I know I’ve said it many times before, but Literary Arts did right by me with this season’s line up of authors. You know it’s a good roster when a late cancellation by Joan Didion doesn’t bring the whole season to its knees. This year we were treated to George Saunders, Suzan Lori-Parks, David Sedaris, Mary Gaitskill, Jonathan Lethem, Stephen King, and others. (Michael Ondaatje was recently added for a June 18 engagement. Best known for having written the English Patient, Ondaatje goes way deeper than the movie adaptation of said book.)

The 2007-08 lineup was recently announced, and I’ve got to say—there’s nobody here that I’m particularly dying to see, even though the list includes the most recent Nobel Prize winner for literature, a critically adored hip(ish) young(ish) novelist, and a very important graphic novelist. But still, this season definitely suffers on the young-audience appeal and veers back more into the comfort zone of their patrons, which isn’t that surprising. At the Arts & Lectures events I attended this year, I was about 20 years below the median age, and felt about $150K below the median income. The bluehairs have to read, too, I guess. Here’s the lineup:

Orhan Pamuk
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Author of Snow and recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature.

Colson Whitehead
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
MacArthur Fellow and author of the hit novels Apex Hides the Hurt and The Intuitionist.

Mary Oliver
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, author of American Primitive.

Richard Powers
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Author of the National Book Award-winning novel The Echo Maker.

Marjane Satrapi
Monday, April 7, 2008
Author of graphic novel Persepolis, due out as a feature film this fall.