FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2013

MEDIA CONTACT:

Michelle Jeffers
(415) 557-4282; mjeffers@sfpl.org

Pride Month Activities at San Francisco Public Library

San Francisco Public Library celebrates LGBTQ Pride Month this June with author readings, films, spoken word and exhibitions.

Among the highlights is a screening of America’s Most Unwanted, a story of hope and inspiration about queer foster youth in the Bay Area, co-sponsored by Frameline LGBT International Film Festival, and SF CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates). The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Director Shani Heckman, and former foster kids and others impacted by homelessness.  America’s Most Unwanted – June 4, 6 p.m., Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St.

Local author Michelle Tea hosts the annual RADAR SuperStars Program. This year’s talent includes theater director and former Pomo Afro Homos star Brian Freeman; “masculinity expert” (VICE) and “Self- Made Man” columnist (The Rumpus) Thomas Page McBee; and reformed girl scout, Iranian-American Dynasty Handbag writer, performer and director Jibz Cameron (Escape From the Family Home; Oh, Death; Hell in a Handbag). Radar Superstars, June 5, 6 p.m., Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St.

In association with ITVS Community Cinema, the Library presents the film Love Free or Die, which tells the story of Gene Robinson who was the first openly gay person to become a bishop in the Anglican Church. The screening will be followed by a discussion led by the Rev. Jim Mitulski of the Pacific School of Religion. Love Free or Die, June 18, 6 p.m., Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St.

Alysia Abbott, author of Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father, will discuss her beautiful, vibrant memoir about growing up motherless in 1970s and ’80s San Francisco with an openly gay father. Abbott conducted research for her book in the Main Library’s San Francisco History Center. Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father, June 20, 6:30 p.m., Main Library, Latino Hispanic Community Meeting Room, 100 Larkin St.

The Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library will screen LGBT films this month:  Ma vie en rose and Tomboy.  Ma Vie en Rose, June 8, 2 p.m., Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library.  Tomboy , June 22, 2 p.m. Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library, 1 Jose Sarria Court at 16^th Street.

The Main Library is also screening films in connection with LGBT Pride as part of its regular Thursday@Noon films. On June 20, the film De Lovely (2004, 125 minutes) will be shown. De-Lovely is an original musical portrait of American composer Cole Porter, filled with his unforgettable songs. On June 28, the film Saved (2004, 92 minutes) will be screened. This film is about a young girl at a conservative Southern Baptist high school who becomes pregnant while trying to “save” her gay boyfriend. Both films will be screened at the Main Library, Koret Auditorium, at noon.

Exhibitions of books with LGBT themes will be on view at the Main Library:

Celebrate Your True Self with Marcus Ewert’s and Rex Ray’s 10,000 Dresses! –This exhibit highlights the groundbreaking children’s book, 10,000 Dresses, by local author Marcus Ewert and local illustrator Rex Ray, the first transgender book ever written for children. A modern fairy tale about becoming the person you feel you are inside, this beautiful book from Seven Stories Press was a 2008 Lambda Literary Awards finalist, a 2009 Rainbow List Book, and a 2010 Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award Honor Book. Exhibition:  June 1 through Aug. 31, 2013, Main Library, Second Floor, Fisher Children’s Center.

From Heather’s Mommies to Tango’s Daddies: The Evolution of Family Affirming Children’s Literature – From the first obscure titles published by a feminist publishing cooperative in the 1970s through to titles published in the last year, Randall Tarpey-Schwed brings to the Library his unique collection of books that portray gay or lesbian parents. Here is the opportunity to view more than 70 books which illustrate how this unique genre evolved despite political controversy. The exhibition also shows how society’s view of the LGBT community has changed. Exhibition:  May 4 Through Aug. 1, 2013, Main Library, Third Floor, Gay & Lesbian Center.

Branch Exhibition:

Discovering Noelie: A Life Lived in Eureka Valley, 1921-1999 – An exhibition exploring the history of Eureka Valley through the display of found objects from one person’s life. Discovered on the stairs outside of the Eureka Valley apartment that she occupied before passing away in 1999, Noelie Jensen’s papers, photo albums and photographs bear witness to a woman who lived her entire life in Eureka Valley.  Her life spanned the change in the neighborhood from the working class, Irish and Swedish immigrant community of Eureka Valley of the early 20th century to the present Gay enclave of The Castro. Augmenting her personal photos are photos taken from the collection of the San Francisco Public library documenting the physical change of the neighborhood as it transformed during the last half of the twentieth century.  The transformation of Eureka Valley to The Castro is told through the photographs of a resident that witnessed the transformation of not only a neighborhood but a city.
Exhibit: June 8 through Oct. 3, 2013, Eureka Valley Branch Library.
1 José Sarria Court (16^th Street near Market) .

