This calendar includes information about appearances by T. C. Boyle, Jill Lepore, and Malcolm Gladwell, and about exhibitions of work by Richard Avedon and Saul Steinberg (illustration by Saul Steinberg, above). Also listed is information about the “Portraiture Now” exhibit, which features the works of Steve Pyke and Martin Schoeller, at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

“Portraiture Now: Feature Photography” focusses on six photographers who, by working on assignment for national print publications, each bring their distinctive perspective on contemporary portraiture to a broad audience. Critically acclaimed for their independent fine-art work, these photographers—including New Yorker staff photographers Steve Pyke and Martin Schoeller—have also pursued a variety of editorial projects, taking advantage of both the opportunities and the parameters that these assignments introduce. The resulting work builds upon a long-standing tradition of photographic portraiture for the popular press and highlights creative possibilities for twenty-first-century portrayal.

Other photographers featured in the exhibition are Katy Grannan, Jocelyn Lee, Ryan McGinley, and Alec Soth.

Washington, D.C.: “Portraiture Now,” Smithsonian, National Portrait Gallery, through May 10, 2009.

The author reads from her latest book, “Blindspot: By a Gentleman in Exile and a Lady in Disguise” (Spiegel & Grau), which she co-authored with Jane Kamensky.

New York, N.Y.: Barnes & Noble, January 5, 2009, 7 P.M.

Writers Bloc hosts an evening with the New Yorker staff writer Malcolm Gladwell, in conversation with Kai Ryssdal, the host of the public-radio show “Marketplace.” Tickets cost twenty dollars.

Beverly Hills, Calif.: Writers Bloc, January 14, 7:30 P.M.

The author reads from his latest book, “The Women” (Viking Penguin), a novel about Frank Lloyd Wright told from the perspective of the women in his life, which comes out in February.

Princeton, N.J.: Barnes & Noble, February 14, 3 P.M.
Seattle, Wash.: Barnes & Noble, February 18, 7:30 P.M.

Saul Steinberg (1914-99) is famous for having given graphic definition to the postwar age, through hundreds of incisive illustrations for The New Yorker and a dozen books of drawings. His work is intensely personal, humorous, and observant of twentieth-century life. This exhibit gathers over a hundred of his drawings, collages, and sculptures.

London, United Kingdom: Dulwich Picture Gallery, through February 15, 2009.
Hamburg, Germany: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, March-May, 2009.

Richard Avedon was named the first staff photographer for The New Yorker, in 1992. He remained with the magazine until his death, in 2004. Throughout his career, Avedon photographed the faces of politics. In “Portraits of Power,” the Corcoran Gallery brings together Avedon’s political portraits for the first time. Juxtaposing images of government figures, media personalities, and labor officials with counter-cultural activists and ordinary citizens caught up in national debates, this exhibition explores a five-decade taxonomy of politics and power by one of the country’s foremost artists.

Washington, D.C.: “Portraits of Power,” Corcoran Gallery of Art, through January 25, 2009.