Author Interviews and Readings "Live"

Yesterday I wrote about the serendipitous pleasure of turning on one's radio and hearing Fresh Air's Terry Gross interview an author. A related and even greater pleasure, albeit one that takes more planning, time, and - sometimes - money, is hearing a favorite author interviewed in person. Here in San Francisco, for example, we are fortunate to have the City Arts and Lectures series, which is held in the small, ornate Herbst Theater in the Civic Center. Authors (and others) are interviewed for abut 45 minutes by a sometimes equally well-known local luminary. They sit on a bare stage and talk, and usually read excerpts from their work; afterward, there is time for questions and comments from the audience. We in the audience sit quite close to the stage (there are no bad or faraway seats) listening; we can almost imagine we are participating in one of the fabled literary salons of yore. A couple of years ago, within the space of a few weeks, I had the privilege and pleasure of seeing and hearing Amy Tan, Sandra Cisneros, and Jhumpa Lahiri speak and read in this series. Soon after, I was able to hear the great poet Sharon Olds read her work at another San Francisco venue. For those who cannot attend "live," the City Arts and Lectures events are broadcast on a local public radio station (KQED-FM) a few weeks later. Besides attending such series as City Arts and Lectures, readers can find many author appearances at local bookstores.