The Diesel Readers Book Group discuss THE CONSPIRACY
2018-08-06 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | East Bay Booksellers, 5433 College Avenue, Oakland, 94618
East Bay Booksellers invites you to The Diesel Readers Book Group’s discussion of The Conspiracy, by Israel Centeno, on Monday August 6th at 7pm.
When leftist revolutionary Sergio’s sniper shot misses the President of Venezuela, he’s thrown into a sudden tailspin. As he attempts to escape the increasingly militarized regime, he winds up taking residence in a bohemian beachside commune, where he keeps a low profile until Lourdes, his former comrade, the object of his desire, and his possible betrayer, turns up one evening. Pursued by their former trainer in guerrilla warfare on the orders of the newly appointed Minister of the Interior, the two team up with unlikely partners to hatch a new plan for their survival. This poetic thriller, the second in Phoneme Media’s City of Asylum imprint, challenges the origin myth of South America’s radical left, resulting in its author’s exile from Venezuela.

** The Diesel Readers is an ongoing group, and is open to all. **

Event date:

Monday, August 6, 2018 – 7:00pm

Event address:

East Bay Booksellers
5433 College Avenue

Oakland, CA 94618

Undertone Mag Issue 002 Preview & Reading
2018-08-08 18:00 - 20:00 | E.M. Wolfman General Interest Small Bookstore, 410 13th Street, Oakland , CA, 94612, United States
Undertone Mag is celebrating the launch of its second issue, “On Body,” with a reading at E.M. Wolfman Books. Come by on August 8th for performances from local artists and a sneak peek at Issue 002!
“On Body” explores the thoughts and feelings women of color have about their bodies. Performers on the 8th include Maya Simone and Valentina de Roca Fuerte.
Come hang with us! ♥

Brenda Hillman, Matthew Zapruder, and Robert Hass
2018-08-09 19:00 - 21:00 | Books Inc. Berkeley, 1491 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley , CA, 94710, United States
DATE & TIME:

Thursday, August 9, 2018 – 7 p.m.

LOCATION:
Books Inc. 1491 Shattuck Ave Berkeley, CA 94710
View a map and get directions.

DESCRIPTION:

Join Books Inc. in Berkeley for an evening celebrating poetry and prose with Pushcart Prize-winner Brenda Hillman reading from her enchanting new collection, Extra Hidden Life, Among the Days; Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winner Robert Hass discussing his illuminating new work, A Little Book on Form: An Exploration Into the Formal Imagination of Poetry; and American Academy of Arts and Sciences Prize-winner Matthew Zapruder sharing his impassioned and refreshing literary criticism, Why Poetry.

Zines on desire // reading & release party
2018-08-09 19:00 - 21:00 | E.M. Wolfman General Interest Small Bookstore, 410 13th Street, Oakland , CA, 94612, United States
to celebrate our printing and release of read this when hungry, we’re hosting a reading and sale !!
including other zines on desire:
symbiotic sexting
sun spots (printed by floss editions)

R.O. Kwon presents THE INCENDIARIES (w/ Nayomi Munaweera)
2018-08-13 19:00 - 21:00 | East Bay Booksellers, 5433 College Avenue, Oakland, 94618
EAST BAY BOOKSELLERS is very excited to welcome one of our dear friends, R.O. Kwon to discuss her debut novel, The Incendiaries, on Tuesday, August 14th at 7pm. Joining her in conversation tonight is Nayomi Munaweera (What Lies Between Us).
First … check out this advance praise!
“The Incendiaries is a God-haunted, willful, strange book written with a kind of savage elegance. I’ve said it before, but now I’ll shout it from the rooftops: R. O. Kwon is the real deal.” —Lauren Groff, author ofFates and Furies and Florida
“Every explosive requires a fuse. That’s R. O. Kwon’s novel, a straight, slow-burning fuse. To read her novel is to follow an inexorable flame coming closer and closer to the object it will detonate—the characters, the crime, the story, and, ultimately, the reader.” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer and The Refugees
“The Incendiaries probes the seductive and dangerous places to which we drift when loss unmoors us. In dazzlingly acrobatic prose, R. O. Kwon explores the lines between faith and fanaticism, passion and violence, the rational and the unknowable.” —Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told You
A powerful, darkly glittering novel about violence, love, faith, and loss, as a young Korean American woman at an elite American university is drawn into acts of domestic terrorism by a cult tied to North Korea.
Phoebe Lin and Will Kendall meet their first month at prestigious Edwards University. Phoebe is a glamorous girl who doesn’t tell anyone she blames herself for her mother’s recent death. Will is a misfit scholarship boy who transfers to Edwards from Bible college, waiting tables to get by. What he knows for sure is that he loves Phoebe.
Grieving and guilt-ridden, Phoebe is increasingly drawn into a religious group–a secretive extremist cult–founded by a charismatic former student, John Leal. He has an enigmatic past that involves North Korea and Phoebe’s Korean American family. Meanwhile, Will struggles to confront the fundamentalism he’s tried to escape, and the obsession consuming the one he loves. When the group bombs several buildings in the name of faith, killing five people, Phoebe disappears. Will devotes himself to finding her, tilting into obsession himself, seeking answers to what happened to Phoebe and if she could have been responsible for this violent act.
The Incendiaries is a fractured love story and a brilliant examination of the minds of extremist terrorists, and of what can happen to people who lose what they love most.
* * *
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
R. O. Kwon is a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow. Her writing is published or forthcoming in The Guardian, Vice, Buzzfeed, Time, Noon, Electric Literature, Playboy, and elsewhere. She has received awards from Yaddo, MacDowell, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Omi International, the Steinbeck Center, and the Norman Mailer Writers’ Colony. Born in South Korea, she has lived most of her life in the United States.

