From Kate Christensen -- the acclaimed PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of The Great Man -- comes The Last Cruise, a riveting high-seas adventure that combines Christensen's signature wit, irony, and humanity to create a striking and unforgettable vision of our times.

The 1950s vintage ocean liner Queen Isabella is making her final voyage before heading to the scrapyard. For the guests on board, among them Christine Thorne, a former journalist turned Maine farmer, it's a chance to experience the bygone mid-twentieth century era of decadent luxury cruising, complete with fine dining, classic highballs, string quartets, and sophisticated jazz. Smoking is allowed but not cell phones -- or children, for that matter. The Isabella sets sail from Long Beach, California into calm seas on a two-week retro cruise to Hawaii and back.

But this is the second decade of an uncertain new millennium, not the sunny, heedless '50s, and certain disquieting signs of strife and malfunction above and below decks intrude on the festivities. Down in the main galley, Mick Szabo, a battle-weary Hungarian executive sous-chef, watches escalating tensions among the crew. Meanwhile, Miriam Koslow, an elderly Israeli violinist with the Sabra Quartet, becomes increasingly aware of the age-related vulnerabilities of the ship herself and the cynical corners cut by the cruise ship company, Cabaret.

When a time of crisis begins, Christine, Mick, and Miriam find themselves facing the unknown together in an unexpected and startling test of their characters.

Kate Christensen is the author of six previous novels, most recently The Astral. Her fourth novel, The Great Man, won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. She is also the author of two food-centric memoirs, Blue Plate Special and How to Cook a Moose, which won the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Memoir. She has published many essays and reviews, most recently in Vogue, Elle, Bookforum, O, the Oprah Magazine, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Food and Wine. She lives with her husband in Portland, Maine.

In Conversation with Noah Griffin

This event is to support The Phoenix Project of Marin, a program of Performing Stars, which guides at-risk males to develop the personal, social, and economic skills to become productive citizens.

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Growing up poor and black in the rigidly segregated South, Spencer Christian relied on his family's solid work ethic, commitment to education, and Christian faith to carve a path to success and national visibility. As weatherman and co-host for ABC's Good Morning America, he thought he had everything -- a loving wife and children, a beautiful home, and a rewarding and remarkable career.

Yet, he was living a double life. For nearly 30 years, he was a compulsive gambler. By the time he found the courage to confront his dependence, he had lost millions, his home, his job -- and most important -- his family.

You Bet Your Life tells the roller-coaster story of Christian's rise to success and crash to rock bottom. It also details his rebounding, rebuilding, and recovering of hope and happiness. This gripping and transparent tale will amuse, shock, and inspire.

Spencer Christian is an Emmy Award-winning reporter best known for his thirteen years on Good Morning America where he covered the national weather reports in addition to traveling throughout the United States and abroad reporting on a wide range of topics. Since January 1999, Spencer Christian has been the weather forecaster on San Francisco's ABC7 News team.  In Baltimore, he won an Emmy Award for a special series of reports entitled "Does Anyone Here Speak English?" focusing on declining language skills among America's youth. Spencer was inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame in April 1993, and was named Virginian of the Year by the Virginia Press Association in July 1993. A longtime wine enthusiast, Spencer hosted Spencer Christian's Wine Cellar on HGTV and the Food Network from 1995 to 1999.

Noah Griffin is a journalist, poet and Cole Porter Society Founder.

In Conversation with Alta Magazine’s Digit Editor and San Francisco Chronicle Columnist Beth Spotswood

Emergency and survival experts Jim and Janelle Fazackerley will detail how we can best prepare for “The Big One” — no matter where we find ourselves when an earthquake strikes. Learn from a former big-city EMS Operations Chief and Loma Prieta EMS researcher exactly what you’ll need in your emergency survival kits (for both car and home) and dig through some actual pre-stocked emergency backpack available commercially to explore the missing ingredients. This updated and informative discussion will assist you in keeping your family (pets included) best equipped when disaster strikes.

Please note: this event will be preceded by another Meet & Greet with author Leslie Jonath!