Finally, come out and cheer on library staff and the Green Bookmobile, which will march in the Pride Parade on June 30. More information can be found at sfpl.org.

For Immediate Release
April  26, 2013

Contact:
Susan Terence
Calif. Poets in the Schools
415-751-6770
susieluz@gmail.com

California Poets in the Schools’ Students’ Grand Slam Poetry Reading in collaboration with the San Francisco Giants’ Community Fund and Jr. Giants

California Poets in the Schools (CPITS) in collaboration with the San Francisco Giants’ Community Fund/ Jr. Giants’ Program and the San Francisco Main Library will be hosting a city-wide students’ poetry reading featuring K-12  SFUSD  students at the San Francisco Main Library Koret Auditorium on Sunday, May 26, from 1-4 p.m.   As part of a year-long project, students wrote poems about baseball history, the SF Giants, their own lives and communities, and their dreams for the future.  Students’ poems will be collected in classroom anthologies as well as in a city-wide students’ baseball poetry anthology to be distributed to schools and libraries. Musical entertainment will be provided by the Boondock Squad accompanied by singer, JT Teodoro.  A reception will follow the reading.  The Main Library is located at 100 Larkin St.  The event is free to the public.

California Poets in the Schools, the largest writer-in-the-schools program of its kind in the country, is in its 48th year of sending professional published writers into classrooms, libraries, juvenile halls, and hospital programs to help California students recognize and celebrate their own creativity and intellectual curiosity through the creative writing process.  For more information, contact info@cpits.org, (415) 221-4201 or www.cpits.org.

I wish I were
the lonely Tim Lincecum
during summer
on the blue pitcher’s mound
dropping the moon
over home plate.

–Group Poem

Ms. Gina Robertson’s 1^st and 2^nd grade class, New Traditions

It’s a homerun!
It’s a bat hitting a rocket
far into fans in orange and black.
It’s  spinning, hurling, gliding
towards the fans.  The
crowd goes wild!  It
screams!  It’s a
home run!  Hot
dogs drop, sodas spill.
Mouths open like black holes.

–Jayden Lui, 5^th grade, FS Key E.S.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media contacts:

Michelle Jeffers, San Francisco Public Library, 415-557-4282, mjeffers@sfpl.org

Kate Patterson, San Francisco Arts Commission, 415-252-4638, kate.patterson@sfgov.org

San Francisco Public Library & WritersCorps

Present an Installation of Poetry on the Main Library Stairs

& Literary Carnival for Teens

SAN FRANCISCO, April 18, 2013 ― The San Francisco Public Library and WritersCorps, the award-winning youth writing program, announce Step to Poetry, a colorful literary art installation on the Main Library stairs written by WritersCorps youth. The youth, who range in age from 12 to 19, attend an afterschool workshop run by WritersCorps at the Main Library.

The installation will be on view from May 10 through June 10, and consists of nine brief poems about popular culture. Postcards with the poems will also be available for free. A launch event will take place on Friday, May 17 at 6 pm, featuring a stair crawl from the first to fifth floors with WritersCorps youth performing their poems along the way. Space is limited and an RSVP to the event is required as the event takes place after library hours.

WritersCorps teaching artist Minna Dubin says she asked the students to write on popular culture because it was fun. She was also interested in dispelling the notions of poetry being “high brow” and inaccessible and popular culture as being “low brow.”

“Because the Library is such a special place in San Francisco, where people of all different walks of life are in the same space, it seemed appropriate for such a similar merging of art, poetry, and popular culture,” Dubin says. “Popular culture icons are also accessible to all kinds of people. By definition, popular culture permeates, so matter what class, race, language, or gender you identify with, you’ve probably heard of Google, the Kardashians, and Spongebob.”

