The Author Talks series resumes next week with a special twin bill: best-selling authors Jacquelyn Mitchard and Elizabeth Berg, both firmly rooted in the Heartlands and the world of popular fiction.
The session will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, at the Tribune Tower, 435 N. Michigan Ave. Check our Trib Nation Events page for information about tickets, which cost $20.
This is a different twist for us at the Tribune. While we often have two authors in some of the literary festival programs, we haven't tried it in the Author Talks programs.
The authors, who are friends, share the same editor and publisher; both have had work selected by the Oprah Book Club; and both have novels out this year.
Mitchard's "Second Nature, A Love Story" is being released next month. Berg's novel is "Once Upon a Time, There Was You."
"The books kind of speak to one another," said Elizabeth Taylor, our literary editor who will once again moderate discussion.
And while they differ in how they approach things, these authors are using tragedy as a starting point.
"Those of us who have been reporters know our way around a crisis, but fiction writers like Elizabeth Berg and Jaquelyn Mitchard come in after the ambulance drivers, fire engines, lawyers and reporters have left the scene," the Tribune's Elizabeth said. "Life after a tragedy, whether it's a divorce or a church fire as in the cases of the novels of Berg and Mitchard, is richly imagined, providing both comfort, inspiration and insight to readers."
We had a story last week about Mitchard and Berg, who are from Madison, Wis., and Oak Park, respectively. Both are active in the Chicago area literary scene, having presented at the Tribune's Printers Row Lit Fest as well as other literary programs.
A special feature of the Author Talks program is that we have a reception afterward. Hope to see you there.
-- Margaret Holt, Standards Editor
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