events

Art Exhibits

January 2012

Cafe Zoe
1929 Menalto Avenue
Menlo Park, CA 94025-2863
(650) 322-1926

San Carlos Library
610 Elm St
San Carlos, CA 94070
(650) 591-0341

Silicon Valley Community Foundation
2440 West El Camino Real, Suite 300
Mountain View, CA 94040
(650) 450-5400

Peets Coffee & Tea
2600 Broadway Avenue
Redwood City, CA
(650)362-1000

Milestones Preschool art exhibit
Palo Alto Children's Library
1276 Harriet Street
Palo Alto, CA
(650) 329-2134

Abilities United Aquathon

Abilities United Aquathon

Save the date Sunday September 9, 2012

$150,000 was raised so far in 2011! Many thanks to the swimmers, donors, and volunteers who made this possible!

Sunday, September 9, 2012
2:00 p.m.
Sunnyvale Swim Complex
Fremont High School
1283 Sunnyvale Saratoga Road
Sunnyvale, CA 94087

(650) 618-3331 or email

The event consists of a friendly swim competition staged by more than 50 Silicon Valley companies such as Cisco Systems, City of Palo Alto, eBay, Google, Intel, Intuit, Northrup Grumman, NVIDIA, Oracle, SRI, Webcor, and YMCA. The event is expected to draw over 600 people.

The Abilities United Aquathon is a great team building event so if you would like to enjoy a fun filled day of competition for a good cause, call (650) 618-3329, or email or register online. Funds raised include a $20 registration fee per person.

Abilities United Authors Luncheon

Check back for the 2012 date or look for your save the date notice!

$200,000 was raised so far in 2011! Many thanks to the authors, donors, sponsors and volunteers who made this possible!

Please join us at one of the most important literary events in Northern California.

Saturday, November 5, 2011
10:30 am - 3 pm
Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel - Palo Alto

The luncheon will feature four acclaimed authors who will discuss their books, share stories about their writing experiences, and offer insight into their inspiration. Since it began in 1991, each year the Abilities United Authors Luncheon has drawn more than 650 guests who have been entertained by some of the world's most renowned authors.

Individual seats are $125 before September 20
$150 after September 20

Sponsorship tables of 10 provide you with preferred seating and promotional benefits at the following levels:

Award Winner ($20,000)
Best Seller ($10,000)
First Edition ($5,000)
Choice Chapter ($3,000)
Page Turner ($2,000)

If you have any questions or would like to purchase a ticket or sponsor the Authors Luncheon, please call (650) 618-3330 or email.

Book sales benefit Abilities United and are managed by Books Inc.

Abilities United also benefits from any purchase you make through this link

2011 Authors

Jennifer Holm

Maxine Hong Kingston

Erik Larson

Calvin Trillin

Sponsors of the 19th Annual Authors Luncheon

$220,000 was raised in 2010! Many thanks to the authors, attendees, committee members, sponsors, and volunteers, who made this success possible.

"Best Seller" Sponsors ($10,000)

Acra Aerospace
Laurie and Jim Jarrett
Chris Kenrick
Carol and Mike Shealy
Madeline and Isaac Stein
Anonymous friends

"First Edition" Sponsors ($5,000)
Carrie Anderson
David and Julia Colella Carver
Ellen and Tom Ehrlich
Rayfield Family & Keare/Hodge Family
Bill and Brenda Younger

"Choice Chapter" Sponsors ($3,000)
Borel Private Bank
Carolyn and Richard Brennan
Thomas and Wallace Brunner
Heidi Feldman, M.D.
Ellen and Bob Jones
Karen Moore and Peter Watkins
Morrison and Foerster Foundation
Barbara and Michael Ruder
Judith and David Richardson
Elizabeth Wolf

Media Sponsor

Book Sales Sponsor

Accomodations Sponsor

Print Sponsor

Art Showcase Sponsor

Wine Sponsors

Adom Moutafian

2011 Author Information and Bios

Jennifer Holm

Buy her children's books at

Books Inc.

The Trouble with May Amelia, Turtle in Paradise, Penny from Heaven, Babymouse!, Our Only May Amelia, Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf, Boston Jane, The Creek, The Stink Files

Jennifer L. Holm is a three-time Newbery Honor winner and a New York Times best-selling children's author. Her books include The Trouble with May Amelia, Our Only May Amelia, Penny From Heaven, the Boston Jane trilogy and Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf. Her latest middle-grade novel, Turtle In Paradise, received a Golden Kite Award. She collaborates with her brother, Matthew Holm, on the wildly popular graphic novel series, Babymouse!, and their upcoming graphic novel series, Squish. She lives in California with her husband and two children.

Maxine Hong Kingston

Buy her novels at Books Inc. .
I Love a Broad Margin to My Life; Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace; The Fifth Book of Peace; China Men; The Woman Warrior

Maxine Hong Kingston, is the author of seven books and editor of two anthologies. The Woman Warrior, made Kingston an instant celebrity at age 36 when she won the National Book Critic's Circle Award. In April, 2007, Hong Kingston was awarded the Northern California Book Award Special Award in Publishing for Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace (2006), an anthology which she edited. In 1997, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by then-President Bill Clinton.

More recently, Kingston has moved from poetic writer of prose to poet. I Love a Broad Margin to My Life, is a book-length poem with reflections on politics, love, loss, aging, history, myth and imagination.

She recently retired from her career teaching literature and creative writing, mostly at UC Berkeley, where she was known for offering personalized instruction to each student, even in auditorium-sized classes, encouraging "real communication."

Erik Larson

Buy his books at Books Inc.
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin; The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America; Isaac's Storm; Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun; The Naked Consumer: How Our Private Lives Become Public Commodities

Erik Larson, author of the international bestseller Isaac’s Storm, was nominated for a National Book Award for The Devil in the White City. He is a former features writer for The Wall Street Journal and Time magazine, where he is still a contributing writer. His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's and other publications.

Larson has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and the University of Oregon, and has spoken to audiences from coast to coast. He lives in Seattle with his wife, three daughters, a dwarf hamster, a Chinese fighting fish, and a golden retriever named Molly.

Calvin Trillin

Buy his books at Books Inc.
Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of His Funny Stuff; Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme; About Alice; Remembering Denny; Tepper Isn't Going Out; The Tummy Trilogy; Killings

Calvin Trillin, the author of Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Election in Rhyme, has been acclaimed in remarkably diverse fields of writing. As a reporter for The New Yorker for forty years, he has been called "perhaps the finest reporter in America." His wry commentary on the American scene has earned him renown as "a classic American humorist." His About Alice —a 2007 New York Times best seller that was hailed as "a miniature masterpiece"—followed two other best-selling memoirs, Remembering Denny and Messages from My Father. In 2004, he published Obliviously On He Sails: The Bush Administration in Rhyme. A sequel, A Heckuva Job, was published in 2006. Both were New York Times best-sellers.

Trillin's books have included three comic novels, a collection of short stories and a travel book. Three of his antic books on eating—American Fried, Alice, Let's Eat, and Third Helpings—were compiled in 1994 into a single volume called The Tummy Trilogy. Over his career he has written for Time, The New Yorker and The Nation.

He lectures widely, and has appeared often as a guest on television. He has written and presented two critically acclaimed, one-man shows at the American Place Theater in New York. Calvin Trillin is a trustee of the New York Public Library, a former trustee of Yale and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Trillin was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, and now lives in New York.

If you have any questions or would like to purchase a ticket or sponsor the Authors Luncheon, please call (650) 618-3330 or email.