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Sunday, October 11
 

11:00am PDT

Voice Lessons: Crafting an Artist Statement that Proves You're Human
Sunday October 11, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
447 Minna
Buy Tickets/RSVP
Pay-what-you-can for guaranteed seat; FREE to walk-ups (space depending)

Sponsored by Yerba Buena Partnership

If you’re trying to land grants, residencies, or funding, how can you write a compelling artist statement without hiding behind generic grant-speak, clinical jargon, or AI buzzwords? Author Janine Kovac will lead book critic Britta Stromeyer, publicist Cristina Deptula, and literary agent Rachel Neumann in a discussion on tapping into the genuine voice that allows an author to speak about their own work with clarity and authenticity. Learn tips and tricks for elevating your artistic narrative while keeping your unique point-of-view front and center!
Moderators
avatar for Janine Kovac

Janine Kovac

Janine Kovac writes about power dynamics and women's bodies. She is the author of three works of narrative nonfiction. Her most recent title, The Nutcracker Chronicles: A Fairytale Memoir, received the 2026 Eyelands "Writers Choice" Award, Greece's international book award. Her other distinctions include the Calderwood Fellowship for Journalism from MacDowell and the Elizabeth George Foundation Fellowship. Committed to literary stewardship, Janine has curated events for... Read More →
Speakers
avatar for Rachel Neumann

Rachel Neumann

Rachel Neumann is the CEO and founder of Wave Literary and one of the world’s leading publishing veterans. She is a fierce advocate with over two decades experience developing, editing, representing, and publishing over a hundred books, including dozens of international and New... Read More →
avatar for Cristina Deptula

Cristina Deptula

Cristina Deptula is a freelance science writer, book publicist, and publisher of Synchronized Chaos International Magazine. She's written on topics ranging from local parks' role in climate resilience, long COVID and patient care, and electrical and biomedical engineering and loves literature of all sorts... Read More →
avatar for Britta Stromeyer

Britta Stromeyer

Britta Stromeyer is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. Her writing appears in The Common, World Literature Today, Tupelo Quarterly, Beyond Words Magazine, Necessary Fiction, On the Seawall, Flash Fiction Magazine, Bending Genres Journal, Marin Independent Journal, and other publications. Britta has authored award-winning children's books and holds an MFA from Dominican University, CA, an M.A. from American University, and a Certificate in Novel Writing from Stanford University... Read More →
Sunday October 11, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
447 Minna 447 Minna St, San Francisco
  Writers Weekend, Pay What You Can

12:30pm PDT

The Unconventional Author: Side Doors and Secret Passages to Publication
Sunday October 11, 2026 12:30pm - 1:30pm PDT
447 Minna
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Pay-what-you-can for guaranteed seat; FREE to walk-ups (space depending)

Sponsored by Yerba Buena Partnership

Querying agents and waiting on slush piles isn't the only way to get published. For many writers it's not even the best one. In this panel, successful indie authors Tara Dorabji, Marianne Lonsdale, Regina Louise, and Wendy Johnson pull back the curtain on surprising, alternative paths such as contest contracts, hybrid publishers, and DIY presses to get stories published and promoted. Moderated by indie author Matthew Félix. 
Moderators
avatar for Matthew Félix

Matthew Félix

Matthew Félix is the author of four books, a certified life coach, and a speaker. Publishers Weekly called his debut novel, A Voice Beyond Reason, “(a) highly crafted gem.” Matthew ghost-writes, edits, publishes, and markets books for other authors, and his work has been recognized with a Solas Awards Grand Prize for Story of the Year and Gold for Memoir in the Northern California Publishers & Authors Awards. Matthew combines... Read More →
Speakers
avatar for Marianne Lonsdale

Marianne Lonsdale

Marianne Lonsdale’s debut novel, When The Road Curves, was published by Sibylline Press in 2026. She writes fiction, personal essays and poetry. Her work has been published in several print anthologies and various online journals including The New York Times, The Bluebird Word... Read More →
avatar for Wendy Johnson

Wendy Johnson

Wendy Johnson is a physician, community activist and writer whose career includes stints scaling up HIV treatment in Mozambique, overseeing an urban public health department in Cleveland, and directing a community clinic in Santa Fe. She currently practices family and addiction medicine in Northern... Read More →
avatar for Tara Dorabji

Tara Dorabji

Tara Dorabji is the award-winning author of the novel, Call Her Freedom, Simon and Schuster’s Books Like Us Grand Prize Winner. Tara’s documentary film series on human rights defenders in Kashmir won awards at over a dozen film festivals throughout Asia and the USA. Her publi... Read More →
avatar for Regina Louise

