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The Harvard Psychedelic Club Wins California Book Award

On June 2, 2011, Don Lattin was one of ten authors to win the California Book Award for outstanding achievement for works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry published in 2010.Don won the Silver Medal in Nonfiction for The Harvard Psychedelic Club.

Past winners of that Silver Medal include Wallace Stegner, Will Saroyan, Fawn Brodie and Will Durant. The awards were presented at a ceremony in San Francisco at the headquarters of the Commonwealth Club of California. This was the 80th year that the award has been presented to honor the literary work of California authors.

Yunte Huang, an English professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, won the Gold Medal in Non-fiction for Charlie Chan. Karen Tei Yamashita won the Gold Medal for her novel I Hotel, while Eric Puchner was honored with the Silver Medal in fiction for his book Model Home. University of California Press was honored for its contribution to publishing for its bestselling work, The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1.

UC Press will publish Lattin's next work, titled DISTILLED SPIRITS – Getting High then Sober with Famous Writer, a Forgotten Philosopher and a Hopeless Drunk. The new book tells the compelling stories of three men – writer Aldous Huxley, philosopher Gerald Heard and Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson – whose work and inspiring friendship transformed the landscape of Western religion and spirituality. Don blends this group biography with a revealing memoir of his own misadventures as a religion reporter "worshipping at the altar of drugs and alcohol."
Click to see video of the California Book Award ceremony

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Past Public Events

Thursday, October 13, 2011: 4 PM
RELIGIOUS RENEGADES
DON LATTIN, Anna Broadway,
Tony DuShane, Julian Guthrie,
How important is faith as a guiding compass in our lives?
And how important is it to question one's faith, one's indoctrination, and indeed one's religious hierarchy?
Four authors will provide some lively debate on the topic.Koret Auditorium,
San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin
Free
litquake.org calendar of events

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Turn On, Tune In and Drop By the Oakland Art Murmur
Friday, October 7, 2011: 6 - 9 pm

Don Lattin will be selling, signing and talking about his national bestseller, The Harvard Psychedelic Club, at an Oct. 7 fundraiser to benefit The School of the Americas Watch. Lots of local artists and crafts people will be offering their wares at the event, which will be held at the Uptown Body and Fender Shop, 401 26th St. during the First Friday Oakland Art Murmur, on Friday, October 7, 2011 from 6 to 9 pm. The Art Murmur supports artists and culture in the Uptown neighborhood of Oakland.

The first twenty people to buy a paperback copy of The Harvard Psychedelic Club, which won the 2010 California Book Award Silver Medal for Non-Fiction, will get a free copy of Don's 2003 book, Following Our Bliss – How the Spiritual Ideals of the Sixties Shape Our Lives Today. Don will also have a new series of posters featuring the Korean, Czech and U.S. covers of the Harvard book. Twenty percent of all proceeds will be donated to SOAW.

School of the Americas Watch seeks to change U.S. foreign policy in Latin America by educating the public, lobbying Congress and participating in creative, nonviolent resistance. For more info, go to www.soaw.org. The Art Murmur is Big Fun. Learn more about this great monthly happening at www. oaklandartmurmur.org

September 24, 2011: 10 am - 4 pm
FESTIVAL PRESENTER
AUTHOR DON LATTIN
Sonoma County Book Festival
Old Courthouse Square
Santa Rosa, CA
Free Admission
For more information go to
www.socobookfest.org
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Jananuary 12, 2011: 7 pm
DON LATTIN READING FROM
THE HARVARD PSYCHEDELIC CLUB
Books Inc.
2251 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA

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January 20, 2011: 7 pm
DON LATTIN READING FROM
THE HARVARD PSYCHEDELIC CLUB
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Corte Madera, CA

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November 11, 2010: 7:30 pm
TIMOTHY LEARY: HIS LIFE AND LEGACY
City Lights Bookstore
Columbus at Broadway
San Francisco

Half a century has passed since Timothy Leary, a clinical psychologist at Harvard University, swallowed a handful of magic mushrooms on his summer vacation in Mexico in August of 1960. Leary returned to Harvard that fall convinced that psychedelic drugs would revolutionize psychology and change the world. At this special event, three California authors with recent books on the psychedelic sixties will read from their works and discuss the legacy of the "high priest of LSD," the man Richard Nixon called "the most dangerous man in America."
For more information, go to city lights event link

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October 7, 2010: 7:30 pm
LITQUAKE 2010 / SPIRITUAL JOURNEYS
Marin Osher Center
200 N. San Pedro Road
San Rafael

For 11 years, Litquake has featured thousands of authors reading from thousands of books in front of tens of thousands of eager lovers of literature. The Jewish Community Center of Marin is proud to join Litquake and Book Passage to present authors Sylvia Boorstein, Michael Krasny, Don Lattin and Dani Shapiro, sharing their literary and spiritual journeys with the community.
For more information, go to marin jcc link

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October 9, 2010: 6-7 pm
LIT CRAWL 2010
Forest Books
3080 16th Street
San Francisco

THE COURAGE TO SEEK CHANGE: Cultivating inner strength in order to tackle social change.

