PEN/Faulkner Gala!

Last night we went to Danger: The 26th Annual PEN/Faulkner Gala at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

The gala supports the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and Writers in Schools; it featured 10 of today’s finest authors reading works composed for the occasion on the theme of danger. We snapped former Siemens SVP Kathleen Ambrose, with one of the night’s benefactors, CityBridge Foundation president Katherine Brittain Bradley.

The night’s emcee was famed New Yorker writer Calvin Trillin, who had us rolling in the aisles talking about growing up with his sister Suki the Oppressor. He’s with two of the authors who took to the stage to read: Piper Kerman (Orange Is The New Black, now a hit TV show with 12 Emmy nominations) and Adelle Waldman (The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P).

Bucks’s Fishing & Camping and Comet Ping Pong owner James Alefantis, NBC4 anchor Barbara Harrison, and The Washington Ballet artistic director Septime Webre. The other acclaimed authors who read were David Baldacci, Elliott Holt, Ishmael Beah, Madison Smartt Bell, Mitchell Jackson, Rachel Pastan, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, and Isabel Wilkerson.

Capital Adventures' Ellie McMullen, PEN/Faulkner Board chair Frazier O'Leary, and another of the night’s benefactors, architect Shalom Baranes. The reading portion was followed by a seated dinner in the Great Hall, with a roasted vegetable mosaic, organic baby chicken, and apple tart.

CQ contributing writer Finlay Lewis, his wife, PEN/Faulkner EVP Willie Lewis, Danielle Parris Canfield, and well-known developer Calvin Cafritz. The PEN/Faulkner Foundation supports the art of writing, encouraging a love of reading by building a community of writers and readers.

In case you think you’ve been seeing a lot of John Hauge (right) lately, it’s because there are really are two of him. He’s with his identical twin Stephen, with whom he created the TrueTheaterGoer.com website.