"Nine Authors / Nine Items: A Storytelling Auction," will feature nine local authors, each one reading a short work about an item that is close to his or her heart--everything from a signed book to a childhood art project. After each reading, the item will be auctioned off by the amazing local auctioneer Lulu Savage, with the funds going to support the quirky local charity The Endowment for Unexceptional Humans, which provides scholarship assistance and grants to ordinary people with realistic goals for improving their lives and our world. (Why "unexceptional" humans? Details for the curious are here: http://www.unexceptionalhuman.org.)

We have an impressive slate of other talented readers, including Christopher Boucher (How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, Melville House, 2011), Sarah Braunstein (The Sweet Relief of Missing Children, Norton, 2011), Julia Lissella (Love Song Hiroshima, Finishing Line Press, 2004; Terrain, WordTech Communications, 2007), Micah Nathan (Gods of Aberdeen, Simon & Schuster, 2005; Losing Graceland, Broadway, 2011).