Michael Chabon to Headline Benefit for Park Day School on Wednesday, October 2

Oakland’s Park Day School will host an evening in conversation with literary luminary and Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon, 7:00pm Wednesday, October 2 at the beautiful Julia Morgan Theatre (2640 College Avenue, Berkeley.)  The venue’s intimate setting will allow for a personal and authentic experience for those in attendance to hear from the accomplished author on a variety of topics and ask questions of their own. This incisive and candid conversation with Chabon and Park Day School’s Zach Wyner will benefit the school’s academic and financial assistance programs. Tickets ($24 advance, $20 students) can be purchased online at www.parkdayschool.org or by calling 510-653-0317, ext 103. 

Michael Chabon is known for continually reinventing conventional genres and entertaining readers while gently provoking self-reflection.  His writings are widely considered the “cutting edge” of conventional fiction, with Time Magazine declaring “you can almost see the future of literature coming.” Called “An amazingly rich, emotionally detailed story” by the New York Times, his newest book, Telegraph Avenue, is a big-hearted and exhilarating novel that explores the profoundly intertwined lives of two Oakland, California families, one black and one white, delivering a bravura epic of friendship, race, and secret histories. His first novel, a hilarious and poignant coming of age story titled The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, was published when he was just 25 and catapulted him to literary celebrity.  He followed it with novels including Wonder Boys (later converted to a film starring Michael Douglas), The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Summerland, and Gentlemen of the Road. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001 for his internationally celebrated novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

Moderator Zach Wyner has worked as a playwright, actor, and tutor and has spent the past four years teaching at Park Day School. He earned his MFS in Creative Writing from University of San Francisco in 2009 and splits his free time between tutoring math and writing, volunteering at 826 Valencia, and writing a collection of short stories.