JANE HIRSHFIELD presents THE ASKING: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS
Wednesday, September 13, 2023, 7pm PT
The Booksmith, 1727 Haight Street, San Francisco
Tickets are on sale now!
In an era of algorithm, assertion, silo, and induced distraction, Jane Hirshfield’s poems bring a much-needed awakening response, actively countering narrowness. The Asking takes its title from the close of one of its thirty-one new poems: “don’t despair of this falling world, not yet / didn’t it give you the asking.” Interrogating language and life, pondering beauty amid bewilderment and transcendence amid transience, Hirshfield offers a signature investigation of the conditions, contradictions, uncertainties, and astonishments that shape our existence. A leading advocate for the biosphere and the alliance of science and imagination, she brings to both inner and outer quandaries an abiding compass: the choice to embrace what is, to face with courage, curiosity, and a sense of kinship whatever comes.
In poems that consider the smallest ant and the vastness of time, hunger and bounty, physics, war, and love in myriad forms, this collection—drawing from nine previous books and five decades of writing—brings the insights and slant-lights that come to us only through poetry’s arc, delve, and tact; through a vision both close and sweeping; through music-inflected thought and recombinant leap.
With its quietly magnifying brushwork and numinous clarities, The Asking expands our awareness of both breakage’s grief and the possibility for repair.
Wednesday, September 13, 2023, 7pm PT
The Booksmith, 1727 Haight Street, San Francisco
Tickets are on sale now!
In an era of algorithm, assertion, silo, and induced distraction, Jane Hirshfield’s poems bring a much-needed awakening response, actively countering narrowness. The Asking takes its title from the close of one of its thirty-one new poems: “don’t despair of this falling world, not yet / didn’t it give you the asking.” Interrogating language and life, pondering beauty amid bewilderment and transcendence amid transience, Hirshfield offers a signature investigation of the conditions, contradictions, uncertainties, and astonishments that shape our existence. A leading advocate for the biosphere and the alliance of science and imagination, she brings to both inner and outer quandaries an abiding compass: the choice to embrace what is, to face with courage, curiosity, and a sense of kinship whatever comes.
In poems that consider the smallest ant and the vastness of time, hunger and bounty, physics, war, and love in myriad forms, this collection—drawing from nine previous books and five decades of writing—brings the insights and slant-lights that come to us only through poetry’s arc, delve, and tact; through a vision both close and sweeping; through music-inflected thought and recombinant leap.
With its quietly magnifying brushwork and numinous clarities, The Asking expands our awareness of both breakage’s grief and the possibility for repair.
Writing “some of the most important poetry in the world today” (The New York Times Magazine), Jane Hirshfield is the author of ten collections and is one of American poetry’s central spokespersons for concerns of the biosphere. Hirshfield’s honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, the Poetry Center Book Award, the California Book Award, and finalist selection for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She’s also the author of two now-classic collections of essays on the craft of poetry, and edited and co-translated four books presenting world poets from the deep past. Hirshfield’s work, which has been translated into seventeen languages, appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, and ten editions of The Best American Poetry. A former chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2019.
Please note:
- This is a ticketed, in-person event to be held at The Booksmith, 1727 Haight Street in San Francisco.
- Masks will not be required for this event, but we will be limiting capacity somewhat. As a result, we can't guarantee we'll have space for walk-ins. The best way to ensure you’ll get a seat is to order a ticket in advance.
- We are happy to offer *signed copies* of The Asking: order a ticket if you'd like to pick up a signed copy at the event, or order here if you just want a signed copy and no admission.
- If we feel it is not safe to gather, as the event gets closer, we will pivot to a virtual event and your registration will remain valid.
- Questions? Accessibility requests? Write events@booksmith.com.
NAOMI KLEIN presents DOPPELGANGER: A TRIP INTO THE MIRROR WORLD
In conversation with ANNALEE NEWITZ
Wednesday, September 20, 2023, 7pm PT
First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway
Tickets are on sale now!
What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you’d devoted your life to fighting against?
Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who. Destabilized, she lost her bearings, until she began to understand the experience as one manifestation of a strangeness many of us have come to know but struggle to define: AI-generated text is blurring the line between genuine and spurious communication; New Age wellness entrepreneurs turned anti-vaxxers are scrambling familiar political allegiances of left and right; and liberal democracies are teetering on the edge of absurdist authoritarianism, even as the oceans rise. Under such conditions, reality itself seems to have become unmoored. Is there a cure for our moment of collective vertigo?
