What makes a good death? Join us at the Mill Valley Library for a special conversation between three accomplished local authors whose recent works explore the profound theme of death and dying from unique and powerful perspectives, including choosing when to die, managing parents' deaths, and disparities in end-of-life and death care for unhoused and unclaimed people. Featuring Katy Butler, Mark Dowie, and Amy Shea, and moderated by Zoe FitzGerald Carter.

Katy Butler is a longtime Mill Valley resident and the author of two nonfiction books on preparing for a good end of life, Knocking on Heaven’s Door and The Art of Dying Well. Knocking on Heaven’s Door was a New York Times bestseller, and The Art of Dying Well has been taught by numerous religious groups, including Spirit Rock, in courses on preparing for a good end of life. Butler has written for the New York Times magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Best American Essays, Best American Science Writing, and other leading publications.

Mark Dowie is a longtime resident of Inverness, the author of nine books, including his most recent, Judith Letting Go. He was a founding publisher and editor at Mother Jones Magazine and is an emeritus lecturer at The University of California Graduate School of Journalism where he taught science, environmental reporting and foreign correspondence. Dowie's works have won nineteen journalism awards, including four National Magazine Awards, a George Polk Award, a William Allen White Gold Medal, and a Media Alliance's Meritorious Award for Lifetime Achievement. 

Amy Shea is an essayist with an MFA and a doctorate in creative writing, and is the author of Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins, which is being published in September 2025 by Rutgers University Press. Her work has appeared in The Missouri Review, Pangyrus, Portland Review, The Massachusetts Review, Spry Literary Journal, Fat City Review, From Glasgow to Saturn, & the Journal of Sociology of Health & Illness. She works as the Writing Program Director for Mount Tamalpais College, a free community college for the incarcerated people of San Quentin.

A native of Washington D.C., Zoe FitzGerald Carter first began playing guitar and singing as a teenager. Although music was her first love, writing was her first career. A graduate of Columbia Journalism School, Zoe has written for numerous national magazines (The New York Times, Newsweek, Vogue) and, in 2010, published an award-winning memoir, Imperfect Endings, about her mother’s decision to end her life after living with Parkinson’s for many years. 

Our bookseller for this program will be Book Passage Corte Madera.