“Just because popular culture is seen as frivolous and “low brow” doesn’t mean that teens don’t have interesting perspective and are able to write social critique in a thoughtful, fresh, and often hilarious way,” she said.

On May 21, WritersCorps will return to the Main Library for its annual year-end celebration, WordStorm. This literary carnival takes place after school from 3:30 to 6 pm and features hands-on activities, and an open mic where youth will read from newly-released publications. During the school year, WritersCorps worked at 14 sites throughout San Francisco, and published 8 books, a postcard series, and the Step to Poetry installation.

Altogether, the publications feature 453 San Francisco youth who participated in the 2012-13 program. WritersCorps serves approximately 900 youth each year. The writers, who range in age from 10 to 22, give readers a glimpse into the world of young people today. Through poetry, prose and illustration, they explore the complexities of childhood and adolescence, and express their feelings about the issues that matter most to them: family, identity, love, loss, violence and war, their local and international communities.

Calendar Listing

Poetry Stair Crawl

Friday, May 17, 6 pm

San Francisco Main Public Library

100 Larkin Street

Free, RSVP Required

Join the San Francisco Public Library and WritersCorps for an exclusive after-hours launch event for Step to Poetry, a colorful literary art installation on the library stairs written by WritersCorps youth. This event will feature a stair crawl from the first to fifth floors with WritersCorps youth performing their poems about popular culture along the way. Space for this event is limited and an RSVP is required. Contact hello@writerscorps.org or 415-252-2546.

WritersCorps WordStorm

Tuesday, May 21, 3:30-6 pm

San Francisco Main Public Library, Latino Hispanic Room (lower level)

100 Larkin Street

Free

WritersCorps presents a literary carnival for tweens and teens, with hands-on activities, prizes, and an open mic. Students who have been participating in WritersCorps throughout the year will read their work from newly published books.

About WritersCorps 

WritersCorps, a joint project of the San Francisco Arts Commission and San Francisco Public Library, places professional writers in community settings to teach creative writing to youth. Since its inception in 1994, the program has helped nearly 18,000 young people improve their literacy and increase their desire to learn. WritersCorps is a recipient of a 2010 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from First Lady Michelle Obama and the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. The program also publishes award-winning publications and produces local and national events featuring young people.

For Immediate Release:

April 11, 2013

El Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros

Celebrating Children and Books

Sunday, April 14, Mission Branch Library

Rooted in a Latin American tradition, El Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros is a child-centered event with the goals of promoting literacy and unifying families of all cultures. San Francisco’s first Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros was in 1999 and each year since then, organizers continue to volunteer their time and resources to achieve the goal of promoting literacy and unifying families of all cultures, through a community-based, child-centered event.

WHO: San Francisco Public Library, SFPL’s Green Bookmobile, Tree Frog Treks, Jamestown’s Youth In Charge Board, Jumpstart, Raising A Reader and Reading Partners

WHEN: Sunday, April 14th

WHERE: Mission Branch Library, 300 Bartlett St. San Francisco, 94110.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

11:15 a.m. – Family Dance Party with Pulsing Word

12 p.m. – Cat Doorman, music concert

1 p.m. – Jorge Argueta & Manlio Argueta, poetry

1:30 p.m. – Francisco Herrera, folk musician

2:15 p.m.- Maikaze Daiko, Taiko drumming

This event is planned in partnership with San Francisco Sunday Streets with support from First 5 San Francisco, Mayor’s Office of Early Care and Education, and the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

About SFPL

San Francisco Public Library was a proud winner of the 2009 Raul and Estela Mora Award in recognition of its outstanding decade of Día celebrations. The Library has been celebrating El Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros since 1999 and recognizes the observance of Día as a commitment to honor children and home languages and culture; promote literacy in all languages; involve parents as valued members of the literacy team and promote library collections that reflect our plurality.

About Reading Partners

Reading Partners is a national nonprofit that provides volunteer-led, one-on-one literacy tutoring to K-5 students at low-income elementary schools. Reading Partners has an 89% success rate improving students’ reading skills. At each school site, Reading Partners transforms a dedicated space into a reading center and recruits a corps of 40-100 community volunteers who work directly with students. Volunteers are trained and supported by site coordinators to use a highly structured and research-validated curriculum to work one-on-one with students who have fallen behind in reading. To learn more, visit www.readingpartners.org.

