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Saturday, October 17
 

10:00am PDT

FilBookFest
Saturday October 17, 2026 10:00am - 5:30pm PDT
FREE

Part of Words Around the World

Co-presented with Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, the Filipino American Center at SFPL, PAWA, and the San Francisco Public Library

The Filipino American International Book Festival (FilBookFest) returns in October for its 8th iteration, continuing its legacy as the largest Filipino American literary festival in the United States. Held during Filipino American History Month, FilBookFest brings together an exciting array of writers, scholars, and creatives from across the globe, including the U.S., Canada, and the Philippines, to the iconic San Francisco Public Library. Keynote speakers for 2026 include Randy Ribay, author of Patron Saints of Nothing & Nest of TonguesDr. Robyn Rodriguez, author of Contemporary Asian American Activism: Building Movements for Liberation; and Professor M. Evelina Galang, author of When the Hibiscus Falls and recipient of the inaugural PAWA Lifetime Achievement Award. Other featured authors include Mia AlvarMarivi SolivenMia Manansala (US); Yvette TanJet Tagasa and Jaya Jacobo (Philippines); Candy Gourlay (UK), as well as children’s authors Tracy Badua (US) and Analene Go (Canada).
The festival will also feature a bustling marketplace with tables from PAWA Books, Arkipelago Books, Eastwind Books, and Bel Canto Books. For a full program schedule and author lineup, visit filbookfestival.org
Saturday October 17, 2026 10:00am - 5:30pm PDT
SFPL Main Branch 100 Larkin St, San Francisco

12:00pm PDT

Read the Room: Books Not Bans
Saturday October 17, 2026 12:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
FREE, $10-$15 suggested donation

Books Not Bans together with City Lights and Litquake present a party for everyone who loves reading. Join us for an afternoon filled with connection, revelry, music, games and stories. Featuring performances, readings, and all kinds of stuff from Syr Hayati Beker, Shoshana von Blanckensee, Kevin Dublin, W.S. Gong, Hyazinth, Sean Owens, and Sumiko Saulson. Hosted by Books Not Bans founder Becka Robbins. Proceeds from this event support Books Not Bans.


Moderators Speakers
avatar for Sean Owens

Sean Owens

Dubbed "SF's Best Comic Playwright" by the now-defunct SF Weekly, Sean Owens has written (and performed) over 50 short and full-length plays in the Bay Area and abroad. Their solo musical, "GIRLESQUE" has delighted audiences in the Bay Area, New York and Canada.  Sean created the... Read More →
avatar for Kevin Dublin

Kevin Dublin

Kevin Dublin is an educator, advocate, and writer of poetry, prose, scripts, and code from Smithfield, NC. Currently Director of the Elder Writing Project, a community-based outreach program of the Litquake Foundation that brings creative writing and storytelling workshops to retirement communities... Read More →
avatar for Shoshana von Blanckensee

Shoshana von Blanckensee

Shoshana von Blanckensee lives in Berkeley, California, with her partner and kids. She is an Oncology Nurse by day, and a writer by any available moment. Girls Girls Girls is her debut novel.
avatar for W.S. Gong

W.S. Gong

W.S. Gong is a writer and editor based in San Francisco. An alumnus of Bread Loaf, Tin House, Kenyon, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, his work appears in Fourteen Hills. He is at work on a novel.
avatar for Sumiko Saulson

Sumiko Saulson

Sumiko Saulson is the BayCon/Westercon 2026 Poet Laureate, a Two-Time Bram Stoker Award® for Poetry for The Rat King (2022, Dooky Zines) and Melancholia (2024, Bludgeoned Girls Press). Four-Time Elgin Speculative Poetry Award nominee for these and Doodooality: Shots fired from U... Read More →
avatar for Syr Hayati Beker