A French cheesemonger and an American academic and ex-pat join forces to serve up a sumptuous history of France and its food, in the delicious tradition of Anthony Bourdain, Peter Mayle, and Pamela Druckerman.

From the cassoulet that won a war to the cr pe that doomed Napoleon, from the rebellions sparked by bread and salt to the new cuisines forged by empire, the history of France is intimately entwined with its gastronomic pursuits. A witty exploration of the facts and legends surrounding some of the most popular French foods and wines by a French cheesemonger and an American academic, A Bite-Sized History of France tells the compelling and often surprising story of France from the Roman era to modern times. Traversing the cuisines of France's most famous cities as well as its underexplored regions, this innovative social history explores the impact of war and imperialism, the age-old tension between tradition and innovation, and the enduring use of food to prop up social and political identities.

The origins of the most legendary French foods and wines -- from Roquefort and cognac to croissants and Calvados, from absinthe and oysters to Camembert and champagne -- also reveal the social and political trends that propelled France's rise upon the world stage. They help explain France's dark history of war and conquest, as well as its most enlightened cultural achievements and the political and scientific innovations that transformed human history. These gastronomic tales will edify even the most seasoned lovers of food, history and all things French.

Stéphane Hénaut's wide-ranging career in food includes working in the Harrods fromagerie, cooking for the Lord Mayor of London's banquets, and selling obscure vegetables in a French fruiterie. He lives in Berlin.

Jeni Mitchell is a teaching fellow in the Department of War Studies, King's College London. She lives in Berlin.

For readers of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir comes The Romanov Empress -- a dramatic novel of the beloved Empress Maria, the Danish girl who became the mother of the last Russian tsar.

Even from behind the throne, a woman can rule.

Narrated by the mother of Russia's last tsar, this vivid, historically authentic novel brings to life the courageous story of Maria Feodorovna, one of Imperial Russia's most compelling women, who witnessed the splendor and tragic downfall of the Romanovs as she fought to save her dynasty in its final years.

Barely nineteen, Minnie knows that her station in life as a Danish princess is to leave her family and enter into a royal marriage--as her older sister Alix has done, moving to England to wed Queen Victoria's eldest son. The winds of fortune bring Minnie to Russia, where she marries the Romanov heir, Alexander, and once he ascends the throne, becomes empress. When resistance to his reign strikes at the heart of her family and the tsar sets out to crush all who oppose him, Minnie -- now called Maria--must tread a perilous path of compromise in a country she has come to love.

Her husband's death leaves their son Nicholas as the inexperienced ruler of a deeply divided and crumbling empire. Determined to guide him to reforms that will bring Russia into the modern age, Maria faces implacable opposition from Nicholas's strong-willed wife, Alexandra, whose fervor has led her into a disturbing relationship with a mystic named Rasputin. As the unstoppable wave of revolution rises anew to engulf Russia, Maria will face her most dangerous challenge and her greatest heartache.

From the opulent palaces of St. Petersburg and the intrigue-laced salons of the aristocracy to the World War I battlefields and the bloodied countryside occupied by the Bolsheviks, C. W. Gortner sweeps us into the anarchic fall of an empire and the complex, bold heart of the woman who tried to save it.

C. W. Gortner holds an MFA in writing, with an emphasis on historical studies, from the New College of California. He is the internationally acclaimed and bestselling author of Mademoiselle Chanel, The Queen's Vow, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici, The Last Queen, The Vatican Princess, and Marlene, among other books. He divides his time between Northern California and Antigua, Guatemala.

Our current climate of partisan fury is not new, and The Soul of America shows us how what Abraham Lincoln called the "better angels of our nature" have repeatedly won the day.

