Viet Thanh Nguyen burst onto the literary scene with The Sympathizer, an “intelligent, relentlessly paced and savagely funny” (Wall Street Journal) debut novel that won 2016’s Pulitzer Prize in fiction.  The world has been waiting ever since for the next chapter in the life of Nguyen’s unforgettable antihero, a half-French, half-Vietnamese double agent in the Vietnam War. The wait is over: Nguyen is back with The Committed. We catch up with our narrator in Paris, where he falls in with left-wing intelligentsia while still reeling from his torturous post-war “reeducation.” Nguyen has truly outdone himself; Booker Prize winner Marlon James calls The Committed “a sequel that goes toe to toe with the original then surpasses it. A masterwork.”

If you saw our July 2020 star-studded virtual event, Coming Together When Things Fall Apart, you caught a glimpse of Nguyen’s insight, wit, and grace in articulating the truths we need right now — whether about war, politics, or the complexities of human emotion. Nguyen will be joined by Laila Lalami, author of The Moor’s Account, for which she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; The Other Americans, which was shortlisted for the 2019 National Book Award; and most recently the nonfiction work Conditional Citizens. This live conversation is part of Bay Area Book Festival #UNBOUND in partnership with the legendary City Lights Books, a bastion of activism and cutting-edge literature.

Event Details

Each ticket includes private access to the event recording for 10 days following the live event. Signed copies are limited and all copies will be shipped by City Lights Books in San Francisco starting March 2. We can only accept book orders that ship within the United States.

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Having enriched the creative and artistic journeys of millions—Martin Scorsese and Elizabeth Gilbert among them—with her Artist’s Way program and books, Julia Cameron lives up to her New York Times-bestowed moniker, “Queen of Change.” Now, at the dawning of a new year that promises much-welcomed change, the “Godmother of Creativity” will show us how to harness that spirit of renewal with her latest guide to attunement and fulfillment, The Listening Path, filled with what bestselling author Gay Hendricks calls “life-changing gifts.” Joining Julia for this live, virtual event is her dear friend, one of the many world-renowned artists to have implemented her transformational practice: Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Judy Collins, a national treasure whose artistry is timeless (“At 80,” said The New York Times last year, “Collins sounds as clear as a spring wending through a field of wildflowers”).

You won’t want to miss these two legendary creatives in conversation, talking about all things art, life, inspiration, and most importantly in these cacophonous times, how to truly listen. With 2020 (thankfully) in the rearview mirror, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to recharge your creative battery for a brand new year.

Women Lit members may reserve a free ticket and will have the option to order a copy of The Listening Path after signing in to their account. If you would like to join Women Lit, please sign up here.

Each ticket includes private access to the event recording for 10 days following the live event.

All copies will be shipped by Green Apple Books in San Francisco. We can only accept book orders that ship within the United States.

Presented in partnership with:

Tickets include a copy of A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. Copies will begin shipping on January 12, when the book is published. Note, this event will be a one-time-only, live, interactive virtual experience, not to be re-aired.

Part hilarious prophet, part tender interpreter of the human condition, Booker Prize winner George Saunders (Lincoln in the Bardo) has been called “the only writer who predicted 2020.” His tales, which generally are “not like anything anyone has written before” (The Atlantic), mix razor-sharp absurdism with a huge heart. They’re routinely celebrated with headlines like “George Saunders has written the best book you’ll read this year” (that was the New York Times on Tenth of December in 2013) or “a luminous feat of generosity and humanism” (Colson Whitehead on Lincoln in the Bardo in 2016). Or, as Khaled Hosseini put it, “Saunders makes you feel like you’re reading fiction for the first time.”