Event date:

Monday, August 13, 2018 – 7:00pm to 8:30pm

Event address:

East Bay Booksellers
5433 College Avenue

Oakland, CA 94618

Anil Ananthaswamy discusses Through Two Doors at Once
2018-08-14 19:30 - 21:30 | Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley , CA, 94704, United States
Tuesday, August 14, 7:30pm
Pegasus Books Downtown
Anil Ananthaswamy discusses Through Two Doors at Once: the intellectual adventure story of the “double-slit” experiment, showing how a sunbeam split into two paths first challenged our understanding of light and then the nature of reality itself–and continues to almost 200 years later.

Many of the greatest scientific minds have grappled with this experiment. Thomas Young devised it in the early 1800s to show that light behaves like a wave, and in doing so opposed Isaac Newton’s view that light is made of particles. But then Albert Einstein showed that light comes in quanta, or particles. Quantum mechanics was born. This led to a fierce debate between Einstein and Niels Bohr over the nature of reality–subatomic bits of matter and its interaction with light–again as revealed by the double-slit experiment. Richard Feynman held that it embodies the central mystery of the quantum world. Decade after decade, hypothesis after hypothesis, scientists have returned to this ingenious experiment to help them answer deeper and deeper questions about the fabric of the universe.
How can a single particle behave both like a particle and a wave? Does a particle, or indeed reality, exist before we look at it, or does looking create reality, as the textbook “Copenhagen interpretation” of quantum mechanics seems to suggest? How can particles influence each other faster than the speed of light? Is there a place where the quantum world ends and the familiar classical world of our daily lives begins, and if so, can we find it? And if there’s no such place, then does the universe split into two each time a particle goes through the double-slit?
Through Two Doors at Once celebrates the elegant simplicity of an iconic experiment and its profound reach. With his extraordinarily gifted eloquence, Anil Ananthaswamy travels around the world, through history and down to the smallest scales of physical reality we have yet fathomed. It is the most fantastic voyage you can take.
Anil Ananthaswamy is an award-winning journalist and former staff writer and deputy news editor for the London-based New Scientist magazine. He has been a guest editor for the science writing program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and organizes and teaches an annual science journalism workshop at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bengaluru, India. He is a freelance feature editor for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science’s Front Matter. He contributes regularly to the New Scientist, and has also written for Nature, National Geographic News, Discover, Nautilus, Matter, The Wall Street Journal and the UK’s Literary Review. His first book, The Edge of Physics, was voted book of the year in 2010 by Physics World, and his second book, The Man Who Wasn’t There, won a Nautilus Book Award in 2015 and was long-listed for the 2016 Pen/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.

Jason Heller presents STRANGE STARS (w/ Nick Mamatas & Richard Kadrey)
2018-08-15 19:00 - 21:00 | East Bay Booksellers, 5433 College Avenue, Oakland, 94618
EAST BAY BOOKSELLERS welcomes Jason Heller to discuss his book Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded, on Wednesday, August 15th at 7pm. Joining him in conversation will be Nick Mamatas and Richard Kadrey.
As the 1960s drew to a close, and mankind trained its telescopes on other worlds, old conventions gave way to a new kind of hedonistic freedom that celebrated sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. Derided as nerdy or dismissed as fluff, science fiction rarely gets credit for its catalyzing effect on this revolution.
In Strange Stars, Jason Heller recasts sci-fi and pop music as parallel cultural forces that depended on one another to expand the horizons of books, music, and out-of-this-world imagery.
In doing so, he presents a whole generation of revered musicians as the sci-fi-obsessed conjurers they really were: from Sun Ra lecturing on the black man in the cosmos, to Pink Floyd jamming live over the broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing; from a wave of Star Wars disco chart toppers and synthesiser-wielding post-punks, to Jimi Hendrix distilling the “purplish haze” he discovered in a pulp novel into psychedelic song. Of course, the whole scene was led by David Bowie, who hid in the balcony of a movie theater to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey, and came out a changed man…
If today’s culture of Comic Con fanatics, superhero blockbusters, and classic sci-fi reboots has us thinking that the nerds have won at last, Strange Stars brings to life an era of unparalleled and unearthly creativity–in magazines, novels, films, records, and concerts–to point out that the nerds have been winning all along.
* * *
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jason Heller has written for publications including the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, NPR, and The AV Club. His latest book was Taft 2012.

Ingrid Rojas Contreras presents FRUIT OF THE DRUNKEN TREE
2018-08-16 19:00 - 21:00 | East Bay Booksellers, 5433 College Avenue, Oakland, 94618
EAST BAY BOOKSELLERS welcomes Ingrid Rojas Contreras to discuss her novel Fruit of the Drunken Tree on Thursday, August 16th at 7pm.
Seven-year-old Chula and her older sister Cassandra enjoy carefree lives thanks to their gated community in Bogot , but the threat of kidnappings, car bombs, and assassinations hover just outside the neighborhood walls, where the godlike drug lord Pablo Escobar continues to elude authorities and capture the attention of the nation.
When their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city’s guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula makes it her mission to understand Petrona’s mysterious ways. But Petrona’s unusual behavior belies more than shyness. She is a young woman crumbling under the burden of providing for her family as the rip tide of first love pulls her in the opposite direction. As both girls’ families scramble to maintain stability amidst the rapidly escalating conflict, Petrona and Chula find themselves entangled in a web of secrecy that will force them both to choose between sacrifice and betrayal.
Inspired by the author’s own life, and told through the alternating perspectives of the willful Chula and the achingly hopeful Petrona, Fruit of the Drunken Tree contrasts two very different, but inextricable coming-of-age stories. In lush prose, Rojas Contreras sheds light on the impossible choices women are often forced to make in the face of violence and the unexpected connections that can blossom out of desperation.
* * *
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ingrid Rojas Contreras was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, Guernica, and Huffington Post, among others. She is the book columnist for KQED Arts, the Bay Area’s NPR affiliate.

