Litseen

Discussion of THE MARVELOUS MIRZA GIRLS | Author Sheba Karim in conversation with Mathangi Subramanian
2021-06-08 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Please join us on Tuesday, June 8, 2021 at 7 PM PDT for a discussion of THE MARVELOUS MIRZA GIRLS with author Sheba Karim in discussion with Mathangi Subramanian (author of A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF HEAVEN).
Our discussion will be webcast on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88967599970.
Pre-order your copy of THE MARVELOUS MIRZA GIRLS at http://bit.ly/ggpMirza, or in audiobook from Libro.fm at http://bit.ly/MirzaAB.
Description

Gilmore Girls meets vibrant New Delhi in this thoughtful and hilarious new novel about a teen facing family expectations, relationship complications, and hidden secrets in a new country—sprinkled with Sheba Karim’s signature wit and steamy romance, and perfect for readers who loved Mary H. K. Choi’s Emergency Contact and Adib Khorram’s Darius the Great Is Not Okay.
To cure her post-senior year slump, made worse by the loss of her aunt Sonia, Noreen decides to follow her mom on a gap year trip to New Delhi, hoping India can lessen her grief and bring her voice back.
In the world’s most polluted city, Noreen soon meets kind, handsome Kabir, who introduces her to the wonders of this magical, complicated place. With the help of Kabir—plus Bollywood celebrities, fourteenth-century ruins, karaoke parties, and Sufi saints—Noreen discovers new meanings for home.
But when a family scandal erupts, Noreen and Kabir must face complex questions in their own relationship: What does it mean to truly stand by someone—and what are the boundaries of love?
About the Author

Sheba Karim is the author of Mariam Sharma Hits the Road, That Thing We Call a Heart, and Skunk Girl. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and NYU School of Law and currently lives in Nashville. You can visit her online at www.shebakarim.com.
About Mathangi Subramanian

Mathangi Subramanian is an award-winning Indian American writer, author, and educator. She is a graduate of Brown University and the Teachers College of Columbia University, and the recipient of a Fulbright as well as other fellowships. Her writing has previously appeared in the Washington Post, Quartz, Al Jazeera America, and elsewhere. A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF HEAVEN is her first work of literary fiction.
Praise For THE MARVELOUS MIRZA GIRLS

“Karim’s latest is a searing story of love in its many forms: young and old, romantic and familial, and maybe most complex, our capacity to love a place. A deep dive into the values of travel and firsthand experience, the book takes an unflinching look at poverty and complicity, sex and religion, without ever losing sight of what it is: family drama, rom-com, travelogue. Call it what you want, The Marvelous Mirza Girls is an utter delight.”
— David Arnold, author of Mosquitoland and The Electric Kingdom
“Part self-discovery, part travelogue, all charming.”
— Kendare Blake #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Three Dark Crowns series
Filled with beautiful imagery, sensory language, clever structuring, and humor, this is a romantic coming-of-age story…. An engaging and perceptive story of love, grief, and personal awakening.
— Kirkus Reviews

Mick LaSalle & Richard Wolinsky: Dream State: California at the Movies
2021-06-08 19:00 - 20:00 | Virtual
KPFA Radio 94.1 FM presents
Mick LaSalle & Richard Wolinsky: A Zoom Event
DREAM STATE: CALIFORNIA IN THE MOVIES
Dream State is a freewheeling journey through several dozen big-screen visions of the Golden State, with LaSalle’s unmistakable contrarian humor as the guide. His writing, unerringly perceptive and resistant to cliche, brings clarity to the haze of Hollywood reverie and self-regard.
It hardly needs to be argued: nothing has contributed more to the mythology of California than the movies. Fed by the film industry, the California dream is instantly recognizable to people everywhere, yet remains elusive for nearly everyone, including Californians themselves. That paradox is the subject of longtime San Francisco Chronicle columnist film critic Mick LaSalle’s first book in nearly a decade. The opposite of a dry historical primer, Dream State leaps effortlessly between genres and generations, moving with ease from Double Indemnity to the first two versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Boyz n the Hood to Booksmart. There are natural disasters, vicious crimes, dubious utopias, wild romances, and unforgettable nights. Both entertaining and unsettling, this book is a bold dissection of the California dream and how it shaped the modern world.
Mick LaSalle, longtime film critic for The San Francisco Chronicle, is the author of three previous books: Complicated Women: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of Modern Man; Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man, and The Beauty of The Real: What Hollywood Can Learn from Contemporary French Actresses.
Richard Wolinsky, a veteran radio broadcaster, is the host of Bookwaves and Arts-Waves interviews and discussions on KPFA, as well as his Probabilities series of extended archive interviews on literature, theater, film, and other visual arts from a progressive viewpoint.
Suggested Donation $5-$20.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mick-lasalle-richard-wolinsky-dream-state-california-in-the-movies-tickets-147654956951

Virtual Event: Chaney Kwak and Daniel Handler
2021-06-08 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
JOIN US ON TUESDAY, JUNE 8 AT 6PM PT WHEN CHANEY KWAK IS JOINED BY DANIEL HANDLER FOR THE LAUNCH OF HIS BOOK, THE PASSENGER: HOW A TRAVLE WRITER LEARNED TO LOVE CRUISES & OTHER LIES FROM A SINKING SHIP ON ZOOM!
Zoom Login Info
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87694059629
Or One tap mobile :
US: +16699009128,,87694059629# or +13462487799,,87694059629#
International numbers available: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdR1Y3dnz
Praise for The Passenger
“In The Passenger, Chaney Kwak debuts with the ultimate freelancer revenge story: What do you do when the cruise ship you are covering on assignment starts to sink? The result is a gripping story of survival, capitalism, maritime history—nothing less than a very modern adventure, and an instant classic of travel writing.”—Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
“Chaney Kwak’s The Passenger is an unflinching debut about the calamity of survival. Kwak speaks through the silent archives of history—from thousands of Koreans who died at sea to the maritime disasters across the globe. With incendiary humor and transcendent clarity, Kwak exhumes the crisis of our haunted relationships and goes beyond the headlines in every scrolling smartphone to demand a greater understanding of being alive.“—E. J. Koh, author of The Magical Language of Others
“Chaney Kwak’s The Passenger somehow, in one slim volume, manages to do it all: in this hybrid of investigative journalism and travel writing, personal and familial memoir, Kwak chronicles—with searing wit—his long hours aboard a sinking Viking cruise ship, veering from his family’s history in post-WWII Korea to the history of successful lifeboat deployments, all against the backdrop of his own failing relationship. Kwak observes human beings with a precise, compassionate eye, moving from poignancy as he contemplates his place in the universe to biting social commentary aimed at the Twitter-storm of armchair storm chasers hoping to capitalize on his doom. I loved this book. It left me longing, guiltily, for Kwak’s next misadventure.”—Lori Ostlund, author After the Parade and winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction
About The Passenger
In March 2019, the Viking Sky cruise ship was struck by a bomb cyclone in the North Atlantic. Rocked by 50-foot swells and 40-knot gales, the ship lost power and began to drift straight toward the notoriously dangerous Hustadvika coast in Norway. This is the suspenseful, harrowing, funny, touching story by one passenger who contemplated death aboard that ship.
Chaney Kwak is a travel writer used to all sorts of mishaps on the road, but this is a first even for him: trapped on the battered cruise ship, he stuffs his passport into his underwear just in case his body has to be identified. As the massive cruise ship sways in surging waves, Kwak holds on and watches news of the impending disaster unfold on Twitter, where the cruise ship’s nearly 1,400 passengers are showered with “thoughts and prayers.” Kwak uses his twenty-seven hours aboard the teetering ship to examine his family history, maritime tragedies, and the failing relationship back on shore with a man he’s loved for nearly two decades: the Viking Sky, he realizes, may not be the only sinking ship he needs to escape.
The Passenger takes readers for an unforgettable journey from the Norwegian coast to the South China Sea, from post-WWII Korea to pandemic-struck San Francisco. Kwak weaves his personal experience into events spanning decades and continents to explore the serendipity and the relationships that move us–perfect for readers who love to discover the world through the eyes of a perceptive and humorous observer.

