“A novel is a conversation starter, and if the author isn’t there for the after-party, both the writer and the reader are missing a lot.”
—Maggie Stiefvater, author
Charles Yu
Interior Chinatown
Jim Gavin
Middle Men
Douglas Stuart
Shuggie Bain
Casey Gerald
There Will Be No Miracles Here
Dr. Irv Yalom
Matter of Death and Life
Orville Schell
My Old Home
Yiyun Li
Tolstoy Together
Adam Hochschild
Rebel Cinderella
With a tax-deductible donation of $100 to the nonprofit Bay Area Book Festival, you’ll get a special invitation to a virtual afterparty with the author(s) of your choice! In an intimate, relaxed setting, you’ll have a chance to ask that crucial question there wasn’t enough time for in the live event Q&A; get a sense of what makes these original thinkers tick as people; or just let a writer whose work you love know, face to face, how much it’s meant to you.
Each afterparty will last for about half an hour, and will begin ten minutes AFTER the author’s BABF event ends. Just enough time to grab…
1) the special Zoom afterparty link we’ll email you;
2) a drink to raise with your new writer friends.
Each post-event soiree is capped at 10 participants. Spots will go fast…reserve yours now!
How it works:
- Choose which afterparty you want to attend from the list below ($100 donation per party, and you can attend as many as you want as long as space is available)
- After you purchase your afterparty pass(es), you’ll receive an emailed receipt for your tax-deductible donation.
- The day of the event featuring your chosen author(s), you’ll get a special Zoom link in your email to join the post-event afterparty, which take place ten minutes after the event ends. (This Zoom link is separate from the one to attend the event itself).
CHOOSE YOUR AFTERPARTY!
Sunday, May 2, 6-7pm PT (Afterparty will begin at approximately 7:10 pm)
When Everything Falls Apart, How Does the Heart Survive? Orville Schell and Yiyun Li on China, Tolstoy, and the Power of Art, with Adam Hochschild
Journalist Orville Schell spent a storied career as a foremost expert on China. Now, at 80, he’s published his first-ever work of fiction: a heart-stopping journey into one of history’s most harrowing chapters. My Old Home puts a human face on the Cultural Revolution through a story that speaks of the power of art over tyranny. Joining him is MacArthur “genius” Yiyun Li, whose “Tolstoy Together” book-club project (in partnership with prestigious publisher/literary magazine A Public Space) during the pandemic comforted thousands, proving how culture can triumph over plague. After the event, these brilliant scribes—along with the conversation’s moderator, bestselling historian Adam Hochschild (King Leopold’s Ghost), who grew up with Orville—will join us for what promises to be a fascinating afterparty.
Monday, May 3, 7-8pm PT (Afterparty will begin at approximately 8:10 pm)
Interior Chinatown, Tinseltown, and Other Worlds Imagined: Charles Yu on Showbiz and Storytelling, with Lodge 49’s Jim Gavin
Whether you’re a fan of AMC’s cult-fave series “Lodge 49” (Jim Gavin is its mastermind creator, and Charles Yu wrote one of its most iconic Season One episodes, “The Mysteries”), or a devotee of soulfully comedic fiction (The New York Times called Yu’s National Book Award-winning novel Interior Chinatown “devastating and darkly hilarious,” and Gavin’s story collection Middle Men was deemed “the second coming of Denis Johnson” by Esquire), or you just love to laugh (these two have cracked up Patton Oswalt and Trevor Noah, respectively), this afterparty is the feel-good prescription you need…the next best thing to grabbing a seat at your neighborhood watering hole with your funniest and smartest friends.
Thursday, May 6, 7-8pm PT (Afterparty will begin at approximately 8:10 PM)
Lager and Love Can’t Pay the Bills: 2020 Booker Prize Winner Douglas Stuart on his Masterpiece, Shuggie Bain
NPR called Douglas Stuart’s Booker Prize-winning debut, Shuggie Bain, “a novel that cracks open the human heart, brings you inside, tears you up, and brings you up.” Stuart has been open about the semi-autobiographical roots of his masterpiece, which paints an indelible, yet achingly beautiful, portrait of childhood in the midst of poverty and a beloved parent’s addiction. For his event with us, this Glasgow-raised literary phenom expressed a desire to partner with an American author who tackles issues of class. Enter viral TED speaker Casey Gerald, whose memoir, There Will Be No Miracles Here (called “extraordinary” by Marlon James) evokes the complexity of class mobility in a way that stands the American Dream narrative on its head. We can’t wait to hear what these two enormously gifted men—born worlds apart, but with much in common—have to say to each other…and what they’ll express to you in an intimate post-event virtual gathering.
Sunday, May 9, 1-2 pm PT (Afterparty will begin at approximately 2:10 pm)
Love, Loss, and Meaning in Life: World-Renowned Therapist Dr. Irvin Yalom with Joyce Carol Oates
If the past year has shown you that the act of caretaking can take any form and come from any source, this Mother’s Day conversation will feed your soul. Brilliant existential psychiatrist and author Dr. Irv Yalom’s new book, co-authored with his wife Marilyn and recounting the final months of their marriage before her death from cancer, is exquisitely personal. He and the incomparable Joyce Carol Oates, who’s written movingly of her own widowhood, will show us the endless incarnations love can take, and how to hold on to it. After the event, Dr. Yalom will be joining us for a small virtual gathering that’s sure to be meaningful and memorable: a confab you’ll cherish forever. A pass to this post-event virtual get-together is the perfect gift for a mom and/or a special caretaker in your life.
