Same Page SF | It's your Lucky Day!

Speculative fiction, short stories, and a Bibliophile Bazaar

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 summarize and signal-boost author events, book clubs, and new releases happening across our city.

It’s another great week to be a reader in San Francisco. Here’s what you’ll want to do if:

1) You’re a “book lover with a big heart”

The Bibliophile’s Bazaar, an online marketplace and virtual auction to help sustain the beloved Bay Area Book Festival, goes live today! Biddable items include manuscript reviews, full-day workshops, and agent consults.

2) You’re feeling lucky 

Chuck Tingle on Lucky Day at Internet Archive. Tuesday 9/2, 7pm, $22+. 

Chuck Tingle - a self-described “mysterious force of energy behind sunglasses and a pink mask” - is partnering with Booksmith and Internet Archive to celebrate the launch of Lucky Day. The tale of a former statistics professor who goes up against horrifying odds to save the world, it’s been described as “weird, compelling - and very surprising, coming from the author of My Billionaire Triceratops Craves Gay Ass” (Slate). If that doesn’t intrigue you, I honestly don’t know what will!

3) You’re looking for “a riotous, memorable, and altogether devastating book” 

Elaine Hsieh Chou on Where Are You Really From: Stories at Green Apple Books on the Park. Thursday 9/4, 7pm, free. 

Elaine Hsieh Chou, whose debut Disorientation Vogue named “the funniest, most poignant novel of 2022,” is back with Where Are You Really From. The short-story collection is getting rave reviews; Daphne Palasi Andreades called it “riotous, memorable, and altogether devastating.” Unlike most Green Apple events, this won’t be live-streamed, so make it an Inner Sunset evening if you’re interested! (Pro tip: If you’re driving, don’t waste your time trying to find an elusive 9th Ave spot - park across Lincoln at GGP.) 

4) Your ideal matinee has a 4:1 books to movie ratio 

Movie Matinee feat. Alexander Chee at the Roxie Theater. Saturday 9/6, 12:30pm, $12+. 

Local lit-mag ZYZZYVA’s new film series invites acclaimed writers to share a favorite film and a curated book list that speaks to their selection. This time, Alexander Chee has chosen the 1953 romantic drama The Earrings of Madame de …, along with three novels and his essay collection How to Write an Autobiographical Novel. (If you preorder all four from Dog Eared Books, they’ll throw in a tote!) Doors open at noon, with the movie starting at 12:30pm and a conversation after the screening. 

5) You’re speculating about speculative fiction

How They Did It: Imagining a Future California at Page Street (Berkeley). Sunday 9/7, 3-5pm, $25. 

For this iteration of their popular How They Did It craft talks, Litquake and LitCamp have convened five novelists whose work imagines a California of the future. Mike Chen, Anita Felicelli, Susanna Kwan, Sheri T. Joseph, and Annalee Newitz will share tips on writing and publishing speculative fiction, with plenty of time for audience Q&A. 

Psst - speaking of Litquake, they’ve recently announced this year’s festival headliners, and it’s a superb lineup (Ada Limón, Brandon Taylor, Saeed Jones, Maggie Smith - just to name a few!). Donors of $100+ get advance registration and ticket discounts. 

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Excited about one of this week’s features? Invite a bookish friend to join you (or a full crew, but let’s be real, we’re all introverts here).

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Also

MONDAY —

TUESDAY  —

WEDNESDAY  Miranda Mellis on Crocosmia, “a revelatory novel (or parable) of art, adventure, and radical politics,” at City Lights  |  Meeting of the Black Bird Writing Club

THURSDAY  Launch Party for Radicchio Salad Zine - “a bit Lucky Peach (before David Chang was whatever he is now), a bit 90’s Nickelodeon, a bit PeeWee's Playhouse if PeeWee was out” - at Fabulosa | Peter Orner on The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter at Booksmith  |  Catherine Bresner on their poetry collection Can We Anything We See at City Lights  |  Eddie Ahn on his graphic memoir Advocate at On Waverly  |  Jeanne Carstensen on A Greek Tragedy: One Day, A Deadly Shipwreck, and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis at Mechanics’ Institute  |  First Thursday Poets featuring Breakfast and Kazue Watanabe, with open mic to follow, at Bird & Beckett