Events

[LITERARY] His first book, the memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, made Dave Eggers a celebrity writer, in the company of such similarly celebrated writers as Jonathan Lethem, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Safran Foer, et al. He has auhtored, co-authored, or edited more than a dozen books since then—short stories, novels, nonfiction—some to great acclaim, but he is perhaps best known for his other work. He is a founder of McSweeney’s, an influential literary journal turned nonprofit publishing house. He is also a founder of 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutring center in San Francisco that now has chapters across the country. In 2010, he launched ScholarMatch, a nonprofit that helps students afford college. And he is a founder of Voice of Witness, a nonprofit that publishes oral histories documenting human rights crises around the world. And that’s just the half of it—if he had never written another book, his use of the celebrity he began to accumulate 20 years ago would itself be a notable achievement. But of course he has written many more books, and continues to be a vital promoter of a literary and creative culture. He speaks at Kleinhans this Thursday, April 20, as part of Just Buffalo Literary Center’s Babel series.