VIRTUAL: Matthew Clark Davison with Paul Lisicky / Launch for Doubting Thomas: A Novel
2021-06-08 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
Booksmith is thrilled to host the virtual launch for Matthew Clark Davison and his fiction debut, Doubting Thomas: A Novel. This will be a special evening celebrating queer publishing, featuring a reading by the author, a conversation with Paul Lisicky, and an audience Q&A, with shout-outs to & words from Amble Press and Foglifter Magazine. Join us!
This event is free and all ages, but RSVP is required. Event link will be sent to everyone who registers.
You can order ** signed copies** of the book here and we’ll ship it directly to you (or hold for pickup at our San Francisco shop).
We are happy to fulfill orders anywhere in the world – international postage will be invoiced separately. If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to contact events@booksmith.com.
About the book
Thomas McGurrin is a fourth-grade teacher and openly gay man at a private primary school serving Portland, Oregon’s wealthy progressive elite when he is falsely accused of inappropriately touching a male student. The accusation comes just as Thomas is thrust back into the center of his unusual family by his younger brother’s battle with cancer. Although cleared of the accusation, Thomas is forced to resign from a job he loves during a potentially life-changing family drama.
Davison’s novel explores the discrepancy between the progressive ideals and persistent negative stereotypes among the privileged regarding social status, race, and sexual orientation and the impact of that discrepancy on friendships and family relations.
By turns rueful, humorous, angry, and wise, Doubting Thomas marks the debut of an important writer.

About the authors
Matthew Clark Davison‘s debut novel, Doubting Thomas, will be published in Summer 2021 by Amble Press. He is creator and teacher of The Lab :: Writing Classes with MCD, a non-academic school started in 2007 in a friend’s living room on Douglass Street.The textbook version of The Lab (see below), co-authored by bestselling writer Alice LaPlante, will be published by Norton in 2022. His prose has been recently anthologized in Empty The Pews (Epiphany Publishing) and 580-Split; and published in or on The Advocate, Exquisite Pandemic, Guernica, The Atlantic Monthly, Foglifter, Lumina Magazine, Fourteen Hills, Per Contra, Educe, and others; and has been recognized with a Creative Work Grant, Cultural Equities Grant. Clark Gross Award for a Novel-in-Progress, and a Stonewall Alumni Award.
Paul Lisicky is the author of six books including Later: My Life at the Edge of the World, one of NPR’S Best Books of 2020, as well as The Narrow Door, Unbuilt Projects, The Burning House, Famous Builder, and Lawnboy. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, Conjunctions, The Cut, Fence, The New York Times, Ploughshares, Tin House, and in many other magazines and anthologies. He has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Michener/Copernicus Society, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, where he has served on the Writing Committee since 2000. He has taught in the creative writing programs at Cornell University, New York University, Sarah Lawrence College, The University of Texas at Austin and elsewhere. He is currently an Associate Professor in the MFA Program at Rutgers University-Camden and lives in Brooklyn, New York. He is at work on a memoir Animal Care and Control.
This event is free and all ages, but RSVP is required.

Virtual Event: Chaney Kwak and Daniel Handler
2021-06-08 18:00 - 19:00 | online
Join us on Tuesday, June 8 at 6pm PT when Chaney Kwak is joined by Daniel Handler for the launch of his book, The Passenger: How a Travel Writer Learned to Love Cruises & Other Lies from a Sinking Ship on Zoom!

Zoom Login Info
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87694059629

Praise for The Passenger
“In The Passenger, Chaney Kwak debuts with the ultimate freelancer revenge story: What do you do when the cruise ship you are covering on assignment starts to sink? The result is a gripping story of survival, capitalism, maritime history—nothing less than a very modern adventure, and an instant classic of travel writing.”—Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

“Chaney Kwak’s The Passenger is an unflinching debut about the calamity of survival. Kwak speaks through the silent archives of history—from thousands of Koreans who died at sea to the maritime disasters across the globe. With incendiary humor and transcendent clarity, Kwak exhumes the crisis of our haunted relationships and goes beyond the headlines in every scrolling smartphone to demand a greater understanding of being alive.“—E. J. Koh, author of The Magical Language of Others

“Chaney Kwak’s The Passenger somehow, in one slim volume, manages to do it all: in this hybrid of investigative journalism and travel writing, personal and familial memoir, Kwak chronicles—with searing wit—his long hours aboard a sinking Viking cruise ship, veering from his family’s history in post-WWII Korea to the history of successful lifeboat deployments, all against the backdrop of his own failing relationship. Kwak observes human beings with a precise, compassionate eye, moving from poignancy as he contemplates his place in the universe to biting social commentary aimed at the Twitter-storm of armchair storm chasers hoping to capitalize on his doom. I loved this book. It left me longing, guiltily, for Kwak’s next misadventure.”—Lori Ostlund, author After the Parade and winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction

About The Passenger
In March 2019, the Viking Sky cruise ship was struck by a bomb cyclone in the North Atlantic. Rocked by 50-foot swells and 40-knot gales, the ship lost power and began to drift straight toward the notoriously dangerous Hustadvika coast in Norway. This is the suspenseful, harrowing, funny, touching story by one passenger who contemplated death aboard that ship.

Chaney Kwak is a travel writer used to all sorts of mishaps on the road, but this is a first even for him: trapped on the battered cruise ship, he stuffs his passport into his underwear just in case his body has to be identified. As the massive cruise ship sways in surging waves, Kwak holds on and watches news of the impending disaster unfold on Twitter, where the cruise ship’s nearly 1,400 passengers are showered with “thoughts and prayers.” Kwak uses his twenty-seven hours aboard the teetering ship to examine his family history, maritime tragedies, and the failing relationship back on shore with a man he’s loved for nearly two decades: the Viking Sky, he realizes, may not be the only sinking ship he needs to escape.

The Passenger takes readers for an unforgettable journey from the Norwegian coast to the South China Sea, from post-WWII Korea to pandemic-struck San Francisco. Kwak weaves his personal experience into events spanning decades and continents to explore the serendipity and the relationships that move us–perfect for readers who love to discover the world through the eyes of a perceptive and humorous observer.

Slipping: Mohamed Kheir and Robin Moger in conversation with Yasmine El Rashidi
2021-06-08 14:00 - 15:00 | online, CA, United States
Virtual Event

2:00 pm PT | 3:00 pm MT | 4:00 pm CT | 5:00 pm ET

Two Lines Press joins the Transnational Literary Series to celebrate Mohamed Kheir’s Slipping, the Egyptian author’s first book to be brought into English by Robin Moger. Mohamed and Robin will be in conversation with Egyptian writer Yasmine El Rashidi.
More details and registration information coming soon!

AUTHOR
Mohamed Kheir

Mohamed Kheir is a novelist, poet, short story writer, journalist, and lyricist. Slipping (Eflat Al Asabea, Kotob Khan Publishing House, 2018; Two Lines Press, 2021) is his fourth novel and his first to be translated into English. He lives in Egypt.

TRANSLATOR
Robin Moger

Robin Moger is a translator of Arabic to English currently based in Cape Town, South Africa. He has translated several novels and prose works into English including Iman Mersal’s How To Mend (Kayfa ta), Nael Eltoukhy’s The Women of Karantina (AUC Press) and Youssef Rakha’s The Crocodiles (7 Stories Press).