Painting surprising portraits of Lincoln and other presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson, and illuminating the courage of such influential citizen activists as Martin Luther King, Jr., early suffragettes Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt, civil rights pioneers Rosa Parks and John Lewis, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Army-McCarthy hearings lawyer Joseph N. Welch, Jon Meacham brings vividly to life turning points in American history. He writes about the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the birth of the Lost Cause; the backlash against immigrants in the First World War and the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s; the fight for women's rights; the demagoguery of Huey Long and Father Coughlin and the isolationist work of America First in the years before World War II; the anti-Communist witch-hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy; and Lyndon Johnson's crusade against Jim Crow. Each of these dramatic hours in our national life have been shaped by the contest to lead the country to look forward rather than back, to assert hope over fear -- a struggle that continues even now.

While the American story has not always -- or even often -- been heroic, we have been sustained by a belief in progress even in the gloomiest of times. In this inspiring book, Meacham reassures us, "The good news is that we have come through such darkness before" -- as, time and again, Lincoln's better angels have found a way to prevail.

Jon Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer. The author of the New York Times bestsellers Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, Franklin and Winston, and Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, he is a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University, a contributing writer for the New York Times Book Review, and a fellow of the Society of American Historians. Meacham lives in Nashville and in Sewanee with his wife and children.

Going through a break-up or divorce is difficult. Julie Tuton has been there and understands the struggle. She also knows something else is possible. In ending a 20 year marriage, she used the tools featured in her new book to facilitate her transition. So many people commented on the ease with which her separation and divorce occurred, that they inquired about what she had done that was so different.  Even her mediator was curious.  She wrote Beauty in the Breakup for everyone who is seeking a different possibility navigating this often treacherous area of change.

​​Coming from Boston, Julie Tuton has an East Coast edge, softened by over 25 years of living in the San Francisco Bay Area.  She has a razor sharp awareness that allows  her to cut through to the core of your issues with kindness and caring. She lives in the space of non-judgment, allowing her to be very real and present with you. Applying her awareness and practical tools to step into places of change in her own personal life, she comes from a place of vulnerability, compassion, and knowing that if she could move through such transitions with ease, she can facilitate others as well.

In Conversation with Gavin Austin
Fundraiser for Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative!

This event is a special fundraiser for Bryan Stevenson's Equal Justice Initiative. The event is free and open to the public but donations are encouraged at the door. Author's proceeds for books sold at this event will also go to the EJI.

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Boston, 1870. Photographer Edward Moody runs a booming business capturing the images of the spirits of the departed in his portraits. He lures grieving widows and mourning mothers into his studio with promises of catching the ghosts of their deceased loved ones with his camera. Despite the whispers around town that Moody is a fraud of the basest kind, no one has been able to expose him, and word of his gift has spread, earning him money, fame, and a growing list of illustrious clients.

One day, while developing the negative from a sitting to capture the spirit of the young son of an abolitionist senator, Moody is shocked to see a different spectral figure develop before his eyes. Instead of the staged image of the boy he was expecting, the camera has seemingly captured the spirit of a beautiful young woman. Is it possible that the spirit photographer caught a real ghost? When Moody recognizes the woman in the photograph as the daughter of an escaped slave he knew long ago, he is compelled to travel from Boston to the Louisiana bayous to resolve their unfinished business--and perhaps save his soul. But more than one person is out to stop him . . .

With dramatic twists and redolent of the mood of the Southern Gothic, The Spirit Photographer conjures the Reconstruction era South, replete with fugitive hunters, voodoo healers, and other dangers lurking in the swamp. Jon Michael Varese's deftly plotted first novel is an intense tale of death and betrayal that will thrill readers as they unravel the dreadful mystery behind the spirit in the photograph and what ultimately became of her.

Jon Michael Varese is a literary historian whose focus has been the significance of the 19th-century British novel in both Britain and America, and is the Director of Public Outreach for The Dickens Project at the University of California Santa Cruz. He is also the editor of the Signature edition of Great Expectations.

Gavin Austin has had a long career in writing and public speaking, and is a Principal Technical Writer at Salesforce. He has spoken before large audiences at Dreamforce, WritersUA, LavaCon, Midwest Dreamin', Intelligent Content Conference, Information Development World, and more. His nonfiction has appeared in Spectrum, Eclectica, Ultrarunning Magazine, and elsewhere. 