Regina Louise

Regina Louise, MFA, is an emotional intelligence coach who uses poetry as praxis, a mindfulness meditation teacher, and a senior Hoffman Process teacher. She is best known as the author of the memoirs Somebody’s Someone and Someone Has Led This Child to Believe—the inspiratio... Read More →
Sunday October 11, 2026 12:30pm - 1:30pm PDT
447 Minna 447 Minna St, San Francisco
  Writers Weekend, Pay What You Can

1:00pm PDT

The Savage Mind: An American Legacy with David Treuer
Sunday October 11, 2026 1:00pm - 2:30pm PDT
Grace Cathedral
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FREE, $10-$15 suggested donation

Co-presented with Grace Cathedral’s The Forum

“Unlike anything I have read…this book will make a mark.” —Percival Everett, Pulitzer Prize– and National Book Award–winning author. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the January 6 insurrection, as America seemed to be falling apart, New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist David Treuer decided to hold himself and his family together the only way he knew how: he sat down to write a letter. Ranging from Treuer’s upbringing on the Leech Lake reservation in Minnesota to the experiences of his parents, a Jewish Holocaust refugee and the first American Indigenous woman judge, The Savage Mind reveals the terrifying essence of our nation: frontier violence, which has defined our country, our culture, and our very selves. In conversation with Grace Cathedral’s The Very Rev. Malcolm Clemens Young. The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. Doors at 12:30pm.
Moderators
avatar for Malcolm Clemens Young

Malcolm Clemens Young

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau, The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and The Savage Mind, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffin... Read More →
Speakers
avatar for David Treuer

David Treuer

David Treuer is Ojibwe from Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. His work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly, and Harper's. He divides his time between his home on the Leech Lake Reservation and Los Angeles, where... Read More →
Sunday October 11, 2026 1:00pm - 2:30pm PDT
Grace Cathedral 1100 California St, San Francisco
  Nonfiction, FREE

2:00pm PDT

After The Launch: Raising Your Book to Survive and Thrive
Sunday October 11, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
447 Minna
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Pay-what-you-can for guaranteed seat; FREE to walk-ups (space depending)

Sponsored by Yerba Buena Partnership

The launch party is over, the champagne is flat—now what? Getting your book out into the world is only the beginning. In this session, editor/publisher Julia Park Tracey will moderate a conversation between jack-of-all-genres Ariel Gore, bookseller Jasmine Valandani, and memoirist Mary Alice Stephens about what comes after the launch: how to keep your book visible, cultivate both new and lifelong readers, and keep things moving without burning yourself out. 
Moderators
avatar for Julia Park Tracey

Julia Park Tracey

Julia Park Tracey is an award-winning journalist, editor, and author; she was Poet Laureate of Alameda, CA, 2014-2017. Her work has appeared in Huffington Post, Salon, Narratively, Redbook, Oakland Magazine, sfgate.com, and The Sun. Julia is an alumna of the Community of Writers... Read More →
Speakers
avatar for Ariel Gore

Ariel Gore

Ariel Gore is a Lambda and American Alternative Press award-winning editor and author of more than a dozen books. She teaches at literarykitchen.org
avatar for Jasmine Valandani

Jasmine Valandani

Jasmine Valandani has been an independent bookseller for over a decade, working as a buyer of adult and children’s books at Village Books in Bellingham, Washington, and presently managing the children’s section at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park since 2021. Her passions include picture books, pl... Read More →
avatar for Mary Alice Stephens

Mary Alice Stephens

Mary Alice Stephens is a captivating storyteller whose best-selling memoir, Uncorked: A Memoir of Letting Go and Starting Over, reveals her raw, humorous, and profoundly inspiring journey from alcohol-fueled chaos to a life of clarity, connection, and self-acceptance. This #1 Amazon new release in alcoholism recovery and midlife self-help earned the 2026 PenCraft Award for Motivational Nonfiction and the 2026 Interna... Read More →
Sunday October 11, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
447 Minna 447 Minna St, San Francisco
  Writers Weekend, Pay What You Can

2:00pm PDT

Lesbians Are Elsewhere: Writing the For All Gaze Archive
Sunday October 11, 2026 2:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Clio’s
Buy Tickets/RSVP
FREE, $10-$15 suggested donation

This summer, lesbian and queer writers of the Bay wrote in response to the Oakland-based F.A.G. Archive (For All Gaze Archive), a personal collection of queer publications and flyers from 1970–2000s created and run by Sasha Fuentes. Hear our writers perform their responses and hang around to peruse select publications from the archive pulled for this special viewing. Featuring Elena Gross, Sloane Holzer, and curator Jaelynn Walls. Doors at 1:30pm. 
Speakers
avatar for Jaelynn Walls

Jaelynn Walls

Jaelynn Walls is an Oakland-based curator, administrator and author. Their novel The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay (Levine Querido, 2023) was named a Publishers Weekly Best of the Year YA novel. They have written for Teen Vogue, Artsy, Google Arts and Culture, and was a 2022 Lambda... Read More →
avatar for Sloane Holzer

