On Sept. 6, his new memoir Solito debuts, recounting his nine-week journey across Guatemala and Mexico towards Arizona. At nine years old, he underwent this exhausting voyage alone, supported by other migrants as he trudged forward, yearning for his mother and father.
Zamora will read from Solito at Book Passage’s Corte Madera location on Sept. 11. Attendants will be among the first to hear Zamora read from this new collection aloud—a collection that, when vocalized, bears the powerful weight of the ways separation and war have shaped the writer.
City Lights Books, San Francisco
Oct. 6, 6pm
There’s already excitement surrounding fiction writer Jonathan Escoffery’s debut collection of linked stories, If I Survive You, publishing Sept. 6. Oprah Daily says that the book “may well be the buzziest debut of 2022.” It’s not hard to see why—the title alone is alluring and gritty, beckoning a second glance, a moment of pause.
Currently a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, Escoffery has a penchant for worldbuilding, with stories that contain characters as rich and exuberant as the real world has to offer. They read like people you could really befriend, with personal histories full of idiosyncrasies and quirks that illustrate lives that are full and expanding.
If I Survive You is a collection of connected stories centered on a Jamaican family trying to survive in Miami as they face racism, financial hardship, natural disasters, bad luck and other tumult.
City View at Metreon, San Francisco
Sept. 4, 11am-5pm
After party: Silver Sprocket, San Francisco
Sept. 4, 7-9:30pm
After two years of remote programming, the beloved SF Zine Fest returns in person at a new venue, City View at Metreon. With over 200 exhibiting artists and collectives, the event welcomes zine, comic and art lovers to spend a day perusing work from local favorites like Mixed Rice Zines and Irrelevant Press as well as artists outside the Bay Area. Since its founding in 2001, SF Zine Fest has become the largest and longest running fair in Northern California for DIY artists and publishers.
And there’s nothing quite like preparing for a zine fair: emptying your largest tote bag and bursting with anticipation, wondering what books will fill it at the end of the day. Bracing yourself, you enter the festival and spot your favorite artist tabling at a busy corner, greeting other fans as you consider the least awkward way to approach and say hello. By the end of the day, you’ll be buzzing with leftover adrenaline, holding your bag delicately to prevent scuffing the treasures you collected over the course of the afternoon. Until next year, you think, eager to do it all again.
Mrs. Dalloway’s, Berkeley
Sept. 19, 7pm
When I first read Sandra Cisneros’ 1983 novel The House on Mango Street, I was around the same age as the book’s protagonist, Esperanza Cordero. Even then, as a preteen still naïve to much of the world around me, I was moved by the tenderness and vulnerability of Cisneros’ voice as she moved through vignettes that depicted the complicated intricacies of girlhood.
On Sept. 13, Cisneros returns with Woman Without Shame, her first book of poetry in 28 years. This new work is a culmination of the writer’s voice over the years: sincere and honest, heartfelt and meditative. Her poems reflect on her journey as an artist and her search for home as she contemplates memory, desire and love.
On Sept. 19, Cisneros will read her work at Mrs. Dalloway’s in Berkeley followed by a conversation with author Reyna Grande.
Silver Sprocket, San Francisco
Sept. 24, 11am-6pm
Tucked away in the Mission District, Silver Sprocket is San Francisco’s hole-in-the-wall comics oasis. It’s a quiet spot during the day—a tranquil haven where indie rock tunes play as you amble towards the back, stopping to touch whatever book covers interest you along the way. In late September, this sense of wonder continues with Silver Sprocket’s Permanent Damage Comics Fest, where the store will become a bustling hub for alternative comic artists to gather, showcase and sell their original work.
Permanent Damage will feature over 20 cartoonists from around the country, including local Oakland “psychedelic nightmare” artist Skinner, Wuvable Oaf creator Ed Luce and San Francisco cartoonist Harry Nordlinger.
First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley
Oct. 19, 7pm
Masterful at crafting mysteries rich with psychological and social tension, writer Celeste Ng is back with new novel Our Missing Hearts this October. Ng’s last book Little Fires Everywhere was lauded globally before making its way onto the silver screen with a star-studded cast. While success may bring intense pressure, Ng sticks to her passion for crafting stories about family, loss and changes from generation to generation.
Our Missing Hearts focuses on the perspective of Bird Gardner, a young boy with a newfound desire to search for his mother, a Chinese American poet who left the family years before. In a world where “American” identity is protected zealously and work from writers like Bird’s mother are removed from libraries, Our Missing Hearts digs into how people are left to grapple with legacies when they are broken through injustice.
On Oct. 19, Ng will discuss her new novel with R.O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries and editor of the short story collection Kink.
Various locations, San Francisco
Oct. 6-22
For two weeks, thousands of people will gather for San Francisco’s biggest literary event of the year: Litquake. For literature lovers, the festival presents a varied lineup of readings, panels and performances from over 500 writers. At the end of its run, the festival will build up to Lit Crawl, a one-night journey through numerous bars, cafes, bookstores, barbershops and other staples of the Mission District, where surprise literary events await.