CONTACT:

Leslie-Ann Woofter
lwoofter@catranslation.org
415.512.8812

Claire Nelson and Signe Johansen
2021-06-08 12:00 - 14:00 | CA
Claire Nelson joins us to discuss her debut memoir, Things I Learned From Falling (HarperOne).
The gripping first-person account of one woman’s survival in Joshua Tree National Park against the odds.
“A vibrantly physical book”—The Guardian • “Uplifting and brave”—Stylist • “A riveting account of loneliness, anxiety and survival”—Cosmopolitan
REGISTER HERE

About Things I Learned From Falling
In 2018, writer Claire Nelson made international headlines when she fell over 25 feet after wandering off the trail in a deserted corner of Joshua Tree. The fall shattered her pelvis, rendering her completely immobile. There Claire lay for the next four days, surrounded by boulders that muffled her cries for help, but exposed her to the relentless California sun above. Her rescuers had not expected to find her alive.
In Things I Learned from Falling Claire tells not only her story of surviving, but also her story of falling. What led this successful thirty-something to a desert trail on the other side of the globe from her home where no one knew she would be that day? At once the unbelievable story of an impossible event, and the human journey of a young woman wrestling with the agitation of past and anxiety of future.
About the Author
Claire Nelson is a New Zealand-born writer who has spent more than a decade in London working in food and travel journalism, including more than five years at Jamie Oliver’s magazine. She has also written for Elle, Food and Travel, Trek & Mountain, Lodestars Anthology, and Westjet Canada. Things I Learned from Falling is her first book. She lives in Toronto.

Kids Storytime: “Wishes” by Mượn Thị Văn & “When Lola Visits” by Michelle Sterling
2021-06-06 13:00 - 14:00 | CA
Come enjoy two read-a-loud new children’s picture books: “Wishes” by Mượn Thị Văn, and “When Lola Visits” by Michelle Sterling.
Join us in our kids activity to draw and bring a drawing of your grandparent to share!
This event is co-sponsored by the Oakland Asian Cultural Community Center and Eastwind Books of Berkeley.
The event will also be live-streamed on Facebook.
About the children’s books and authors:
Wishes, a new children’s book by New York Times acclaimed author Mượn Thị Văn , illustrated by Victo Ngai, published by Scholastic Books May 2021. This is an arresting, poetic journey about one Vietnamese family’s search for a new home on the other side of the world, and the long-lasting and powerful impact that it makes on the littlest member of the family. Inspired by actual events in the author’s life, this is a moving reflection on immigration, family, and home. A beautifully illustrated poem becomes a harrowing refugee flight from home into dangerous ocean waters and an unknown destiny.
Purchase “Wishes” here: https://www.asiabookcenter.com/store/p3165/Wishes.html
Mượn Thị Văn loves to read books of all shapes and sizes. She first began reading yellow-spined hardbacks about a certain girl detective before graduating to longer novels and then picture books (it’s true, she doesn’t remember reading picture books as a young child). So few books reflected her formative experiences, though, that she desired to bring new and different stories into the world. From her New York Times acclaimed debut, In a Village by the Sea, illustrated by April Chu, Mượn’s books have received many distinctions, including a Northern California Book Award, a New York Public Library Best Book. When she’s not writing, Mượn likes to roam the forests of California with her family.
When Lola Visits, written by Michelle Sterling, illustrated by Aaron Asis and published by HarperCollins May 2021. For one young girl, summer is the season of no school, of days spent at the pool, of picking golden limes off the trees. But summer doesn’t start until her lola—her grandmother from the Philippines—comes for her annual visit. Summer is special. For her lola fills the house with the aroma of mango jam, funny stories of baking mishaps, and her quiet sweet singing in Tagalog. And in turn, her granddaughter brings Lola to the beach, to view fireworks at the park, and to catch fish at their lake. When Lola comes, the whole family gathers to cook and eat and share in their happiness of another season spent together. Yet as summer transitions to fall, her lola must return home—but not without a surprise for her granddaughter to preserve their special summer a bit longer.
In an evocative tale brimming with the scents, tastes, and traditions that define summer for one young girl, debut author Michelle Sterling and illustrator Aaron Asis come together to celebrate the gentle bonds of familial love that span oceans and generations.
Purchase “When Lola Visits” here: https://www.asiabookcenter.com/store/p3164/When_Lola_Visits_.html
Michelle Sterling is an author, photographer and speech-language pathologist whose first picture book is When Lola Visits. Many of her stories are inspired by her heritage, family traditions, and her love of gastronomy and food history. She lives in Southern California with her family.

VIRTUAL: Babylon Salon presents Deesha Philyaw, Meredith Talusan, Joshua Mohr, Emma Copley Eisenberg & Sunshine Becker
2021-06-05 17:00 - 19:00 | CA
Booksmith and The Bindery are thrilled to partner with Babylon Salon for their Spring event, featuring readings by Deesha Philyaw, Meredith Talusan, Joshua Mohr, Emma Copley Eisenberg & Sunshine Becker!
Please note: this is a free, virtual event. Zoom information will soon be announced here.
About the authors
Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies focuses on Black women, sex, and the Black church, and is being adapted for television by HBO Max with Tessa Thompson executive producing. Deesha is also a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow.
Meredith Talusan (she/they) is the author of the critically-acclaimed memoir Fairest and has contributed to many publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, WIRED, and Condé Nast Traveler. She is also founding executive editor and current contributing editor for them., Condé Nast’s LGBTQ+ digital platform. They are currently working on a novel.
Joshua Mohr is the author of the memoir Sirens and of several novels, including Damascus, which The New York Times called “beat-poet cool.” His novel All This Life won the Northern California Book Award. He is the founder of Decant Editorial.
Emma Copley Eisenberg’s fiction and nonfiction has appeared in McSweeney’s, Granta, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Tin House, Guernica, The Washington Post Magazine, and others. Her first book of nonfiction is The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia which was a NYTimes notable book of 2020 and nominated for an Edgar Award. She lives in Philadelphia, where she co-directs Blue Stoop, a hub for the literary arts. Her next two books, a novel and a collection of short stories, are forthcoming from Hogarth (Penguin Random House).
Born Sunshine Garcia on a hot July 1st, Sunshine was born to sing and has been blessed beyond imagination to do it as her full time career. Her primary job since 2009 has been as the sole female member of Furthur, www.furthur.net, where she serves as a backing vocalist to support the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh and Bob Weir. She recently established a new band with drummer Jay Lane called Jay’s Happy Sunshine Burger Joint www.jhsbj.net 2014 also marks 20 years for Sunshine being a member of the acappella vocal band out of Oakland, CA – SoVoSo.Sunshine is a vocal performance coach and leading workshops and residencies focusing on using your voice as a musical instrument and as an instrument for positivity in the world. She is excited for the next chapter as Furthur takes a Hiatus for the rest of 2014, allowing time for her other musical dreams to materialize in the real, including her own band, Sunshine Garcia Band featuring Sunshine Becker.

Please note: this is a free, virtual event. Zoom information will soon be announced here.

Babylon Salon Summer 2021 Performance
2021-06-05 17:00 - 18:00 | online, CA, United States
Join us on Saturday, June 5, 2021 when Babylon Salon’s reading & performance series hosts a special Zoom-based show, featuring Deesha Philyaw (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies); Joshua Mohr (Model Citizen: A Memoir; Sirens; All This Life); Emma Copley Eisenberg (The Third Rainbow Girl) and more!
Reading at 5pm PT/8pm ET. As always, free admission. Zoom registration info coming soon!
Co-hosted by our friends at The Booksmith and The Bindery, now offering curbside pickup. https://www.babylonsalon.com/

Chet'la Sebree
2021-06-05 15:00 - 17:00 | CA
reading from and discussing
FIELD STUDY
published by FSG Originals
Winner of the 2020 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets
Chet’la Sebree’s Field Study is a genre-bending exploration of black womanhood and desire, written as a lyrical, surprisingly humorous, and startlingly vulnerable prose poem
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This is a virtual event that will be hosted by City Lights on the Zoom platform. You will need access to a computer or other device that is capable of accessing the internet. If you have not used Zoom before, you may consider referencing Getting Started with Zoom.
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Event is free, but registration is required
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(CLICK HERE) to register. (Link to be posted soon!)
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(CLICK HERE) to purchase book. (Link to be posted soon!)
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Seeking to understand the fallout of her relationship with a white man, the poet Chet’la Sebree attempts a field study of herself. Scientifically, field studies are objective collections of raw data, devoid of emotion. But during the course of a stunning lyric poem, Sebree’s control over her own field study unravels as she attempts to understand the depth of her feelings in response to the data of her life. The result is a singular and provocative piece of writing, one that is formally inventive, playfully candid, and soul-piercingly sharp.
Interspersing her reflections with Tweets, quips from TV characters, and excerpts from the Black thinkers—Audre Lorde, Maya Angelou, Tressie McMillan Cottom—that inspire her, Sebree analyzes herself through the lens of a society that seems uneasy, at best, with her very presence. She grapples with her attraction to, and rejection of, whiteness and white men; probes the malicious manifestation of colorism and misogynoir throughout American history and media; and struggles with, judges, and forgives herself when she has more questions than answers. “Even as I accrue these notes,” Sebree writes, “I’m still not sure I’ve found the pulse.”
A poem of love, heartbreak, womanhood, art, sex, Blackness, and America—sometimes all at once—Field Study throbs with feeling, searing and tender. With uncommon sensitivity and precise storytelling, Sebree makes meaning out of messiness and malaise, breathing life into a scientific study like no other.
Chet’la Sebree is the director of the Stadler Center for Poetry and Literary Arts at Bucknell University and the author of Mistress, winner of the 2018 New Issues Poetry Prize and nominated for a 2020 NAACP Image Award. She earned an MFA in creative writing, with a focus in poetry, from American University, and has received fellowships from the Delaware Division of the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, Hedgebrook, Yaddo, Vermont Studio Center, and Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies. Her poetry has appeared in the Kenyon Review, Guernica, Pleiades, and elsewhere.
Praise for FIELD STUDY

“Layered, complex, and infinitely compelling, Chet’la Sebree’s Field Study is a daring exploration of the self and our interactions with others—a meditation on desire, race, loss and survival. In this moment of American reckoning, Sebree shows us—intimately and with vulnerability—the truth of our shared history: that ‘even when we aren’t talking about race we are.'” –Natasha Trethewey, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Memorial Drive
“Woven from the rough threads of race, legacy, and love, Field Study is a groundbreaking book that vibrates with truth and lyrical beauty. A profound poetic talent, Chet’la Sebree has created a brilliant book that both haunts and heals.”–Ada Limón, author of The Carrying, winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry
“With its steady capture of memory recalled, quotes, moments from real and represented (fictive) life, Chet’la Sebree’s Field Study assembles an exquisite, if not propulsive leap into the aftermath of a relationship with a white man–only to land with the grace of a skilled dancer. Elliptically reminiscent of Lily Hoang’s Bestiary and Sarah Manguso’s Ongoingness, this is not an auto-ethnography by a Black woman, but an immaculate bricolage that both confronts and reckons various channels of knowing and being with the messy, complicated desires of inter- and intra-racial relationships. Here is a woman who does not “avoid speaking a violence.” Of a wound in healing, Sebree “pick[s] until no remnants of a scab exist;” in peering deeply into the crevasses of pop culture, critical race studies, and literature, she clears the surface not for restoration, but unhindered transcendence.” –Diana Khoi Nguyen, author of Ghost Of, finalist for the 2018 National Book Award for Poetry
“Chet’la Sebree’s Field Study is a long look at those aspects of a self that are often most difficult to look at—chiefly, the woundedness from which we make our loves, and the wounding loves we both flee and mourn. In prose poetry that at crucial moments brilliantly enacts via its syntax the poet’s struggle to look away from that which she must record, Sebree has composed an elegy that is, especially in its music, as alive as a celebration.” –Shane McCrae, author of The Gilded Auction Block
“Chet’la Sebree’s Field Study is a luminous, multi-layered treatise on the complexities of race and desire in America. In contemplating the aftermath of an interracial relationship, the work virtuosically entwines memory with history, literature, pop culture, and critical theory. This is a wise, generous work that holds out hope for all kinds of grace, even as it acknowledges the aches and perils of our current polarized moment. Field Study is a stunning new contribution by an important American voice.” –Kiki Petrosino, author of White Blood: A Lyric of Virgina

Sponsored by the City Lights Foundation

Dara McAnulty: Award-winning 16-year old author launches Diary of a Young Naturalist in the US
2021-06-05 12:00 - 14:00 | CA
Dara McAnulty, winner of several major awards, joins us to launch his extraordinary Diary of a Young Naturalist (Milkweed Editions) in the U.S.
“Dara’s is an extraordinary voice and vision: brave, poetic, ethical, lyrical, strong enough to have made him heard and admired from a young age.” — Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland: A Deep Time Journey
This event will be streamed on our Crowdcast channel.
Registration info coming soon
About Diary of a Young Naturalist
From sixteen-year-old Dara McAnulty, a globally renowned figure in the youth climate activist movement, comes a memoir about loving the natural world and fighting to save it.
Diary of a Young Naturalist chronicles the turning of a year in Dara’s Northern Ireland home patch. Beginning in spring–when “the sparrows dig the moss from the guttering and the air is as puffed out as the robin’s chest”–these diary entries about his connection to wildlife and the way he sees the world are vivid, evocative, and moving.
As well as Dara’s intense connection to the natural world, Diary of a Young Naturalist captures his perspective as a teenager juggling exams, friendships, and a life of campaigning. We see his close-knit family, the disruptions of moving and changing schools, and the complexities of living with autism. “In writing this book,” writes Dara, “I have experienced challenges but also felt incredible joy, wonder, curiosity and excitement. In sharing this journey my hope is that people of all generations will not only understand autism a little more but also appreciate a child’s eye view on our delicate and changing biosphere.”
Winner of the Wainwright Prize for UK nature writing and already sold into more than a dozen territories, Diary of a Young Naturalist is a triumphant debut from an important new voice.
About Dara McAnulty
Dara McAnulty lives with his mum, dad, brother Lorcan, sister Bláthnaid, and rescue greyhound Rosie in County Down, Northern Ireland. Dara’s love for nature, his activism, and his honesty about autism have earned him a huge social media following from across the world, and many accolades. In 2017, he was awarded BBC Springwatch “Unsprung Hero” and Birdwatch magazine “Local Hero”; in 2018, he was awarded “Animal Hero” of the year by the Daily Mirror and became ambassador for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the iWill campaign; and in 2019, he became a Young Ambassador for the Jane Goodall Institute and became the youngest-ever recipient of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Medal for conservation.

Words out Loud Spoken Word Series - Opposites Attract Open Mic
2021-06-04 19:30 - 21:30 | CA
Words out Loud: Open Mic – Opposites Attract (Love and Hate)
Join us for a Topical Open Mic
Three minutes per reader, subject to adjustment based on number of registrants. Read one
poem on love, one on hate, and one of your choice if time remains.

When: Friday, June 4, 2021 07:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMsdOqvrTsuEtAzzYFhNMOVmLVpotUIsN4e
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining
the meeting.

Virtual Event: M. Leona Godin and Maggie Nelson
2021-06-04 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
OIN US ON FRIDAY, JUNE 4 AT 6PM PT WHEN M. LEONA GODIN JOINS US TO DISCUSS HER BOOK, THERE PLANT EYES: A PERSONAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY OF BLINDNESS, WITH MAGGIE NELSON ON ZOOM!
Praise for There Plant Eyes
“There Plant Eyes is so graceful, so wise, so effortlessly erudite, I learned something new and took pleasure in every page. All hail its originality, its humanity, and its ‘philosophical obsession with diversity in all its complicated and messy glory.’” —Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts
“This sighted disabled person learned so much from There Plant Eyes! The book took me on a cultural journey that showed how blindness isbeautiful, complex, and brilliant.” —Alice Wong, editor of Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century
“Godin moves effortlessly from erudite explorations of the construction of ‘blindness’ to incisive and often funny examinations of technology that helps—or does not help—the blind individual to personal stories of her own life. I was only a few pages in before I realized that what I thought about being blind was either wrong or woefully insufficient. The reader will be lost in admiration for Godin’s gifts as a writer and cultural critic.” —Riva Lehrer, author of Golem Girl: A Memoir
About There Plant Eyes
A probing, witty, and deeply insightful history of blindness—in Western culture and literature, and in the author’s own experience—that ranges from Homer and Milton to Louis Braille, Helen Keller, and Stevie Wonder
M. Leona Godin begins her fascinating, wide-ranging study with an exploration of how the idea of sight is inextricably linked with knowledge and understanding; how “blindness” has, for millennia, been used as a metaphor for ignorance; and how, in metaphorical terms, blindness can also be made to suggest a door to artistic or spiritual transcendence. And she makes clear how all of this has obscured the reality of blindness, as a consequence of which many blind people have to deal not just with their disability but also with expectations that they possess “superpowers.”
Godin illuminates the often surprising history of both the physiological condition and the ideas that have attached to it. She incorporates an analysis of blindness in art and literature (from King Lear to Star Wars) and culture (assumptions of the blind as pure and magically wise) with a study of the science of blindness and key developments in accessibility (the white cane, embossed printing, digital technology) and a recounting of her own experience of gradually losing sight over the course of three decades. Altogether, Godin gives us a revelation of the centrality of blindness and vision to humanity’s understanding of itself and the world.
The digital audiobook version of There Plant Eyes is available here from our partner Libro.fm.

Nomadic Press' Virtual Open Mic #61
2021-06-04 18:00 - 19:30 | online, CA, United States
90 minutes
30 readers
3 minutes each
On Zoom!
FREE AND ALL WELCOME!
Sign up to read here:
https://forms.gle/4nYSi5fLNyo229Lj9
If you enjoy spaces like this and can swing it in these tight times, please consider supporting us via:
1) the Cash App to $NomadicPress OR https://cash.app/$NomadicPress;
2) donating via the “ticket” option here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/…/nomadic-press-weekly…; OR
3) donating through the website at www.nomadicpress.org/donate
We have a short goal for the evening of $150.
Pandemic times continue in 2021 and we continue to gather our community virtually across state and country lines. Join us to read, join us to listen. All are welcome.
Hosted by Nazelah Jamison (with Tula Biederman on tech). It’s a continuing experiment, and we hope you can join us!
Our safe space process still applies to our collective virtual space, so please read this by visiting https://www.nomadicpress.org/safespaceprocess.
Zoom Joining Info
Topic: Nomadic Press’ Weekly Virtual Open Mic
Time: Jan 1, 2021 06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Every week on Fri, until Dec 10, 2021, 50 occurrence(s)
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Weekly: https://us02web.zoom.us/…/tZcudeqoqjIiE9fnl7dxuB…/ics…
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Virtual Event: M. Leona Godin & Maggie Nelson
2021-06-04 18:00 - 19:00 | online, CA, United States
Join us on Friday, June 4 at 6pm PT when M. Leona Godin joins us to discuss her book, There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness, with Maggie Nelson on Zoom!

Zoom Login Info
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89741184404

Praise for There Plant Eyes
“There Plant Eyes is so graceful, so wise, so effortlessly erudite, I learned something new and took pleasure in every page. All hail its originality, its humanity, and its ‘philosophical obsession with diversity in all its complicated and messy glory.’” —Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts

“This sighted disabled person learned so much from There Plant Eyes! The book took me on a cultural journey that showed how blindness is beautiful, complex, and brilliant.” —Alice Wong, editor of Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century

“Godin moves effortlessly from erudite explorations of the construction of ‘blindness’ to incisive and often funny examinations of technology that helps—or does not help—the blind individual to personal stories of her own life. I was only a few pages in before I realized that what I thought about being blind was either wrong or woefully insufficient. The reader will be lost in admiration for Godin’s gifts as a writer and cultural critic.” —Riva Lehrer, author of Golem Girl: A Memoir

About There Plant Eyes
A probing, witty, and deeply insightful history of blindness—in Western culture and literature, and in the author’s own experience—that ranges from Homer and Milton to Louis Braille, Helen Keller, and Stevie Wonder

M. Leona Godin begins her fascinating, wide-ranging study with an exploration of how the idea of sight is inextricably linked with knowledge and understanding; how “blindness” has, for millennia, been used as a metaphor for ignorance; and how, in metaphorical terms, blindness can also be made to suggest a door to artistic or spiritual transcendence. And she makes clear how all of this has obscured the reality of blindness, as a consequence of which many blind people have to deal not just with their disability but also with expectations that they possess “superpowers.”

Godin illuminates the often surprising history of both the physiological condition and the ideas that have attached to it. She incorporates an analysis of blindness in art and literature (from King Lear to Star Wars) and culture (assumptions of the blind as pure and magically wise) with a study of the science of blindness and key developments in accessibility (the white cane, embossed printing, digital technology) and a recounting of her own experience of gradually losing sight over the course of three decades. Altogether, Godin gives us a revelation of the centrality of blindness and vision to humanity’s understanding of itself and the world.

Virtual Event: Richard Flanagan with Jane Hirshfield
2021-06-03 19:00 - 21:00 | CA
About this Event
“Despair is always rational, but hope is human.” — Richard Flanagan on his new novel
Richard Flanagan is one of our greatest living writers. He’s also a joy to encounter in person: he’s warm, witty, accessible, and wise. We’re thrilled to bring Richard to you, live from his home in Tasmania, to celebrate the publication of his astonishing new novel, The Living Sea of Waking Dreams.
The Guardian called the novel a “magical realist tale of ecological anguish … [that is] also playful… at its heart, hopeful.” It is about our vanishing world — about species and ecosystems being lost (he wrote this book as fires raged across Australia), about losses of love and connection with each other in our rushed, social-media obsessed world — and, finally, about the possibility of finding our way back.
Set in Tasmania, the central story unfolds as Anna, a hyper-competent professional and the main character, and her two siblings refuse to allow the death of their aged, suffering mother, who is ready to die. At the same time, as fires darken the skies and other horror stories fill the news feeds that Anna compulsively checks on her phone, she begins to have her body parts vanish. Only some people can see what is missing. The novel’s use of stunning, fractured language embodies both the pace of modern life and our stuttering fears, our inabilities to slow down and stop consuming, stop escaping, stop avoiding the beauty before our eyes — the beauty of the natural world and the genuine love and empathy that is available to us, if only we let ourselves see it. This book will stun you with the horror of losses we’ve caused and, as we finally allow ourselves to feel the depths of this grief, with real hope for the restoration of both natural and human worlds.
Flanagan will be in conversation with internationally renowned poet Jane Hirshfield, whose most recent collection, Ledger, is a pivotal book of personal, ecological, and political reckoning. Ledger’s opening lines, invoking human responsibility and willing denial, intersect in uncanny ways with Flanagan’s novel: “Let them not say: we did not see it. / We saw.” The poetry collection, Hirshfield says, “was written in grief and into my bewilderment at our human inaction” at environmental devastation, which The Living Sea of Waking Dreams explores in prose. She writes, “Some breakage can barely be named, hardly be spoken,” but these two writers do speak it — wholly, beautifully, profoundly. Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime conversation.

Mount Madonna School Speaker Series with Maria Dahvana Headley: Rethinking Traditional Gender in Classic Literature
2021-06-03 19:00 - 21:00 | CA
The Mount Madonna School (MMS) public speaker series based on the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) began in February and the season concludes June 3 with Maria Dahvana Headley’s Beowulf: A New Translation, a feminist reworking of one of the oldest surviving texts. Join Maria Dahvana Headley as she and the audience explore the boundaries of gender and tradition.
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS TO THIS SPECIAL EVENT

Maria Dahvana Headley’s Beowulf: A New Translation is a feminist reworking of one of the oldest surviving texts. Beowulf has always been a tale of entitlement and encroachment, powerful men seeking to become more powerful, and one woman seeking justice for her child, but this version brings new context to an old story.
The Mere Wife follows the basic narrative arc of the original Beowulf but at the same time revises the epic into a women-centered story set in modern suburbia.
Rethinking and rewriting perspectives that have come to be accepted as truth, her novels empower the female and question the patriarchal stereotypes.
Join Headley and the MMS high school Values class students as they explore the boundaries of gender and tradition.

Maria Dahvana Headley is the New York Times-bestselling author of eight books, most recently BEOWULF: A NEW TRANSLATION (MCD x FSG). THE MERE WIFE (MCD x FSG), a contemporary adaptation of Beowulf, was named by the Washington Post as one of its Notable Works of Fiction in 2018. She’s written for both teenagers (MAGONIA and AERIE, HarperCollins) and adults, in a variety of genres and forms. Headley’s short fiction has been shortlisted for the Nebula, Shirley Jackson, Tiptree, and World Fantasy Awards, and for the 2020 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and has been anthologized in many year’s bests; a collection is under contract to FSG. Her essays on gender, chronic illness, politics, propaganda, and mythology have been published and covered in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Harvard’s Nieman Storyboard, and elsewhere. Her work has been supported by The MacDowell Colony, Arte Studio Ginestrelle, and the Sundance Institute’s Theatre Lab, among other organizations. She’s taught writing in the master’s program at Sarah Lawrence, and delivered masterclasses and writing lectures at Dartmouth, Northwestern, Wesleyan Nebraska, and Newman University, among others. She grew up in the high desert of Idaho on a survivalist sled dog ranch, where she spent summers plucking the winter coat from her father’s wolf.

Susan Bernofsky and Kate Zambreno
2021-06-03 18:30 - 20:30 | CA
The Center for the Art of Translation presents renowned translator Susan Bernofsky in this celebration of her long-awaited biography of the modernist writer Robert Walser, Clairvoyant of the Small (Yale UP). Susan will be joined in conversation by Kate Zambreno.
“Robert Walser is the perfect pathetic poet: pithy, awkward, drinks too much, sibling rivalrous, ambitious, broke, and mentally ill. Was he proto queer or trans, this red headed writer who next to Gertrude Stein might be the most influential writer of our moment? Riveting and heart-breaking, this biography kept me drunk for days.”—Eileen Myles
This event will be streamed on our Crowdcast channel.
REGISTER HERE
About Clairvoyant of the Small: The Life of Robert Walser
The great Swiss-German modernist author Robert Walser lived eccentrically on the fringes of society, shocking his Berlin friends by enrolling in butler school and later developing an urban-nomad lifestyle in the Swiss capital, Bern, before checking himself into a psychiatric clinic. A connoisseur of power differentials, his pronounced interest in everything inconspicuous and modest—social outcasts and artists as well as the impoverished, marginalized, and forgotten—prompted W. G. Sebald to dub him “a clairvoyant of the small.” His revolutionary use of short prose forms had an enormous influence on Franz Kafka, Walter Benjamin, Robert Musil, and many others.
He was long believed an outsider by conviction, but Susan Bernofsky presents a more nuanced view in this immaculately researched and beautifully written biography. Setting Walser in the context of early twentieth century European history, she provides illuminating analysis of his extraordinary life and work, bearing witness to his “extreme artistic delight.”
About Susan Bernofsky and Kate Zambreno
Susan Bernofsky is associate professor of writing at Columbia University School of the Arts and director of the literary translation program at Columbia’s MFA Writing Program. She has translated over twenty books.
Kate Zambreno is the author of several acclaimed books including Screen Tests, Heroines, and Green Girl. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She teaches in the graduate nonfiction program at Columbia University and is the Strachan Donnelley Chair in Environmental Writing at Sarah Lawrence College.

VIRTUAL: Stacy D. Flood / The Salt Fields: A Novella
2021-06-03 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
Booksmith is thrilled to host a virtual event with Stacy D. Flood for his novella The Salt Fields. He’ll be in conversation with Ship of Fates author Caitlin Chung.
This event is free and all ages, but RSVP is required. Event link will be sent to everyone who registers.
You can order the book here and we’ll ship it directly to you (or hold for pickup at our San Francisco shop).
We are happy to fulfill orders anywhere in the world – international postage will be invoiced separately. If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to contact events@booksmith.com.
About the book
On the day that Minister Peters boards a train from South Carolina heading north, he has nothing left but ghosts: the ghost of his murdered wife, the ghost of his drowned daughter, the ghosts of his father and his grandmother and the people who disappeared from his town without trace or explanation. In the cramped car, Minister finds himself in close quarters with three passengers also joining the exodus from the South—people seeking a new life, whose motives, declared or otherwise, will change Minister’s life with devastating consequences.
“Beautifully written and memorable.”
– Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and The Color Master
About the authors
Originally from Buffalo, and currently living in Seattle, Stacy D. Flood’s work has been published and performed nationally as well as in the Puget Sound Area. Having received his MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, he has also been an artist-in-residence at DISQUIET in Lisbon, as well as The Millay Colony of the Arts. In addition, he is the recipient of the Gregory Capasso Award in Fiction from the University at Buffalo, along with a Getty Fellowship to the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Author photo by Jennifer Richard Photography.
Caitlin Chung has lived in the Bay Area her whole life. She is a teacher, an expert eavesdropper, a fan of infomercials, and is known to be a supporter of superstitions. She has on many occasions been justly accused of being a Luddite. She lives in Oakland with her husband and their cat. Ship of Fates is her first book.
This event is free and all ages, but RSVP is required.

New Directions @ 85: The Anniversary Celebration
2021-06-03 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
City Lights celebrates the 85th anniversary of this trailblazing publishing house

with Forrest Gander as MC and special guests Barbara Epler, Declan Spring, and other surprise guests
New Directions was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin, then a Harvard University sophomore, via advice from Ezra Pound to “do something useful” after finishing his studies at Harvard. The first projects to come out of New Directions were anthologies of new writing, each titled New Directions in Poetry and Prose (until 1966’s NDPP 19). Early writers incorporated in these anthologies include Dylan Thomas, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, Thomas Merton, Denise Levertov, James Agee, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. New Directions publisheg program includes writing of all genres, representing not only American writing, but also a considerable amount of literature in translation from modernist authors around the world. Among some of the writers they have published are Nobel Prize Winners Andre Gide, Pablo Neruda, Boris Pasternak, Octavio Paz, Pulizer Prize Winners Hilton Als, George Oppen, Gary Snyder, Williams Carlos Williams, National Book Award Winners, Yoko Tawada, Nathaniel Mackey, Man Booker Prize Winner Lazlo Kraznahokai as well as many others.
The current focus of New Directions is threefold: discovering and introducing to the US contemporary international writers; publishing new and experimental American poetry and prose; and reissuing New Directions’ classic titles in new editions.
Drawing from the tradition of the early anthologies and series, New Directions launched the Pearl series, which presents short works by New Directions writers in slim, minimalist volumes designed by Rodrigo Corral.
Join us for a celebration of this quintessential American Press.

———-
This is a virtual event that will be hosted by City Lights on the Zoom platform. You will need access to a computer or other device that is capable of accessing the internet. If you have not used Zoom before, you may consider referencing Getting Started with Zoom.
Event is free, but registration is required
(CLICK HERE) to register.
———–

Sponsored by the City Lights Foundation

Virtual Event: Grace Perry and Greg Mania
2021-06-03 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
JOIN US ON THURSDAY, JUNE 3 AT 6PM PT WHEN GRACE PERRY IS JOINED BY GREG MANIA TO DISCUSS HER BOOK, THE 2000S MADE ME GAY: ESSAYS ON POP CULTURE, ON ZOOM!
Zoom Login Info
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86068674144
Or One tap mobile :
US: +16699009128,,86068674144# or +12532158782,,86068674144#
International numbers available: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbNFW2AmAb
Praise for The 2000s Made Me Gay
“Millennials grew up in such a chaotic cultural moment but it all seemed inevitable and normal because we had nothing to compare it to, and Grace’s witty and honest book helped me appreciate just how uniquely bizarre a time it was. It’s mind-blowing to see that I wasn’t the only weird teen girl who did the weird teen girl things I did. It’s fun to look back with her guidance. Her writing is so honest, funny, smart, and illuminating.” —Anna Drezen, co-head writer of SNL, author of How May We Hate You?
“A gay hike through the media that shaped my little gay life, revisiting all of the big questions of my adolescence.” —Sarah Pappalardo, editor in chief and co-founder of Reductress
“Grace Perry’s debut essay collection is the peak of pop-culture–peppered Millennial reflection. This masterful first book will cut deep.” —Joel Meares, editor in chief of Rotten Tomatoes
“Perry specializes in the kind of writing that makes you feel like you’ve known her for years. [W]hip-smart…hilarious and sneakily thought-provoking.” —Morgan Olsen, editor in chief of Time Out Chicago
About The 2000s Made Me Gay
From The Onion and Reductress contributor, this collection of essays is a hilarious nostalgic trip through beloved 2000s media, interweaving cultural criticism and personal narrative to examine how a very straight decade forged a very queer woman
“Honest, funny, smart, and illuminating.” —Anna Drezen, co-head writer of SNL
“If you came of age at the intersection of Mean Girls and The L Word: Read this book.” —Sarah Pappalardo, editor in chief and co-founder of Reductress
Today’s gay youth have dozens of queer peer heroes, both fictional and real, but former gay teenager Grace Perry did not have that luxury. Instead, she had to search for queerness in the (largely straight) teen cultural phenomena the aughts had to offer: in Lindsay Lohan’s fall from grace, Gossip Girl, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl,” country-era Taylor Swift, and Seth Cohen jumping on a coffee cart. And, for better or worse, these touch points shaped her adult identity. She came out on the other side like many millennials did: in her words, gay as hell.
Throw on your Von Dutch hats and join Grace on a journey back through the pop culture moments of the aughts, before the cataclysmic shift in LGBTQ representation and acceptance—a time not so long ago, which many seem to forget.

VIRTUAL: Stacy D. Flood / The Salt Fields: A Novella
2021-06-03 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
Booksmith is thrilled to host a virtual event with Stacy D. Flood for his novella The Salt Fields.
This event is free and all ages, but RSVP is required. Event link will be sent to everyone who registers.
You can order the book here and we’ll ship it directly to you (or hold for pickup at our San Francisco shop).
We are happy to fulfill orders anywhere in the world – international postage will be invoiced separately. If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to contact events@booksmith.com.
About the book
On the day that Minister Peters boards a train from South Carolina heading north, he has nothing left but ghosts: the ghost of his murdered wife, the ghost of his drowned daughter, the ghosts of his father and his grandmother and the people who disappeared from his town without trace or explanation. In the cramped car, Minister finds himself in close quarters with three passengers also joining the exodus from the South—people seeking a new life, whose motives, declared or otherwise, will change Minister’s life with devastating consequences.
“Beautifully written and memorable.”
– Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and The Color Master
About the author
Originally from Buffalo, and currently living in Seattle, Stacy D. Flood’s work has been published and performed nationally as well as in the Puget Sound Area. Having received his MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, he has also been an artist-in-residence at DISQUIET in Lisbon, as well as The Millay Colony of the Arts. In addition, he is the recipient of the Gregory Capasso Award in Fiction from the University at Buffalo, along with a Getty Fellowship to the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Author photo by Jennifer Richard Photography.
This event is free and all ages, but RSVP is required.

Policies

Refund Policy:
No refunds or returns. Contact events@booksmith.com with any questions.
Cancellation Policy:
If we have to cancel an event, you will be refunded within 4 business days of the event date.

Show Us Your Spines QTPOC Resident's Reading (May/June)
2021-06-03 18:00 - 19:30 | online, CA, United States
Show Us Your Spines QTBIPOC Artist Residency Showcase. This show is the culmination of their work with the SF Public Library Archives.

About this Event

SHOW US YOUR SPINES is a month-long writer residency + reading in collaboration with the SF Public Library’s Hormel Center. Despite the pandemic, RADAR is determined to make space for creatives, so the residency lives on in the virtual world with the assistance of our Program Manager and SUYS co-conspirator, Mason J.
For a month, QTBIPOC writers work 1-on-1 with digital archives and QTBIPOC community members around a queer theme of their choice; writing/producing/directing pieces to be shared the following month at the Show Us Your Spines QTBIPOC Artist Residency Showcase. This show is the culmination of their work within the archives.
▼▼▼▼▼▼▼
June 3rd, 2021
via TWITCH TV (twitch.tv/studsf)
6:00pm – FREE
Featuring…
Nefertiti Asanti
Ashton Young
Sydney Latimer aka Divinewords
Jon Wai-Keung Lowe

Learn more about RADAR Productions and Show Us Your Spines at https://www.radarproductions.org.

Virtual Event: Grace Perry and Greg Mania
2021-06-03 18:00 - 19:00 | online
Join us on Thursday, June 3rd at 6pm PT when Grace Perry is joined by Greg Mania to discuss her book, The 2000s Made Me Gay: Essays on Pop Culture, on Zoom!

Zoom Login Info
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86068674144

Praise for The 2000s Made Me Gay
“Millennials grew up in such a chaotic cultural moment but it all seemed inevitable and normal because we had nothing to compare it to, and Grace’s witty and honest book helped me appreciate just how uniquely bizarre a time it was. It’s mind-blowing to see that I wasn’t the only weird teen girl who did the weird teen girl things I did. It’s fun to look back with her guidance. Her writing is so honest, funny, smart, and illuminating.” —Anna Drezen, co-head writer of SNL, author of How May We Hate You?

“A gay hike through the media that shaped my little gay life, revisiting all of the big questions of my adolescence.” —Sarah Pappalardo, editor in chief and co-founder of Reductress

“Grace Perry’s debut essay collection is the peak of pop-culture–peppered Millennial reflection. This masterful first book will cut deep.” —Joel Meares, editor in chief of Rotten Tomatoes

“Perry specializes in the kind of writing that makes you feel like you’ve known her for years. [W]hip-smart…hilarious and sneakily thought-provoking.” —Morgan Olsen, editor in chief of Time Out Chicago

About The 2000s Made Me Gay
From The Onion and Reductress contributor, this collection of essays is a hilarious nostalgic trip through beloved 2000s media, interweaving cultural criticism and personal narrative to examine how a very straight decade forged a very queer woman

“Honest, funny, smart, and illuminating.” —Anna Drezen, co-head writer of SNL

“If you came of age at the intersection of Mean Girls and The L Word: Read this book.” —Sarah Pappalardo, editor in chief and co-founder of Reductress

Today’s gay youth have dozens of queer peer heroes, both fictional and real, but former gay teenager Grace Perry did not have that luxury. Instead, she had to search for queerness in the (largely straight) teen cultural phenomena the aughts had to offer: in Lindsay Lohan’s fall from grace, Gossip Girl, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl,” country-era Taylor Swift, and Seth Cohen jumping on a coffee cart. And, for better or worse, these touch points shaped her adult identity. She came out on the other side like many millennials did: in her words, gay as hell.

Throw on your Von Dutch hats and join Grace on a journey back through the pop culture moments of the aughts, before the cataclysmic shift in LGBTQ representation and acceptance—a time not so long ago, which many seem to forget.

JoAnn Wypijewski & Kris Welch:What We Don't Talk About: Sex, Authority
2021-06-03 18:00 - 19:00 | Virtual
KPFA Radio 94.1 FM presents a Zoom event:
JoAnn Wypijewski & Kris Welch
What We Don’t Talk About: Sex, Authority and the Mess of Life
What if we took sex out of the box marked “special,” the contents of which are either the worst or best thing a person can experience, and considered it within the complexity of human life in general? In this extraordinary book – in defiance of the long-standing media obsessions that turn every sexual topic into a morality tale of monsters and victims, shame and virtue-journalist JoAnn Wypijewski does exactly that in this searing indictment of modern sexual politics.
From the criminalization of HIV to the frenzy over “pedophile priests,” from unexamined assumptions about the murder of Matthew Shepard to the accusations made against Woody Allen, from Brett Kavanaugh to Abu Ghraib, Wypijewski takes some of the most famous stories of recent decades and turns them inside out. The result is a searing indictment of modern sexual politics. She exposes the myriad ways moral panic and a punitive culture are intertwined, considering along the way the nature of pleasure, censorship, self-deception, memory and much more. What emerges is a picture of a culture in which crude morality plays acted out in the media have contributed to an imprisoning embrace of the repressive power of the state. Politics exists in the mess of life. Sex does too, Wypijewski insists, and so must sexual politics, if it is to make any sense at all.
JoAnn Wypijewski is a writer and editor based in New York. From 1982 to 2000, she was an editor at the Nation magazine. She has written for the Nation, Harper’s, CounterPunch, the New York Times Magazine, the Guardian, and other publications.
Kris Welch is a veteran, very popular KPFA on-air host, as well as a devoted mother and grandmother.
Suggested Donation $5-$20.

Emiko Jean: Tokyo Ever After
2021-06-03 17:00 - 18:00 | CA
About this event

Co-presented by Eastwind Books
The Princess Diaries meets Crazy Rich Asians in Emiko Jean’s Tokyo Ever After, a “refreshing, spot-on” (Booklist, starred review) story of an ordinary Japanese-American girl who discovers that her father is the Crown Prince of Japan. In conversation with Gloria Chao, the critically acclaimed author of American Panda, Our Wayward Fate, and Rent a Boyfriend. FREE, $10-15 suggested donation
Registration is required. Spots are limited.

Tokyo Ever After: Emiko Jean with Gloria Chao
2021-06-03 17:00 - 18:00 | online, CA, United States
Co-presented by Eastwind Books
Litquake is thrilled to present this launch event for Tokyo Ever After, the latest from Emiko Jean. The Princess Diaries meets Crazy Rich Asians in this irresistible story of an ordinary Japanese-American girl who discovers that her father is the Crown Prince of Japan! Emiko will read from and discuss her work with Gloria Chao. Audience Q&A to follow. FREE, $10-15 suggested donation
Registration is required. Spots are limited. Event will also be livecasted on Facebook Live.

Contemporary Classics - Shuggie Bain Pat Holt's monthly book discussion group
2021-06-02 18:30 - 20:30 | CA
Patricia Holt, former book editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, continues her popular book group, “Contemporary Classics.”
A book should stand the test of time before becoming a classic, but very often, critics and literary judges leap to praise books as “instant classics” soon after publication. These are the titles Pat’s group will hold up to scrutiny—in fact, the chewier, more literary, more dense, and “hard to read” the better. One needn’t have read widely, studied literature, or learned about literary criticism to join. Just drop in or join us for the whole series, and let the developing wisdom of the group be your only guide.
Email Pat to register and to receive a Zoom link for the meeting. You can write to her at p.holt12@comcast.net.
Spring dates:
March 3: Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
April 7: This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga
May 5: Maud’s Line by Margaret Verble
June 2: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
July 7: Real Life by Brandon Taylor

About Patricia Holt
Pat was book editor and critic at The San Francisco Chronicle for 17 years and has been writing reviews and book industry commentary at Holt Uncensored since 1998. She has facilitated book groups for the past 15 years and also joins the Marin West Review’s editors, Myn Adess and Doris Ober, on Radio Bookmobile, a lively discussion on West Marin Community Radio KWMR, usually the first Thursday of every month at 10-11 a.m., about the most beautiful passages and stirring controversies they can find on the current book scene.

GOOD EGGS by Rebecca Hardiman | GGP Online Book Club
2021-06-01 19:00 - 21:00 | CA
Please join us on Tuesday, June 1, 2021 at 7 PM PDT for a GGP Online Book Club discussion of GOOD EGGS by Rebecca Hardiman.
The Zoom meeting will be at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87633376119.
You can order a print copy at http://bit.ly/ggpGoodEggs or in audiobook from Libro.fm, GGP’s audiobook partner, at http://bit.ly/GoodEggsAB.
March 2021 Indie Next List

“Filled with warmth and hilarity, this book reads like a mix of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye and a Maeve Binchy novel. The Irish setting is especially welcome on this side of the pond, and of the three plotlines following different generations, the absolute best paints 83-year-old pistol of a grandma Millie as a delightfully quirky and determined soul. A charming, offbeat novel — perfect to savor as we emerge from this particular winter.”
— Deb Wayman, Fair Isle Books, Washington Island, WI
Description

“A joyous, exuberantly fun-filled novel of second chances. An absolute delight from start to finish!” —Sarah Haywood, New York Times bestselling author
“Bracing, hilarious, warm, this novel is as wayward and mad as the human heart.” —Judy Blundell, New York Times bestselling author
A hilarious and heartfelt debut novel following three generations of a boisterous family whose simmering tensions boil over when a home aide enters the picture, becoming the calamitous force that will either undo or remake this family—perfect for fans of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Evvie Drake Starts Over.
When Kevin Gogarty’s irrepressible eighty-three-year-old mother, Millie, is caught shoplifting yet again, he has no choice but to hire a caretaker to keep an eye on her. Kevin, recently unemployed, is already at his wits’ end tending to a full house while his wife travels to exotic locales for work, leaving him solo with his sulky, misbehaved teenaged daughter, Aideen, whose troubles escalate when she befriends the campus rebel at her new boarding school.
Into the Gogarty fray steps Sylvia, Millie’s upbeat home aide, who appears at first to be their saving grace—until she catapults the Gogarty clan into their greatest crisis yet.
With charm, humor, and pathos to spare, Good Eggs is a delightful study in self-determination; the notion that it’s never too late to start living; and the unique redemption that family, despite its maddening flaws, can offer.
