Previous Events

Below are most of the Authors Writers Bloc has hosted over the past several years.
1996 / 1997:

Joan Didion
Scott Turow
Paul Theroux
Ursula Hegi
John Gregory Dunne

1997 / 1998:
A.S. Byatt
Garrison Keillor
A dramatic reading of Steve Tesich’s last novel with James Woods, Swoosie Kurtz, and Daniel Stern
Elmore Leonard with Martin Amis
Isabel Allende
Norman Mailer
Robert Stone
A night with Christopher Buckley, Steve Martin, Bruce McCall, and Wendy Wasserstein, moderated by Harry Shearer.
Calvin Trillin with Larry Gelbart
A program called “Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, Great Closing Arguments,” with all sorts of famous lawyers and judges.

1998 / 1999:
“The Trial of the Century,” a tribute to Franz Kafka, with Elliott Gould, Agnieszka Holland, Jane Smiley, Harry Shearer and Wim Wenders.
Alice Walker with Bebe Moore Campbell
Robin MacNeil with Howard Rosenberg
T.C. Boyle
Arthur Golden with Eric Lax
Steve Martin with Harry Shearer
Richard Ford
Andrei Codrescu with Harry Shearer
David Halberstam with Warren Olney
Elmore Leonard with Scott Frank
John Le Carre
David Guterson with Michael Connelly;
Joseph Heller
Annie Proulx with Michael Silverblatt
Gottfried Wagner with Martin Bernheimer
Paul Autser with Ricky Jay
Julia Sweeney with Sandra Tsing Loh

1999 / 2000:
Kurt Vonnegut with Christopher Hitchens
Eric Idle with Carrie Fisher
Roddy Doyle with Carolyn See
Thomas Keneally with Digby Diehl
Isaac Stern with Mark Swed
Gore Vidal with Steve Wasserman
John Berendt
John Irving
Frank McCourt with Sen. Tom Hayden
Herman Wouk with Carl Reiner
Bernhard Schlink with Barry Glassner
E.L. Doctorow with Michael Silverblatt
William Safire with Howard Rosenberg
William Goldman with John Cleese
Kinky Friedman with Carl Hiaasen
Nathan Englander with Aimee Bender
Joyce Carol Oates with Carolyn See
Bill Maher with Sandra Tsing Loh
Michael Ondaatje
Jane Smiley with Michael Feldman
Two programs with The New Yorker at The Mint.

2000 / 2001:

Margaret Atwood
Elmore Leonard
Gore Vidal with Michael Silverblatt
Kazuo Ishiguro with F.X. Feeney
Steve Martin with Adam Gopnik
James Atlas with Herbert Gold
Frank Rich with Larry Gelbart
Mona Simpson with Christina Schwarz
“The First Time I Got PAID for It” with screenwriters Peter Lefcourt, Ed Solomon, Robin Swicord, Alan Burns, Peter Mehlman and Michael Tolkin.
Amanda Foreman with Ben MacIntyre on their biographies of Georgiana, Dutchess of Windsor and Adam Worth.
Ted Koppel with Harry Shearer
Warren Christopher with Warren Olney
Julian Barnes with F.X. Feeney
Amy Tan with Lisa See
“A Shakespearean Actor Prepares” with Michael York, Samantha Eggar, Charlotte Cornwell, Prof Ed Condren and Prof. Michael Allen
Michael Connelly with Paul Bishop
George Carlin with Tony Hendra
P. D. James with Bill Link

2001 / 2002:

“Travel as Exile, and Exile as Travel” an evening with Pico Iyer, Christina Garcia and Tony Cohan
Sandra Tsing Loh with Randy Newman
David Lodge with David Kipen
Wendy Wasserstein with Jamie Lee Curtis
“Another City” with Eloise Klein Healy, Jerry Stahl, Luis Alfaro, Lynell George and David Ulin
Dave Barry with Sandra Tsing Lo
Bruce Wagner with Carrie Fisher
Carl Hiaasen with T. Jefferson Parker
Calvin Trillin with Merrill Markoe
Elmore Leonard with Judy Muller
Sebastian Faulkes with Patt Morrison
A.B. Yehoshua with Elizabeth Swados
Richard Ford with F.X. Feeney
“Legends of Jewish Comedy in America” with Shelly Berman, Shecky Green, Jeffrey Ross, Jerry Stiller and Lawrence Epstein
T. Jefferson Parker with Jan Burke
Bernhard Schlink with Aimee Bender
Robert Caro with Janet Clayton
Roget Rosenblatt with Norman Lear
James Ellroy with Bruce Wagner

