over twenty years and is now divorced. She has two daughters and three grandchildren. She lives with her excellent dogs, Homer Omar Fullofit, Gabigail Starletta Buttons, and her cat, Gracie Louise Pawplay, in Chicago.

Sue Grafton

Monday, June 10 at 7:30 p.m.

Sue Grafton is published in 28 countries and 26 languages—including Estonian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian. She's an international bestseller with a readership in the millions. She's a writer who believes in the form that she has chosen to mine: "The mystery novel offers a world in which justice is served. Maybe not in a court of law," she has said, "but people do get their just desserts." And like Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald, Robert Parker and the John D. MacDonald—the best of her breed—she has earned new respect for that form. Her readers appreciate her buoyant style, her eye for detail, her deft hand with character, her acute social observances, and her abundant storytelling talents.

But who is the real Sue Grafton? Many of her readers think she is simply a version of her character and alter ego Kinsey Millhone. And she has said that Kinsey is herself, only younger, smarter, and thinner. Well, she's been married to Steve Humphrey for more than thirty years. She has three kids and four granddaughters. She loves cats, gardens, and good cuisine—not quite the nature-hating, fast-food loving Millhone. So: readers and reviewers beware. Never assume the author is the character in the book. Sue, who has a home in Montecito, California ("Santa Teresa") and another in Louisville, the city in which she was born and raised, is only in her imagination Kinsey Millhone—but what a splendid imagination it is.

Jervey Tervalon

Tuesday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m.

Jervey Tervalon is the author of five books including Understanding This, for which he won the Quality Paper Book Club’s New Voice’s Award, and Dead Above Ground, the Los Angeles Times bestseller. He was the Remsen Bird Writer in Residence at Occidental College and now is an associate professor at National University and a Lecturer at the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara. His current novel Serving Monster, is available as a Kindle Book. He is also an award-winning poet, screenwriter, dramatist, and the director of the Literature for Life Project; a literary/salon magazine.

Jervey was born in New Orleans and raised in Los Angeles. He received his MFA from UC Irvine and studied with Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's Ark. He now lives in Altadena, California, with his wife and two daughters.

Thomas McGuane

Wednesday, June 12 at 7:30 p.m.

Thomas McGuane is the author of ten novels, short fiction and screenplays, as well as three collections of essays devoted to his life in the outdoors. He envisioned himself as a writer from a very young age, admiring what he perceived as the adventurous life of a writer as much as the prospect of writing. When he was ten years old, he got into a physical altercation with a friend over differing descriptions of a sunset. McGuane began a serious devotion to writing by the age of sixteen, and published his debut novel, The Sporting Club, in 1969. His third novel, Ninety-Two in the Shade, was nominated for the National Book Award, and he later wrote and directed the film adaptation, starring Peter Fonda. He also wrote the screenplays for Rancho Deluxe starring Jeff Bridges, The Missouri Breaks starring Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson, and Tom Horn with Steve McQueen. His stories have been collected in Best American Stories, Best American Essays, Best American Mystery Stories and Best American Sports Stories. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The National Cutting Horse Association Hall of Fame, and the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame.

His most recent novel, Driving On the Rim, was released in 2010. He lives on a ranch in McLeod, Montana.