D. Wystan Owen presents OTHER PEOPLE'S LOVE AFFAIRS
2018-08-21 19:00 - 21:00 | East Bay Booksellers, 5433 College Avenue, Oakland, 94618
EAST BAY BOOKSELLERS welcomes D. Wystan Owen to discuss his story collection, Other People’s Love Affairs, on Tuesday, August 21st at 7pm.
In the ten luminous stories of D. Wystan Owen’s debut collection, the people of Glass, a picturesque village on the rugged English coast, are haunted by longings and deeply held secrets, captive to pasts that remain as alive as the present. Each story takes us into the lives of characters reaching earnestly and often courageously for connection to the people they have loved. Owen observes their heartbreaks, their small triumphs, and their generous capacity for grace.
A young nurse, reeling from the disappearance of her mother, forges an unlikely friendship with a local vagrant. A young boy is by turns dazzled and disillusioned by a trip to the circus with a family friend. A widower revisits the cinema where, as a teenager, he and an older woman shared trysts that both thrilled and baffled him. A woman is offered fragile, uneasy forgiveness for a cruel act from years ago. And in the title story, a shopkeeper’s vision of the woman she loved is upended by the startling revelation of a secret life. Surprising and powerful, and in the classic tradition of fiction by James Joyce, William Trevor, and Elizabeth Strout, Owen’s interconnected stories strike a deep and resounding emotional chord.
* * *
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
D. Wystan Owen holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His fiction and essays have appeared in A Public Space, the American Scholar, Literary Hub, and the Threepenny Review. A dual citizen of the United States and the United Kingdom, he now lives in Northern California.

GET LIT #39 (MUSIC BY TBD)
2018-08-21 19:00 - 22:00 | Ale Industries, 3096 E 10th Street, Oakland, CA, 94601, United States
Doors open at 7:00 PM; show starts at 7:30 PM SHARP! An amazing gathering of 12-15 writers will read NEVER-BEFORE-READ material (rough drafts / debuts) within a three-minute time limit.
Featured lineup of writers TBA
Suggested donations of $10-25 will be kindly requested at the door, though no one will be turned away for lack of funds (NOTAFLOF).
Beer made by Ale Industries on site and wonderful food by Guadalajara Restaurant & Tequila Bar just down the block. All ages are welcome, though profanity will be present.
Get beer. Get lit. Then Get Tacos.

Queer Authors read other Queer Authors
2018-08-22 19:00 - 20:00 | Laurel Book Store, 1423 Broadway, Oakland , CA, 94612, United States
Queer authors Natasha Dennerstein, Gar McVey-Russel, Anand Vedawala, Vernon Keeve III, and Luiza Flynn-Goodlett read from their favorite Queer authors.
Laurel Bookstore will be closing at the end of August, and this is our final event there.

Martha Nussbaum: The Monarchy of Fear
2018-08-23 19:30 - 21:30 | St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Avenue, Berkeley, 94705
KPFA Radio 94.1FM & St. John’s Presbyterian Church present
MARTHA NUSSBAUM
THE MONARCHY OF FEAR
For decades Martha C. Nussbaum has been an acclaimed scholar and humanist, earning dozens of honors for her books and essays. In The Monarchy of Fear she turns her full attention to the terrible political standoff that has polarized America since the Trump election. Although today’s atmosphere is heavily marked by partisanship, divisive rhetoric, and the seeming total inability of two halves of the country to communicate with one another, Nussbaum focuses on what so many pollsters, journalists and pundits have overlooked. She sees a simple truth at the heart of the problem: the political is always emotional. Globalization, automation and the high costs of higher education have produced feelings of utter powerlessness in millions of people in the U.S. Similar issues trouble European unity.
That sense of powerlessness and a pervasive underlying fear bubble into resentment and blame: blame of immigrants, blame of Muslims, blame of other races, blame of cultural elites. While this politics of blame played a hefty role in the election of Trump – and the vote for Brexit, Nussbaum argues that it can in fact be found on all sides of the political spectrum-confusingly intertwined, however, with reasonable arguments aiming at greater justice. She insists that retribution is always a bad response to fear, and she articulates a clear politics of constructive work and hope.
Martha C. Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, appointed in the Philosophy Department and the Law School of the University of Chicago. She has written more than twenty books.
advance tickets: $12: T: 800-838-3006 Books Inc/Berkeley, Pegasus Books (3 sites), Moe’s Books, Walden Pond Bookstore, Mrs. Dalloway’s, East Bay Books, $15 door, KPFA benefit more info: kpfa.org/events, wheelchair access