Naomi Klein is one of our most trenchant and influential social critics, an essential analyst of what branding, austerity, and climate profiteering have done to our societies and souls. Here she turns her gaze inward to our psychic landscapes, and outward to the possibilities for building hope amid intersecting economic, medical, and political crises. With the assistance of Sigmund Freud, Jordan Peele, Alfred Hitchcock, and bell hooks, among other accomplices, Klein uses wry humor and a keen sense of the ridiculous to face the strange doubles that haunt us—and that have come to feel as intimate and proximate as a warped reflection in the mirror.
Combining comic memoir with chilling reportage and cobweb-clearing analysis, Klein seeks to smash that mirror and chart a path beyond despair. Doppelganger asks: What do we neglect as we polish and perfect our digital reflections? Is it possible to dispose of our doubles and overcome the pathologies of a culture of multiplication? Can we create a politics of collective care and undertake a true reckoning with historical crimes? The result is a revelatory treatment of the way many of us think and feel now—and an intellectual adventure story for our times.
In conversation with ANNALEE NEWITZ
Wednesday, September 20, 2023, 7pm PT
First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway
Tickets are on sale now!
What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you’d devoted your life to fighting against?
Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who. Destabilized, she lost her bearings, until she began to understand the experience as one manifestation of a strangeness many of us have come to know but struggle to define: AI-generated text is blurring the line between genuine and spurious communication; New Age wellness entrepreneurs turned anti-vaxxers are scrambling familiar political allegiances of left and right; and liberal democracies are teetering on the edge of absurdist authoritarianism, even as the oceans rise. Under such conditions, reality itself seems to have become unmoored. Is there a cure for our moment of collective vertigo?
Naomi Klein is one of our most trenchant and influential social critics, an essential analyst of what branding, austerity, and climate profiteering have done to our societies and souls. Here she turns her gaze inward to our psychic landscapes, and outward to the possibilities for building hope amid intersecting economic, medical, and political crises. With the assistance of Sigmund Freud, Jordan Peele, Alfred Hitchcock, and bell hooks, among other accomplices, Klein uses wry humor and a keen sense of the ridiculous to face the strange doubles that haunt us—and that have come to feel as intimate and proximate as a warped reflection in the mirror.
Combining comic memoir with chilling reportage and cobweb-clearing analysis, Klein seeks to smash that mirror and chart a path beyond despair. Doppelganger asks: What do we neglect as we polish and perfect our digital reflections? Is it possible to dispose of our doubles and overcome the pathologies of a culture of multiplication? Can we create a politics of collective care and undertake a true reckoning with historical crimes? The result is a revelatory treatment of the way many of us think and feel now—and an intellectual adventure story for our times.
Naomi Klein is the award-winning author of international bestsellers including This Changes Everything, The Shock Doctrine, No Logo, No Is Not Enough, and On Fire, which have been published in more than thirty-five languages. She is an associate professor in the department of geography at the University of British Columbia, the founding codirector of UBC’s Centre for Climate Justice, and an honorary professor of Media and Climate at Rutgers University. Her writing has appeared in leading publications around the world, and she is a columnist for The Guardian. Photo by Rob Trendiak.
Annalee Newitz writes science fiction and nonfiction. They are the author of three novels: The Terraformers, The Future of Another Timeline, and Autonomous, which won the Lambda Literary Award. As a science journalist, they are the author of Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age and Scatter, Adapt and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction, which was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in science. They are a writer for the New York Times, have a monthly column in New Scientist, and have published in The Washington Post, Slate, Popular Science, Ars Technica, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, among others. They are the co-host of the Hugo Award-winning podcast "Our Opinions Are Correct." Previously, they were the founder of io9, and served as the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo. Photo by Sarah Deragon (cropped).
Please note:
- This is a ticketed, in-person event to be held at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway in Oakland, CA (cross street is 27th).
- Masks will be required throughout the duration of the event and capacity will be limited to allow indoor distancing. Protocols subject to change.
- Because we’re limiting capacity, we can't guarantee we'll have space for walk-ins.
