Archive
Friends,
below are some great events coming up at the Book Smith at 1644 Haight St. between Clayton & Cole (863-8688)
GRAVITY GOLDBERG AND ERIC ZASSENHAUS
With Jim Nelson, Alia Volz, Mark Jacobs, and Matt Stewart
Reading and zine signing for Instant City
Tuesday, March 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Instant City is a literary exploration of San Francisco in zine form. Our city is as legendary for its tectonic cultural shifts as it is for its earthquakes, every decade or so becoming an epicenter for a new utopian vision. Each cultural eruption reinforces the idea of San Francisco as an instant city. This zine captures that frenetic energy in fiction, non-fiction, and art, creating a subjective, ever-changing map of the city.
Editor Gravity Goldberg received a Masters in English, concentration in Creative Writing at SFSU. She worked as festival coordinator for Litquake in 2007. Her fiction is published in Watchword, Strange Tales, Transfer, and the SF Bay Guardian lit section. She’s also written for SFGate, Morbid Curiosity, Tempe Crime Wave, Panache, SFBG, and Stretcher. She has lived in San Francisco for fourteen years.
Editor Eric Zassenhaus works with the Knight Digital Media Center at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. Before that, he worked as the Web Coordinator and Buyer for City Lights Books and Publishers, served as the Cultural Editor for Clamor magazine and was an Assistant Editor at Tikkun Magazine. He has self-published many chapbooks, ‘zines, and magazines in the past fifteen years, and his work has appeared in print, online, and on air.
The editors will be joined by contributors Jim Nelson, Alia Volz, Mark Jacobs, and Matt Stewart.
BRIAN YAEGER
Special Event with Magnolia Pub and Brewery
Reading, beer tasting, and book signing for Red, White, and Brew
Thursday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m.
Red, White, and Brew is the ultimate beer run across the United States. From fifth-generation family-run brewing companies to first-wave microbreweries, this book is a travelogue, guide, and genealogical study of beer families and home brewers from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. It is filled with eclectic characters and shrewd businesspeople who produce liquid philanthropy, one keg at a time.
Beer's been good to Brian Yaeger, author of Red, White, and Brew: An American Beer Odyssey. It nourished him at U.C. Santa Barbara (double bachelor degrees in religious studies and Russian), became his thesis at USC (Master of Professional Writing), and fueled his road trip around the country interviewing the people who make our brews.
Haight Street’s own Magnolia Pub and Brewery will provide beer samples.
ERIC SIMONS
Reading, slideshow and book signing for Darwin Slept Here
Tuesday, March 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Two hundred years after Darwin was born, and 150 years after the publication of The Origin of Species, Darwin Slept Here is an exciting journey in the footsteps of one the fathers of modern science. In this fresh-eyed and innovative history and travelogue, Eric Simons reclaims the past of South America, and brings Charles Darwin into the future in a thrilling new look at a familiar subject.
Eric will be showing photos and telling stories about his quest to retrace Darwin’s voyage.
Eric Simons is a freelance writer, confirmed Californian, and marine life enthusiast. He has written for San Francisco magazine, California magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Sierra magazine, and Canoe & Kayak magazine, among others, and reported and produced a nationally distributed radio documentary for the National Radio Project's Making Contact. Eric is a graduate of the environmental and science writing program at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and lives in San Francisco.
FOUND IN TRANSLATION
Reading group meeting for Senselessness
Thursday, March 19 at 6:30 p.m.
The Booksmith’s will be launching our first ever reading group this month. Driven by our resident Italophile Julie, the group will focus on contemporary translated fiction. We're excited about this opportunity to bring more exposure to award-winning titles by authors around the world. The books discussed by the group will be available at a 15% discount.
Our first book will be Senselessness, acclaimed Salvadoran author Horacio Castallanos Moya's astounding debut in English. A Rainmaker Translation Grant winner, Senselessness explores horror with hilarity and electrifying panache. A boozing, sex-obsessed writer finds himself employed by the Catholic Church (an institution he loathes) to proofread a 1,100 page report on the army's massacre and torture of thousands of indigenous villagers a decade earlier, including the testimonies of the survivors.
Come by to pick up your copy so you can finish the book in time for our first meeting.
JON GINOLI
Reading and book signing for Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division
Plus special acoustic performance!
Friday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Deflowered is Jon Ginoli's journey of self-discovery, musical passion, and drive to become the founding member of Pansy Division, the first openly gay punk rock band to make the national scene. We follow the band from their inception in the early '90s in San Francisco, to their search for a music label, and their current status as indie rock icons. We see the highs—touring with Green Day—and the lows—homophobic fans—of striving for acceptance and success in the world of rock. Featuring behind-the-scenes photographs and replete with the requisite tales of sex, drugs, groupies, band fights, and label battles, this rollicking memoir is also an impassioned account of staying true to their artistic vision of queer rock'n'roll.
Jon Ginoli is a guitarist, singer, songwriter and founding member of Pansy Division. An Illinois native, he's played both dive bars and arenas, and his favorite color is purple. When not on tour with the band, he lives and works in San Francisco - at Amoeba Music on Haight Street, just a few blocks from The Booksmith!
HOMELESS IN HAIGHT
Community Forum
Monday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Building on success of the event with Dr. Karen Staller last October, the Booksmith is pleased to organize the next community forum about Homelessness in Haight. This forum is aimed at creating a constructive and inclusive dialog that leads to positive changes in our neighborhood. Representatives of Larkin Street Youth Services and Homeless Youth Alliance will make a short educational presentation to the community about the services they provide in the Haight Ashbury area and issues they face. The presentations will be followed by a Question and Answer session. (Photo by Franco Folini)
DAVID EWING DUNCAN
Reading and book signing for Experimental Man
Wednesday, March 25 at 7:30 p.m.
If you could, would you like to know how long you had to live? What diseases you’re susceptible to? Or, what the environment around you is doing to your overall health? Ultimately, would you want to know how you might die? In EXPERIMENTAL MAN: What One Man’s Body Reveals About His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World, Duncan takes "guinea pig" journalism to the very edge of science, building on award-winning articles he wrote for National Geographic and Wired, in which he was tested for hundreds of chemical toxins – from pesticides to plastic additives – and for millions of genetic markers associated with disease, emotions, and other traits.
David Ewing Duncan is the author of seven books including the worldwide bestseller Calendar. He is Chief Correspondent of public radio's Biotech Nation, a commentator on NPR's Morning Edition, and a contributing editor and a columnist for Conde Nast Portfolio. He has been a contributing editor to Wired, Discover and Technology Review, and has written for Harper’s, The Atlantic, Fortune, and many other publications. He is a former special correspondent and producer for ABC Nightline and a correspondent for NOVA’s ScienceNOW! He has won numerous awards including the Magazine Story of the Year from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He lives in San Francisco and is the Director of the Center of Life Science Policy at UC Berkeley.
MINAL HAJRATWALA
To be introduced by KALW radio host Sandip Roy
Launch party, reading and book signing for Leaving India with homemade Indian refreshments
Thursday, March 26 at 7:30 p.m.
As the daughter of immigrants and the granddaughter of weavers, Minal Hajratwala grew up accustomed to crossing lines. In Leaving India, she weaves together history, memoir, and reportage to explore questions facing not only her own family but that of every migrant: Where did we come from? Why did we leave? What did we lose and gain? Traveling the world, she learns how her family, originally from India, came to be spread across five continents and nine countries over more than a century of migration — a movement that parallels the phenomenal growth of India’s diaspora.
Minal Hajratwala is a writer, performer, poet, and queer activist based in San Francisco, where she was born before being whisked off to be raised in New Zealand and suburban Michigan. Her creative work has appeared in numerous journals, anthologies, and theater spaces, and has received recognition and support from the Sundance Institute, among others. She was an editor and reporter at the San Jose Mercury News, and was a fellow at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2000-01. She is a graduate of Stanford University.
Leaving India is the favorite new book of our own Praveen Madan who considers it the first really good non-fiction book that helped him understand the historical events that shaped the rise of the Indian diaspora. You can watch a short video about the book, and also order a author signed first edition copy.