2002 / 2003

Anthony Lane
Salman Rushdie with Sue Ellicott
Martin Cruz Smith with Deanne Stillman
Michael Ondaatje and David Thomson with Elvis Mitchell
Jim Lehrer with Robin McNeil
Scott Turow with David E. Kelly
Peter Jennings with Harry Shearer
Jerry Stahl with Ben Stiller
Jared Diamond with Warrren Olney
A.S. Byatt with David Ulin
David Shenk with David Hyde Pierce
Robert Crais
Norman Mailer
Arianna Huffington with Bill Maher
Philip Taubman with Matt Miller
Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan with Arianna Huffington
Don DeLillo
John Lithgow with Carol Muske Dukes
April Smith with Robert Crais
Margaret Atwood
Erica Jong with Anne Taylor Fleming
Comedy of the 60s with The Smothers Brothers, Mort Sahl and Gerald Nachman
John Burdett with James Ellroy
Carl Reiner with Peter Mehlman
Alice Hoffman with Pat Morrison

2003 / 2004

Matt Miller with Warren Olney
Madeleine Albright with Warren Olney
Diane Middlebrook on Sylvia Plath with David Ulin
Al Franken with Rob Reiner
Joan Didion with Tim Rutten
Molly Ivins with Paul Slansky
Carrie Fisher with Tracey Ullman
Peter Biskind with David O. Russell
Arianna Huffington with Rob Reiner
E.L. Doctorow with Leo Braudy
John Dean with Marty Kaplan
David Foster Wallace with David Ulin
Hedrick Hertzberg with John Powers
Anne Garrels with Robert Greenwald
Maureen Dowd with Alessandra Stanley
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. with Bill Maher
Andy Borowitz with Phil Proctor

2004 / 2005

Matt Miller with Warren Olney
Michael Moore with John Dean
Amos Oz with William Cutter
Andrew Sean Greer with Dan Handler
Robert MacNeil with Amy Heckerling
Yiddish with Dick and Jane
Gene Wilder with Leonard Nimoy
Christopher Hitchens with Matt Mille
Joyce Carol Oates with David Ullin

2005/2006

Diane Johson with Patt Morrison
“Modern Jewish Girl’s Guide to Guilt”
Louise Eldrich with Susan Slater Reynolds
Jerry Lewis with George Schlatter
Richard Clarke with Robert Greenwald
Mike Wallace with Judy Muller
Gov. Bill Richardson with Harry Sheerer
Maureen Dowd with Aaron Sorkin
Senator Barbara Boxer with John Dean
Dr. Jared Diamond
Paul Aster with David Ulin
Carl Reiner with Peter Mehlman
Erica Jong with Jerry Stahl
Mort Sahl with Bob Weide
Craig Ferguson with David Duchovny
Frank McCourt with Anne Taylor Fleming
John Updike with Bruce Wagner

2006/2007

Nora Ephron with Lynda Obst
Michael Tolkin with Stephan Gaghan
Harry Shearer with Steve Martin
An Evening of Political Satire with Scott Dikkers, Peter Hilleren, Kevin Nealon and Roy Zimmerman
Bob Woodward with John Dean
Stephen King with David Ulin
Richard Ford with Tod Goldberg
Isabel Allende with Gioconda Belli
Gore Vidal with David Ullin
Joseph Wambaugh with James Ellroy
Barry Glassner with Sandra Tsing Loh
Robert Stone with John Densmore
Norman Mailer with David Ulin
Jane Smiley wiith Patt Morrison
Alana Newhouse with David Mermelstein
Al Gore with Harry Sheerer
Elmore Leonard with Walter Mirisch
David Steinberg with Scott Carter
Tina Brown with Pattt Morrison