How does he do it? In our once-in-a-lifetime live, virtual event, Saunders teams up with his dear friend and mentor, Tobias Wolff (This Boy’s Life) — one of Barack Obama’s National Medal of the Arts honorees — to celebrate Saunders’ first book in four years, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life. They’ll discuss how to channel the craft of four Russian greats (Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol) to create lives — both on and off the page — imbued with the profound humanity these masters awaken in readers: a recognition of our fragile, surreal, frequently funny, sometimes tragic, always beautiful existence. Join these two literary legends (and their favorite literary ancestors) for an unforgettable Friday night as together we kick off a new year with warmth, wit, and wisdom.

Each ticket includes private access to the event recording for 10 days following the live event.

We are unable to accept international ticket orders. Please advise that any tickets purchased from outside the US will be refunded in full. We apologize for any inconvenience.

More about the authors:

This is a public rebroadcast of a live event for Women Lit members. To join Women Lit or to learn more, click here.

Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jane Smiley (A Thousand Acres), whose books have sold over a million copies in the U.S. alone, was bound and determined to release her latest novel in 2020. Why? She knew we all could use a pleasurable escape. And Perestroika in Paris is just that: a beguiling fairytale for adults, praised by Publishers Weekly as “the perfect book for those for whom the real world, wracked with pandemic and politics, has become something to avoid.” Imagine a Parisian version of Roman Holiday, starring a runaway racehorse who finds friendship and freedom in getting splendidly off-track in the City of Light. In an enlightening conversation with Brooke Warner of She Writes Press, the incomparable Smiley welcomes us into another world: one in which the glitter of city lights pales in comparison to the bond all creatures share in their yearning to find kinship and be free.

Produced by Bay Area Book Festival in collaboration with literary festivals worldwide

Author of Real Happiness and columnist for the Peabody Award-winning On Being, Sharon Salzberg has built a devoted fanbase and major excitement for her latest book, Real Change. A renowned figure in the world of meditation, Salzberg offers us a guide for harnessing mindfulness in ways that benefit ourselves, our loved ones, and the world around us. She dispenses her invaluable wisdom, expertise, and counsel for vanquishing fear and anxiety at a time when awareness of mental health and emotional well-being is more important and necessary than ever.

Join Women Lit, Sharon Salzberg, and her fellow On Being columnist, Courtney E. Martin, for a dazzling night of transformation that is sure to deepen your understanding of your own inner power in the face of struggle.

This is a re-broadcast of a Women Lit  member-only LIVE webinar. To be able to participate in upcoming LIVE webinars, join Women Lit!

Recommended Reading

Sharon Salzberg, Real Change: Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World
Courtney E. Martin, The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream

Order your copies from one of our independent bookstore partners

“Inspiring, loving, and empowering. The perfect medicine for these difficult times.”

– Jack Kornfield, author of A Path With Heart

“No matter what troubles have befallen you or what difficulties you have caused yourself or others, with love for yourself you can change, grow, make amends, and learn. Real love is not about letting yourself off the hook. Real love does not encourage you to ignore your problems or deny your mistakes and imperfections. You see them clearly and still opt to love.”

– Sharon Salzberg from her monthly column titled “Self-Love is an Adventure, Not a Destination”

Join us for an amazing conversation that we guarantee will lift you up! Two-time Grammy winner and Oakland native Fantastic Negrito (blues and black roots music) meets multiracial, eight-time Swedish Grammy-winning rapper (and debut author) Timbuktu — and each discovers a brother. In a highly personal conversation, these two extraordinary artists, each with a huge fan base, share their experiences of racism, fatherhood, ancestors, and what it means to be an “elder.” They talk especially about gratitude, joy, and of course the power of music. The hour includes a riveting performance clip of a full song by each of them, which they discuss.

Raised in an Orthodox Muslim household (which he left at twelve, running away into the streets of Oakland), Fantastic Negrito describes himself as “the incarnation of a musician who is reborn after going through a lot of awful s**t.” His latest album, “Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?’”, came out this past August. Fans call his music “medicine for the soul” and state, “This is the art the world should be experiencing right now” (YouTube comments).

