Don’t miss authors Kathryn Ma, Leslie Kirk Campbell, Cory Doctorow and Chad L. Williams

SAN FRANCISCO, April 3, 2023 – San Francisco Public Library is the place to be this spring to hear the latest works by celebrated and award-winning authors. All programs are free and open to the public.

First up on April 16, Kathryn Ma discusses her new book, The Chinese Groove, in conversation with Julie Flynn Siler, the author of The White Devil's Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco's Chinatown. The Chinese Groove is a buoyant, good-hearted, and sharply written novel about a blithely optimistic immigrant with big dreams, dire prospects and a fractured extended family in need of his help—even if they don’t know it yet. 

On April 26, Noe Valley Branch Library hosts local author and co-founder of the writing workshop Ripe Fruit Writing Leslie Kirk Campbell. She will read from her award-winning short-story collection, The Man With Eight Pairs of Legs, which is about the ways our bodies are marked by memory, often literally and the risky decisions we make when pushed to the extreme.

On April 30, New York Times-bestselling author Cory Doctorow brings his latest novel, Red Team Blues, a fast-paced thriller about cryptocurrency shenanigans that will awaken readers to how the world really works. Even better, the book features a cameo appearance of our Main Library. Red Team Blues is a gripping tale about a forensic accountant who has been roped into a job that’s more dangerous than anything he’s ever agreed to before—and it will take every ounce of his skill to get out alive.  

Doctorow is an author, activist and journalist with a slew of books to his name, most recently science fiction novels Radicalized and Walkaway; Chokepoint Capitalism with co-author Rebecca Giblin, a nonfiction book about monopoly and creative labor markets; In Real Life, a graphic novel and the picture book Poesy the Monster Slayer. His novel Attack Surface is a standalone sequel to Little Brother, San Francisco Public Library's 2008 One City One Book selection. 

Author Chad L. Williams discusses his latest novel, The Wounded World, with author Sarah Ladipo Manyika on May 3. The book shares the dramatic story of W. E. B. Du Bois's reckoning with the betrayal of Black soldiers during World War I and offers a new understanding of one of the great twentieth-century writers. The book is an account of Du Bois’s failed efforts to complete what would have been one of his most significant works. The surprising story of this unpublished book offers new insight into Du Bois’s struggles to reckon with both the history and the troubling memory of the war, along with the broader meanings of race and democracy for Black people in the twentieth century. 

Chad L. Williams is the Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History and African and African American Studies at Brandeis University. He is the author of the award-winning book Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era and the coeditor of Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence. His writings and op-eds have appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Time and The Conversation. He lives in Needham, Massachusetts.  

Sarah Ladipo Manyika is a writer of novels, short stories and essays translated into several languages. She is author of the best-selling novel In Dependence (2009) and the multiple shortlisted novel, Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream To The Sun (2016). She has had work published in Granta, The Guardian, The Washington Post and Transfuge among others. Named one of the "100 Most Influential Africans” by New African in 2022, Sarah has served on a number of non-profit Boards including as Board Director for the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco and as Board Chair for the women’s writing residency, Hedgebrook. She is a San Francisco Library Laureate, an Audie finalist, a Mary Carswell MacDowell fellow and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Her most recent book is Between Starshine and Clay: Conversations from the African Diaspora. 

PROGRAM DETAILS

Kathryn Ma, The Chinese Groove – Sunday, April 16, 3 p.m., Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin Street, Lower Level. In-person attendance does not require registration; seats available first come, first served. sfpl.org

Leslie Kirk Campbell, The Man With Eight Pairs of Legs – Wednesday, April 26, 6:30 p.m., Noe Valley Branch Library, 451 Jersey Street. In-person attendance does not require registration; seats available first come, first served. sfpl.org

Cory Doctorow, Red Team Blues – Sunday, April 30, 2 p.m., Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, Koret Auditorium, Lower Level. In-person attendance does not require registration; seats available first come, first served. sfpl.org

Chad L. Williams, The Wounded World – Wednesday, May 3, 6 p.m., San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, Koret Auditorium, Lower Level. This is a hybrid event. Registration is required for Zoom attendance. In-person attendance does not require registration; seats available first come, first served. sfpl.org