It turns out that Madison Smartt Bell, of all people, is in Key West this week for a residency at The Studios of Key West. When my husband Mark heard that he immediately launched plans for a fundraiser benefiting Partners in Health. Bell is the author of a trilogy of novels on the Haitian Revolution -- All Souls Rising, Master of the Crossroads and The Stone That the Builder Refused -- and a biography of Haitian Revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture. He also had a piece in Sunday's New York Times, introducing different writers on Haiti.

The fundraiser is on: It's this Sunday, Jan. 24, at The Studios, 600 White Street, starting at 6 p.m. Bell will speak and it will feature a silent auction of donated works of art and signed books by writers including Annie Dillard, Robert Richardson, Judy Blume, Meg Cabot, Robert Stone, James Gleick, Valerie Martin, Margaret Atwood and Stuart Woods. For more information email soulsnotlost@gmail.com.