TELEGRAPH OPEN MIC (FEATURES: TBD AND TBD)
2018-08-24 19:00 - 21:00 | Nomadic Press: Uptown, 2301 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Join us at 23rd and Telegraph in Oakland for a six-slot open mic alongside two amazing features. This month’s show features TBD and TBD! Music by TBD!
Telegraph Open Mic takes place every fourth Friday from 7-9:00 PM at our Uptown location. It will have six open-mic slots open to the public. Spots are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis and the list opens at 7:00 PM sharp. As is the case with our musicians and features at all events, open-mic readers from the community will be held to the Nomadic Press Safe Space Statement. Please see below.
Safe Space Statement
Nomadic Press events are safe spaces for those who have been silenced and marginalized. There is no room for racism, misogyny, homophobia, or transphobia whether in the content of one’s reading or in one’s interactions with members of the community. We will protect the safety of this space by revoking a reader’s access to the microphone if we feel they have violated these guidelines, and we encourage community members to come to us if someone has violated these guidelines away from the microphone. We are a community, and we will work together to ensure that the safety of our most vulnerable members is prioritized above all else.
Come early to sign up for the open mic and share your latest work! Curated and emceed by Rene Vaz.
To help pay for our space and our artists and ensure that we can continue our robust programming series, we are calling for $10 at the door (plus whatever else you may be able to give), but no one turned away for lack of funds. Nomadic Press books, as always, will be for sale at the event.
Wine and Red Bay coffee will be available.

Katie Henry Launch for Heretics Anonymous
2018-08-24 19:00 - 21:00 | Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore, 2904 College Ave, Berkeley, CA, 94705, United States
Katie Henry

Launch for Heretics Anonymous, her hilarious debut YA novel about a band of misfits who set out to challenge their strict Catholic school, one nun at a time.

Friday, August 24, 2018 – 7:00pm

When Michael walks through the doors of Catholic school, things can’t get much worse. His dad has just made the family move again, and Michael needs a friend. When a girl challenges their teacher in class, Michael thinks he might have found one, and a fellow atheist at that. Only this girl, Lucy, isn’t just Catholic . . . she wants to be a priest.
Lucy introduces Michael to other St. Clare’s outcasts, and he officially joins Heretics Anonymous, where he can be an atheist, Lucy can be an outspoken feminist, Avi can be Jewish and gay, Max can wear whatever he wants, and Eden can practice paganism.
Michael encourages the Heretics to go from secret society to rebels intent on exposing the school’s hypocrisies one stunt at a time. But when Michael takes one mission too far–putting the other Heretics at risk–he must decide whether to fight for his own freedom or rely on faith, whatever that means, in God, his friends, or himself.
Katie Henry grew up in the Elmwood and now lives in New York City. She received her BFA in dramatic writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and is a published playwright, specializing in theater for young audiences. Her plays have been performed by high schools and community organizations in over thirty states. Visit her at www.katiehenrywrites.com.

Event address:

2904 College Avenue

Berkeley, CA 94705

Kids 10 & up! Pablo Cartaya
2018-08-25 16:00 - 18:00 | Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore, 2904 College Ave, Berkeley, CA, 94705, United States
Presenting Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish. One boy’s search for his father leads him to Puerto Rico in this moving middle grade novel, for fans of Ghost andSee You in the Cosmos.
To reserve your seat, purchase a copy of Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish by speaking to a bookseller or ordering from our website.

Saturday, August 25, 2018 – 4:00pm

Marcus Vega is six feet tall, 180 pounds, and the owner of a premature mustache. When you look like this and you’re only in the eighth grade, you’re both a threat and a target.
After a fight at school leaves Marcus facing suspension, Marcus’s mom decides it’s time for a change of environment. She takes Marcus and his younger brother to Puerto Rico to spend a week with relatives they don’t remember or have never met. But Marcus can’t focus knowing that his father–who walked out of their lives ten years ago–is somewhere on the island.
So begins Marcus’s incredible journey, a series of misadventures that take him all over Puerto Rico in search of his elusive namesake. Marcus doesn’t know if he’ll ever find his father, but what he ultimately discovers changes his life. And he even learns a bit of Spanish along the way.

Pablo Cartaya’s novels explore identity, place, and the spaces in-between. His debut novel about a boy standing up for his community, The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora, received three starred reviews. When Pablo isn’t writing, he’s spending time with his family or dreaming of his next visit to Puerto Rico. Learn more about Pablo at pablocartaya.com and follow him on Twitter @phcartaya.

Event address:

2904 College Avenue

Berkeley, CA 94705

BOOK RELEASE: BLACK STEEL MAGNOLIAS BY JAMES CAGNEY
2018-08-25 19:00 - 21:00 | Nomadic Press: Uptown, 2301 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Join us at our Uptown, Oakland, location for the much-anticipated release of James Cagney’s first full-length poetry collection, Black Steel Magnolias in the Hour of Chaos Theory!
It’s going to be an amazing evening of readings, live music, gnosh / refreshments, and friends of Nomadic Press as we launch this treasure of a book into the universe.
Readings by TBA, pop-up surprise Nomadic Press readers, and of course, the star of the evening, James Cagney. Books will be available for purchase and there will be a signing following the event ($12 each). Music by TBA!
Hope to see you there!

