12th season of Authors! Authors! features novelists, journalists
9/18/2005The writers of two beautifully crafted coming-of-age novels - one about a white girl who takes refuge with a Southern black family during the nascent Civil Rights movement, the other about a rich boy in Afghanistan and his adoring servant/playmate who inspires jealousy - will speak in Toledo as part of the 12th Authors! Authors! series.
Sue Monk Kidd, author of the best-selling The Secret Life of Bees, will talk Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Stranahan Theater. She's the second of six writers in the 2005-2006 Authors! Authors! season, sponsored by The Blade and the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.
And on April 3, Khaled Hosseini, a California internist, will discuss his compelling 2003 debut, The Kite Runner. Set in Kabul during the last days of the tranquil monarchy before the Soviet invasion, it hops to California, then back, years later, to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Through it all, young Amir, the protagonist, wrestles with his conscience.
Jon Meacham is managing editor of Newsweek magazine, supervising coverage of politics, international affairs, and breaking news. In Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, he chronicled the wartime relationship between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
Meacham is scheduled to speak Nov. 8.
Cartoonist Jeff Smith, creator of the Bone cartoon books and the zany world of Boneville, speaks March 7. Smith drew comic strips for Ohio State University's student newspaper for four years.
Concluding the season are two reporters whose investigation into Tiger Force, a U.S. military platoon that committed atrocities during the Vietnam war, won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for The Blade. Mitch Weiss and Michael Sallah, former reporters for The Blade, have expanded on the series in a book slated for publication in the spring. They'll speak on May 23.
The season opened Wednesday with Karen Harper, a Columbus-area resident and a native of Toledo. She has written 44 historical and contemporary suspense novels.
Authors! Authors! talks are at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Stranahan Theater, 4645 Heath-
erdowns Blvd. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $8 for students with college ID. Discounted tickets can be purchased as a package for the three spring programs for $27 by calling 419-259-5266. Single-event tickets can be purchased at the door or library branches.