Media Contacts:

Michelle Jeffers
(415) 557-4282
mjeffers@sfpl.org

or

Joe Ventura
(415) 710-1157
joe.ventura@readingpartners.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 9, 2013

Author Eve Bunting to Deliver 2013 Effie Lee Morris Lecture

Picture Books That Can’t Be Written: Social Issues in Children’s Literature

SF Main Library, April 30, 6 p.m.

Eve Bunting, multi-award-winning author of more than 200 books for preschoolers, school-age children, and young adults, will be the San Francisco Public Library’s special guest speaker at the 17^th annual Effie Lee Morris Lecture on Tuesday, April 30 at the San Francisco Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St. Her theme will be “Picture Books That Can’t Be Written: Social Issues in Children’s Literature.” The Library invites the public to attend this free event.

Bunting’s career spans four decades and a wealth of styles, subjects, and genres. Born in Northern Ireland in 1928, she grew up in a book- and word-loving home. Her mother opened a library in their small town, and some of Bunting’s most cherished memories gather around the sound of her father’s gentle voice reading poems aloud. “He was a big tough Irishman who would not have been caught dead reading poetry outside his own family,” she says. But she stills feels her childlike sense of wonder as she absorbed “the beautiful words” he read to her.

Eve Bunting moved with her husband and their three children to the U.S. in 1959, settling first in San Francisco, then in Pasadena. Her early books focused on tales rooted in her Irish heritage, and she has since developed her unusual gift for portraying people from widely diverse backgrounds with sensitivity, nuance, and respect. The majority of her story ideas spring from current events and social trends: Her characters include a homeless boy and his father making the best of living in an airport in Fly Away Home, a Muslim girl struggling to learn English and make friends as a new American in One Green Apple, and a young child, his mother, and their cat caught up in the Los Angeles riots in Smoky Night, with Caldecott Medal-winning illustrations by David Diaz.

Each year, the San Francisco Public Library’s Main Children’s Center, in partnership with Friends of the San Francisco Public Library and the local chapter of the Women’s National Book Association, hosts a distinguished author or illustrator of children’s books as guest lecturer. The event honors the pioneering work of the late Effie Lee Morris, SFPL’s first coordinator of children’s services. Previous lecturers have included Jerry Pinkney and Gerald McDermott.

The 17^th Annual Effie Lee Morris Lecture will take place Tuesday, April 30, at 6 pm in the Koret Auditorium of the Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, followed by a book-signing with the author. The Friends of the SFPL will offer a selection of Eve Bunting’s works for sale before and after the lecture. The event will be preceded by a reception in Eve Bunting’s honor, from 5 to 5:45 p.m., in the Library’s Latino-Hispanic Community Meeting Room. For more information, call 415-557-4277.

MEDIA CONTACT:  Michelle Jeffers

(415) 557-4282; mjeffers@sfpl.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT: Michelle Jeffers
(415) 557-4282; mjeffers@sfpl.org

March 27, 2013

Reverend Cecil Williams, Janice Mirikitani, Dr. Robert Lustig,

Will Durst and More

April Author Visits at San Francisco Public Library

The San Francisco Main Library hosts several exciting author visits and performers this April.

Elect to Laugh: An Evening with Will Durst

Join us for an evening with premier political satirist Will Durst. The New York Times calls him “possibly the best political comic in the country.”  

April 3, 6:30 p.m., Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St., San Francisco.

Related exhibition:  On the Clock: A Playful Guide to the Working Life. Selections from the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor. Main Library, Skylight Gallery.

Healthy, Wealthy and Wise:  An Evening with Dr. Robert Lustig

Can sugar threaten your health? Dr. Robert Lustig, a professor at UC-San Francisco and Director of the UCSF Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH), says it can. He calls sugar one of the major causes of obesity and chronic metabolic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. Dr. Lustig will talk about his new book, Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease. 

April 9, 6 p.m., Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St.

Beyond the Possible: 50 Years of Creating Radical Change in a Community Called Glide  The Rev. Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani have been working since 1967 to make Glide Memorial United Methodist Church the spiritual soul of San Francisco. Hear them speak about their efforts, in an engaging conversation with Bevan Dufty, the director of the city’s HOPE (Housing Opportunity, Partnerships and Engagement) and a former San Francisco supervisor.

April 10, 6 p.m., Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St.

All programs at the Library are free. Supported by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT: Michelle Jeffers
(415) 557-4282; mjeffers@sfpl.org

March 22, 2013

Will Durst and Josh Kornbluth Perform at San Francisco Main Library as part of annual Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor Exhibit

On the Clock: A Playful Guide to Working Life Opens in Skylight Gallery, April 1, 2013

How we think about work has a lot to do with the way we feel about it. Most of us spend a majority of our lives working. Are our jobs nothing more than drudgery, or do we find fun and fulfillment in them? Considering how difficult it is these days to find the job of our dreams (have you lately found yourself driven to the extreme of using a divining rod or fortune teller to guide you to your job prospects?) we thought it was high time that we focus our annual humor exhibition on helping the job applicant find that unusual, playful, alternative to the mainstream job. Drawing on the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor, we’ll guide you through a deliberately foolish field of job opportunities. On the Clock: A Playful Guided to Working Life is on view in the Skylight Gallery, Sixth Floor, San Francisco Main Library, April 1 through May 31.

In concert with this annual exhibition, noted San Francisco comic Will Durst will perform Elect to Laugh, at the Main Library on April 3. Performer Josh Kornbluth will present Haiku Tunnel on May 28. All programs at the Library are free.

The collection is named for Nat Schmulowitz who practiced law with dedication and integrity, mixed with a rare sense of humor. His legal and scholarly writings are peppered with humorous anecdotes and jokes, the remarkable result of the books he acquired on his travels around the world. On April Fools’ Day, 1947, Mr. Schmulowitz gave 93 jest books to the San Francisco Public Library. He faithfully continued to add toward the establishment of what is now considered the world’s largest public collection of wit & humor.

Located in San Francisco Public Library’s Book Arts & Special Collections Center, the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor (SCOWAH) contains more than 22,000 books and 250 periodical titles, electronic media and ephemera, as well as the personal archive of Nat Schmulowitz. This extraordinary collection reflects the eclectic humor of its founder, whose motto still resonates: “Without humor we are doomed.” The annual SCOWAH exhibition, which opens every April Fools’ Day, is a tribute to Mr. Schmulowitz’s generosity and lifelong interest in the Library.

The Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center is home to the Grabhorn Collection on the History of Printing & the Development of the Book, the Harrison Collection of Calligraphy & Lettering, the Fox Collection of Early Children’s Books, and the Little Maga/Zine Collection, as well as other special collections.

RELATED EXHIBITION & DISPLAY

S.S. Adams, the Edison of Practical Jokes  

Exhibition, Government Information Center, 5^th Floor

April 1-May 31

Works for Me: Diligence and Drudgery, With Some Distractions

A book cover display, General Collections & Humanities, 3^rd Floor, April 1-May 31

RELATED PROGRAMS

April 3: Elect to Laugh: An Evening with Will Durst. In the San Francisco Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 6:30 p.m.

May 28: Josh Kornbluth Presents Haiku Tunnel. In the San Francisco Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 6 p.m.

Thursdays at Noon Film Series—On the Clock: Films About Jobs and Working Life, featuring

High Fidelity (April 4); Trading Places (April 11); Up in the Air (April 18); The Associate (April 25). In the San Francisco Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 12 noon. All films are shown with captions when possible to assist our deaf and hard of hearing.

All programs at the Library are Free. For more information, please call (415) 557-4277.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT: Michelle Jeffers
(415) 557-4282; mjeffers@sfpl.org

February 25, 2013

Free Your Mind: A Revolution In Words

Literary Festival at San Francisco Public Library brings together

Bay Area-based authors, artists and activists

On Saturday March 2^nd, San Francisco Public Library will host Free Your Mind: A Revolution In Words Literary Festival. This family-oriented event sponsored by the Library’s African-American Interest Committee, features a day full of interesting and exciting programs and activities. It will be held at San Francisco Public Library’s Main Library, 100 Larkin Street.

The day kicks off at 11 a.m. with a storytelling performance by Kirk Waller in the Fisher Children’s Center. This will be followed by a genealogy how-to workshop for amateur genealogist and those interested in their family’s history. A book fair and author showcase event will be held from 1-2:45 p.m., and will feature Bay Area-based authors. As one of the day’s highlights, the book fair focuses on bringing local authors and potential readers together. “Authors in our community need the opportunity to share their work so they can first get readership, then money. The SFPL Book Festival is a grand opportunity to reach local readers,” said Deeann D. Mathews, author of The Freedom Guide for Music Creators.