Saturday Night Special, An East Bay Open Mic Presents: Nighttime
2018-08-25 19:00 - 21:30 | Nick’s Lounge, 3218 Adeline St., Berkeley, CA, 94703, United States
As school starts back up and summer slides to its close, SNS celebrates “Nighttime.” Give us stars, dreams, darkness, a night on the town—Feel free to interpret our theme in any way that suits your fancy.
As always, we’d love to hear your (three-minute) poems, stories, comedic sketches, songs, or dances, on our optional theme (or any topic).
Our fabulous featured readers for August are: Heather June Gibbons & Rohan DaCosta
First come first served. Sign-up starts at 7pm and closes when it fills up or when the reading starts, so get there early if you want to read! (Note: Sometimes the list is full by 7:03pm)
Each reader will have 3 minutes maximum. For prose writers this is about one and a half double-spaced pages.
PLEASE NOTE: We are strict about the 3 minute max. When you reach your time limit at SNS, we turn on the disco lights! So, please plan ahead. Practice your piece out loud. Time yourself!
After the reading, stick around for karaoke starting at 10pm
Saturday, August 25, 2018
7 – 9:30 pm
Nick’s Lounge (21+)
3218 Adeline Street, Berkeley, CA
1 block south of Ashby BART
Between Fairview St & Martin Luther King Jr Way
FREE!
But bring CASH if you want to buy drinks (which you sort of have to, because there’s a 1-drink minimum!)
Hosted by Hollie Hardy
Please help out by liking our FB page, where you can also find more details and photos from past events:
https://www.facebook.com/Saturday-Night-Special-an-East-Bay-open-mic-112174188880786/
BIOS
Heather June Gibbons was born in Utah and grew up on an island in Washington. She is the author of the poetry collection Her Mouth as Souvenir, winner of the 2017 Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize (University of Utah Press). She is also the author of two chapbooks, Sore Songs (Dancing Girl Press), and Flyover (Q Avenue Press). Her poems have appeared widely in literary journals, including Blackbird, Boston Review, Drunken Boat, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, jubilat, New American Writing, and West Branch. She received an MFA in Poetry from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she held a Callen Graduate Scholarship, and she has been the recipient of a Full Fellowship Residency from the Vermont Studio Center, the Pavel Strut Poetry Fellowship from the Prague Summer Program, the Agha Shahid Ali Scholarship from the Fine Arts Work Center, and the Harold Taylor Prize from the Academy of American Poets. Heather teaches creative writing at San Francisco State University, and in the community. She lives in San Francisco.
Rohan DaCosta is a multi-disciplinary artist from the city of Chicago, working primarily through photography, writing, and song. Often approaching his work with great emotional sensitivity, Rohan explores complex dilemmas, and frequencies found in lovers, in families, in ecosystems, and in places. In his candid street photography and in his poetry, Rohan keenly examines intimacy and relativity, often finding the personal angle to political problems. In verse, he expresses the profound joy and quandary of black life in America. He is the founder of and curator for GRACEGOD The Collective, which celebrates the unique work of artists, craftsmen, and activists from all over the world. His work in graphic design and clothing has been featured as limited edition merchandise at The Koppel Project in London. His photography has been featured at The Flight Deck Gallery as a solo exhibition titled Ordinary People (2018). His photography has also been featured at Root Division Gallery as part of a group exhibition titled Let Me Be a Witness (2018). His book of photography, poetry, and song, The Edge of Fruitvale, was published by Nomadic Press on April 28, 2018.

DANIEL J. SIEGEL, M.D. presents AWARE: The Science and Practice of Presence With an introduction by DACHER KELTNER
2018-08-27 19:30 - 21:30 | Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave, Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States
Berkeley Arts & Letters and The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley co-present an evening with Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., for his new book Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence–The Groundbreaking Meditation Practice.
Aware provides practical instruction for mastering the Wheel of Awareness, a life-changing tool for cultivating more focus, presence, and peace in one’s day-to-day life.
An in-depth look at the science that underlies meditation’s effectiveness, this book teaches readers how to harness the power of the principle “Where attention goes, neural firing flows, and neural connection grows.” Siegel reveals how developing a Wheel of Awareness practice to focus attention, open awareness, and cultivate kind intention can literally help you grow a healthier brain and reduce fear, anxiety, and stress in your life.
Whether you have no experience with a reflective practice or are an experienced practitioner, Aware is a hands-on guide that will enable you to become more focused and present, as well as more energized and emotionally resilient in the face of stress and the everyday challenges life throws your way.
With an introduction by Dacher Keltner, Ph.D, founder and director of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.
—
Dr. Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. He is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute which focuses on the development of mindsight, which teaches insight, empathy, and integration in individuals, families and communities.
Dr. Siegel has published extensively for both the professional and lay audiences. His four New York Times bestsellers are: Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human, Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain, and two books with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D: The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline. His other books include: The Developing Mind (2nd Ed.), Mindsight, The Mindful Brain, The Mindful Therapist, The Yes Brain (also with Tina Payne Bryson, PH.D), and his upcoming book Aware (2018). Dr. Siegel also serves as the Founding Editor for the Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology which contains over sixty textbooks.
Dacher Keltner, Ph.D, is a founder of the Greater Good Science Center and its director. After receiving his Ph.D. from Stanford University, Dacher has devoted his career to studying the nature of human goodness, conducting ground-breaking research on compassion, awe, laughter, and love. He is also a leading expert on social intelligence, the psychology of power, and the emotional bases of morality. He has written more than 100 scientific papers and two best-selling textbooks, Social Psychology and Understanding Emotions. More recently, he is the author of the best-selling book The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence and Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life, and a co-editor of the Greater Good anthology, The Compassionate Instinct. Dacher is an outstanding speaker who has received several national research and teaching awards. Wired has rated the podcasts of his Human Emotion course as one of the five best academic podcasts in the country. He has twice presented his research to His Holiness the Dalai Lama as part of a continuing dialogue between the Dalai Lama and scientists, and his work is featured regularly in major media outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, and NPR. In 2008, the Utne Reader named him as one of 50 visionaries who are changing our world.
Please note:
Presentation to be followed by a Q&A. Important signing details to follow.
This event is all ages. Accessibility is important to us! If you have special needs of any kind, please write events AT booksmith DOT com and we will do our best to accommodate you. If the cost of admission would be a financial hardship that might prevent you from attending, please let us know.

