Same Page SF | Antique book fair, world lit, and a 36-author novel
Plus, save the date (and save $5!) for City Arts & Lectures
Welcome back to Same Page SF, your home for all things local and literary!
Speaking of SF being home, I’m glad to have made it back after travel so wild my first thought was I have to turn this into a short story and my second thought was Eh, no one will believe it. Highlights (lowlights?) of the day included terrifying turbulence, missed landings, and a reroute, followed by hours in tarmac purgatory - we couldn’t deplane since the airport at which we’d landed wasn’t equipped to manage customs - during which one passenger was evacuated due to a medical emergency, another attempted to flee via fuel door, and a third called 911 to report being held against their will (which, uh, did not have the effect they’d hoped). After 12 hours en route, we made it back, and it was unquestionably worth the trip - we’d spent the week in Mexico City to celebrate a friend’s wedding, an incredible time (if a joy hangover is a thing, I’m still feeling it!).
All that to say: I’m crossing my fingers that this issue is coherent! Because once again, we’ve got a week full of author events, book clubs, new releases, and other bookish goodness. Here’s what you’ll want to attend if…
1) You’re intrigued by the idea of a multi-author novel
The Authors Guild on Fourteen Days at Book Passage Ferry Building. Sunday 2/11, 2pm, free.
Join Ishmael Reed, Joseph Cassara, Charlie Jane Anders, and Dave Eggers for a discussion of their serial novel Fourteen Days - which they wrote in collaboration with more than 30 other Guild authors, including editors Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston. Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the COVID pandemic, The Guardian reviewed it as “a starry patchwork … an immensely enjoyable product of an immensely unenjoyable time.”
2) You can’t get enough of that old-book smell
Antiquarian Book Fair at Pier 27, The Embarcadero. Friday 2/9 through Sunday 2/11 (hours vary), $10-25.
The 56th annual fair convenes exhibitors, collectors, and enthusiasts of rare literary wares. Browse antique books, maps, illustrations, manuscripts, and autographs, from the first-ever catalog on the history of AI to the original cover art for Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. (Both will set you back at least $20k, and some items are expected to sell for millions - but hey, there’s no charge to look!)
3) You want to hear from a Palestinian poet and his community
Mosab Abu Toha & friends on Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza at City Lights Bookstore and via Zoom. Wednesday 2/7, 7pm, free; donations requested.
Join a star-studded cast of poets - including, via Zoom from Cairo, the author himself - for a group reading of Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear, award-winning volume by Mosab Abu Toha, Palestinian poet and founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza. All donations will benefit MECA, which is helping to procure emergency medical supplies for hospitals and clinics there.
4) You’re looking to engage with world literature
The International Library: Global Indigenous Stories at the Center for Architecture + Design and via Zoom, in partnership with the Center for the Art of Translation. Wednesday 2/7, 1pm, free; RSVP required.
Linnea Axelsson’s Ædnan, translated by Saskia Vogel, is a novel-in-verse about two Sámi families and their quest to stay together across a century of migration, violence, and colonial trauma. Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy follows an Australian Aboriginal family as a mysterious cloud encroaches on their town, heralding both an ecological catastrophe and a gathering of the ancestors. Join Axelsson, Wright, and Vogel for an in-depth conversation - moderated by Tommy Orange - about the content and craft of their work.
5) You’re bopping along to “He was a boy. He was a boy. Can I make it any more obvious?”
Anthony Nerada on Skater Boy at Books Inc Chestnut. Friday 2/9, 7pm, free.
Join Anthony Nerada, in conversation with bestselling author Jandy Nelson, to celebrate the release of his debut Skater Boy, a YA pop-punk queer romance billed as “a heart-wrenching, validating, and honest story about what it means to be gay in a world where you don’t fit in.”
✨ BONUS ✨ If you like to plan ahead
City Arts and Lectures has some jaw-droppingly good author talks coming up (featuring Ada Limón, Angela Davis, and Chloé Cooper Jones, to name a few!) Grab tickets sooner than later, and use code SAMEPAGESF for a $5 discount.
Also this week
The CODEX Book Art Fair runs Monday through Wednesday | Mireille Gansel on Soul House Tuesday | Jamilah Pitts on Toward Liberation: Educational Practices Rooted in Activism, Healing, and Love Tuesday | Osprey Orielle Lake on The Story is in Our Bones: How Worldviews and Climate Justice Can Remake a World in Crisis Thursday | Red Light Lit featuring readers and improvisational synth beats Thursday | Soo Jin Lee & Linda Yoon on Where I Belong: Healing Trauma and Embracing Asian American Identity Saturday | Virtual meeting of the Silent Book Club Sunday
Book-adjacent gatherings
Not *about* books, but around them
💐 Swing by Black Bird Bookstore and Cafe for a floral pop-up with Karen Ver Trinidad of Bright Moments, where you’ll be able to choose from fresh and dried hand-tied bouquets. (And grab a pastry while you’re at it - I’ll never stop raving about their olive oil spelt cake with Earl Gray drizzle!) Saturday 2/10, 10am.
💝 Stop by Lovejoy’s for tea and Valentine correspondence: the bards of the SFSU Graduate Literature Association will help you craft and send the perfect love note, whether your recipient is friend or foe. (Come for the literal tea, stay for the figurative kind!) Sunday 2/11, 11am-2pm, $5 per stamped postcard.
🏈 Speaking of Sunday afternoon, we hear there’s…something…going on? Manny’s has you covered with a “Super Gay Super Bowl Watch Party” - perfect if the one player you can name is Travis Kelce (at least since Taylor put him on the map) and you’ll only pay attention during the halftime show. Sunday 2/11, 3-8pm.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, I’d be grateful if you’d share it with 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 or message me on Instagram.
Cheers,
Christina
Same Page SF
Book recommendations are my love language.
A bonus for paid subscribers: each week I feature a book I’ve recently read and wholeheartedly loved.
This week’s recommendation is, appropriately, set partially in Mexico City and written in Spanish (though I read it in English this time around). And it’s one I learned about through covering the author’s visit for Same Page last year. If you like subtly subversive stories about female friendship, this one’s for you.
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