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New Chautauqua features nationally known writers By BILL VARBLE Getting tickets Tickets for each New Chautauqua lecture are $15 ($10 for students). Preferred seating season tickets for all four authors are $50. All seats are reserved. Purchase tickets at Bloomsbury Books in Ashland or the Craterian Theater box office in Medford. Call 779-3000. Writers David Sedaris, Peter Matthiessen, Russell Banks and Anita Shreve make up this year's New Chautauqua Lecture Series. Now in its fourth season, the popular series presents talks by writers of national reputation at the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater in Medford. "I think it's our best season yet," organizer Dan Hiller said. The series has featured such authors as Ken Kesey, Ivan Doig and William Kittredge. Here's this season's schedule: Oct. 25 -- David Sedaris. Nov. 17 -- Peter Matthiessen. Dec. 8 -- Russell Banks. Jan. 12 -- Anita Shreve. All lectures begin at 7:30 p.m. Authors usually read from or speak about their work, then take questions. David Sedaris burst onto National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" with "SantaLand Diaries," a quirky account of his experiences as a Macy's elf. "Barrel Fever," (1994) a collection of his stories, included "Santa Land Diaries." His 1997 autobiographical collection, "Naked," made The New York Times best-seller list. "Holidays on Ice," his most recent outing, is a collection of Christmas-related stories. He often collaborates with his sister, Amy Sedaris, under the name The Talent Family. The two have written several plays that have been produced in New York City. Peter Matthiessen has been nominated for the National Book Award in the fiction and non-fiction categories. He's known for the novels "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" and "Far Tortuga." His "The Snow Leopard" won a National Book Award for nonfiction, and "The Tree Where Man was Born was nominated for another. He's the author of "Killing Mister Watson," "Lost Man's River" and "Bone by Bone," a trilogy that recreates the life and death of a legendary man who's a husband, father and, allegedly, the cold-blooded killer of more than a dozen men and women. Russell Banks may be best-known for "Continental Drift," but he's written more than a dozen books of fiction, including "The Sweet Hereafter," "Rule of the Bone" and "Cloudsplitter." Among his awards: Guggenheim and NEA fellowships, O. Henry, Pushcart, Fels and Best American Short Story prizes, an American Book Award and a Pulitzer nomination. The film version of "The Sweet Hereafter" took the Grand Prix at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. Movie adaptations of several of his other books are currently in development. Anita Shreve cut her journalism teeth in the 1970s in Nairobi, Kenya. Back in the states she worked as an editor for US and QUEST magazines and wrote for Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine and New York Magazine. She is the author of two books of nonfiction, "Remaking Motherhood" and "Women Together." Her first novel, "Eden Close," was published in 1989. Since then she has published six others. She is the winner of the 1990 New England Book Award for Fiction, the 1998 Pen/L.L. Winship Award and an O. Henry prize for short fiction. Sponsors for this season are Valley of the Rogue Bank, Raymond James Financial Services and Jefferson Public Radio. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA