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Arts & Entertainment

O'Hanlon Center for the Arts' Fundraiser Featuring JANE HIRSHFIELD and CYRA McFADDEN

O’Hanlon Center Fundraiser Featuring

JANE HIRSHFIELD and CYRA McFADDEN

Sunday, November 20.

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2 to 4 p.m.

O’Hanlon Center for the Arts (OHCA) proudly presents an afternoon with two of the Bay Area’s most celebrated authors, Jane Hirshfield and Cyra McFadden.  The fundraiser benefiting the nonprofit will be held on Sunday, November 20, 2011 from 2 to 4 p.m. with refreshments starting at 12:30 p.m. Founded in 1969, OHCA provides a supportive environment dedicated to innovation and discovery. 

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The afternoon will include a conversation between Jane and Cyra on their creative processes as writers.  Jane Hirshfield was born in New York City in 1953. After receiving her B.A. from Princeton University in their first graduating class to include women, she went on to study at the San Francisco Zen Center. Her books of poetry include Come, Thief (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011), After (HarperCollins, 2006); Given Sugar, Given Salt (2001), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Lives of the Heart (1997), The October Palace (1994), Of Gravity & Angels (1988), and Alaya (1982).  Jane’s honors include The Poetry Center Book Award, fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, Columbia University's Translation Center Award, the Commonwealth Club of California Poetry Medal, and the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award. In 2004, Hirshfield was awarded the 70th Academy Fellowship for distinguished poetic achievement by The Academy of American Poets.

Cyra McFadden was born in Great Falls, Montana, and received her B.A. and M.A. degrees in English Literature (the latter Magna Cum Laude) from San Francisco State University.  She is a Bay Area novelist and journalist.  Her first book, The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, was a bestseller here and in the U.K.  Her second, Rain or Shine, A Family Memoir, was a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category of non-fiction.  Her articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Smithsonian and other magazines.  Cyra has also been a newspaper columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and UPI, Writer in Residence at St. Paul’s Girls’ School in London, and Richard Hugo Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Montana. She currently lives on a houseboat in Sausalito and works as a free-lance writer and editor. 

Also at 12:30 p.m., a silent auction will begin featuring wonderful gifts from local businesses!   Tickets are limited for the November 20 benefit with Jane Hirshfield and Cyra McFadden. Prices per person are: Standing Room: $40; Ground Floor Seating: $75; Front Row: $125. 

In conjunction with the event, and beginning Tuesday, November 1, OHCA’s well-appointed gallery will feature “Abstract Marin,” an exhibit of artwork that inspired by all things Marin County.  “Abstract Marin” will be on display until November 30 and is expected to attract over 150 Bay Area artists and art lovers during its run.

For more information about these events or OHCA membership, please call Megan Wilkinson at 415-388-4331 or visit our website: www.ohanloncenter.org.

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