Events - Left Coast Writers

Ferry Plaza Book Event: Chris Delyani, Author of Best Man 🗓

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LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK EVENT: Chris Delyani, Author of Best Man

Monday, July 8, 2019 || 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

After Frank’s long-time crush, Marcus, gets engaged to his unfaithful boyfriend, Frank and his roommate Julio invent a fake relationship to prove Marcus’s fiancee’s infidelity.

Want to know how this turns out? Well, you should turn up at the Left Coast Writers event on Monday night at Book Passage in the Ferry Plaza, listen, meet Chris, and ask questions!

In 1993 Chris Delyani moved to San Francisco from his hometown of Boston to devote himself to writing fiction—and has been at it ever since. He is the author of The Love Thing (2009) and You Are Here (2012). In 2013 You Are Here won the Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Award in the General (more…)

Literary Salon: An Evening with Constance Hale 🗓

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Literary Salon: An Evening with Constance Hale

Monday, July 1st, 2019 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Summer always takes people on the road, but if you are in the Bay Area the first Monday of July, we hope you’ll join us at the next Left Coast Writers Literary Salon where noted Bay Area journalist and storyteller, Constance Hale (Sin and Syntax; Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch) will share some of her literary secrets and techniques. Be prepared to jot things down in your preferred method because the night will be full of tips and answers to all of your questions.

Constance Hale Talks Character

Storytellers—whether they are novelists, memoirists, or narrative journalists—know that characters are key to any great yarn. Readers love people, and writers must deliver through short sketches to longer portraits to full-length biographies. Yet developing characters is trickier than you might think. Especially minor ones, where few words must make an impression. Connie Hale, who has made the profile her preferred form, gives us readings, an interactive exercise, and a few writing prompts to help us draw people on the page—and draw out important themes.

Connie is the author of four cheeky writing guides, including Sin and Syntax, which celebrates its 20^th anniversary this month. Her essay on the art of sketching people, Writing Character, kicks off a new book of prompts that comes out on September 10, (more…)

Ferry Plaza Book Event: Literary Round-up: Our Favorite Anthologies 🗓

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LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK EVENT: Literary Round-up: Our Favorite Anthologies

Monday, June 10th, 2019 || 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

It’s another party!

This time we celebrate our favorite collections and anthologies. So come to Book Passage at the Ferry Plaza at 6pm to listen in and share a glass of wine, some sweet and savory bites and great chat about the anthologies and collections we love best.

We’ll be showcasing collections featuring the work of Left Coast Writers. Of course, we’d be pleased to hear about your picks, as well! (more…)

Book Launch: Wanderland Writers Night, A Caravansary 🗓

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LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Wanderland Writers Night, A Caravansary: Stories from the Road

Saturday, June 8th, 2019 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

A Night of Exotic Tales …

Join LCW founder Linda Watanabe McFerrin and some of the award-winning contributors to the prize winning Wandering series in a celebration of world travel.

Readers will be: Adrienne Amundsen, Antoinette Constable, Cyndi Goddard, Laurie McAndish King, Diane Lebow, MJ Pramik and Anne Sigmon.

These writers have stories to tell and great tips on where to go next. They’ve floated down the Canal du Midi in France, danced in the sunlight of southern Greece, toasted the best of times in Ireland, devoured the culture and countryside of southern Italy, wandered through landscapes lost and found in Costa Rica, investigated the myths and magic of Cornwall, uncovered the soul of Andalusia, partied in Paris, basked in the marvelous creativity and ingenuity of Cuba, and explored the Indonesian island that is known as an earthly Paradise in their award-winning series.

In each destination, they eat and drink, laugh and get lost, explore and capture the very best of their (more…)

Literary Salon: Linda Watanabe McFerrin in Conversation with Jeff Greenwald 🗓

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Literary Salon: Linda Watanabe Mcferrin in Conversation with Jeff Greenwald

Monday, June 3rd, 2019 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Cuba, the internet, the world … please join internationally renowned travel writer and founder and executive director of Ethical Traveler on Monday night as he reminisces about travels past and shares information about travel present and future in a conversation with LCW founder Linda Watanabe McFerrin. If you are interested in what’s happening globally, Jeff is sure to point the direction.

