SF Bay Area Writers Rally Around Obama
By Bridget Kinsella -- Publishers Weekly, 1/8/2008 7:07:00 AM
Wasting no time after the Iowa caucuses gave Barack Obama his substantial win, author spouses Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman sent out an email blast inviting other publishing and non-publishing types to a $1,000-a-head fundraiser for their favorite candidate in Berkeley on January 27th.
Waldman, who attended Harvard Law School with Obama but didn’t know him well there, has been leading the charge to get as many people on board the Obama train even before her classmate ever expressed his intention to run. Her support dates back to Election Day 2004 when she boarded a plane in Denver after helping to get out the Democratic vote there thinking John Kerry had won and then learning upon landing at the Oakland airport that he lost. “I was crying like everyone else and I went up to Michael in baggage claim and said two words: ‘Obama’ and ’08,’” she said.
Since last April Chabon and Waldman have emailed or talked up Obama whenever they have had the chance, but this is the first fundraiser the couple is hosting with their friends Linda and John Gage (who is one of the founders of Sun Microsystems). While the candidate will not be there, the guest list is expected to include authors such as Tobias Wolff, Dave Eggers and perhaps Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket.
Bookseller friend Kathleen Caldwell at A Great Good Place for Books offered to spread the word about the fundraiser to her customers in a well-heeled Oakland neighborhood. Waldman said she and her husband hope to raise $25,000 for Obama.
