Same Page SF | A surreal Florida novel, a night of queer fiction, and the SF Art Book Fair
Plus lots and lots of poetry
Welcome back to Same Page SF, your home for all things local and literary!
I'm Christina, your friendly, well-informed, and unabashedly nerdy bookseller. Each week, I share and signal-boost author events, book clubs, new releases, and community gatherings happening across our city.
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Paid subscribers get perks like curated sneak peeks, thoughtful book recommendations, and early access to book giveaways to support local and visiting authors - not to mention the warm fuzzies of knowing you’re helping to make Same Page sustainable.
On to the goings-on!
Before we dive into this week’s happenings, a disclaimer: I wrote most of this newsletter before getting walloped by COVID (again … for the third time in under a year … thanks autoimmunity*). I currently lack the energy and brainpower to review as carefully as I usually do. Apologies in advance for any errors!
*Also thanks to America’s staggering lack of consideration for vulnerable folks, exacerbated and reinforced by toxic individualism and late-stage capitalism, but that’s a topic for another newsletter…
Back on the local and literary front, here’s what you’ll want to attend if:
1) You enjoy an unsettling, reality-warping story
Laura van den Berg on State of Paradise at Green Apple Books on the Park and via Zoom. Wednesday 7/17, 7pm, free.
Join Laura van den Berg, best known for her superb story collection I Hold A Wolf by the Ears, to celebrate the launch of her novel State of Paradise. In conversation with Meng Jin, she’ll discuss what’s ostensibly the tale of a ghostwriter who finds herself back in her Florida hometown - but it’s better described as a surreal dive into technology, memory, and the nature of reality. Among the many rave reviews, my favorite is from Rachel Yoder (Nightbitch), who called it “a wholly original and epically engaging novel from a master of episodic oddity.”
2) You love book art (and art books!)
SF Art Book Fair at Minnesota Street Project. Friday 7/19 through Sunday 7/21 (with a preview Thursday 7/18), 11am-6pm, free.
The eminently delightful SF Art Book Fair is back for its seventh year! Presented by the Minnesota Street Project Foundation, SFABF is a multi-day exhibition and celebration of printed material from 140+ independent publishers, artists, designers, collectors, and enthusiasts from around the world. There’ll be a diverse range of talks, performances, book launches, workshops, exhibitions, and more - this handy guide has all the details.
3) You want to support a local author’s debut
J. Malcolm Garcia on Out of the Rain at Booksmith. Wednesday 7/17, 7pm, free with RSVP.
Join social worker turned journalist turned fiction writer J. Malcolm Garcia for the launch of his debut novel Out of the Rain. Based on his own experiences as a San Francisco social worker in the '80s and '90s, it chronicles a services agency and its clients, highlighting the stakes of housing insecurity, substance abuse, and societal negligence. Dave Eggers blurbed the front cover, stating “There’s a writer named J. Malcolm Garcia who continually astounds me with his energy and empathy. I’ve been following him wherever he goes.”
4) You’re interested in writing queer fiction
Bold Strokes Books at Fabulosa Books. Thursday 7/18, 7pm, free.
Visit Castro gem Fabulosa Books for a conversation on writing queer fiction. Ashley Bartlett, Clifford Mae Henderson, and Frederick Smith - three Bay Area authors with Bold Strokes Books, a publisher dedicated to quality and diversity in LGBTQ literature - will share from their latest novels, offer insight into their processes, and give tips to aspiring authors.
5) You can’t get enough poetry
It’s your lucky week! On Tuesday 7/16, Christian Gullete will discuss his award-winning collection Coachella Elegy at Green Apple Books on the Park (7pm, free). On Thursday 7/18, Decentered Arts is hosting Poolside Poets, an evening of poetry, live music, and dance - with a dress code sure to spark conversation - at the Phoenix Hotel (6:30pm, $15). On Saturday 7/20, City Lights is holding a virtual launch for I Create Like the Word: Poetry in the Age of Machine Intelligence (11am, free). And on Sunday 7/21, choose between Poetry in the Alley and readings from the climate-focused anthology Dear Human at the Edge of Time (both 1pm, free).
Also
MONDAY —
TUESDAY Former finance minister of Greece Yanis Varoufakis on Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism via City Lights Zoom | Deborah Stoll on Drop In: The Gender Rebels who Changed the Face of Skateboarding at Booksmith | Phil Witte and Rex Hesner on Funny Stuff: How Great Cartoonists Make Great Cartoons at Book Passage | Poetry reading by Charles Blackwell at the North Beach SFPL | Local romance author Jessica Joyce on The Ex Vows at Books Inc. Chestnut | Eddie Ahn on his graphic memoir Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice at SFPL Main, with free copies while supplies last
WEDNESDAY Professor Erin McElroy on Silicon Valley Imperialism: Techno Fantasies and Frictions in Postsocialist Times via City Lights Zoom | Collaborative zine-making with Mission Mini Comix at Sour Cherry | Dr. Linda Shuie on Spicebox Kitchen at SHACK15 is sold out
THURSDAY Speaking Axolotl, the Bay Area’s longest-running monthly Latinx reading series, featuring Angelica Segura-Brandi and Ray Marenco-Quintana | Juneau Black, the pen name of authors Jocelyn Cole and Sharon Nagel, on Summers End: A Shady Hollow Mystery at Booksmith | Nina Schuyler on her “sweeping, impassioned” story collection In This Ravishing World at Green Apple Books on the Park
FRIDAY The Minimalists Present The Everything Tour, a celebration of the 10th anniversary of their bestselling book Everything That Remains, at Calvary Presbyterian
SATURDAY Climate reporter Akshak Rathi on Climate Capitalism: Winning the Race to Zero Emissions and Solving the Crisis of Our Age at Manny’s | Book-signing with Eisner winner Brandon Graham for his latest project Moonray at Mission: Comics & Art | Professor Guillermo Kane, member of the Partido Obrero (Workers Party) in Argentina, on La Crisis Del Imperio Norteamericano de Trump a Biden (The Crisis of the American Empire from Trump to Biden) at Medicine for Nightmares
SUNDAY —
Book-adjacent gatherings
Not *about* books, but around them
🌫️ The SFPL Main is hosting scientist Alicia Torregrosa for a talk on “the secret life of fog.” Learn why fog is so important to Bay Area ecosystems - not to mention culture! - and how scientists attempt to map and measure this inherently elusive phenomenon. Wednesday 7/17, 6:30-7:30pm, free.
🏆 Manny’s is welcoming three Chronicle sportswriters for an insider view of the Olympics. Hear behind-the-scenes stories and a Paris 2024 preview from journalists who’ve covered a combined 20+ Olympic Games! Thursday 7/18, 6-8pm, $15.
😋 Black Bird Bookstore & Cafe is holding a backyard pop-up with Restriction Kitchen, a delectable gluten-free microbakery co-run by one of their own baristas! Saturday 7/20, 12-4pm.
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this issue of Same Page, please share it with a bookish friend or two (or more, but let’s be honest, we’re all introverts here!).
As always, if you have questions, ideas, or events to share, I’d love to hear! Just reply to this email or reach me at hello@samepagesf.com.
Cheers,
Christina
Book recommendations are my love language…
…But sick with COVID, all I have the energy to consume are old episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and, inexplicably, the Netflix documentary on the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.