- We are happy to offer *signed copies* of Doppelganger: order a ticket if you'd like to pick up a signed copy at the event, or order here if you just want a signed copy and no admission.
- You can order books by Annalee Newitz here.
- If we feel it is not safe to gather, as the event gets closer, we will pivot to a virtual event and your registration will remain valid.
- Questions? Accessibility requests? Write events@booksmith.com.
ADAM MANSBACH launches THE GOLEM OF BROOKLYN
In conversation with W. KAMAU BELL
Tuesday, September 26, 2023, 7pm PT
First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway
Tickets are on sale now!
In Ashkenazi Jewish folklore, a golem is a humanoid being created out of mud or clay and animated through secret prayers. Its sole purpose is to defend the Jewish people against the immediate threat of violence. It is always a rabbi who makes a golem, and always in a time of crisis.
But Len Bronstein is no rabbi--he's a Brooklyn art teacher who steals a large quantity of clay from his school, gets extremely stoned, and manages to bring his creation to life despite knowing little about Judaism and even less about golems. Unable to communicate with his nine-foot-six, four hundred-pound, Yiddish-speaking guest, Len enlists a bodega clerk and ex-Hasid named Miri Apfelbaum to translate.
Eventually, The Golem learns English by binge-watching Curb Your Enthusiasm after ingesting a massive amount of LSD and reveals that he is a creature with an ancestral memory; he recalls every previous iteration of himself, making The Golem a repository of Jewish history and trauma. He demands to know what crisis has prompted his re-creation and whom must he destroy. When Miri shows him a video of white nationalists marching and chanting "Jews will not replace us," the answer becomes clear.
The Golem of Brooklyn is an epic romp through Jewish history and the American present that wrestles with the deepest questions of our humanity--the conflicts between faith and skepticism, tribalism and interdependence, and vengeance and healing.
In conversation with W. KAMAU BELL
Tuesday, September 26, 2023, 7pm PT
First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway
Tickets are on sale now!
In Ashkenazi Jewish folklore, a golem is a humanoid being created out of mud or clay and animated through secret prayers. Its sole purpose is to defend the Jewish people against the immediate threat of violence. It is always a rabbi who makes a golem, and always in a time of crisis.
But Len Bronstein is no rabbi--he's a Brooklyn art teacher who steals a large quantity of clay from his school, gets extremely stoned, and manages to bring his creation to life despite knowing little about Judaism and even less about golems. Unable to communicate with his nine-foot-six, four hundred-pound, Yiddish-speaking guest, Len enlists a bodega clerk and ex-Hasid named Miri Apfelbaum to translate.
Eventually, The Golem learns English by binge-watching Curb Your Enthusiasm after ingesting a massive amount of LSD and reveals that he is a creature with an ancestral memory; he recalls every previous iteration of himself, making The Golem a repository of Jewish history and trauma. He demands to know what crisis has prompted his re-creation and whom must he destroy. When Miri shows him a video of white nationalists marching and chanting "Jews will not replace us," the answer becomes clear.
The Golem of Brooklyn is an epic romp through Jewish history and the American present that wrestles with the deepest questions of our humanity--the conflicts between faith and skepticism, tribalism and interdependence, and vengeance and healing.
Adam Mansbach is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Go the F**k to Sleep, as well as the novels Rage Is Back, The End of the Jews (winner of the California Book Award), and Angry Black White Boy, and the memoir-in-verse I Had a Brother Once. With Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel, he co-authored For This We Left Egypt? and the bestselling A Field Guide to the Jewish People. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, Esquire, The Believer, and The Guardian. Photo by Susan Chainey.
W. Kamau Bell is a dad, husband, and comedian. He directed and executive-produced the four-part Showtime documentary We Need To Talk About Cosby, which premiered at Sundance. He famously met with the KKK on his Emmy-Award-winning CNN docu-series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell, where he serves as host and executive producer. He has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Conan, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, CBS Mornings, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Comedy Central, HBO, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, WTF with Marc Maron, The Breakfast Club, and This American Life. He has two stand-up comedy specials, Private School Negro (Netflix) and Semi-Prominent Negro (Showtime). Kamau’s writing has been featured in Time, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, CNN.com, Salon, and The LA Review of Books. Kamau’s first book has an easy-to-remember title, The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6' 4", African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama's Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian. He is the ACLU Artist Ambassador for Racial Justice and serves on the board of directors of Donors Choose and the advisory board of Hollaback! Photo by John Nowak for CNN.
Co-presented by JCC East Bay
Please note:
- This is a ticketed, in-person event to be held at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway in Oakland, CA (cross street is 27th).
- Masks will not be required for this event, but we will be limiting capacity somewhat. As a result, we can't guarantee we'll have space for walk-ins. The best way to ensure you’ll get a seat is to order a ticket in advance.
- We are happy to offer *signed copies* of The Golem of Brooklyn: order a ticket if you'd like to pick up a signed copy at the event, or order here if you just want a signed copy and no admission.
- If we feel it is not safe to gather, as the event gets closer, we will pivot to a virtual event and your registration will remain valid.
- Questions? Accessibility requests? Write events@booksmith.com.
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON presents DEMOCRACY AWAKENING:
NOTES ON THE STATE OF AMERICA
In conversation with REBECCA SOLNIT
Wednesday, October 4, 2023, 7pm PT
First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway
Tickets are on sale now!
Please note: This event is sold out. We may be able to release additional seats as the event gets closer. We do not have a waiting list at this time. The best way to stay informed and find out about our events as we announce them is to subscribe to our mailing list. Questions? Contact events@booksmith.com.
“A vibrant, and essential history of America’s unending, enraging and utterly compelling struggle since its founding to live up to its own best ideals… It’s both a cause for hope, and a call to arms.” – Jane Mayer, author Dark Money
From historian and author of the popular daily newsletter Letters from an American, a vital narrative that explains how America, once a beacon of democracy, now teeters on the brink of autocracy — and how we can turn back.
In the midst of the impeachment crisis of 2019, Heather Cox Richardson launched a daily Facebook essay providing the historical background of the daily torrent of news. It soon turned into a newsletter and its readership ballooned to more than 2 million dedicated readers who rely on her plainspoken and informed take on the present and past in America.
In Democracy Awakening, Richardson crafts a compelling and original narrative, explaining how, over the decades, a small group of wealthy people have made war on American ideals. By weaponizing language and promoting false history they have led us into authoritarianism — creating a disaffected population and then promising to recreate an imagined past where those people could feel important again. She argues that taking our country back starts by remembering the elements of the nation’s true history that marginalized Americans have always upheld. Their dedication to the principles on which this nation was founded has enabled us to renew and expand our commitment to democracy in the past. Richardson sees this history as a roadmap for the nation’s future.
Richardson’s talent is to wrangle our giant, meandering, and confusing news feed into a coherent story that singles out what we should pay attention to, what the precedents are, and what possible paths lie ahead. In her trademark calm prose, she is realistic and optimistic about the future of democracy. Her command of history allows her to pivot effortlessly from the Founders to the abolitionists to Reconstruction to Goldwater to Mitch McConnell, highlighting the political legacies of the New Deal, the lingering fears of socialism, the death of the liberal consensus and birth of “movement conservatism.”
Many books tell us what has happened over the last five years. Democracy Awakening explains how we got to this perilous point, what our history really tells us about ourselves, and what the future of democracy can be.
NOTES ON THE STATE OF AMERICA
In conversation with REBECCA SOLNIT
Wednesday, October 4, 2023, 7pm PT
First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway
Tickets are on sale now!
Please note: This event is sold out. We may be able to release additional seats as the event gets closer. We do not have a waiting list at this time. The best way to stay informed and find out about our events as we announce them is to subscribe to our mailing list. Questions? Contact events@booksmith.com.
“A vibrant, and essential history of America’s unending, enraging and utterly compelling struggle since its founding to live up to its own best ideals… It’s both a cause for hope, and a call to arms.” – Jane Mayer, author Dark Money
From historian and author of the popular daily newsletter Letters from an American, a vital narrative that explains how America, once a beacon of democracy, now teeters on the brink of autocracy — and how we can turn back.
In the midst of the impeachment crisis of 2019, Heather Cox Richardson launched a daily Facebook essay providing the historical background of the daily torrent of news. It soon turned into a newsletter and its readership ballooned to more than 2 million dedicated readers who rely on her plainspoken and informed take on the present and past in America.
