Winter/Spring 2008

All Evenings with Authors events begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $18 in advance, $20 at the door, with discounts for students and seniors. To purchase tickets, call Thurber House at 614-464-1032 or click here to purchase online.

Special thanks to Barnes & Noble Booksellers, the Westin Great Southern Hotel and to our media sponsor, WOSU Public Media for their ongoing support of this series. Thanks also to the Greater Columbus Arts Council, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Mrs. Robert L. Barnes Endowment and the Benham Memorial funds of the Columbus Foundation.

Kurt Andersen
Tues., Jan. 15; Columbus School for Girls, 56 S. Columbia Ave.

“Delightful, intelligent. A true novel of ideas. Rowdy, knowing - and wholly American.”
—Publishers Weekly

In 2003, New York Magazine named Kurt Andersen one of the 100 People Who Changed New York. He will read from his New York Times bestselling novel, Heyday, a wildly entertaining tale of America’s boisterous coming of age. It is an affecting story of four people passionately chasing their American dreams at a time when America herself was still being dreamed up. Andersen is an accomplished journalist, and writer of film, television and stage. His first novel, Turn of the Century, was also a national bestseller. He co-founded the legendary Spy magazine, writes the column “The Imperial City” for New York magazine, and contributes to Vanity Fair.

John Burnham Schwartz
Fri., Feb. 8; Columbus College of Art and Design, Canzani Center

“Schwartz pulls off a grand feat in giving readers a moving dramatization of a cloistered world.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

John Burnham Schwartz is the author of several novels including Bicycle Days and Reservations Road, which is now a movie. He will read from his newest novel, The Commoner, a tale steeped in the traditions and rituals of Japanese royal life. It is one woman’s story from humble beginnings to Empress - and the cost of such a transformation. His books have been translated into more than fifteen languages, and his writing appears in many publications, including the New York Times, The New Yorker, and Vogue. He lives with his wife and son in Brooklyn, New York.

Lee Woodruff
Mon., Feb. 25; Columbus School for Girls, 56 S. Columbia Ave.

“Both Woodruffs [shoot] from the hip, writing with candor about their ordeal... Their frankness heightens the book’s impact.”
— New York Times

Lee Woodruff will read from her book, In an Instant: A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing, co-authored with her husband Bob Woodruff. A frank and compelling memoir, In an Instant details the Woodruffs’ difficult journey during Bob’s critical injury in Iraq while anchoring a broadcast for ABC News. Woodruff is a freelance writer, public relations executive and contributing editor to ABC’s Good Morning America. She and Bob have also established the Bob Woodruff Family Fund for Traumatic Brain Injury to raise money to assist members of the military with care needs following traumatic brain injury. She, Bob and their four children live in Westchester County, New York.

Mary Doria Russell
Wed., Mar. 12; Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 Franklin Ave.

“Russell is an outstanding natural storyteller whose remarkable wit, erudition, and dramatic skills keep us turning the pages in excitement and anticipation.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

Mary Doria Russell’s latest novel, Dreamers of the Day, goes behind the scenes at the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference when Winston Churchill, Lady Gertrude Bell and Lawrence of Arabia invented the modern Middle East. The book follows 40-year-old schoolteacher, Agnes Shanklin, to Egypt and the Holy Land where she meets Lawrence. Telling her own story of late-life romance, Agnes finds herself drawn into geopolitical decisions that echo in our lives to this day. Russell’s novels include The Sparrow, Children of God, and A Thread of Grace, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

Joanne Harris
Mon., Apr. 28; Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 Franklin Ave.

“[Harris’s] prose read like poetry, and it is a physical experience to fall into her imagery.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer

Joanne Harris, author of New York Times bestseller Chocolat, which was made into a Oscar-nominated film starring Johnny Depp, will read from her eagerly-anticipated sequel, The Girl with No Shadow, a dazzling urban fairy tale set in Paris five years after Chocolat. Harris is the author of several novels including Blackberry Wine, Holy Fools and The French Kitchen: A Cookbook, and her books have been published in 40 different countries. She lives in England with her husband and daughter.

Nancy Horan

Thurs., June 5; Columbus Museum of Art, 480 E. Broad St.

“Loving Frank is a novel of impressive scope and ambition. Like her characters,
Horan is going for something big and lasting here, and that is to be admired.”
—Washington Post’s Book World

Nancy Horan will read from her New York Times bestselling debut novel, Loving Frank, an ambitious tale that blends fact and fiction relating to the clandestine love affair between Mamah Borthwick Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America’s greatest architect, Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Cheney’s profound influence on Wright. Elegantly written and remarkably rich in detail, Loving Frank is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman, a national icon, and their timeless love story. Horan is a former journalist and longtime resident of Oak Park, Illinois. She now lives and writes on an island in Puget Sound.