2007/2008

Garrison Keillor with Sandra Tsing Loh
The Hon. Robert B. Reich with Marc Maron
John Dean with Paul Slansky
Ursula Hegi with Susan Straight
Ken Follet with Eric Jager
Richard Russo with Tod Goldberg
Lawrence Wright
Jared and Susan Diamond
Tom Brokaw
Robert Kuttner with Ariana Huffington
JJorge Castenada with David Ayon
Bryan Fogelman wiith Sam Wolfson
Naomi Klein
Steve Martin with Carol Burnett
E.J. Dionne with Lisa Specht
Michael Hais with Morley Winograd
Steve Lopez with Eva Marie Saint
Julie Andrews with Patt Morrison
Michael Kinsley
Barbara Walters with Judy Muller
The Honorable Harry Reid with Rob Reiner
Richard Engel with Mike Shuster
Salman Rushdie
Lewis Black with Joel Stein
The Honorable Jim Webb
Gore Vidal with Jay Parini

2008/2009 Paul Autser with Michael Tolkin
Christopher Buckley with Paul Slansky
Jeffrey Toobin with Barry Siegal
“Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America” with Michael Kantor, Larry Maslon, Larry Wilmore and Richard Belzer
Malcolm Gladwell with Kai Ryssdal
David Denby with Patt Morrison
Joan Rivers with Joel Stein
Tom Davis with Laraine Newman
Carol Leifer with Gary Shandling
Penn & Teller

2009/2010

Frank Bruni with Max Hutchnick
John Buntin with LAPD Chief Bill Bratton
John Irving with David Ulin
“Mad Men” with Matthew Weiner and Mary Melton
Ruth Rendell with April Smith
Barbara Kingsolver with Patt Morrison
Hendrik Hertzberg with Marty Kaplan
Peter Biskind with Leo Braudy
Mark A. R. Kleiman with Governor Michael Dukakis
Lori Gottlieb with Sandra Tsing Loh
Judith Warner with Caitlin Flanagan
Jeff Gralin with Ed Begley Jr.
Jules Feiffer with Carl Reiner
David Remnick with Lawrence O’Donnell
Carol Burnett with Tim Conway
Sarah Silverman with Sandra Tsing Loh

A personal take on the Nora Ephron/Robin Swicord program

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by Vejune J. Baltrusaitis At the risk of sounding snobbish or cliché (or both), when you grow up in LA, you can get jaded when in the presence of celebrities. That is, until you find yourself in the presence of certain celebrities. Once Sally Field came into a place I worked and I hid behind the bakery counter trying to catch my breath because I was so star struck. Last night’s event with writer/director Nora Ephron provided a similar experience where I kept reminding myself…

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How magazines taught Cathy Alter about dating, makeup and real estate

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Just Asking By Cathy Alter “Do you plan on having children?” asked the woman who was seated directly across from me. Oh boy, I thought, here we go again. The above question was not asked by my noisy mother-in-law, a potential (and lawbreaking) employer, or during my annual exam with my OB/GYN. It’s just one of the typical questions I get when I open up the floor to questions after reading from my memoir, Up for Renewal. I suppose when you write a book that…

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Cathy Alter gets renewed

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Who gives the best advice when we most need it? To whom can we turn when it seems that we’ve just landed in the dumpster and Oprah isn’t on until tomorrow?  Cathy Alter, in her recent memoir called Up for Renewal, turned to glossy magazines. After a series of unfortunate events– relating to career, marriage, bad decisions, and bad luck, Cathy chose a bunch of women’s magazines, and adhered to their advice for one year.  From investment strategy to lipstick tips, from sex and dating…

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Meet a favorite author, Paul Levine

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For some reason, lawyers are great fodder for novels, television, film and jokes. I happen to love lawyers; they’ve gotten me out of unsavory situations, and brought me into better ones. The lawyers I know are smart, handsome, beautiful and funny. It doesn’t hurt that I’m married to one, sister of two, daughter of one, and friend of many. One particular attorney friend fits nicely into the smart, handsome and funny categories: author and screenwriter Paul Levine. His website, paul-levine.com , will fill you in…

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Author Paul Levine Believes Ebooks Will Save Written Word

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By Paul Levine I was standing in a circle of Chardonnay sippers at an art show in Santa Monica when the conversation turned to the future of reading. As a novelist, I had skin in the game, so I grabbed a canape, sidled over, and eavesdropped. “I’ll never buy one of those electronic gizmos,” said a heavyset man in his fifties, a humanities professor. “I’d miss the smell of ink on paper, the conjuring of medieval libraries and ancient parchment.” Funny, I don’t recall anyone…

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