Syr Hayati Beker

Syr Hayati Beker (they/them) is a writer and experience creator in search of the queer love language of climate change. Their first book, What A Fish Looks Like, was a 2025 Otherwise Honoree. Syr is the co-founder of Queer Cat Productions immersive theater company and is part of the experimental performance group GH{}ST. Find their work at syrbeker.com and in theaters, pirate ships, galleries, and queer bars near you... Read More →
avatar for Hyazinth Baumann

Hyazinth Baumann

Hyazinth Baumann is a trans multi-discplinary artist living in Oakland, CA. They currently work for Books Not Bans as an outreach coordinator. You can find their work on their website at Hyazinths.com
Saturday October 17, 2026 12:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Kerouac Alley 275 Columbus Ave, San Francisco

12:30pm PDT

ZYZZYVA Movie Matinee: Amarcord
Saturday October 17, 2026 12:30pm - Sunday October 18, 2026 9:00pm PDT
$16

Co-presented with ZYZZYVA and the Roxie

For this festival installment of our year-round film series, Andrew Sean Greer introduces a special screening of Amarcord, the dramatic comedy directed by Federico Fellini. Fellini recreates his hometown of Rimini in this carnivalesque film, where the director satirizes his childhood. Winner of an Academy Award for best foreign-language film, Amarcord remains one of the director’s best-loved creations, beautifully weaving together Giuseppe Rotunno’s colorful cinematography, Danilo Donati’s extravagant costumes and sets, and Nino Rota’s nostalgia-tinged score. Following the screening, Greer will appear in conversation with Ingrid Rojas Contreras about his film selection and most recent book, Villa Coco, in which a young man takes an unspecified job with a charismatic elderly baronessa at her crumbling villa in the Tuscan hills. Co-hosted by ZYZZYVA editor Oscar Villalon
. Doors at 12:00pm for book sales/signing. 
Moderators
avatar for Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Ingrid Rojas Contreras was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her memoir The Man Who Could Move Clouds was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It won a California Book Award. Her debut novel Fruit of the Drunken Tree was a National Bestseller, and a recipient of a California Book Award. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Believer, and Zyzzyva, among others. She lives in California... Read More →
Speakers
avatar for Andrew Sean Greer

Andrew Sean Greer

Andrew Sean Greer is the author of eight works of fiction, including the bestsellers Less and its companion Less Is Lost. He lives in San Francisco and Venice, Italy. His latest novel is Villa Coco.
Saturday October 17, 2026 12:30pm - Sunday October 18, 2026 9:00pm PDT
Roxie Theater 3117 16th St, San Francisco

2:00pm PDT

Dorothy Lazard: Behind the Desk at the Main
Saturday October 17, 2026 2:00pm - Sunday October 18, 2026 4:00pm PDT
FREE, $10-$15 suggested donation

Co-presented with Museum of the African Diaspora

Dorothy Lazard’s celebrated 2023 memoir What You Don’t Know Will Make a Whole New World traced the beloved Oakland librarian’s coming of age through books. Now she’s back to tell more of her story, relating her experiences over two decades at the Oakland Public Library. Along the way, she makes a powerful case for the essential role of the public library as a pillar of democratic ideals, and she crafts a tribute to the library workers who have devoted their careers to supporting intellectual freedom as well as to the countless Oaklanders whom she had the privilege of serving. Lazard will be joined in conversation by Pendarvis Harshaw, community engagement reporter at KQED. Doors at 1:30pm.


Moderators
avatar for Pendarvis Harshaw

Pendarvis Harshaw

Pendarvis Harshaw is a journalist from Oakland, covering arts and culture in the Bay Area for KQED. 
Speakers
avatar for Dorothy Lazard

Dorothy Lazard

Dorothy Lazard worked as a librarian for nearly forty years. In 2000 she joined the staff at the Oakland Main Library where she provided reference services and programming for Oakland's diverse community. From 2009 until her retirement in 2021, she was the head librarian of OPL's Oakland History... Read More →
Saturday October 17, 2026 2:00pm - Sunday October 18, 2026 4:00pm PDT
Museum of the African Diaspora 685 Mission St, San Francisco
 

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