Tonight! Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum and Susan Straight

Tonight, Tuesday October 27, some fortunate people will gather at the Scape Gallery in Corona del Mar to hear Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum and Susan Straight read from their work.

Scape Gallery is at 2859 East Coast Highway in Corona del Mar, near the Port Theater. The reading begins at 7 PM and is scheduled to end at 9 PM.

Tickets are $15.00 which includes wine, champagne, cheese and "surprises." The reading is part of the Pen on Fire series, hosted by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett. Advance reservations are required - no walk-ins, please. Email penonfire@earthlink.net to make your reservation.



Sarah Shun-lien Bynum is the author of two novels, Ms. Hempel Chronicles, a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award, and Madeleine Is Sleeping, a finalist for the 2004 National Book Award and winner of the Kafka Prize. Her fiction has appeared in several magazines and anthologies, including The New Yorker, Tin House, The Georgia Review, and The Best American Short Stories. The recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award and an NEA Fellowship, she teaches writing and literature at the University of California, San Diego.



Susan Straight has published six novels, including Highwire Moon (Houghton Mifflin, 2001), a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Commonwealth of California Gold Medal for Fiction. Her most recent novel A Million Nightingales, was published by Pantheon in March 2006, and was a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller. It was a finalist for the 2006 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the 2006 Southern California Booksellers’ Award. In November 2007, Straight received The Lannan Award for Fiction, for her body of work.

She has published essays and articles in The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times Magazine (now WEST), Harpers, The Believer, The Nation, Organic Style, Reader’s Digest, Real Simple, Family Circle, Salon, Oxford American, Ms. and The Ruminator Review.

Her short fiction has appeared in Zoetrope All-Story, McSweeney’s, Black Clock, TriQuarterly, Story, Ploughshares, The Ontario Review, and North American Review, among other magazines. Her short story “El Ojo De Agua” was chosen for the 2007 O Henry Prize collection, and was a finalist for a National Magazine Award in 2007. “Mines” was chosen for Best American Short Stories 2003 and won a Pushcart Prize in Fiction. “Bridgework” was a Distinguished Story in Best American Short Stories 2004.