Sloane Holzer

Sloane Holzer is a writer and artist living in Oakland, California. Her written and creative work has been published in BOMB, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and them. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Visual & Critical Studies from the California College of the... Read More →
avatar for Elena Gross

Elena Gross

Elena Gross (she/they) is an independent writer and curator living in Oakland, CA. She specializes in representations of identity in fine art, photography, and popular media. Her research has been centered around conceptual and material abstractions of the body in the work of Black... Read More →
Sunday October 11, 2026 2:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Clio’s 353 Grand Ave, Oakland
  Nonfiction, FREE

3:00pm PDT

Natalie Baszile: Friends and Family
Sunday October 11, 2026 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
SFPL Main Branch, Koret Auditorium
Buy Tickets/RSVP
FREE, $10-$15 suggested donation

Co-presented with SFPL

From the author of Queen Sugar comes a piercing examination of friendship and loyalty set in a tight-knit enclave in the Bay Area as two best friends find themselves at odds over their beliefs on race, identity, and allyship, especially when it comes to their teenage children. Babs and Nora have spent a decade’s worth of morning walks sharing family secrets, local drama, and advice—everything from tips on lingerie choices to Babs’s suggestions to Nora, a white woman, on how to raise Nathan, her adopted Black son. But their worlds are turned upside down when the cops are called on their kids, leading to a traumatic police encounter for Nathan. Torn between respecting Nora’s boundaries and embodying the values so important to her own family, Babs will make a choice that will shape their lives forever. In conversation with filmmaker and Jingletown Films’ founder Cheryl Dunye. Doors at 2:30pm. 
Moderators
avatar for Cheryl Dunye

Cheryl Dunye

Cheryl Dunye is a Liberian-American filmmaker, director, and producer based in Oakland whose work explores Black queer identity, history, and cultural memory. Her narratives are peppered with deconstructive elements such as characters addressing the camera and making ironic references to the... Read More →
Speakers
avatar for Natalie Baszile

Natalie Baszile

Natalie Baszile is a writer and filmmaker. Her new novel is Friends and Family. Her previous novel, Queen Sugar, was adapted for seven television seasons by Ava DuVernay and co-produced by Oprah Winfrey. Her non-fiction work includes We Are Each Other's Harvest: Celebrating African... Read More →
Sunday October 11, 2026 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
SFPL Main Branch, Koret Auditorium 100 Larkin St, San Francisco
  Fiction, FREE

7:30pm PDT

Out on the Table: Writers on Food with Garrett Schlichte
Sunday October 11, 2026 7:30pm - 9:00pm PDT
Nosh Box
Buy Tickets/RSVP
Pay-what-you-can for guaranteed seat; FREE to walk-ups (space depending)

Sponsored by Gazetteer SF
Co-presented with Kitchen Table Reading Series

Celebrating the upcoming release of Garrett Schlichte's debut collection of essays, Dinner Party Stories, the Kitchen Table reading series and curator Micheal Foulk bring Schlichte together with chef Gaby Maeda and writer Jennifer Barone to discuss food, writing, identity, and the secrets to living life as deliciously as possible. Hosted at Stephen Wade's delectable SOMA eatery, The Nosh Box. Doors at 7:00pm. 
Moderators
avatar for Micheal Foulk

Micheal Foulk

Micheal Foulk is a non-binary queer comedian, writer, and construct thriving in Oakland, California. They are the curator and host of the film screening series Queer Film Theory 101 produced in collaboration with Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas with screenings across the country. Michea... Read More →
Speakers
avatar for Jennifer Barone

Jennifer Barone

Jennifer Barone is an Italian-American poet and artist. She is the author of four poetry collections, including Sirenland about the Bay of Naples, Italy, the siren mythology and stories of the sea, and Saporoso: Poems of Italian Food & Love, Feather Press. A two-time winner of th... Read More →
avatar for Garrett Schlichte

Garrett Schlichte

Garrett Schlichte is an award-winning columnist, writer, and chef living in San Francisco. Garrett's work has appeared online and in print in The Washington Post, The New York Times, THEM, Jezebel, Slate, and other outlets. Garrett has worked in restaurants across the Bay Area fo... Read More →
avatar for Gaby Maeda

Gaby Maeda

Gaby Maeda is a Hawai'i born-and-raised chef in the Bay Area. She moved to San Francisco in 2008 to attend culinary school at California Culinary Academy. That led to an externship, which turned into a five-year stint at Restaurant Gary Danko where she worked every station and gained the fun... Read More →
Sunday October 11, 2026 7:30pm - 9:00pm PDT
Nosh Box 1116 Folsom St, San Francisco
  Food, Pay What You Can
 

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447 Minna
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