Carmel Authors and Ideas Festival
Encyclopedia
The Carmel Authors and Ideas Festival takes place the last weekend of September in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Held annually since 2007, it attracts many of the world's top authors and thinkers, including Pulitzer Prize winners. Presenters have included Frank McCourt
, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
, Greg Mortenson
, Khaled Hosseini
, Doris Kearns Goodwin
, Elizabeth Edwards
, Seymour Hersh
, Michael Pollan
, Douglas Brinkley
, Elizabeth Gilbert
, Carl Hiaasen
, and P. J. O'Rourke
.
The three-day event combines main stage presentations, smaller breakout sessions, and a social atmosphere that encourages attendees to have one-on-one conversations with presenters. Founders Cynthia and James McGillen were inspired to create the event after attending the Sun Valley Writers' Conference, according to Publishers Weekly magazine.
Scheduled 2010 speakers include former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
, and New York Times columnist David Brooks.
In alphabetical order
Frank McCourt
Francis "Frank" McCourt was an Irish-American teacher and Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, best known as the author of Angela’s Ashes, an award-winning, tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood....
, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981...
, Greg Mortenson
Greg Mortenson
Greg Mortenson, SPk is an American humanitarian, professional speaker, writer, and former mountaineer. He is the co-founder and executive director of the non-profit Central Asia Institute as well as the founder of the educational charity Pennies for Peace...
, Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini , is an Afghan-born American novelist and physician of ethnic Tajik origin. He is a citizen of the United States where he has lived since he was fifteen years old. His 2003 debut novel, The Kite Runner, was an international bestseller, selling more than 12 million copies worldwide....
, Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American biographer and historian, and an oft-seen political commentator. She is the author of biographies of several U.S...
, Elizabeth Edwards
Elizabeth Edwards
Elizabeth Anania Edwards was an American attorney, a best-selling author and a health care activist. She was married to John Edwards, the former U.S...
, Seymour Hersh
Seymour Hersh
Seymour Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters...
, Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan is an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. A 2006 New York Times book review describes him as a "liberal foodie intellectual."...
, Douglas Brinkley
Douglas Brinkley
Douglas Brinkley is an American author, professor of history at Rice University and a fellow at the James Baker Institute for Public Policy. Brinkley is the history commentator for CBS News and a contributing editor to the magazine Vanity Fair...
, Elizabeth Gilbert
Elizabeth Gilbert
Elizabeth M. Gilbert is an American author, essayist, short story writer, biographer, novelist and memoirist. She is best known for her 2006 memoirs, Eat, Pray, Love, which as of December 2010, has spent 199 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list, and was also made into a film by the same...
, Carl Hiaasen
Carl Hiaasen
Carl Hiaasen is an American journalist, columnist and novelist.- Early years :Born in 1953 and raised in Plantation, Florida, of Norwegian heritage, Hiaasen was the first of four children and the son of a lawyer, Kermit Odel, and teacher, Patricia...
, and P. J. O'Rourke
P. J. O'Rourke
Patrick Jake "P. J." O'Rourke is an American political satirist, journalist, writer, and author. O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, The American Spectator, and The Weekly Standard, and frequent panelist on...
.
The three-day event combines main stage presentations, smaller breakout sessions, and a social atmosphere that encourages attendees to have one-on-one conversations with presenters. Founders Cynthia and James McGillen were inspired to create the event after attending the Sun Valley Writers' Conference, according to Publishers Weekly magazine.
Scheduled 2010 speakers include former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
, and New York Times columnist David Brooks.
Carmel Authors and Ideas Festival Speakers
Some of the speakers who have presented at the festival to date:In alphabetical order
- Trip AdlerTrip AdlerJohn R. "Trip" Adler III, is an American entrepreneurwho is best known for starting the social publishing companyScribd. Adler grew up in Palo Alto, California, and thenattended Harvard University where he studied biophysics and...
, founder and CEO of ScribdScribdScribd is a Web 2.0 based document-sharing website which allows users to post documents of various formats, and embed them into a web page using its iPaper format. Scribd was founded by Trip Adler, Tikhon Bernstam, and Jared Friedman in 2006... - Tamim AnsaryTamim AnsaryMir Tamim Ansary is an Afghan-American author and public speaker. He is the author of West of Kabul, East of New York, a book published shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and is a columnist for the encyclopedia website Encarta.- Early life and education :Ansary was born in...
, author of West of Kabul, East of New York, The Other Side of the Sky: A MemoirThe Other Side of the Sky: A MemoirThe Other Side of the Sky: A Memoir is a Memoir by Farah Ahmedi with Tamim Ansary. The Memoir profiles the life of Farah Ahmedi from the time she was born until she was seventeen years old.-Summary:Farah Ahmedi was born in Kabul, Afghanistan near the end of the Soviet war in Afghanistan...
, Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes, The Widow's Husband - Reza AslanReza AslanReza Aslan is an Iranian-American activist, a nationally acclaimed writer of religions. He is on the faculty at the University of California, Riverside, and is a contributing editor for The Daily Beast...
, author of No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of IslamNo god but GodNo god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam is a 2005 non-fiction book written by Iranian-American Shiite Muslim scholar Reza Aslan. The book describes the history of Islam and argues for a liberal interpretation of the religion... - Ann Louise BardachAnn Louise BardachAnn Louise Bardach is an American journalist and non-fiction author. Bardach is best known for her work on Cuba and Miami and was called "the go-to journalist on all things Cuban and Miami," by the Columbia Journalism Review having interviewed people such as Fidel Castro, Juanita Castro, Luis...
, journalist, author of Without Fidel - Cara BlackCara BlackCara Black is a professional female tennis player from Zimbabwe. She has won 7 singles titles and 63 women's doubles titles. She has won all four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles and three of the four Grand Slam titles in women's doubles. She is currently ranked World No. 28 in women's doubles...
, mystery writer best known for her Aimée Léduc mystery novels set in Paris - Douglas BrinkleyDouglas BrinkleyDouglas Brinkley is an American author, professor of history at Rice University and a fellow at the James Baker Institute for Public Policy. Brinkley is the history commentator for CBS News and a contributing editor to the magazine Vanity Fair...
, historian, editor of The Reagan DiariesThe Reagan DiariesThe Reagan Diaries is an edited version of diaries written by President Ronald Reagan while in the White House. The book is edited by Douglas Brinkley, while the full, unedited diaries were published in 2009... - Frances Dinkelspiel, author of Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California
- Elizabeth EdwardsElizabeth EdwardsElizabeth Anania Edwards was an American attorney, a best-selling author and a health care activist. She was married to John Edwards, the former U.S...
, author of Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers - Doris Kearns GoodwinDoris Kearns GoodwinDoris Kearns Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American biographer and historian, and an oft-seen political commentator. She is the author of biographies of several U.S...
, Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning biographer and historianHistorianA historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, author of biographies of several U.S. Presidents, including Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream; The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga; No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt; Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham LincolnTeam of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham LincolnTeam of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln is a book by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin published in 2005. The book is a biographical portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and some of the men who served with him in his Cabinet from 1861 to 1865...
. - John GroganJohn Grogan (journalist)John Grogan is an American journalist and non-fiction writer. His memoir Marley & Me was a best-selling book about his family's dog Marley.- Career :...
, author of Marley & MeMarley & MeMarley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog is a New York Times bestselling autobiographical book by journalist John Grogan, published in 2005, about the thirteen years he and his family shared their life, home, and heart with Marley, a possibly neurotic, and certified "untrainable",... - Carl HiaasenCarl HiaasenCarl Hiaasen is an American journalist, columnist and novelist.- Early years :Born in 1953 and raised in Plantation, Florida, of Norwegian heritage, Hiaasen was the first of four children and the son of a lawyer, Kermit Odel, and teacher, Patricia...
, journalist, columnist and novelist - Seymour HershSeymour HershSeymour Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters...
, Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
winning investigativeInvestigative journalismInvestigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism...
journalistJournalistA journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, regular contributor to The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
magazine - Khaled HosseiniKhaled HosseiniKhaled Hosseini , is an Afghan-born American novelist and physician of ethnic Tajik origin. He is a citizen of the United States where he has lived since he was fifteen years old. His 2003 debut novel, The Kite Runner, was an international bestseller, selling more than 12 million copies worldwide....
, author of The Kite RunnerThe Kite RunnerThe Kite Runner is a novel by Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it is Hosseini's first novel, and was adapted into a film of the same name in 2007....
, A Thousand Splendid SunsA Thousand Splendid SunsA Thousand Splendid Suns is a 2007 novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It is his second, following his bestselling 2003 debut, The Kite Runner. The book focuses on the tumultuous lives of two Afghan women and how their lives cross each other, spanning from the 1960s to 2003... - Fred Luskin, author of Forgive to Love
- Shana MahaffeyShana MahaffeyShana Mahaffey is an American writer of fiction. She is the author of the novel, Sounds Like Crazy, a San Francisco Chronicle notable book for Fall 2009. about an Emmy award winning voiceover artist, Holly Miller. Holly has co-conscious multiple personality disorder...
, author of Sounds Like Crazy - Irshad ManjiIrshad ManjiIrshad Manji is a Canadian author, journalist and an advocate of "reform and progressive" interpretation of Islam. Manji is director of the Moral Courage Project at the Robert F...
, author of The Trouble with Islam Today - Frank McCourtFrank McCourtFrancis "Frank" McCourt was an Irish-American teacher and Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, best known as the author of Angela’s Ashes, an award-winning, tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood....
, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Angela's AshesAngela's AshesAngela's Ashes is a 1996 memoir by the Irish-American author Frank McCourt. The memoir consists of various anecdotes and stories of Frank McCourt's impoverished childhood and early adulthood in Brooklyn, New York and Limerick, Ireland, as well as McCourt's struggles with poverty, his father's... - Greg MortensonGreg MortensonGreg Mortenson, SPk is an American humanitarian, professional speaker, writer, and former mountaineer. He is the co-founder and executive director of the non-profit Central Asia Institute as well as the founder of the educational charity Pennies for Peace...
, activist, Nobel Peace Prize finalist, and author of Three Cups of TeaThree Cups of TeaThree Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time is a book by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin published by Penguin in 2006. For four years, the book remained on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller's list... - Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'ConnorSandra Day O'ConnorSandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981...
- P. J. O'RourkeP. J. O'RourkePatrick Jake "P. J." O'Rourke is an American political satirist, journalist, writer, and author. O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, The American Spectator, and The Weekly Standard, and frequent panelist on...
, journalist, author, satirist, regular correspondent for The Atlantic MonthlyThe Atlantic MonthlyThe Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
, The American SpectatorThe American SpectatorThe American Spectator is a conservative U.S. monthly magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. From its founding in 1967 until the late 1980s, the small-circulation magazine featured the writings of authors...
, and The Weekly StandardThe Weekly StandardThe Weekly Standard is an American neoconservative opinion magazine published 48 times per year. Its founding publisher, News Corporation, debuted the title September 18, 1995. Currently edited by founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Standard has been described as a "redoubt of...
, and frequent panelist on National Public Radio's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! is an hour-long weekly radio news panel game show produced by Chicago Public Radio and National Public Radio. It is distributed by NPR in the United States, internationally on NPR Worldwide and on the Internet via podcast, and typically broadcast on weekends by member... - Michael PollanMichael PollanMichael Pollan is an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. A 2006 New York Times book review describes him as a "liberal foodie intellectual."...
, author of The Omnivore's DilemmaThe Omnivore's DilemmaThe Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is a nonfiction book by Michael Pollan published in 2006. In the book, Pollan asks the seemingly straightforward question of what we should have for dinner. As omnivores – the most unselective eaters – we humans are faced with a... - Frank Portman, author of King DorkKing DorkKing Dork is a young adult novel by Frank Portman first published in 2006. It received recognition as a 2007 Best Book for Young Adults from the American Library Association. The novel features protagonist and disaffected slacker Tom Henderson in the fall of his high school sophomore year...
- Michael Pritchard
- Joe Quirk, author of The Ultimate Rush, It's Not You, It's Biology, Exult
- Kemble ScottKemble ScottKemble Scott is the pseudonym for fiction used by American journalist Scott James , writer of a weekly column about the San Francisco Bay Area that appears in The New York Times and The Bay Citizen. His debut novel SoMa became a bestseller in the spring of 2007...
, (novelist pen name of Scott James, columnist for The New York Times) author of SoMaSoMa (novel)SoMa is the bestselling debut novel of American author Kemble Scott. It was first published on February 1, 2007 by Kensington Books as a trade paperback original...
, The SowerThe Sower (novel)The Sower is the bestselling second novel by American author Kemble Scott, pen name of Scott James, writer of a weekly column about the San Francisco Bay Area published in both The Bay Citizen and The New York Times.... - Robert ScheerRobert ScheerRobert Scheer is an American journalist who writes a column for Truthdig which is nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate in publications such as The Huffington Post and The Nation...
, syndicated columnist - Julia Flynn Siler, author of The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty
- Abraham VergheseAbraham VergheseAbraham Verghese is Professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford University Medical School and Senior Associate Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. He was born in Ethiopia to parents from Kerala, India who worked as teachers. He is a Syro-Malabar Christian...
, author of Cutting for Stone - Jan YanehiroJan Yanehiro-Personal life:She earned a journalism degree from California State University, Fresno in 1970.She is the Director of Multimedia Communications at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.-Television career:...
, co-author of This Is Not the Life I OrderedThis Is Not the Life I OrderedThis Is Not the Life I Ordered: 50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down is a collaborative non-fiction inspirational self-help book written by Deborah Collins Stephens, Michealene Cristini Risley, Jackie Speier, and Jan Yanehiro. The book was first published in a... - Jeffrey ZaslowJeffrey ZaslowJeffrey Zaslow is an American journalist and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He is also the author or coauthor of several bestselling books: The Last Lecture with Randy Pausch, Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters with Capt...
, co-author of The Last LectureThe Last LectureThe Last Lecture is a New York Times best-selling book co-authored by Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal...