Happy Monday, San Francisco, and welcome to the first-ever issue (!) of Same Page SF, your home for all things literary.
Think of us as your friendly, well-informed, and unabashedly nerdy source for local book discussions, author talks, writer meet-ups, new releases, and other relevant happenings.
If you’re curious why we’re doing this, check out our About page. (In short: we’re here to inform, connect, and nurture the readers, writers, and literary citizens of our city. Fingers crossed that strikes you as more earnest than pretentious, though let’s be real, it’s probably a bit of both!)
To that end, here’s what’s happening this week:
If you love Severance (the TV show) and also Severance (the novel by Ling Ma)
Molly McGhee in conversation with Colin Winnette @ Green Apple Books (9th Ave). Wednesday 11/8, 7pm. Free.
Join Molly McGhee to celebrate the release of her speculative debut, Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind, set in a toxic workplace and compellingly described as “a piercing critique of late-stage capitalism and a reckoning with its true cost.” In other words: my go-to icebreakers at parties.✌️
If you’re on your Vigilante Shit again
Naomi Alderman in conversation with Maggie Tokuda-Hall @ The Booksmith. In partnership with Berkeley Arts & Letters. Monday 11/6, 7pm. Free; RSVP required.
In her newest dystopia The Future, bestselling author Naomi Alderman (The Power) sinks her teeth into the technocracy - viciously. (TBH I didn’t *love* The Power - I read it at the height of its hype, and felt the premise outshone the actual plot - but I stayed up way past bedtime to finish my advance copy of The Future, and I’m bursting to discuss!)
Bonus: Maggie Tokuda-Hall is one of my favorite children’s authors - her work shouldn’t be subversive, but of course it is - and I’m eager to hear her questions.
For fans of Bildungsroman, aka “coming-of-age” in translation (see what I did there?)
Jazmina Barrera in conversation with Julián Delgado Lopera @ The Ruby (or virtually). In partnership with Green Apple Books and the Center for the Art of Translation. Tuesday 11/7, 7pm. Free; RSVP required.
Join Jazmina Barrera, acclaimed author of Linea Negra and On Lighthouses, to celebrate her novel Cross-Stitch (translated by Christina MacSweeny). It’s been named one of the most anticipated books of 2023 by The Millions. Please note: proof of vaccination is required for in-person attendance.
Bonus: If you’re searching for other recently-translated gems, I was enthralled and horrified by Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez (translated by Megan McDowell). It will give you nightmares, and it will be worth it.
If you’re compelled by what it means to “lean backward towards history”
Tracy K. Smith in conversation with john a. powell @ Sydney Goldstein Theater. In partnership with Marcus Books and City Arts & Lectures. Friday 11/10, 7:30pm. $49.
Hear from multi-talented Tracy K. Smith - librettist, translator, 22nd Poet Laureate of the US, and now memoirist. Tickets include a copy of To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul, lauded by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. as “a vulnerable, honest look at a life in a country still struggling with its evils … Hopeful … Beautiful and haunting.”
If you want to *hear* poetry
Kazim Ali, Gillian Conoley, and Brian Teare @ Green Apple Books (9th Ave). Thursday, 11/9, 7pm. Free.
A celebration of three just-released collections: Kazim Ali’s Sukun, Gillian Conoley’s Notes from the Passenger, and Brian Teare’s Poem Bitten by a Man. One stunning snippet from Sukun:
…What am I, what am I, I kept throwing out to the hustling silence. No light comes from the moon, he's just got good positioning and I suppose that's the answer, that's what I'm most afraid of, that I'm a mirror, that I have no light of my own, that I hang in empty space in faithful orbit around a god or father neither of Whom will ever see me whole.
If you want to *read* poetry
Poetry & Prose Open Mic Night @ Black Bird Bookstore and Cafe. Wednesday 11/8, 7pm (signups open at 6:30pm). Free.
Read your work and build community with fellow poetry lovers! All levels welcome.
In addition:
Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of Pulitzer-prize-winning The Sympathizer, will speak at Sydney Goldstein Theater via City Arts & Lectures. Thursday 11/9, 7:30pm, $49.
Short notice, but if you’ve read Miracle Creek by Angie Kim, join Bookshop West Portal for their open book club discussion. Sunday 11/12, 10am, free.
In-person seats for historian/writer Heather Cox Richardson’s talk at Book Passage Corte Madera are sold out, but you can still snag a virtual ticket, which includes a signed copy of Democracy Awakening. Tuesday 11/7, 6pm. $33.
Speaking of online events, City Lights is hosting via Zoom Bill Ong Hing, author of Humanizing Immigration: How to Transform our Racist and Unjust System (Monday, 11/6, 6pm) and Malu Halasa, editor of WOMAN LIFE FREEDOM: Art and Voices from the Women’s Protests in Iran (Wednesday, 11/8, 6pm). Both are free, but registration is required.
Book-adjacent gatherings:
🧶 If crafting while surrounded by books is your idea of a good time (absolutely same), come by Black Bird Bookstore and Cafe for a casual knitting and crochet circle. And while you’re there, admire the displays by five artists they’re hosting as part of SF Open Studios. Sunday 11/12, 5-6:30pm.
♻️ If you’re feeling the adult-arts-and-crafts vibe but aren’t into needlework *yet* (you’ll get there), the Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library is hosting a book-page-wreath workshop to upcycle its withdrawn print materials. Cool! Sunday 11/12, 3-4pm.
🎶 Live music more your vibe? Bird & Beckett Books & Records is the place to be - they’ve got quite the lineup this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. BYOB plus some cash for the cover.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, hooray! I’d be grateful if you’d forward it along to a bookish friend or two (or more, but let’s be real, we’re all introverts here).
Have an upcoming event you’d like me to include? Want to share an idea or ask a question? I’d love to hear from you! Just reply to this email.
Cheers,
Christina
Same Page SF
Book recommendations are my love language.
Three recent releases I’ve been raving about:
Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang. I adore speculative fiction with apocalyptic overtones (again: I’m a hit at parties). This deserves all the hype. It’s eerie, disconcerting, and almost obscenely vivid.
Death Valley by Melissa Broder. A strange and surreal exploration of anticipatory grief. I laughed, I cried, I annotated, I finished in one sitting.
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll. Knoll is second to none when it comes to writing misogyny and female rage - and exploring the underbellies of the stories we think we already know.
(PS: Those links will bring you to my Bookshop.org page, and I’ll earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase - but I’ll be delighted if you buy directly from one of our stellar indie booksellers or borrow from the SFPL. If you do, please send me a note to let me know - it’ll make my day!)