Each week, we offer a roundup of the best literary events in the city. All events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. Want to submit an upcoming event for consideration? Go here.
Bonnie Jo Campbell (Once Upon a River)
Wednesday, June 27, 7 pm, at Book Passage Corte Madera (51 Tamal Vista Blvd.)
Campbell (left) garnered National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award nominations for her story collection American Salvage, which dealt with the lives of rural women. Her latest book, set in the '70s, is also about a strong rural heroine, 16-year-old Margo Crane, who plays a part in murdering her father before traveling alone down a Michigan river in search of her vanished mother. Though she's a crack shot with a rifle, Margo has little idea what's in store for her on her travels, from sexual encounters to an unlikely friendship. (Campbell also promises to provide beer and affix temporary tattoos to anyone who buys the book.)
Barry Michels and Phil Stutz (The Tools: Transform Your Problems into Courage, Confidence, and Creativity)
Thursday, June 28, 7 pm, at Book Passage Corte Madera (51 Tamal Vista Blvd.)
Michels and Stutz gained fame last year after a New Yorker profile that revealed their status as therapists to the stars. Their unusual methods of spurring creativity and cracking writer's block are an open secret among Hollywood screenwriters, many of whom have written characters based on the pair into their work as an homage. Their new book explains their process, which encourages creative types to use their problems as "tools" to access the power of the unconscious. Their Book Passage appearance is a workshop that's free with advance purchase of the book.
Bloom Magazine Spring Issue Launch
Friday, June 29, 7:30 pm, at Books Inc. Castro (2275 Market St.)
Bloom is an LGBT journal of fiction, art, and poetry, published by Charles Flowers, the former executive director of the Lambda Literary Foundation. This reading will feature contributors to the magazine's spring issue, including Daphne Gottlieb, Brent Calderwood, Cheryl Dumesnil, and Yinka Rose Nolan-Reed.
Dorothy Wickenden (Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West)
Thursday, June 28, 7 pm, at Books Inc. Opera Plaza (601 Van Ness Ave.)
Wickenden's grandmother, Dorothy Woodruff, attended Smith College alongside her best friend since grade school, Rosamond Underwood. But after a grand tour of Europe and a debut in society, the two women grew bored with their privileged lives, and struck out to teach the children of homesteaders in rural Colorado. Through the letters the women sent home, Wickenden has been able to elegantly reconstruct the thrilling tale of the time they spent out West, including their difficulties in the classroom, their romantic dalliances, and the violent kidnapping of a close friend.