Collecting the most celebrated stories from the hit podcast Risk!, along with all-new true tales about explosive secrets and off-the-wall adventures, this book paints a spellbinding portrait of the transformational moments we experience in life but rarely talk about. No topics are off-limits in Risk!, no memories too revealing to share. From accidentally harboring a teen fugitive to being poisoned while tripping on LSD in the Mayan ruins, these stories transport readers into uncharted territory and show how your life can change when you take an extraordinary leap.

In these jaw-dropping stories, edited and introduced by Risk! host Kevin Allison, writers reveal how they pushed drugs for a Mexican cartel only to end up kidnapped and nearly killed, how they joined a terrifying male-empowerment cult and fought desperately for a way out, how they struggled with pregnancy complications and found a hero where they least expected it, and so much more. A lifelong construction worker shares the intimate details of transitioning to being a woman, a bestselling author discusses how he assumed the identity of his babysitter online in a social experiment gone awry, and a beloved comedian discusses how a blow job from a prostitute changed his life. By turns cautionary and inspiring, RISK presents an extraordinary panorama of the breadth of human experience and a stunning tribute to the power of the truth to set us free.

Featuring essays by:

• Aisha Tyler
• A.J. Jacobs
• Michael Ian Black
• Marc Maron
• Lili Taylor
• Dan Savage
• Paul F. Tompkins
• TS Madison
• Jonah Ray
• And many more

With his writing and acting work on MTV's legendary sketch comedy series, The State, as well as on Reno 911!, High Maintenance, Blue Man Group and more, Kevin Allison has created all kinds of stories. In 2009, he launched Risk!, the live show and podcast where people tell true stories they never thought they'd dare to share, which is downloaded over 2.5 million times per month. Allison is also the founder of The Story Studio in New York, where he has taught the art of storytelling to bestselling authors, well-known comedians, and executives from a range of fields.

The "Courage to Heal" Memoir Panel will be moderated by Linda Joy Myers, PhD, MFT, and president and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW). A Q&A between Myers and the panelists will focus on healing in life and on the page and the role memoir writing plays in the healing process. Questions will include, “What does it mean to heal? What needs healing? How can we heal ourselves and our world? Is healing a responsibility? Who are the “real” healers?” Each author has passed through a crucible of physical, mental, or spiritual illness—some life-threatening—and survived to tell their story. An audience Q&A will follow the panel discussion.

Moderator

Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D., MFT, is president and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers. Her first memoir, Don’t Call Me Mother: A Daughter’s Journey from Abandonment to Forgiveness, was a finalist in the ForeWord Book of the Year Award and the IndieExcellence Awards, and a BAIPA Gold Medal award winner. Her new memoir, Song of the Plains, is a finalist in the Best Book Awards. Author of The Power of Memoir—How to Write Your Healing Story, Journey of Memoir, and Becoming Whole, her prize-winning fiction, nonfiction, and memoir pieces have been published in literary journals and online. She writes for the Huffington Post, and is co-author with Brooke Warner of Breaking Ground on Your Memoir. Linda Joy has been a therapist for 40 years, where the power of story is part of the healing process. A memoir coach for two decades, Myers helps people dive deep into writing their truths while crafting a publishable story. Her monthly programs on NAMW offer writers tools about breaking silence, developing a powerful story, and finding the best publishing path.

Panel

Bella Mahaya Carter is a writing teacher, developmental editor, and empowerment coach with a lifelong passion for creativity, health, and healing. She is the author of Raw: My Journey from Anxiety to Joy (She Writes Press, May 2018) and Secrets of My Sex (Bombshelter Press, May 2008), a collection of narrative poems. Her poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have appeared in MindBodyGreen; The Sun, Lilith; Calyx; Literary Mama; and elsewhere. Her work has been anthologized in The Magic of Memoir: Inspiration for the Writing Journey; Grandmothers’ Necklace; and Writing Our Way Out of The Dark: An Anthology of Literary Acts of Bravery. She’s a featured columnist on SheWrites.com and maintains her own blog, Body, Mind, Spirit: Inspiration for Writers, Dreamers, and Seekers of Health & Happiness.