At 3 p.m., the Library will welcome New York Times bestselling author Mary ‘Honey B’ Morrison, Former Black Panther Ericka Huggins, Block Reportin’ founder JR Valrey and author Deeann D. Mathews who will discuss the revolutionary aspects of selected Black author written works and how the written word can transform modern thought. Dr. Oba T’Shaka, noted civil rights activist and educator, will offer a keynote address at 4 p.m.

For more information, visit SFPL.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 25, 2013

MEDIA CONTACT:  Michelle Jeffers

(415) 557-4282; mjeffers@sfpl.org

We Live Here: San Francisco, 1960s-1970s

Photographs by Phiz Mezey on view in the

Main Library’s Jewett Gallery, March 2-June 2, 2013

During the 1960s and 1970s, photographer Phiz Mezey photographed some of the most significant events in San Francisco’s history.  An exhibition of her photographs, We Live Here: San Francisco, 1960s-1970s, on view at the Main Library, takes viewers on a tour of San Francisco through those two turbulent decades, providing a unique lens on the community transformation that was occurring in the city at that time.

The exhibition is on view, March 2 through June 2, 2013 in the Main Library’s Jewett Gallery, 100 Larkin St., lower level.

Phiz Mezey says of her photography, “I was doing freelance work and teaching and raising two kids.  What little free time was left I was devoted to going out exploring.”

Her explorations resulted in engaging photographs of the changing landscape of the city during the redevelopment of the Western Addition. She also chronicled the tumultuous San Francisco State University Strike. Her photos captured some of the major personalities and San Francisco visitors of the time including Martin Luther King, Jr., Jimi Hendrix, James Baldwin, Emmy Lou Packard, and Imogen Cunningham, as well as highlighted everyday scenes in the City.

Historical objects from the Library’s collection will also be on display in the exhibit, which is presented by the San Francisco History Center.

Related programs:

Sunday, March 3

Meet the Artist: Phiz Mezey

Main Library, Latino/Hispanic Community Room, 1-3 p.m.

Thursday, April 11

The Fillmore: Film and Discussion

Screening of the Emmy Award-winning documentary The Fillmore, which tells the history of San Francisco’s Western Addition and the Fillmore district followed by a discussion with producer Peter Stein. Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 5:30 p.m.

For more information, visit SFPL.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 21, 2013

Author Patrick DeWitt : The Sisters Brothers

Tuesday, February 26, 2013 – 6:30pm

San Francisco Main Library, Koret Auditorium

Cover of The Sisters Brothers

Patrick deWitt, author of The Sisters Brothers, San Francisco Public Library’s On the Same Page pick for January/February 2013 will be in conversation with author Joshua Mohr. Dewitt’s bang-up novel is a quirky and stylish revisionist western. When a frontier baron known as the Commodore orders Charlie and Eli Sisters, his hired gunslingers, to track down and kill a prospector named Herman Kermit Warm, the brothers journey from Oregon to San Francisco, and eventually to Warm’s claim in the Sierra foothills, running into a witch, a bear, a dead Indian, a parlor of drunken floozies, and a gang of murderous fur trappers. Eli’s deadpan narration is at times strangely funny (as when he discovers dental hygiene, thanks to a frontier dentist dispensing free samples of “tooth powder that produced a minty foam”) but maintains the power to stir heartbreak, as with Eli’s infatuation with a consumptive hotel bookkeeper. As more of the brothers’ story is teased out, Charlie and Eli explore the human implications of many of the cliches of the old west and come off looking less and less like killers and more like traumatized young men. With nods to Charles Portis and Frank Norris, DeWitt has produced a genre-bending frontier saga that is exciting, funny, and, perhaps unexpectedly, moving.

Book signing follows the talk. Book sales by Readers Books.

There are currently more than 300 copies of this dark and funny western checked out San Francisco Public Library. Don’t miss this lively program!

http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=1010116201

MEDIA CONTACT: Michelle Jeffers

(415) 557-4282; (415) 608-1593;

mjeffers@sfpl.org