Join one of the most ambitious voices in fiction today.

Jim Shepard is the author of seven novels and four short story collections. For decades, Shepard's fiction has chronicled American lives and helped shape our national literature. In his most recent work, Shepard has launched into outer reaches of Western cultures, fusing the personal and political and covering lives from Arctic explorers, workers on a crude-oil trains, and mid-nineteenth century frontier women.

Shepard will be in conversation with Ron Hansen. Hansen is the author of stories, essays, and novels such as Mariette in Ecstasy, Atticus, and A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion.  With Jim Shepard he edited You've Got to Read This:  Contemporary American Writers Introduce Stories That Held Them in Awe.  Ron teaches fiction writing and film at Santa Clara University.  His most recent novel is The Kid, about the outlaw William H. Bonney.

This will be an unforgettable afternoon with one of the great voices of American literature.