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have announced this year's author lecture series - known as

The season begins with short story master George Saunders, the author of "Tenth of December."  

 writes that Saunders' best stories "are animated by true fellow feeling and an anthropologist’s cool eye for the quirks of human behavior... Saunders hears America singing, and he knows it’s ridiculous, and he loves it all."

November brings one of my favorite authors of all time, 

. The creator of "Possession" and "The Virgin in the Garden" is known for writing works rich with literary history and complex family dynamics. 

, the author of "The Devil's Highway" and "The Hummingbird's Daughter" comes to town in February. Urrea writes about everything from modern day immigrants lost in Arizona to Mexico's own version of Joan of Arc - and Luis' ancestor - Teresa Urrea.  Luis Urrea was the 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and is a member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame.

 is best known for his graphic novel "Maus," which portrayed Jews as mice and Nazis as cats. The influential cartoonist, editor and comics advocate will speak on April 24 and 25.

The series comes to a close in May with noted poet

.  Smith's collection "Life on Mars" won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize and was selected as a 

You can find out more about the Pen Pals series 

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Author

Friends of the Hennepin County Library have announced this year’s author lecture series – known as Pen Pals – and it’s an impressive one. The season begins with short story master George Saunders, the author of “Tenth of December.”  The New York Times writes that Saunders’ best stories “are animated by true fellow feeling and…

Art Spiegelman, A. S. Byatt headline new Pen Pals series

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