Paige Davis is an entrepreneur, writer, cancer survivor, mindfulness facilitator, and meditation teacher. She is the founder of Soul Sparks, where she leads and facilitates meditation and mindfulness programming for companies, teams, and individuals seeking more patience, productivity, and present-moment awareness. Paige is also co-founder of social impact brand, BlueAvocado. The company’s thoughtful designs and creative solutions invite people to live a greener, simpler, and more mindful life. Paige received a BA in Journalism and Environmental Science from the University of Indiana and holds certifications from the Mclean Meditation Institute, Western School of Feng Shui and Pilates Center of Austin. Her work has been featured in the Huffington Post and MindBodyGreen. Her book Here We Grow: Mindfulness Through Cancer and Beyond will be published in May 2018 by She Writes Press.

Gayle Greene grew up in the Santa Clara Valley, now “Silicon,” when it was still “the valley of heart’s delight.”  She writes of this in her most recent book, Missing Persons: A Memoir, “a fascinating foray into loss, grief, and self-identity…reminiscent of Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking.”   A longtime professor at Scripps College, Claremont, she began her writing life with books about Shakespeare, women writers, and feminist theory. Her interests then shifted to health and the environment, and she wrote a biography of pioneer British radiation epidemiologist and anti-nuclear warrior, The Woman Who Knew Too Much:  Alice Stewart and the Secrets of Radiation. She then wrote Insomniac, a first person account of living with insomnia and an investigation into sleep science. She lives in the Bay Area and Mendocino. 

Leah E. Reinhart is a hair stylist and angel card reader turned author. Her memoir is Manifesting Me: A Story of Rebellion and Redemption. When the market crashed and business was slow, her hair clients encouraged her to write a memoir after hearing some of her stories about her unusual childhood in Oakland, California. She started writing and a whole new journey began as she began to fall in love with writing and reading. Leah E. Reinhart is a mother of two and a wife, and currently works in her not-so-ordinary salon, Wellness Garden Tool Shed.

CUESA Meet & Greet

In the memoir The Healing, a young black American woman signs up for lessons in yoga and clean eating as signifiers of her new middle class status, little realizing that her new lifestyle will bring her face to face with the inner demons fed by the domestic violence, addiction, and poverty she witnessed as a child.

Graduating, getting established in your career, and dating another professional are things many young middle-class women expect to do and take for granted. But when your parents don't support you and you have siblings in prison, those milestones seem monumental. What does growing up poor do to your self-esteem? How do patterns of stress and family violence, poor diet and poor health continue to affect you even after you escape to a higher income bracket? And what can one woman do to turn around the cycle of racism, poverty, and intergenerational suffering? Hafiz gives a frank account of the anxiety and rewards of becoming "middle class" through a complete change of diet and adopting habits such as traveling and doing yoga. While her peers pursue one kind of African American dream by climbing the corporate ladder, Hafiz finds meaning in learning to cook macrobiotic food and practice meditation. By doing so, she recovers from chronic health conditions and heals from the family trauma she has inherited.

Saeeda Hafiz is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia. She spent her twenties working in management, believing mainstream success was her key out. After discovering the power of yoga to transform, she took a leap of faith to train to become a yoga teacher and wellness expert. She studied yoga at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers and Ashrams and holistic nutrition at Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City and keeps a busy schedule as a yoga teacher and speaker. For the past twenty years she has held leadership positions in the YMCA, the San Francisco Unified School District, and other organizations to bring a more holistic understanding of physical and mental wellness to a diverse population.

In Bug Girl: Fury on the Dance Floor, after discovering her bug powers and saving the town of Oyster Cove, Amanda “Bug Girl” Price and her ex-best friend Emily have spent the entire summer together in superhero training. But when the first day of seventh grade arrives, nothing has changed on the social front. Emily is as obsessed with popularity as ever, ignoring Amanda in favor of new-girl Geri, whose favorite activity is making fun of Amanda.

When Geri reveals herself as the true villain bent on Oyster Cove’s destruction at the school dance, Emily taps into her fury to help Bug Girl save the day.

