Author Elizabeth Berg headlines Words Alive luncheon

COAST CITIES — Words Alive, nonprofit literacy organization, will feature best-selling authors Elizabeth Berg and Robert Goolrick as its annual Authors’ Luncheon keynote speaker, beginning at 10 a.m. Nov. 10, at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine.
The Authors’ Luncheon is the Words Alive signature annual fundraising event and benefits its innovative literacy programs. The event opens at 10 a.m. with the Words Alive Market Place with vendors donating a percentage of the day’s sales to Words Alive. Both authors will greet fans and sign books from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and immediately after the luncheon ends, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $100 and include a signed copy of Berg’s latest work, “Last Time I Saw You.” Advance reservations are required. No tickets will be available at the door.
“We are ecstatic to have Elizabeth Berg and Robert Goolrick speaking at this year’s event,” said Del Mar resident Ellen Mitgang, event chair and board member, Words Alive. “They are both insightful and entertaining speakers as well as, talented writers.”
Berg has been the New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including “Open House,” which was an Oprah’s Book Club selection in 2000. Her two novels “Durable Goods” and “Joy School” were selected as American Library Association Best Books of the Year, and “Talk Before Sleep” was short-listed for the American Bookseller’s Book of the Year award in 1996. Berg is also the author of a nonfiction work, “Escaping into the Open: The Art of Writing True.”
Goolrick is the author of the memoir “The End of the World as We Know It” and his debut novel, “A Reliable Wife.” “I came back around to the pastime that had filled the days and nights of my childhood: telling complex anecdotes about the living and the dead. I think, when we read, we relish and devour remarkable voices, but these are, in the end, stories we remember,” Goolrick said. He currently lives and continues to write in a tiny town in Virginia in a great old farmhouse on a wide and serene river with his dog, whose name is Preacher.
Founded in 1999, Words Alive is a nonprofit organization that helps underserved, low-income, at-risk children, teens and adults discover how books can add meaning to their lives. Instead of teaching the skill of reading, Words Alive engages its program participants in the joy of reading with innovative programs and initiatives with the goal of creating lifelong readers and learners. For more information about Words Alive, its programs, volunteer opportunities, annual Authors Luncheon and giving opportunities, contact Patrick Stewart, executive director, at (858) 274-9673, [email protected].