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In person: Novelist Isabel Alende comes to Sonoma on Sept. 21. Photograph by Marcia Lieberman Author Appearances WANT TO MEET the people who push the pens that bring you the best books on the shelves? You're in luck: some of the most fascinating authors on the contemporary scene will swing through the North Bay in the coming months. Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood (most famous for The Handmaid's Tale) reads from her new book, The Blind Assassin, on Sept. 14 at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. Also on the Book Passage calendar: iconoclast and author Gore Vidal reads from Golden Age, his latest entry in a series of narratives about the American empire, on Oct. 5. Vidal appears at Olney Hall at the College of Marin, 835 College Ave., Kentfield. Call 415/927-0960 for details. Renegade theologian and author Matthew Fox reads One River, Many Wells on Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m. at Readers' Books, 130 E. Napa St., Sonoma. Readers' Books also brings Isabel Allende to town on Sept. 21. The acclaimed novelist (Daughter of Fortune) will appear at the Sebastiani Theatre, on the Plaza, Sonoma. Tickets are $7 in advance and $10 at the door. For details, call 939-1779. Political columnist Molly Ivins teams up with author and essayist Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird and Traveling Mercies) for a unique onstage conversation on Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. at the Marin Center, Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael. Tickets are $18. But the teamwork doesn't stop there. The Marin Center also plays host to author Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient) and Russell Banks (The Sweet Hereafter), who will discuss fiction and film on Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. For details, call 415/472-3500. A pair of big-name novelists from Northern California are the highlight of the fall schedule at Copperfield's Books. Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City) appears on Oct. 21, and Alice Walker (The Color Purple) makes an appearance on Oct. 23. Reading locations are still to be announced. For details, call 823-8991. [ Sonoma County | MetroActive Central | Archives ]