Martin Schneider writes:

The New Yorker sent out its first lengthy announcement regarding the attendees of the New Yorker Festival today. Below are the lightly trimmed highlights from the press release.

The 2009 New Yorker Festival

Date: October 16-18

The full program guide will be included in the September 21, 2009, issue of the magazine, on newsstands September 14, and will be available at newyorker.com/festival.

Among this year's highlights:
Interviews with the filmmaker Tyler Perry; the news anchor Rachel Maddow; the actor James Franco; the actress Tilda Swinton; the actor Jason Schwartzman; the playwright and actor Wallace Shawn; the author Annie Proulx; and the sleight-of-hand artist Ricky Jay.

The character actors Joan Cusack, Christine Baranski, Luis Guzmán, Richard Kind, and John Turturro will discuss how they create such memorable supporting characters.

Shouts & Murmurs Live will feature some of the funniest men and women from our pages Jenny Allen, Woody Allen, Noah Baumbach, Yoni Brenner, Ian Frazier, Patricia Marx, David Owen, Amy Ozols, Simon Rich, Paul Rudnick, George Saunders, Paul Simms, and Calvin Trillin--and will be hosted by David Remnick.

New Yorker writers Roger Angell, Adam Gopnik, Ariel Levy, Mark Singer, and Judith Thurman will gather for an evening of stories about life at the magazine, presented in conjunction with the Moth performance series and hosted by Andy Borowitz.

Pop-music offerings will include interviews with and performances by Neko Case, Bon Iver, Steve Earle, and Loudon Wainwright III; a pub-rock reunion with Ian Hunter, of Mott the Hoople, and Graham Parker, of Graham Parker and the Rumour; and a panel discussion about the music industry with Jace Clayton, Josh Deutsch, Melvin Gibbs, Danny Goldberg, and Livia Tortella. In addition, a special Brooklyn Playlist concert at Brooklyn's Bell House, curated by Sasha Frere-Jones and Kelefa Sanneh, will feature Dirty Projectors, House of Ladosha, Jubilee, and Liturgy.

In a series of New Yorker Talks, Atul Gawande will relate a story of risk, medicine, and skyscrapers; Malcolm Gladwell will examine the curious case of Michael Vick; Simon Schama will explore Obama's role in history; and James Surowiecki will look at why we procrastinate.

New Yorker film critics will screen and discuss overlooked masterpieces: David Denby will present Alfred Hitchock's 1943 thriller, "Shadow of a Doubt"; Anthony Lane will explore the 1947 French film "Quai des Orfèvres"; and Richard Brody will discuss Jean-Luc Godard's 1987 version of "King Lear."

After a sneak-preview screening of "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," Kelefa Sanneh will talk about the film with Sapphire and the film's director, Lee Daniels.

A panel, Radical Opera, will explore innovations in the genre, with participants Nico Muhly, Peter Sellars, Rufus Wainwright, and Lisa Bielwa discussing their recent work. This event will feature a special performance by the string quartet Brooklyn Rider.

About Town excursions throughout the city will include Calvin Trillin's ninth gastronomic walking tour of Chinatown and Little Italy, with stops at some of his favorite eateries; a tour of the Frick Collection before public hours begin, conducted by Peter Schjeldahl; a look into Chuck Close's studio, with drinks and conversation with Adam Gopnik; a studio tour with Basil Twist, who will discuss over drinks the art of puppeteering with Joan Acocella; and a beer-brewing demonstration and tasting with Sam Calagione, of Dogfish Head Brewery, in conversation with Burkhard Bilger.

Friday Night Fiction events will feature paired readings by New Yorker fiction writers: Mary Gaitskill and T. Coraghessan Boyle; Edwidge Danticat and Junot Díaz; David Bezmozgis and Jonathan Franzen; George Saunders and Gary Shteyngart; Daniyal Mueenuddin and Salman Rushdie; Jonathan Lethem and Colson Whitehead; Yiyun Li and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; and Joshua Ferris and Aleksandar Hemon.

A panel on the world of advertising, moderated by Ken Auletta, will feature Matthew Weiner, the creator of AMC's "Mad Men"; Lee Clow of TBTA Worldwide and Chiat/Day; and Steve Stoute of Translation Consultation + Brand Imaging, who will look at the reality behind Madison Avenue, today and in the past.

The interactive game Tailing Tilley game will send teams of participants off with New Yorker-inspired clues that will point the way to iconic locations around the city. Eustace Tilley himself will be hopping from one location to another, and the team with the most sightings will get a prize.

A live version of The New Yorker's popular weekly podcast on politics, the Political Scene, will feature Hendrik Hertzberg, Ryan Lizza, Jane Mayer, and Dorothy Wickenden discussing President Obama's first year in office.

A New Math panel will feature people who crunch numbers in interesting ways, to fascinating ends: Bill James, the baseball theorist; Nate Silver, the political analyst and creator of FiveThirtyEight.com; Sudhir Venkatesh, the urban ethnographer; and Nancy Flournoy, the biostatistician. [Note: I really hope I get to go to this!—MCS]

In a new series called Kaffeeklatsch, New Yorker writers and artists will come together for discussions in an intimate setting. The writers Donald Antrim, A. M. Homes, George Saunders, and Gary Shteyngart will explore the themes of heroes and anti-heroes in their work; David Owen will interview the cartoonist George Booth about his decades of work for The New Yorker; and the correspondents David Grann, Ian Parker, and Elizabeth Kolbert will tell of their far-flung travels to report stories for the magazine.

A set of Master Classes will feature Platon on photography, Bob Mankoff on cartooning, and Ann Goldstein and others on copy editing at The New Yorker.

Tickets will go on sale on Friday, September 18, at 12 noon, and may be purchased at newyorker.com/festival or by calling 800-440-6974. Ten percent of tickets to all events will be available at Ticket HQ, at Cedar Lake Theatre, 547 West 26th Street (between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues). These tickets will be sold on Friday, October 16, from 12 noon to 4 P.M. A limited number of tickets will be sold at the door to each event one hour before start time (including Tailing Tilley, but excluding all other About Town events). Updated Festival information will be available online at newyorker.com/festival.