BAY AREA GENERATIONS #60
2018-08-27 19:30 - 21:30 | Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
BAY AREA GENERATIONS #60
August in Oakland, California at Joyce Gordon Gallery

Guest Curator: David Brehmer; Board Curator: Marise Phillips

READERS

Tasha Mini + Susan Nordmark
Bronwyn Emery + Fred Dodsworth
Carol Dorf + Grace Grafton
Laura Fanning + Erica Peck
John McNulty + Heidi Benson Stagg
Daniel Ari + Jon Sindell
Leah Markos + Don Markos
Libra Kaplan + Robin Heyden
Peggy Simmons + Xochtil Larios
Maurisa Thompson + Avotjca
Tobey Hiller + Maw Shein Win
Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte + PW Covington

MUSICAL GUEST

TBA

Get tickets now!
BAY AREA GENERATIONS, EDITION #60
Monday, August, 2018
at Joyce Gordon Gallery in Oakland, CA
*Free on-street parking after 6pm
* Just Steps from 14th St. BART * Refreshments
* On major transit lines
6:30 pm – Doors Open with Writers Mixer
7:30 pm – Show Starts
Suggested Donation
$10 (admission + souvenir chapbook)
No one turned away for lack of funds
Get Tickets! RSVP Today!

H O L L O W A Y : R E A D I N G : S E R I E S Annual Faculty Reading, with Cecil Giscombe, Robert Hass, Lyn Hejinian, Geoffrey G. O’Brien, John Shoptaw, and Sara Nicholson
2018-08-29 18:30 - 20:30 | Maude Fife Room, UC Berkeley, 2000 Carleston Street, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
Annual Faculty Reading, with Cecil Giscombe, Robert Hass, Lyn Hejinian, Geoffrey G. O’Brien, John Shoptaw, and Sara Nicholson
READINGS ARE FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Joe Clifford in conversation with David Corbett
2018-08-29 19:30 - 21:30 | Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley , CA, 94704, United States
Wednesday, August 29, 7:30pm
Pegasus Books Downtown
Mystery authors Joe Clifford (Broken Ground) and David Corbett (The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday) discuss their most recent works.

A former homeless junkie, Joe Clifford has dedicated his life to education and the craft of writing and helping other ex-junkies find a voice and a platform for their creative energies. He is a graduate of Central Connecticut State University and holds an MFA degree from Florida International University. He is the acquisitions editor for Gutter Books and the producer of Lip Service West, a gritty reading series in Oakland, California. Clifford is the author of several acclaimed books―two of which were Anthony Award nominees: Lamentation, his first novel in the Jay Porter series, and his anthology (editor) Trouble in the Heartland. Broken Ground is the fourth novel in his Jay Porter series. In all his Jay Porter novels, Clifford uses the backdrop of drug abuse to shine a light on the misunderstood and marginalized, while weaving personal tragedies into narratives that compel and transcend as well as entertain. Clifford lives with his wife, Justine, and two sons in the San Francisco Bay Area.

David Corbett worked as a private investigator for fifteen years before becoming the widely acclaimed author of multiple novelsincluding The Devil’s Redhead, Done for a Dime (a New York Times Notable Book), Blood of Paradise (nominated for numerous awards, including the Edgar), and Do They Know I’m Running. David’s short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, with two stories selected for Best American Mystery Stories. He has taught at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, 826 Valencia, Chuck Palahniuk’s LitReactor, and the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto.

Tim Burkett: Zen in the Age of Anxiety
2018-08-30 08:00 - 17:00 | Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley , CA, 94704, United States
Tuesday, September 11, 7:30pm
Pegasus Books Downtown
Tim Burkett discusses Zen in the Age of Anxiety: Wisdom for Navigating Our Modern Lives.
ABOUT ZEN IN THE AGE OF ANXIETY
Zen wisdom for identifying the causes of mental and emotional anxiety epidemic in today’s world and for finding the path to a peaceful heart in the midst of them–a path that leads directly though the center of the anxiety we’re trying to escape.
Wrestling with fear doesn’t have to be a negative experience. This book offers an approach to life that unlocks a new way of thinking and being in the world, one that leads directly through the center of the anxieties we seek to avoid. Written in the style of an owner’s manual, a guide to being human, Burkett focuses on areas of pain and anxiety as they tend to manifest for modern people: feelings of unworthiness, and issues surrounding sex, money, failure, and even death. Providing wisdom from Zen (channeled through his many experiences as a psychotherapist) and using language and metaphors from popular culture, he takes anxiety and teaches us to turn those fears into the building blocks of a fulfilling life.
TIM BURKETT
Tim Burkett began practicing Zen Buddhism in San Francisco in 1964 with renowned teacher Shunryu Suzuki (author of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind). Tim’s first book, Nothing Holy About It, discusses how Zen’s core teachings unfold within the ordinary comedies and tragedies of everyday life. In his books, as in his life, Tim reveals how to live in the world with a deep joy that comes from embracing the work and play of this very moment. Tim is the former CEO of the largest non-profit organization in Minnesota for individuals with mental illness. He is a psychologist, a Zen Buddhist priest, and the Guiding Teacher of Minnesota Zen Meditation Center.