Jeff Greenwald is a writer, photographer, and performer. He is the author of six books, including The Size of the World, for which he created the first Internet travel blog. His work has appeared in Wired, Salon, Smithsonian, Afar, The New York Times Magazine, and many other publications. Jeff serves as the executive director of the nonprofit Ethical Traveler. He has also created a critically acclaimed solo show, Strange Travel Suggestions, which draws from his tales as a travel journalist. Jeff’s most recent book, Snake Lake, is set during Nepal’s 1990 Democracy (more…)

Ferry Plaza Book Event: Sneak Peeks at Left Coast Writers’ New Titles 🗓

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LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK EVENT: Left Coast Writers Give Sneak Peeks of their Upcoming Books

Monday, May 13th, 2019 || 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

Want to know what’s up next for Left Coast Writers in 2019?

Join in and listen up at this exciting Monday evening celebration in May at Book Passage in the Ferry Plaza as we share a sneak preview of some of our members’ upcoming books.

We’ll be serving up the wine, snacks and a look at what’s to come from our Left Coast Writers in 2019.

Novel, poetry, travel anthology, memoir, short story collection, eco-thriller and more—you’ll enjoy fine stories, tips and tales of publication and distribution drama, and a lively conversation about what’s up now in the book biz while you sit back and enjoy the preview and the chat.

Readers include: (more…)

Literary Salon: Tamim Ansary and Jasmin Darznik in Conversation 🗓

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Literary Salon: Jasmin Darznik and Tamim Ansary in Conversation About Memoir and Other Things

Monday, May 6h, 2019 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

The May Salon should be quite exciting, for all of our members, but especially for writers experimenting with non-fiction, specifically memoir, as two Bay Area literary greats explore what’s new and best in this genre.

Bestselling author Jasmin Darznik and local legend Tamim Ansary will be discussing their work, the literary craft and the art of writing memoir-style non-fiction.

These conversations are always stimulating, and since our members are all writers and literary professionals, the Q&A is generally fascinating and intensely informative.

In addition, for this evening alone, Jasmin is generously offering a free hardback copy of The Good Daughter to anyone who purchases a copy of Song of a Captive Bird!

Tamim Ansary wrote the literary memoir West of Kabul, East of New York, selected by San Francisco as its One City One Book pick for 2009. His latest book is the memoir, Road Trips, Becoming an American in the vapor trail of the Sixties: the story of three iconic journeys that began and ended in Portland, Oregon, between 1969 and 1976. In those years, this recent transplant from Afghanistan dropped out of an American society he’d never been a part of in the first place, and learned a thing or two in the process.

Jasmin Darznik is the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother’s Hidden Life. Her debut novel Song of a Captive Bird was a Los Angeles Times bestseller and a New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice.” Her books have been published in seventeen countries, and her essays have appeared in (more…)

Left Coast Writers® Live: Jonathan Taylor on LIlycat on Stuff 🗓

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On Sunday, April 28th from 12-2pm, join Left Coast Writers® Live on FCCFREE RADIO’s popular show, Lilycat on Stuff. Lilycat’s guests on Sunday will be Jonathan Taylor.

Jamie Goldberg suspects his homosexuality at an early age and manages to hide it from his homophobic ’70s Detroit Community; his Jewish political activist parents; and even from himself until his rape, at the hands of a male prostitute, at the age of 15. Profoundly ashamed, he hides in two worlds one is a beautiful cocoon spun from music, art, theater and literature, another is shadowed with his sado-masochistic desire to obliterate his sexuality. His elaborate fantasies are no match for real life or his true affections, which blossom in spite of his constant attempts to thwart them. When his carefully constructed imaginary world begins to crumble, Jamie must face his demons, both real and invented, finding in the end that personal discovery comes at a very high price. Jamie learns too that even the most challenged, when they dare to cast away labels, deserve a moment or two of grace.

