Authors Amy Tan, Susanne Pari, Laura Albert and actor/photographer Brooke Smith (Grey’s Anatomy) Headline in the New Year  

SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco Public Library starts 2023 with a bang with bestselling author Amy Tan in conversation with Iranian-American author Susanne Pari on January 17 and acclaimed actress and author Brooke Smith (Grey’s Anatomy, Silence of the Lambs, Ray Donovan) with Lara Albert on January 23. All programs are free and open to the public and take place in-person at the Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, Koret Auditorium.  

“Make spending more time at San Francisco Public Library next year’s resolution,” says City Librarian Michael Lambert. “Everything we do is free and open to the public, and we are excited to kick off 2023 with an exceptional lineup of powerhouse women writers. See you there!” 

Come hear bestselling author Amy Tan in conversation with Iranian-American author Susanne Pari on Pari’s much-anticipated novel, In the Time of Our History, inspired by her own family’s experiences following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Set between San Francisco and New Jersey in the late 1990s, Pari’s book explores the entangled lives within an Iranian American family grappling with generational culture clashes, the roles imposed on women and a tragic accident that forces them to reconcile their guilt or forfeit their already tenuous bonds. Pari and Tan share how their fiction captures the many ways in which women raised by immigrants rebel against familial and societal norms. The event will feature a Q&A with the audience. Jan. 17, 6 p.m., Main Library, Koret Auditorium.  

A not-to-miss conversation between actor/photographer Brooke Smith and author Laura Albert, in celebration of the publication of Smith’s book of photography Sunday Matinee, which documents the New York Hardcore scene of the 1980s. Long before Smith appeared as Catherine Martin in the iconic The Silence of the Lambs, she was one of the punk kids hanging out on Manhattan's Lower East Side. She had a front row seat at the iconic and groundbreaking music venues and events that birthed the Hardcore sound, including CBGB’s notorious Sunday afternoon gigs. With her trusty Minolta, she spent years capturing the epic social movement, which was both vital and despairing, angry and ecstatic.  

Albert is an internationally recognized writer for her JT LeRoy books and spent a good deal of her adolescence in the late 1970s and 80s immersed in the punk and hardcore scenes, distributing records, creating art, interviewing musicians, writing for zines and amassing a legendary collection of fliers. Listen to Smith and Albert reminisce about this pivotal time while viewing Smith’s extraordinary photography collection. Jan. 22, 3 p.m., Main Library, Koret Auditorium and streaming on Zoom, register at on.sfpl.org/brookesmith. 

Media Contact:
Kate Patterson
T: (415) 557-4252 E: Kate.Patterson@sfpl.org