PRAISE
“This is a book imbued with love and wisdom, full of passages of fluid prose, woven in with carefully chosen Zen stories, poetry, and relevant research findings. It includes clear explanations of the power of diligent meditation practice to transform our various human difficulties into clear seeing, equanimity, and ease, followed by practical exercises about how to go about this work. This is a book about the substance and beauty of Zen practice, a book I will happily read and recommend to my own students.”—Jan Chozen Bays, author of Mindful Eating and How to Train a Wild Elephant
“I gained so much from reading Tim’s book, especially about how to hold and handle my own anxieties. Here is an encouraging handbook on how Buddhist values and practices can increase our sense of connectedness and foster inner—and outer—peace. I especially liked Tim’s Nine Keys that can open any of us to healing powers in life events and in ourselves too.”—David Richo, author of The Five Things We Cannot Change and How to Be an Adult in Relationships
“With an artless simplicity born of deeply integrated and compassionate wisdom, Tim Burkett speaks to the beginner’s mind in each one of us.”—Cynthia Bourgeault, author of The Heart of Centering Prayer
“Now the guiding teacher at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis, Burkett uses his teacher’s advice to frame a thoughtful life manual for modern seekers and meditators—especially those who, like Burkett, lean away from the rigidity of formal religion. For Burkett, the Buddhist precepts are gifts, not rules, that frame a wholesome life. Zen in the Age of Anxiety can help nontraditionalists find their way with those gifts in hand.”—Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
“Through companionable wisdom and focused practice, Zen in the Age of Anxiety is a guidebook for applying Zen principles to our troubled and harried lives. The book explores the paradox of the centered peace of Zen beliefs in the chaos of modernity. As both a psychologist and a Zen Buddhist priest, Tim Burkett’s vocations pair a broad knowledge of human behavior with the compassion, humor, and openness of Zen.”—Foreword Reviews

Event date:

Tuesday, September 11, 2018 – 7:30pm

Event address:

Pegasus Books Downtown
2349 Shattuck Ave

Berkeley, CA 94704

JOURNAL RELEASE: NOMADIC JOURNAL 2017: WONDER (RETRO!)
2018-09-01 19:00 - 22:00 | Nomadic Press: Uptown, 2301 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Join us at our Uptown, Oakland, location for the much-anticipated release of Nomadic Journal 2017 (Retro!): Wonder!
It’s going to be an amazing evening of readings, live music, gnosh / refreshments, and friends of Nomadic Press as we launch this treasure of a book into the universe.
Readings by TBA and pop-up surprise Nomadic Press readers. Books will be available for purchase and there will be a signing following the event ($15 each). Music by TBA!
Hope to see you there!

Challenged, Censored, Banned
2018-09-05 19:00 - 21:00 | The Octopus Literary Salon, 2101 Webster St #170, Oakland , CA, 94612, United States
Featured readers: Judy Wells, Dale Jensen, Fred Dodsworth, Missy Church. Open Mic Night follows the featured readers. Sign-up now for Ist Annual Open Mic Award’s Contest. Book & Broadside Giveaway. Free, 7-9 pm. The Octopus Literary Salon, 2101 Webster St., Oakland.

Meet author Gabriela Alemán in conversation with translator Dick Cluster
2018-09-06 06:00 - 19:00 | Oakland Main Library, 125 14th St, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Meet Gabriela Alemán, celebrated Ecuadorian writer and author of the novel Poso Wells. Among other honors, she is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and was recognized by Bogotá 39, a 2007 list of the most important up-and-coming Latin American writers. Poso Wells is her first full-length work published in English. It’s a madcap, feminist mash-up of noir, thriller, Science Fiction and satire, and has been featured in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, and the Los Angeles Times Review of Books, and was selected as one of the American Booksellers Association’s Independent Booksellers’ 10 Debut Picks of the Season. “One part Thomas Pynchon, one part Gabriel García Marquez, and one part Raymond Chandler, Alemán’s novel contains mystery, horror, humor, absurdity, and political commentary . . . A concoction of political thriller and absurdist literary mystery that never fails to entertain.” (Kirkus Reviews)
Oakland’s own Dick Cluster is a writer, editor and translator. He is the translator of Poso Wells and was instrumental in bringing it to an English reading audience. Among other work, he is the editor and translator of Kill the Ámpaya!: Best Latin American Baseball Fiction, co-author of The History of
Havana, and author of a mystery series featuring a car mechanic turned amateur detective.
Books will be available for sale and signing.

Miko Peled: The General's Son: Journal of an Israeli in Palestine
2018-09-06 19:30 - 21:30 | First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States
KPFA Radio 94.1 FM, Middle East Children’s Alliance & Jewish Voice for Peace present
MIKO PELED
The General’s Son: Journal of an Israeli in Palestine
and
Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five
Hosted by Nora Barrows-Friedman
Tickets: $12 or independent bookstores, $15 door, Benefit KPFA Radio, Info: kpfa.org/events
The General’s Son: Journal of an Israeli in Palestine 2nd edition:
“This is a brilliantly rendered father and son saga amidst a background that evokes Greek mythology. .. is a story of admiration and anger.” -Sy Hersh
“There are few books on the Israel/Palestine issue that seem as hopeful to me as this one.” – Alice Walker
“Matti Peled, the general of the title, was a remarkable personality. An underground Fighter, a combat soldier and an architect of the Israeli army that won the Six Day War, he was a militaristic hawk before becoming a peace activist. The man who pushed the Israeli government into the war turned into one of the most implacable enemies of the occupation that resulted from it.” -Uri Avnery, veteran Israeli peace activist and former member of Knesset
“This critically important memoir…is a must read.” -Naomi Wolf, author
This new edition contains an Epilogue that takes readers with Peled on his travels around the world to promote his message of personal discovery and peacemaking to South Africa, East Asia, Europe, the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel itself. He also reflects further on his continuing inner journey.
Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five
“Miko Peled shines a light on one of the most egregious cases of injustice committed to date against Muslim leaders in the United States. ..an ominous and important warning about the degradation of the rule of law and civil liberties that increasingly characterizes the United States” – Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist & former Middle East Bureau Chief for The New York Times

Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Showcase & 510 Journal Release
2018-09-07 18:00 - 21:30 | Chapter 510 & the Dept. of Make Believe, 2301 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
A rare gathering of youth talent and voices!
Oakland Youth Poet Laureates, Finalists and Honorable Mentions from the past SEVEN years will be performing at this First Friday event!
The latest issue of the 510 Journal (510journal.com), featuring Leila Mottley – 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate will be launched! Presented by Chapter 510 & the Dept. of Make Believe, the 510 Journal features the work of the Youth Poet Laureate – Oakland program and seeks to make young people and their perspectives visible in the daily lives of Oakland residents by placing youth writing in public places.
Lucy Flattery-Vickness – 2017 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate will MC!
Bring your questions for the Q & A with the poets!
Delicious food available from Two Mamacitas Pop-Kitchen
Fresh music jams spun by Dj XCAIROSITOSX
Doors open at 6pm.
Performances/Readings begin at 7pm.
Youth poetry open mic to follow.
FREE
The line up so far:
Leila Mottley – 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate
Samuel Getachew – 2018 Oakland Vice Youth Poet Laureate
Julia Hopkins – 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
Darien Em – 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
Monique Nadine Jonath – 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
Miles De Rosa – 2018 and 2017 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
BayLeaf Wilson – 2017 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
Lizette Navarro – 2017 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
Emily Lea Kim – 2014 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
Euna Elizabeth Bonovich – 2012 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist
Kerby Lynch – 2012 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Finalist

ZQ-287 PRESENTS: KILLING THE FUTURE
2018-09-07 19:00 - 21:00 | E.M. Wolfman General Interest Small Bookstore, 410 13th Street, Oakland , CA, 94612, United States
ZQ-287 PRESENTS:
KILLING THE FUTURE
A Fiction Reading and Discussion on How to Make Sure There’s No Future Forever
Sep. 7
*featuring*
AFFLICTION INCLUDED (AUTHOR’S CUT) by Steven T. Bramble
After spending his youth as the son of a dissident mother who tried and failed to plot the overthrow of the consolidated world government, Stanly Borque was punished for political crimes he didn’t commit. Now, years, later, he’s none other than a compliant corporate employee, working in the midst of the same authoritarian, oligarchical system of total social surveillance his mother had hoped to eradicate. Which doesn’t actually bother him too much—until a business trip to Ghana where a bizarre accident catapults him back into the world of the powerful, and the inescapable arms of the regime.
As an inept participant in so much conspiracy, he’ll be confronted with a barrage of possibly important questions along the way. Like, is freedom a dead concept? Why did a global pandemic of suicides cause a tenth of the world’s population to do itself in? And, is there a reason to hope anymore? A story of the world in the total opposite of disarray, and what it means when reality is at odds with the human spirit.
Steven T. Bramble is the author of the Psychology of Technology Triptych, which includes the novels GRID CITY OVERLOAD, for which he won Honorable Mention in Foreword Review’s 2012 Book of the Year Award, and DISPOSABLE THOUGHT, which was awarded an editor’s pick by Kirkus Reviews.
“Bramble’s work evokes that of many 20th-century authors who sought to grapple with their eras’ technological tumult. His post-modern maximalism calls to mind Thomas Pynchon and William T. Vollmann; his grim dystopianism, Orwell and Margaret Atwood; his overt social criticism, Richard Wright and Kurt Vonnegut.” — Kirkus
BABYLON: ISSUE THREE by Alan Clark
A hundred years in the future, four deities are reborn in our universe after the death of their own. Now the events that destroyed their home universe have returned once again to kill them. BABYLON is the mind-bending gold-standard of the multi-dimensional doomsday soap opera category, embracing such age-old maxims as “Love is a Dead Place,” “Revenge is for Winners,” and “No Future Forever.” A brutally hilarious sci-fi epic from the expansive imagination of Alan Clark, and illustrated in inimitable, painstakingly detailed style.
Alan Clark is the author of IN SEARCH OF THE BLACK PANTHERS, a graphic novel being published in serial. The second issue is set to release this September.
“Skillyfully rendered and arresting, [Alan Clark’s] illustrations invite reverie and instill a desire to return to look again.” — Oakland Magazine

Left Margin LIT Reading
2018-09-07 19:00 - 21:30 | Left Margin Lit, 1543 Shattuck, Berkeley, CA
Now that we have a new space (1543 Shattuck in North Berkeley), it’s time to launch our own reading series. Come nosh on some snacks and listen to 5 Left Margin writers share their work: Lauren Markham, Muhammad Umar Jee Salimi, Keenan Norris, Melinda Noack, and Chris Arnold. This is a free event.

OAKLAND FIRST FRIDAYS AT NOMADIC PRESS!
2018-09-07 19:00 - 22:00 | Nomadic Press: Uptown, 2301 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Doors open at 7:00 PM; show starts at 7:30 PM SHARP! Join us at Nomadic Press as we celebrate Oakland First Fridays! Featuring readings by 4-5 Nomadic Press authors in our intimate space amongst the hustle at 23rd and Telegraph Avenue. Come early and catch our authors reading on a street stage just down the block at 6:30 PM. This month features readings by TBD and music by TBD.
To help pay for our space and our artists and ensure that we can continue our robust programming series, we are asking for suggested donations of $10-15 at the door, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds (NOTAFLOF). Nomadic Press books, as always, will be for sale at the event.
Wine and Red Bay coffee will be available.
