This month Friends of the San Francisco Public Library and the San Francisco Public Library present Writers Remembered 2009: A Celebration of the Authors, Poets and Journalists Who Died in 2008. Friends, colleagues and admirers will gather in the Koret Auditorium of the Main Library to honor and celebrate the creative minds that left us in 2008, with readings, personal stories and reflections. This unique event will take place 1–4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31.

Writer Gerry Nicosia will host with an array of well-known authors scheduled to appear, including KATE BRAVERMAN, DANIEL HANDLER (LEMONY SNICKET), JACK HIRSCHMAN, EDDIE MULLER, PETER PLATE, and JASON ROBERTS. Among those to be remembered are William F. Buckley, George Carlin, Arthur C. Clarke, James Crumley, Harold Pinter, Studs Terkel, Tony Vaughan, David Foster Wallace, Donald Westlake, and many others.

Writers Remembered has become a San Francisco institution; an important date on the city's literary calendar. “This is more a celebration than a requiem,” noted Byron Spooner, Friends’ director of book operations and producer of the Writers Remembered program. “Many participants simply get up and tell embarrassing stories about those who are no longer around to refute them.”

Writers Remembered is a free, public event.