Book Talk Book Talk (May 01, 2002)

WRITING PRIZE ESTABLISHED . . . Stanford University has established a new prize for writers. In a partnership with the William Saroyan Foundation, the university will offer the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, aimed at new or emerging writers. The winners will be awarded a prize of $12,500. The first prizes will be awarded next spring. "We see the Saroyan Writing Prize as an integral activity in our custodianship of the Saroyan archive," said Michael A. Keller, Stanford University librarian.

CAROLINE KENNEDY COMING . . . Kepler's Books will host Caroline Kennedy ("Profiles in Courage for Our Time") at 7:30 p.m. May 20. The store will be closed at 6 p.m. that day. Advance tickets may be purchased at the store.

BOOK FAIR COMING. . . The Foundation for a Global Community in Palo Alto will host a "Writes of Spring" book festival 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 18. Thousands of books will be for sale at the event, which benefits a scholarship program at San Jose State University. The event will also have free Harry Potter books to the first 50 children who show up. Foundation for a Global Community is located at 222 High St., Palo Alto.

AUTHOR, AUTHOR . . . Author events at Kepler's in Menlo Park this month include historian Diana Preston ("Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy") at 7:30 p.m. May 3. Other events, also at 7:30 unless noted, include Sylvia Nasar ("A Beautiful Mind") at 5 p.m. May 4. Scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. ("The Bondwoman's Narrative") appears May 7. Noted rock climber Lynn Hill ("Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World") appears May 16. Novelist Rick Moody ("Black Veil: A Memoir with Digressions") appears May 21. And novelist Gail Tsukiyama ("Dreaming Water") appears May 29.

MORE AUTHOR, AUTHOR . . . Author events at Stanford Bookstore (campus) this month include Steven Roby ("Black Gold: The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix") at 7 p.m. May 8. Stanford historian George M. Fredrickson ("Racism: A Short History") appears at 7 p.m. May 14. And social theorist Francis Fukuyama ("Our Posthuman Future") appears at 7 p.m. May 15.
Items for Book Talk may be sent to Don Kazak, Title Pages Editor, Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto CA 94302 by the last Wednesday of each month.