Anathem: an evening with author Neal Stephenson

What:
Anathem: an evening with author Neal Stephenson
Book launch presented by The Long Now Foundation

WHO:
New York Times best-selling fiction author Neal Stephenson will be presenting his new book Anathem, which is thematically based on The Long Now Foundation's 10,000 Year Clock project. Stephenson's previous works include seminal science fiction titles such as Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon.

WHEN:
Tuesday September 9, 02008*
6:30pm to 11pm

WHERE:
The Regency
1320 Van Ness @ Sutter
San Francisco, CA 94109

We will also be doing a live stream of this event at 7pm PST on 9/9/08 on http://www.longnow.org/anathem/

TICKET INFORMATION:
Tickets are $10 for the event only, or $42.50 for the event and a SIGNED copy of Anathem ($10 ticket and $32.50 book, includes tax – only pre-ordered books are guaranteed to be signed).

Members of The Long Now Foundation receive a complimentary ticket with RSVP, and can choose to pre-order a SIGNED copy of Anathem for $32.50 when they RSVP (only pre-ordered books are guaranteed to be signed).

Tickets and Member RSVP are available through Brown Paper Tickets.

BRIEF SUMMARY:
Neal Stephenson's long-awaited book Anathem will be released to the public on Tuesday September 9, 02008. Join us on this evening to hear the author read from his new work and converse with Stewart Brand and Danny Hillis of The Long Now Foundation. We'll also have a special musical performance of math-based chanting created for Anathem by composer David Stutz . A book signing, reception and all-around celebration will follow (we'll have a cash bar too). Additional copies of the book will also be for sale at the event, but we can only guarantee that pre-ordered books will be signed.

The concept behind Anathem germinated in 01999* when Danny Hillis asked Stephenson and several other contributors to sketch out their ideas of what Long Now's 10,000 Year Clock might look like. Stephenson tossed off a quick sketch and promptly forgot about it. Five years later, however, when he was between projects, the idea came back to him and he began to explore the possibility of building a novel around it - Anathem is the result.

"It is a great story, set in an alternative reality where people take long-term thinking seriously." -Danny Hillis

"Long Now’s 10,000-year clock inspired Neal Stephenson’s new story, Anathem, and now Anathem is inspiring the Long Now. In ten centuries, no one will be sure which came first." -Kevin Kelly

Additional information on The Long Now Foundation, Neal Stephenson and Anathem can be found here:

http://kk.org/ct2/2008/08/neal-stephenson-and-the-10000y.php

http://blog.longnow.org/2008/07/21/anathem-and-long-now/

http://blog.longnow.org/2008/08/19/neal-stephenson-king-of-the-worlds/

About the Long Now Foundation:
The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit organization established in 01996* to creatively foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.

*The Long Now Foundation uses five digit dates, the extra zero is to solve the deca-millennium bug which will come into effect in about 8,000 years.

MEDIA CONTACT
Contact: Danielle Engelman
[email protected]
415.561.6582 ext.1