Authors – UCSD-TV Blog

Inspiration and Expertise – Conversations with UCSF Authors

What makes a world-class physician or scientist decide to write a book for the wide world of readers? Where do they find the inspiration and the time? What do they hope to accomplish? How do the satisfactions of writing compare to practicing medicine or writing scholarly articles?

Six recently published UCSF authors tackle these questions and more in these fascinating interviews:

Life After the Diagnosis: Expert Advice on Living Well with Serious Illness for Patients and Caregivers
Patients and caregivers living well with serious illness

Ordinary Medicine: Extraordinary Treatments, Longer Lives and Where to Draw the Line
The potential overuse of medical care and when to say “enough”

The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age
The impact of technology and the digital revolution on health and health care

Sensing Light
The impact of AIDS in San Francisco through the eyes of three fictional doctors

Fake Silk: The Lethal History of Viscose Rayon
The consequences of hazardous manufacturing and poisonous materials on public health

Heightened Expectations: The Rise of the Human Growth Hormone Industry in America
The role of the pharmaceutical industry in creating a new disease, short stature, to sell new a medication.

Writer’s Symposium By The Sea 2017

Join host Dean Nelson as he welcomes three writers to this year’s Writer’s Symposium by the Sea. This annual event at Point Loma Nazarene University presents an evening of interviews conducted by symposium founder Dean Nelson, featuring lively conversations about the inspiration behind the authors’ works. Enjoy cutting edge creators, life stories, examples of great writing, and evocative conversation that will inspire the reader and writer alike.

An Evening with Tracy Kidder
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder reveals his reporting strengths as he describes how he earned the trust of the people he has featured in books such as “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” “House,” “A Truck Full of Money,” “Old Friends,” and “Strength in What Remains.” Kidder shares the joys and doubts of a career in writing with veteran journalist and host Dean Nelson.

An Evening with Robert Pinsky
Former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky describes himself as a “composer” who considers poetry to be first and foremost a vocal art, and his work seeks to blur the distinctions between language and music by emphasizing the rhythms and innate physicality of recited verse in a jazz context. In this performance, Pinsky’s reading is accompanied by a talented trio of PLNU students. The music – a blend of rehearsed and improvised – employs a variety of jazz styles, sometimes sympathetic and sometimes in playful counterpoint, but always responsive to the poet’s distinctive voice.

An Evening with Shauna Niequist
This far-reaching conversation with best-selling author Shauna Niequist offers an honest account of her journey of becoming and evolving as a writer. She shares her love of storytelling and her goal of living life to the fullest, and offers tips for aspiring writers. Niequist’s newest release is “Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic For A Simpler, More Soulful Way Of Living.”

Browse past seasons of Writer’s Symposium by the Sea to watch interviews with Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Lamott, Billy Collins, Mary Karr, and more!

In Their Own Words: Writers and Authors

Explore new interviews and readings from your favorite authors as well as up and coming authors and students from the University of California.

Writers explain in their own words the process of creation, how they stay motivated, and what it takes to go from an idea to a completed piece of writing. Listen as they read new and popular excerpts of their work and discuss the writing life during in-depth interviews. From poetry to prose, memoirs to fiction, screenplays to blogs – whether your passion is reading, writing, or both – with our latest collection, you’ll discover new books to explore and perhaps find the inspiration to write one of your own.

Featuring:

… and more!

Browse our collection of Writers & Authors today!

Story Hour in the Library

Good writing should be heard.

Watch some of your favorite writers as they read selected excerpts from their works. This prose reading series is hosted by UC Berkeley English department faculty Vikram Chandra and Melanie Abrams and features distinguished prose writers from the Bay Area and beyond.

Look for these new programs:

Jess Row
Jess Row, the author of “Your Face in Mine” and two short story collections, “The Train to Lo Wu” and “Nobody Ever Gets Lost” reads from his work at UC Berkeley. He has received a Whiting Writers Award, the PEN/O. Henry Award, and two Pushcart Prizes. In 2007 he was named a “Best Young American Novelist” by Granta. He teaches at the College of New Jersey and is an ordained Zen Teacher.

Joyce Maynard
Joyce Maynard has been a writer of both fiction and nonfiction since the age of 18. Her memoir “At Home in the World” has been translated into fifteen languages. Her eight novels include the newly released “After Her,” as well as “To Die For” and the New York Times bestseller, “Labor Day.” In addition to writing, Maynard performs frequently as a storyteller with The Moth in New York City, and is the founder of the Lake Atitlan (Guatemala) Writers’ Workshop.

And coming soon – Tom Barbash
Tom Barbash is the author of the new book of stories “Stay Up With Me.” Previous books include award-winning novel “The Last Good Chance” and “On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and 9/11,” which was a New York Times bestseller. His stories and articles have been published and performed on National Public Radio.

Story Hour in the Library celebrates the writers in the UC Berkeley campus community with an annual student reading. The event features short excerpts of work by winners of the year’s biggest prose prizes, Story Hour in the Library interns, and faculty nominees.

Visit The Story Hour for more from this series.