Six-time Emmy award-winning writer Patrick Mulcahey said: “The Rites of Passage … is like encountering a gay Portnoy’s Complaint, in its distinctive blend of Jewishness, sex, moral panic and maternal (more…)

Book Launch: Self-Portrait in Bloom by Niloufar Talebi 🗓

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BOOK LAUNCH: Self-Portrait in Bloom by Niloufar Talebi

Saturday, April 13th, 2019 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com

Author and award-winning translator Niloufar Talebi offers a rare glimpse into her native Iran in Self-Portrait in Bloom, her part-memoir, part-biography, and part-history of literature in Iran, a “brutally honest memoir of a life built by words, destroyed by words, rebuilt by words,” (Firoozeh Dumas, New York Times best-selling author of Funny in Farsi and Laughing Without an Accent).

Iranian poets were increasingly instrumental in “freeing Persian poetry from the state of decline and stagnation” in the aftermath of World War II, when a new dynamism was taking shape in Persian poetry. Into this backdrop emerges the poet Ahmad Shamlou (1925-2000), an iconic cultural figure who spent much time in Talebi’s childhood home. “There are two books in this book, one portrait of me and one of Ahmad Shamlou. And they intersect,” Talebi writes of Self-Portrait in Bloom. Released in the 40th anniversary year of the Iranian revolution, it delves deep into culture, personal history, and pays homage to Tehran, the city of Talebi’s childhood. Told in fragments of prose, poetry, and photographs, this lyrical exploration reimagines the memoir form and in a dramatic climax sets free the details of a hurt that can no longer limit the blossoming of an artist.

Niloufar Talebi is a writer, award-winning translator, creator, and producer. Her work has been featured at the Kennedy Center, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and she has received commissions from Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Her projects include Belonging, Epiphany, The Persian Rite of Spring, and ICARUS/RISE. Her work has been published in World Literature Today, PBS Frontline, Rattapallax, and Poetry International. Her TEDxBerkeley talk on Match 9, 2019, is about the transformative power of translation and visibility. She is the author of Self-Portrait in Bloom (l’Aleph, 2019), and the creator/librettist of its related opera, Abraham in Flames, which world premieres in San Francisco on May 9-12, 2019. (more…)

Ferry Plaza Book Party: National Poetry Month Celebration with Rebecca Foust 🗓

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LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK EVENT: National Poetry Month Celebration with Rebecca Foust

Monday, April 8th, 2019 || 6pm Book Passage || Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

Poetry offers sanctuary and solace and a special kind of clear seeing, sometimes of beauty. And, songwriter Phil Ochs has called beauty the last form of protest in a brutal world. Celebrate National Poetry Month with a reading by poets from Left Coast Writers, a writing guild founded by poet and novelist Linda Watanabe McFerrin that has been operating out of Book Passage’s bookstore for the last 17 years. This event will be hosted by Marin County Poet Laureate Rebecca Foust.

Rebecca Foust’s most recent book is Paradise Drive (2015 Press 53 Award for Poetry), reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, The San Francisco Chronicle, and the Georgia, Harvard, and Hudson Reviews. Recent recognitions include the Cavafy Prize, the James Hearst (more…)

Ferry Plaza Book Event: Chris Delyani, Author of Best Man 🗓

Literary Salon: An Evening with Constance Hale 🗓

Ferry Plaza Book Event: Literary Round-up: Our Favorite Anthologies 🗓

Book Launch: Wanderland Writers Night, A Caravansary 🗓

Literary Salon: Linda Watanabe McFerrin in Conversation with Jeff Greenwald 🗓

Ferry Plaza Book Event: Sneak Peeks at Left Coast Writers’ New Titles 🗓

Literary Salon: Tamim Ansary and Jasmin Darznik in Conversation 🗓

Left Coast Writers® Live: Jonathan Taylor on LIlycat on Stuff 🗓

Book Launch: Self-Portrait in Bloom by Niloufar Talebi 🗓

Ferry Plaza Book Party: National Poetry Month Celebration with Rebecca Foust 🗓

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