Jane Smiley

2 MAY 2012 — wednesday

Charles Dickens's 200th Birthday Anniversary, beginning with lunch at the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters Pub, with talks by novelist Peter Orner and others on Discovering Dickens's London, followed by English Tea Readings with Charles Dickens "in person"; evening features keynote speaker Jane Smiley, followed by a panel, "A Writer's Life: Author, Celebrity, Social Reformer, Intrepid Traveler, Amateur Actor & Family Man and Dickens in the Digital Age," finale includes a dramatic reading by actor Paul Whitworth and surprise Victorian guests, co-sponsored by Litquake, The Dickens Project at UC Santa Cruz, and The Great Dickens Christmas Fair, Mechanics' Institute Library, 57 Post Street, San Francisco, $15, members free, noon to 8:30 (415/393-0100, rsvp @ milibrary.org; for complete schedule: www.milibrary.org)