You may know Daniel Handler as Lemony Snicket, the author of the widely read sequence of children's books, 'A Series of Unfortunate Events.' His intricate and witty writing style has won him numerous fans for his critically acclaimed literary work and his wildly successful children's books. (58 minutes)

Gene Yang began publishing comic books in 1996. 'American Born Chinese' was the first graphic novel nominated for a National Book Award and the first to win the Printz Award. It also won an Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album. (46 minutes)

Judith Freeman is a novelist, essayist, critic, and short story writer. She reads from her new novel to an audience at UC Berkeley. (58 minutes)

Laurie King, a third generation Californian with a background in theology, is best known for her detective fiction. Her yearly novels range from police procedurals and stand-alones to a historical series about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, beginning with 'The Beekeeper's Apprentice.' Her books have won the Edgar, Creasey, Wolfe, Lambda, and Macavity awards, and appear regularly on the New York Times bestseller list. (49 minutes)

Mary Roach is the author of New York Times bestsellers 'Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers,' 'Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife', and 'Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex'. She speaks to an audience at UC Berkeley. (47 minutes)

Award winning author and emeritus faculty member at UC Berkeley Maxine Hong Kingston reads and discusses her work, "I Love a Broad Margin to My Life." She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the presidentially conferred National Humanities Medal, and the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. (56 minutes)

Melanie Abrams' novel, Playing, arrived from Grove/Atlantic in April 2008, and has been acquired for translation in three different languages. Here, she reads a section from her debut novel. She currently teaches creative writing at UC Berkeley. (29 minutes)

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, screenwriter, columnist and short story writer Michael Chabon's books include 'Mysteries of Pittsburgh,' 'Wonder Boys,' 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,' and most recently, 'The Yiddish Policeman's Union.' (59 minutes)

Bestselling author Michelle Richmond reads from her novels and discusses her writing process to a group at UC Berkeley. She is author of 'No One You Know,' the New York Times bestseller, 'The Year of Fog,' award-winning story collection, 'The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress,' and the novel 'Dream of the Blue Room,' a finalist for the Northern California Book Award. (56 minutes)

Rabih Alameddine was born in Jordan to Lebanese parents and has lived in Kuwait, Lebanon, England, and the United States. He began his career as an engineer, then moved to writing and painting. He is the author of two novels as well as a collection of short stories, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in San Francisco and Beirut. He reads from his new novel 'The Hakawati,' set in the Middle East. (52 minutes)

Story Hour in the Library celebrates the writers in the Berkeley campus community with an annual student reading featuring short excerpts of work by winners of the year's biggest prose prizes, Story Hour in the Library interns, and faculty nominees. (45 minutes)

Sylvia Brownrigg's newest novel, Morality Tale, is an analysis of a modern marriage. She has written four other works of fiction, including the New York Times Notable Book 'The Metaphysical Touch' and the Lambda Award-winning 'Pages for You.' She divides her time between Berkeley and England. (49 minutes)

Vikram Chandra has won many awards and critical acclaim for his novels and short stories. The best selling Sacred Games was published in 2007. Born in New Dehli, he now teaches creative writing at Berkeley. He reads from his most recent novel to an audience at UC Berkeley. (57 minutes)

Li is author of 'A Thousand Years of Good Prayers' and 'The Vagrants.' A Beijing native and graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she has received numerous awards. She reads and speaks at UC Berkeley. (54 minutes)

Named one of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists, ZZ Packer has received a Commonwealth Club Fiction Award, Wallace Stegner and Guggenheim Fellowships, and a Whiting Award. Her acclaimed 2003 collection Drinking Coffee Elsewhere features eight stories whose subjects range from Girl Scouts to expatriates in Japan. Originally from Chicago, Packer is currently writing a novel set in the post-Civil War period. (55 minutes)

StoryWorks develops inclusive and transformative educational theater experiences that provide students with the opportunity to examine our country’s civil rights history. Through content consistent with school curriculum standards, the program engages students in experiential learning and inspires them to ask deeper questions about the historical underpinnings behind contemporary issues. The process creates pathways to civic engagement, creates lasting memories and instills a tangible sense of social belonging. This StoryWorks educational project is built around Beautiful Agitators, a theatrical play about Vera Mae Pigee, a hair stylist and business owner in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and one of the unsung heroes of the civil rights era. Using her beauty parlor as a hub for Delta-based organizing and resistance, Pigee operated her salon by day and then transformed it into a clandestine center for civil rights organization and education in the evenings. Known for her big hats and larger than life personality, Mrs. Pigee led the direct action that registered nearly 6,000 African Americans to vote in the region. Although Pigee was largely left out of the history books, along with many women of the movement, our play Beautiful Agitators and accompanying curriculum revives her legacy, highlighting her methods and tactics. Inspired by the innovative K-12 civil rights education standards developed by the Mississippi Civil Rights Commission. Our commitment is to expand upon the standards by further developing content related to social justice, power relations, environmental justice, diversity, equity, mutual respect, and civic engagement. Beautiful Agitators combines inquiry with higher-order thinking skills of analysis, evaluation and synthesis. Set in a beauty parlor owned and operated by a Black woman in the Mississippi Delta, our curriculum is based on our investigation into primary sources and their relationship to critical moments in the national movement. This foundation of historical context allows for students and educators to find contemporary parallels which further engage learners to reflect upon the legacy of the civil rights movement and the struggles that we, as citizens, continue to grapple with today.View the complete play Beautiful Agitators on the StoryWorks Theater site.Implementation1. Beautiful Agitators Performance Classroom watches a prerecorded, staged reading of the play Beautiful Agitators, which was created and performed by artists from the Mississippi Delta, home of Vera Mae Pigee.2. Lesson Plan Activities Following the eight-lesson plan structure, students will read aloud or act out scenes from the play. This participatory interaction with the text and the historical events promotes a high level of engagement from the students and encourages experiential learning. These activities directly correspond to scenes in the play and to specific content area standards. Teacher leads guided discussions and helps to explain the historical context and theme of each scene. Students/actors have the opportunity to share their experiences having portrayed these historical figures. 

Welcome to Critical Theory! We know that this field probably seems daunting, but now that you’re here, we’re here to help you get more comfortable with concepts such as ideology, constructivism, and the uncanny, to name a few. This handbook is a student-built guide that explains and exemplifies different literary theories. Written in accessible language with modern-day examples, this handbook seeks to make literary theory more manageable.

This handbook is a blend between a traditional textbook and an experimental anthology. It includes a range of pieces that show students grappling with the concepts themselves. Moreover, it’s free and organized according to the theories presented in the syllabus.

This course investigates relationships between two media, film and literature, studying works linked across the two media by genre, topic, and style. It aims to sharpen appreciation of major works of cinema and of literary narrative. The course explores how artworks challenge and cross cultural, political and aesthetic boundaries. It includes some attention to theory of narrative. Films to be studied include works by Akira Kurosawa, John Ford, Francis Ford Coppolla, Clint Eastwood, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, and Federico Fellini, among others. Literary works include texts by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Honoré de Balzac, Henry James and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The landscape we will explore is the troublesome one of the relevance, impact, and importance of poetry in a troubled modern world. We will read both poetry and prose by several substantial modern writers, each of whom confronted the question that is the subject’s title.

This course explores variations on the proposition that an adequate recognition of beauty could, however indirectly, make you a more humane person. Readings extend widely across literary and non-literary genres, including lyric poetry and the novel, philosophical prose and essays.