Timbuktu’s most recent creative work was literary: the award-winning memoir A Drop of Midnight (published under his real name, Jason Diakité), which was a major bestseller in Sweden and was recently translated into English. Born to interracial American parents in Sweden, Timbuktu is part Swedish, American, black, white, Cherokee, Slovak, and German. The memoir describes his journey, both physical and emotional, into understanding his own identity — from South Carolina slavery to twenty-first-century Sweden. Readers call the memoir “heartfelt, vivid, raw and superbly written” and “magnificent” (quotes from Amazon, where the book is rated 4.4/5).

Come catch a bit of music history being made as these two renowned artists connect for the first time.

 Recommended Reading

Timbuktu (aka Jason Diakité), A Drop of Midnight

Order your copies from one of our independent bookstore partners

This video includes passages that are sexually explicit and may not be appropriate for all viewers.

Why is it so hard for so many of us to feel comfortable in our own skin and claim our own power? “Because,” writes transformational healer Alexandra Roxo in her magnetic debut, F*ck Like a Goddess, “each of us has been conditioned, programmed, and literally brainwashed into thinking we are not enough.” According to Alexandra, the solution to disempowerment, insecurity and sexual dissatisfaction is to rewrite the story we’ve been told about our own worth and value. And that’s exactly what F*ck Like a Goddess shows us how to do. This electrifying, earthy, fearlessly honest guide to personal liberation has been praised by bestselling inspirational author Emma Mildon as “the ultimate read for those ready to step into their whole damn self.” Alexandra’s in-person retreats for women are legendary for their transformational magic, and F*ck Like a Goddess showcases their greatest lessons, insights, and methods. As Harper’s Bazaar raved, “Simply being around Roxo’s exhilarating, vivacious presence is a revitalizing retreat in and of itself.” Joining Alexandra is staff sexologist at Good Vibrations and award winning author, activist, and sex educator, Dr. Carol Queen. Awaken to the power to rewrite your story, in conversation with two visionaries whose warmth and charisma is truly infectious.

Recommended Reading

Alexandra Roxo, F*ck Like a Goddess

Order your copies from one of our independent bookstore partners

In 2016, a New Yorker profile by famed naturalist Robert Macfarlane introduced the world to one of the most important young thinkers of our age: Merlin Sheldrake. Moving from the labs of Cambridge to the jungles of Central America, this revolutionary plant scientist had a hunch that fungi possess superpowers far beyond the mushrooms we know, however mind-blowing their culinary or psychedelic varieties might be. He discovered that fungi are an ancient underground communication network that undergirds the natural world and offers inspiration for rethinking human society.

Merlin’s riveting first book, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, has become an instant classic of nature and philosophy — a work of rigorous science and poetic expression, drawing us into the mystery and meaning of this most magical life form.

In this conversation, which originally aired as a sold-out ticketed event and is now being made available to the public, Merlin and bestselling nature and culture writer Michael Pollan (How to Change Your Mind, The Omnivore’s Dilemma) delve into “The Wood Wide Web”: an enchanting “superorganism” whose secrets just might save the world. Their conversation had attendees on the edge of their seats, giving everyone a peek behind the curtain of a hidden world’s magic. “[Pollan and Sheldrake had] fantastic chemistry…It was a joy to witness” and “I am now obsessed with mushrooms,” were just a couple post-event reactions. We invite you to get obsessed, too. This event is for everyone who believes that wonder still exists and hope can be found in the unlikeliest places: around us, under us, even inside us.

Thank you to our program sponsors: Fantastic Fungi, Back to the Roots, MAPS, Mycological Society of San Francisco, Chacruna, Tam Integration, MUD/WTR, and 11th Hour Project.

Recommended Reading

Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
Michael Pollan, How to Change Your Mind

Order your copies from one of our independent bookstore partners

Program Sponsors

The Graton Writing Project is a series of writing workshops open to middle- and high-school Native students from Sonoma, California, that culminates in a published youth anthology. This year, students were asked to write on the theme of environmental issues. Come hear the students read excerpts from their pieces and share their insights. Presented by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.