Sarah Hines Stephens grew up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where she liked to build habitats for woolly bear caterpillars and roller-skate in the carport. She has been a bookseller, an editor, a ghostwriter, an author, a garden instructor, and a lab assistant -- and still holds many of those jobs. She makes her home in Oakland, California, where she lives with three humans, two dogs, and an ever-changing cast of house spiders.

Benjamin Harper is originally from St. Petersburg, Florida, where hot summers fostered his love of bugs. He has been involved in children's books, as both an editor and an author, for almost as long as he can remember. Currently, he resides in Los Angeles, California, where he raises monarch butterflies and lives with a cat, a dog, and a hippie.

In Conversation with Petaluma artist Michael Garlington

Every August, tens of thousands of participants gather to celebrate artistic expression in Nevada's barren Black Rock Desert. This vastly inhospitable location, called the playa, is the site of Burning Man, where, within a 9-mile fence, artists called Burners create a temporary city devoted to art and participation. Braving extreme elements, artists create over two hundred wildly ambitious works intended to delight, provoke, involve, or amaze. In 2015, over 70,000 people attended -- the highest number ever allowed on the playa.

As Burning Man has created new context, new categories of art have emerged, including Art to Ride, Collaborative Art, and of course, Art to Burn. Burning Man: Art on Fire is an authorized collection of some of the most stunning examples of Burning Man art, now updated to include 2015. Experience the amazing sculptures, art, stories, and interviews from the world's greatest gathering of artists. Get lost in a rich gallery of images showcasing the best examples of playa art with over 200 photos. Interviews with the artists reveal not only their motivation to create art specifically for Burning Man, but they also illuminate the dramatic efforts it took to create their pieces. Featuring the incredible photography of long-time Burning Man photographers Sidney Erthal and Scott London, an introduction from Burning Man founder Larry Harvey, and a foreword from Will Chase, this stunning slipcased edition with a frameable print allows Burners and enthusiasts alike to have a piece of Burning Man with them all year around.

Jennifer Raiser is Treasurer of the Burning Man Project and serves on the Senior Executive Committee of the Board. Her bestselling book, Burning Man: Art of Fire, was first published in 2014. As she’s known in the desert, “Coco Cabana” is a Black Rock Ranger and a decade-long Burner. She’s happiest on the Playa when riding her mutant vehicle, The Kazbus or besting in her leopard-upholstered 1968 Airstream.

Join Jennifer for a lively and detailed discussion on the art and creativity of Burning Man, and the big names behind the biggest art installations to have graced the Playa. 

We have long understood the Industrial Revolution as a triumphant story of innovation and technology. Empire of Guns, a rich and ambitious new book by award-winning historian Priya Satia, upends this conventional wisdom by placing war and Britain's prosperous gun trade at the heart of the Industrial Revolution and the state's imperial expansion.

Satia brings to life this bustling industrial society with the story of a scandal: Samuel Galton of Birmingham, one of Britain's most prominent gunmakers, has been condemned by his fellow Quakers, who argue that his profession violates the society's pacifist principles. In his fervent self-defense, Galton argues that the state's heavy reliance on industry for all of its war needs means that every member of the British industrial economy is implicated in Britain's near-constant state of war.

Satia uses the story of Galton and the gun trade, from Birmingham to the outermost edges of the British empire, to illuminate the nation's emergence as a global superpower, the roots of the state's role in economic development, and the origins of our era's debates about gun control and the "military-industrial complex" -- that thorny partnership of government, the economy, and the military. Through Satia's eyes, we acquire a radically new understanding of this critical historical moment and all that followed from it.

Sweeping in its scope and entirely original in its approach, this is a masterful new work of history -- a rigorous historical argument with a human story at its heart.

Priya Satia is a Professor of History at Stanford University. She is the author of Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East, and her writing has appeared in Slate, the Financial Times, The Nation, and the Huffington Post, among other publications. She received a MSc in Development Studies (Economics) at the London School of Economics and a PhD in History at the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Stanford, California with her family.