In Democracy Awakening, Richardson crafts a compelling and original narrative, explaining how, over the decades, a small group of wealthy people have made war on American ideals. By weaponizing language and promoting false history they have led us into authoritarianism — creating a disaffected population and then promising to recreate an imagined past where those people could feel important again. She argues that taking our country back starts by remembering the elements of the nation’s true history that marginalized Americans have always upheld. Their dedication to the principles on which this nation was founded has enabled us to renew and expand our commitment to democracy in the past. Richardson sees this history as a roadmap for the nation’s future.
Richardson’s talent is to wrangle our giant, meandering, and confusing news feed into a coherent story that singles out what we should pay attention to, what the precedents are, and what possible paths lie ahead. In her trademark calm prose, she is realistic and optimistic about the future of democracy. Her command of history allows her to pivot effortlessly from the Founders to the abolitionists to Reconstruction to Goldwater to Mitch McConnell, highlighting the political legacies of the New Deal, the lingering fears of socialism, the death of the liberal consensus and birth of “movement conservatism.”
Many books tell us what has happened over the last five years. Democracy Awakening explains how we got to this perilous point, what our history really tells us about ourselves, and what the future of democracy can be.
Heather Cox Richardson is Professor of History at Boston College. She has written about the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and the American West in award-winning books whose subjects stretch from the European settlement of the North American continent to the history of the Republican Party through the Trump administration. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and The Guardian, among other outlets. She is the cohost of the Vox podcast, Now & Then.
Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books on feminism, western and urban history, popular power, social change and insurrection, wandering and walking, hope and catastrophe. Her books include Orwell’s Roses; Recollections of My Nonexistence; Hope in the Dark; Men Explain Things to Me; A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster; and A Field Guide to Getting Lost. A product of the California public education system from kindergarten to graduate school, she writes regularly for the Guardian, serves on the board of the climate group Oil Change International, and recently launched the climate project Not Too Late (nottoolateclimate.com). Photo by Trent Davis Bailey.
Please note:
- This is a ticketed, in-person event to be held at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway in Oakland, CA (cross street is 27th).
- Masks will be required throughout the duration of the event and capacity will be limited to allow indoor distancing. Protocols subject to change.
- Because we’re limiting capacity, we can't guarantee we'll have space for walk-ins.
- We are happy to offer *signed copies* of Democracy Awakening: order a ticket if you'd like to pick up a signed copy at the event, or order here if you just want a signed copy and no admission.
- If we feel it is not safe to gather, as the event gets closer, we will pivot to a virtual event and your registration will remain valid.
- Questions? Accessibility requests? Write events@booksmith.com.
YUNG PUEBLO presents THE WAY FORWARD
In conversation with CECILY MAK
Wednesday, October 18, 2023, 7pm PT
The Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, 3601 Lyon St., San Francisco
Tickets are on sale now!
The #1 New York Times bestselling poet returns with his most ambitious collection yet. In this third and final installment of his poetic trilogy, Yung Pueblo expands upon favorite themes while guiding readers further, toward a life lived authentically, intuitively, and in harmony with others.
In these rapidly changing times, it is more important than ever to know ourselves well and fully, even and especially in the face of turmoil. The Way Forward encourages readers to connect more deeply to their intuition, using it to remain focused and grounded amidst a world in constant flux.
In his latest collection of poetry and short prose, Yung Pueblo offers clear strategies for managing the unknown, inhabiting your personal power, and bringing your truest, healthiest self to relationships. Progressing naturally from both Inward and Clarity & Connection, The Way Forward is exactly that -- an inspired beginning.
In conversation with CECILY MAK
Wednesday, October 18, 2023, 7pm PT
The Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, 3601 Lyon St., San Francisco
Tickets are on sale now!
The #1 New York Times bestselling poet returns with his most ambitious collection yet. In this third and final installment of his poetic trilogy, Yung Pueblo expands upon favorite themes while guiding readers further, toward a life lived authentically, intuitively, and in harmony with others.
In these rapidly changing times, it is more important than ever to know ourselves well and fully, even and especially in the face of turmoil. The Way Forward encourages readers to connect more deeply to their intuition, using it to remain focused and grounded amidst a world in constant flux.
In his latest collection of poetry and short prose, Yung Pueblo offers clear strategies for managing the unknown, inhabiting your personal power, and bringing your truest, healthiest self to relationships. Progressing naturally from both Inward and Clarity & Connection, The Way Forward is exactly that -- an inspired beginning.
Diego Perez was born in Ecuador and immigrated to the United States as a child. He grew up in Boston and attended Wesleyan University. During a silent Vipassana meditation course in 2012, he saw that real healing and liberation were possible. He became more committed to his meditation practice while living in New York City. The results he witnessed firsthand moved him to describe his experiences in writing. The penname Yung Pueblo means “young people” and is meant to convey that humanity is entering an era of remarkable growth and healing, when many will expand their self-awareness and release old burdens. Diego’s online presence as Yung Pueblo, as well as his books, are meant to serve those undertaking their own journey of personal transformation. Today, Diego resides in Western Massachusetts with his wife, where they live quietly and meditate daily. Photo courtesy of the author.
First and foremost, Cecily Mak is a mom of two boys. For most of her adult life, she has been working fulltime as a lawyer and executive with leading start-ups and their founders to bridge analog and digital experiences in the fields of music, publishing, VR, mindfulness/wellbeing, and crypto. Today she serves as co-founding General Partner of Wisdom Ventures, a firm committed to advancing tech-enabled mindfulness, human connection and well-being and co-founding LP of How Women Invest, a venture firm that invests exclusively in women-founded and women-led companies. Cecily is the child of a deceased alcoholic who had a beautiful exterior and a tormented interior life. Her most heartfelt work is serving as an ally and guide for people seeking to move from a life dictated by fear and numbing to one of deeper connection, clarity, presence, and wellbeing through a movement she calls ClearLife. You can follow her on Instagram at @clearlifejourney
Please note:
- This is a ticketed, in-person event to be held at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, 3601 Lyon St. in San Francisco, CA.
- Masks will not be required for this event, though we will be limiting capacity somewhat. and capacity will be limited to allow indoor distancing. As a result, we can't guarantee we'll have space for walk-ins. The best way to ensure you’ll get a seat is to order a ticket in advance.
- We are happy to offer *signed copies* of The Way Forward: order a ticket if you'd like to pick up a signed copy at the event, or order here if you just want a signed copy and no admission.
- If we feel it is not safe to gather, as the event gets closer, we will pivot to a virtual event and your registration will remain valid.
- Questions? Accessibility requests? Write events@booksmith.com.
TEJU COLE presents TREMOR
Monday, October 23, 2023, 7pm PT
First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway
Tickets are on sale now!
Life is hopeless but it is not serious. We have to have danced while we could and, later, to have danced again in the telling.
A weekend spent antiquing is shadowed by the colonial atrocities that occurred on that land. A walk at dusk is interrupted by casual racism. A loving marriage is riven by mysterious tensions. And a remarkable cascade of voices speaks out from a pulsing metropolis.
We’re invited to experience these events and others through the eyes and ears of Tunde, a West African man working as a teacher of photography on a renowned New England campus. He is a reader, a listener, a traveler, drawn to many different kinds of stories: stories from history and epic; stories of friends, family, and strangers; stories found in books and films. Together these stories make up his days. In aggregate these days comprise a life.
Tremor is a startling work of realism and invention that engages brilliantly with literature, music, race, and history as it examines the passage of time and how we mark it. It is a reckoning with human survival amidst “history’s own brutality, which refuses symmetries and seldom consoles,” but it is also a testament to the possibility of joy. As he did in his magnificent debut Open City, Teju Cole once again offers narration with all its senses alert, a surprising and deeply essential work from a beacon of contemporary literature.
Monday, October 23, 2023, 7pm PT
First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway
Tickets are on sale now!
Life is hopeless but it is not serious. We have to have danced while we could and, later, to have danced again in the telling.
A weekend spent antiquing is shadowed by the colonial atrocities that occurred on that land. A walk at dusk is interrupted by casual racism. A loving marriage is riven by mysterious tensions. And a remarkable cascade of voices speaks out from a pulsing metropolis.
We’re invited to experience these events and others through the eyes and ears of Tunde, a West African man working as a teacher of photography on a renowned New England campus. He is a reader, a listener, a traveler, drawn to many different kinds of stories: stories from history and epic; stories of friends, family, and strangers; stories found in books and films. Together these stories make up his days. In aggregate these days comprise a life.
Tremor is a startling work of realism and invention that engages brilliantly with literature, music, race, and history as it examines the passage of time and how we mark it. It is a reckoning with human survival amidst “history’s own brutality, which refuses symmetries and seldom consoles,” but it is also a testament to the possibility of joy. As he did in his magnificent debut Open City, Teju Cole once again offers narration with all its senses alert, a surprising and deeply essential work from a beacon of contemporary literature.
Teju Cole was born in the United States in 1975 to Nigerian parents and grew up in Lagos. His books include the novel Open City, the essay collections Known and Strange Things and Black Paper, and the experimental photo book Blind Spot. He has been honored with the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Internationaler Literaturpreis, the Windham-Campbell Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other accolades. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Cole is currently a professor of the practice of creative writing at Harvard University and a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine
Please note:
- This is a ticketed, in-person event to be held at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway in Oakland, CA (cross street is 27th).
- Masks will be required throughout the duration of the event and capacity will be limited to allow indoor distancing. Protocols subject to change.
- Because we’re limiting capacity, we can't guarantee we'll have space for walk-ins.
- We are happy to offer *signed copies* of Tremor: order a ticket if you'd like to pick up a signed copy at the event, or order here if you just want a signed copy and no admission.
- If we feel it is not safe to gather, as the event gets closer, we will pivot to a virtual event and your registration will remain valid.
- Questions? Accessibility requests? Write events@booksmith.com.
ROXANE GAY presents OPINIONS: A DECADE OF ARGUMENTS,
CRITICISM, AND MINDING OTHER PEOPLE'S BUSINESS
Tuesday, October 24, 2023, 7pm PT
First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway
Tickets are on sale now!
Since the publication of the groundbreaking Bad Feminist and Hunger, Roxane Gay has continued to tackle big issues embroiling society—state-sponsored violence and mass shootings, women’s rights post-Dobbs, online disinformation, and the limits of empathy—alongside more individually personalized matters: can I tell my co-worker her perfume makes me sneeze? Is it acceptable to schedule a daily 8 am meeting? In her role as a New York Times opinion section contributor and the publication’s “Work Friend” columnist, she reaches millions of readers with her wise voice and sharp insights.
Opinions is a collection of Roxane Gay’s best nonfiction pieces from the past ten years. Covering a wide range of topics—politics, feminism, the culture wars, civil rights, and much more—with an all-new introduction in which she reflects on the past decade in America, this sharp, thought-provoking anthology will delight Roxane Gay’s devotees and draw new readers to this inimitable talent.
CRITICISM, AND MINDING OTHER PEOPLE'S BUSINESS
Tuesday, October 24, 2023, 7pm PT
First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway
Tickets are on sale now!
Since the publication of the groundbreaking Bad Feminist and Hunger, Roxane Gay has continued to tackle big issues embroiling society—state-sponsored violence and mass shootings, women’s rights post-Dobbs, online disinformation, and the limits of empathy—alongside more individually personalized matters: can I tell my co-worker her perfume makes me sneeze? Is it acceptable to schedule a daily 8 am meeting? In her role as a New York Times opinion section contributor and the publication’s “Work Friend” columnist, she reaches millions of readers with her wise voice and sharp insights.
Opinions is a collection of Roxane Gay’s best nonfiction pieces from the past ten years. Covering a wide range of topics—politics, feminism, the culture wars, civil rights, and much more—with an all-new introduction in which she reflects on the past decade in America, this sharp, thought-provoking anthology will delight Roxane Gay’s devotees and draw new readers to this inimitable talent.
Roxane Gay is the author of the essay collection Bad Feminist, which was a New York Times bestseller; the novel An Untamed State, a finalist for the Dayton Peace Prize; the memoir Hunger, which was a New York Times bestseller and received a National Book Critics Circle citation; and the short story collections Difficult Women and Ayiti. A contributing opinion writer to the New York Times, she has also written for Time, McSweeney’s, the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Rumpus, Bookforum, and Salon. Her fiction has also been selected for The Best American Short Stories 2012, The Best American Mystery Stories 2014, and other anthologies. She is the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She lives in Lafayette, Indiana, and sometimes Los Angeles.
Please note:
- This is a ticketed, in-person event to be held at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway in Oakland, CA (cross street is 27th).
