This event has two sessions: 11 a.m. & 2 p.m.

Richard Bausch, James P. Blaylock, Douglas R. Dechow, and Anna Leahy will read short excerpts from their latest books and discuss the ways writers build and convey characters on the page, whether in novels, short stories, nonfiction, or poetry. 

Richard Bausch is the author of twelve novels and nine volumes of short stories. He is a recipient of the PEN/Malamud Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Award, the Literature Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the Rea Award for the Short Story. See more at richardbausch.com.

Jim Blaylock, one of the pioneers of the steam punk genre, has written some twenty-five books. His short story "Unidentified Objects" was nominated for an 0. Henry Award, and two of his stories have won World Fantasy Awards. A number of his novels feature Orange County settings, including The Last Coin, The Rainy Season, All the Bells on Earth, Night Relics, and Winter Tides. See more at jamespblaylock.com.

Anna Leahy wrote Generation Space: A Love Story with Douglas R. Dechow. She is also the author of the poetry collection Aperture, published by Shearsman, and the nonfiction book Tumor, in the Bloomsbury's Object Lessons series. Her essays won the Ninth Letter and Dogwood literary prizes in 2016. See more at amleahy.com.

Douglas R. Dechow wrote Generation Space: A Love Story with Anna Leahy. He is the co-editor of lntertwingled: The Work and Influence of Ted Nelson and co-author of The Craft of Librarian Instruction. He is curator of the Boisjoly Challenger Disaster Collection at Leatherby Libraries. See more at generationspace.com.