Same Page SF | It's March Memoir Madness
“In some ways, writing a memoir is knocking yourself out with your own fist, if it’s done right.” - Mary Karr
Welcome back to Same Page SF, your home for all things local and literary!
I'm Christina - local bookseller, literary entrepreneur, and unreasonably avid reader. Each week, I share and signal-boost the great things happening across our indie bookstores, library branches, cultural centers, and third spaces - a delightful collection of author events, book clubs, new releases, and community gatherings.
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On to the goings-on!
Normally, I’m careful to feature events across genres (and vibes, locations, days…) but there were so many great memoirs this week I had to change it up! Here are five events you’ll want to attend if you’re interested in true stories about:
1) Lost family history
Margaret Juhae Lee on Starry Field at City Lights and via livestream. Tuesday 3/5, 7pm, free (RSVP recommended).
Join Margaret Juhae Lee to celebrate the launch of Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History, which combines investigative journalism, oral history, and archival research to tell the story of the grandfather she never knew - not a criminal, as her family was led to believe, but a student imprisoned in 1929 for protesting the Japanese government’s colonization of Korea.
2) Grief and survival
Amy Lin on Here After at Green Apple Books on the Park and via livestream. Wednesday 3/6, 7pm, free.
When Lauren Groff, Matthew Salesses, and Carmen Maria Machado all rave about a book, I pay attention! That’s the case for Amy Lin’s debut Here After, a stunning and raw depiction of the aftermath of her husband’s death at the age of thirty-two. Along with Hieu Minh Nguyen and Esmé Weijun Wang, she’ll discuss the memoir Machado said “gorgeously … tackles the twin specters of grief and survival.”
3) Life after divorce
Leslie Jamison on Splinters at Books Inc. Opera Plaza. Wednesday 3/6, 7:30pm, free.
Hear from acclaimed author Leslie Jamison - hailed by The Atlantic as the literary lovechild of Joan Didion and Susan Sontag - in conversation with R. O. Kwon about her latest book and first memoir. An instant NYT bestseller, Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story chronicles motherhood, art, and love after divorce with her signature wit and exquisite writing.
4) The power of language
Grace Loh Prasad on The Translator’s Daughter at Booksmith. Thursday 3/7, 7pm, free (RSVP recommended).
Grace Loh Prasad was a toddler when political persecution drove her family to the US, where she become an “accidental immigrant.” When, decades later, her parents returned to Taiwan - and her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s - she felt a new urgency to reclaim her native language. She’s recorded that journey in The Translator’s Daughter, which she’ll discuss with novelist and journalist Susanne Pari.
5) Running and self-love
Mylo Choy on Middle Distance at Green Apple Books on the Park and via livestream. Thursday 3/7, 7pm, free.
Mylo Choy’s Middle Distance is a graphic memoir that explores the author’s relationship with running and the long road towards self-acceptance - “an honest, nuanced work of subtle power that will appeal to all runners, especially those who are transgender or nonbinary.” They’ll be discussing it with fellow graphic novelist and artist Rita Ayuyang.
Looking ahead: If you want to keep embracing the memoir…
Snag a ticket for LitQuake’s “How They Did It” author panel on high-stakes memoirs, which will explore how you can share a story that demands to be told - even if it might harm relationships, revisit trauma, and unearth secrets. Chills!
Sign up for an upcoming writing class on memoirs and personal essays.
Hear from Chloé Cooper Jones at City Arts & Lectures on Easy Beauty, her groundbreaking memoir about disability and motherhood. I’ve never forgotten this gut-punch of an opening line: “I am at a bar in Brooklyn, listening to two men, my friends, discuss whether my life is worth living.”
Also
Manny’s March book club (Season of the Witch) has its first meeting Monday | Itamar Vieira Jr. on Crooked Plow, called the most important Brazilian novel of the century, at City Lights Monday | Poetry with Diana Khoi Nguyen (Root Fractures) and Cindy Juyoung Ok (Ward Toward) at Green Apple Books on the Park Monday | Dale Corvino on Bonds & Boundaries at Fabulosa Tuesday | Katie M. Flynn on Island Rule at Green Apple Books on the Park Tuesday | Cara Black on Murder at La Villette at Bookshop West Portal Tuesday | Feminism and storytelling in the 21st century at Bird & Beckett Wednesday | Brigit Binns on Rottenkid: A Succulent Story of Survival at Omnivore Saturday | Anna Gracia on The Breakup Vacation at Book Passage Saturday | Herb Gold @ 100 at SFPL North Beach Saturday | Short story readings at Telegraph Hill Books Saturday | Brian Stannard on Alcatraz Ghost Story at Black Bird Sunday | Angela Hume on Deep Care at SFPL Main Sunday | Sarah Rose Etter on Ripe at Book Passage Sunday
Book-adjacent gatherings
Not *about* books, but around them
🏡 Manny’s is holding a panel on the rise of third spaces. How are they defined, are they really on the rise, and what could they mean for society? Tuesday 3/5, 6-7pm, $10.
👿 San Francisco Center for the Book is hosting a lecture on historic and contemporary “daredevil typesetting” - work that defies the conventions of straight and perpendicular letterpress printing. Friday 3/8, 6-8pm, free.
🧦 SFPL Glen Park is offering a sock-darning workshop. They’ll provide needles, yarn, and scissors, but it’s on you to BYOHS (bring your own holey socks). Sunday 3/10, 2-4pm, free.
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Cheers,
Christina
Same Page SF
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