- Masks will not be required for this event, but we will be limiting capacity somewhat. Because we’re limiting capacity, we can't guarantee we'll have space for walk-ins. Protocols subject to change.
- We are happy to offer *signed copies* of Opinions: order a ticket if you'd like to pick up a signed copy at the event, or order here if you just want a signed copy and no admission.
- If we feel it is not safe to gather, as the event gets closer, we will pivot to a virtual event and your registration will remain valid.
- Questions? Accessibility requests? Write events@booksmith.com.
NAOMI ALDERMAN presents THE FUTURE
Monday, November 6, 2023, 7pm PT
The Internet Archive, 300 Funston Ave., San Francisco
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When Martha Einkorn fled her father’s isolated compound in Oregon, she never expected to find herself working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything. Now, she’s surrounded by mega-rich companies designing private weather, predictive analytics, and covert weaponry, while spouting technological prophecy. Martha may have left the cult, but if the apocalyptic warnings in her father’s fox and rabbit sermon—once a parable to her—are starting to come true, how much future is actually left?
Across the world, in a mall in Singapore, Lai Zhen, a famous internet survivalist, flees from an assassin. She’s cornered, desperate and—worst of all—might die without ever knowing what's going on. Suddenly, a remarkable piece of software appears on her phone telling her exactly how to escape. Who made it? What is it really for? And if those behind it can save her from danger, what do they want from her, and what else do they know about the future?
Martha and Zhen’s worlds are about to collide. An explosive chain of events is set in motion. While a few billionaires assured of their own safety lead the world to destruction, Martha’s relentless drive and Zhen’s insatiable curiosity could lead to something beautiful or the cataclysmic end of civilization.
By turns thrilling, hilarious, tender, and always piercingly brilliant, The Future unfolds at a breakneck speed, highlighting how power corrupts the few who have it and what it means to stand up to them. The future is coming. The Future is here.
Monday, November 6, 2023, 7pm PT
The Internet Archive, 300 Funston Ave., San Francisco
Tickets are on sale now!
When Martha Einkorn fled her father’s isolated compound in Oregon, she never expected to find herself working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything. Now, she’s surrounded by mega-rich companies designing private weather, predictive analytics, and covert weaponry, while spouting technological prophecy. Martha may have left the cult, but if the apocalyptic warnings in her father’s fox and rabbit sermon—once a parable to her—are starting to come true, how much future is actually left?
Across the world, in a mall in Singapore, Lai Zhen, a famous internet survivalist, flees from an assassin. She’s cornered, desperate and—worst of all—might die without ever knowing what's going on. Suddenly, a remarkable piece of software appears on her phone telling her exactly how to escape. Who made it? What is it really for? And if those behind it can save her from danger, what do they want from her, and what else do they know about the future?
Martha and Zhen’s worlds are about to collide. An explosive chain of events is set in motion. While a few billionaires assured of their own safety lead the world to destruction, Martha’s relentless drive and Zhen’s insatiable curiosity could lead to something beautiful or the cataclysmic end of civilization.
By turns thrilling, hilarious, tender, and always piercingly brilliant, The Future unfolds at a breakneck speed, highlighting how power corrupts the few who have it and what it means to stand up to them. The future is coming. The Future is here.
Naomi Alderman is the bestselling author of The Power, which was the winner of the 2017 Baileys’ Women’s Prize for Fiction. It was longlisted for the 2017 Orwell Prize and chosen as one of the best books of the year by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, Entertainment Weekly and the San Francisco Chronicle. The Power topped Barack Obama’s list of his favorite books from 2017 and has been translated into more than thirty languages. Naomi grew up in London and attended Oxford University and UEA. Photo by Annabel Moeller.
Please note:
- This is a ticketed, in-person event to be held at the Internet Archive, 300 Funston Ave. in San Francisco, CA
- Masks will be required throughout the duration of the event and capacity will be limited to allow indoor distancing. Protocols subject to change.
- Because we’re limiting capacity, we can't guarantee we'll have space for walk-ins.
- We are happy to offer *signed copies* of The Future: order a ticket if you'd like to pick up a signed copy at the event, or order here if you just want a signed copy and no admission.
- If we feel it is not safe to gather, as the event gets closer, we will pivot to a virtual event and your registration will remain valid.
- Questions? Accessibility requests? Write events@booksmith.com.