Todd Aaron Jensen, author of On Gratitude: 50 Celebrities on the Power of Giving Thanks;
Allen Klein, author of Change Your Life!;
Don Lattin, author of The Harvard Psychedelic Club;
Nina Lesowitz, author of The Courage Companion: Living Life with True Power;
Corinne McLaughlin, co-author of The Practical Visionary; M.J. Ryan, author of AdaptAbility; This Year I Will.
For entire Lit Crawl schedule, go to: lit crawl link

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September 24-26, 2010
HORIZONS 2010
Judson Memorial Church
New York City

Horizons is a forum for learning about psychedelics, held annually in New York City. The goal of the conference is to open a fresh dialogue on the role of psychedelics in medicine, culture, history, spirituality, and art. Don will talk about researching and writing his 2010 bestselling book, "The Harvard Psychedelic Club." - For more information, go to horizons site link

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May 13, 2010: 7 PM
Willis Barnstone in
conversation with Don Lattin
CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE
261 Columbus Avenue
North Beach, San Francisco

Please join poet Willis Barnstone and journalist Don Lattin at City Lights bookstore in San Francisco for an exploration of language, religion, and a refreshing analysis of the classic religious text known as the New Testament.

They will be discussing, among other things, Barnstone's recent work, The Restored New Testament - A New Translation With Commentary, Including the Gnostic Gospels Thomas, Mary, and Judas. The book seeks to restore the lyricism and mysticism of the Jesus story, and perhaps most important, to undo centuries of mistranslation designed to obscure the Jewish identity of the carpenter from Nazareth.

The event will be Thursday, May 13th, 7 PM at City Lights bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue at Broadway, in the heart of San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood.

Barnstone is the former O'Conner Professor of Greek at Colgate University and Distinguished Professor of comparative literature at Indiana University. A Guggenheim fellow, his books include Modern European Poetry, The Gnostic Bible, The Secret Reader, Life Watch, Complete Poems of Sappho. and Laughing Lost in the Mountains: The Poems of Wang Wei.

Lattin is a freelance journalist and religion writer. He is the author of four books, including the 2010 bestseller, The Harvard Psychedelic Club – How Timothy Leary, Andrew Weil, Ram Dass and Huston Smith Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America. He was the longtime writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. For information, click on city lights event.

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April 17, 2010: 5:30 pm
Panel with Ram Dass and Ralph Metzner
"Psychedelic Sciences in the 21st Century"
San Jose, CA

April 17, 2010: 10 am
“Cal Literature Expo”
CAL STUDENT STORE
UC Berkeley Campus

April 16, 2010: 6:30 pm
LIBRARY LAUREATES
San Francisco Public Library

April 15, 2010: 6:15 pm
Harvard Club
UNIVERSITY CLUB
San Francisco, CA

April 8, 2010: 7 pm
THE BOOK WORKS
2670 Via De La Valle
Del Mar, CA

April 7, 2010: 6 pm
Harvard Club
TAIX RESTAURANT
Los Angeles, CA

April 5, 2010: 7 pm
BOOK SOUP
8818 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA

April 7, 2010: 6:00 pm
LATITUDE 33 BOOKSHOP
311 Ocean Ave.
Laguna Beach, CA

Feb 18, 2010: 7 PM
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF
INTREGRAL STUDIES
1453 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA

Jan 26, 2010: 7:30
CAPITOLA BOOK CAFE
1475 41st Ave.
E Capitola, CA

Jan 21, 2010: 7 PM
BOOKS, INC
1760 Fourth St.
Berkeley, CA

Jan 19, 2010: 7:30 PM
BOOKSMITH
1644 Haight St.
San Francisco, CA

Jan 14, 2010: 7 PM
HARVARD BOOKSTORE
1256 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA

Jan 16, 2010: 11 AM
MERRITT BOOKSTORE
57 Front St.
Millbrook, NY

Jan 7 2010: 7 PM
BOOK PASSAGE
51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Corte Madera, CA