Please note that, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, SF in SF will not be holding any events in 2021.

We hope to safely return in January, 2022! Thank you for your support, past, present, and future.

Please email Rina Weisman directly, at sfinsfevents@gmail.com, should you have any questions.

Due to the ongoing health emergency we have cancelled our March event. We will reschedule Dominica Phetteplace as soon as possible.

Sunday, January 12th

Our January event will once again feature Kim Stanley Robinson & Cecilia Holland. Each author will read a selection from their work, followed by conversation and Q&A with the audience, moderated by author Terry Bisson.

$10 at the door
$8 for students with valid high school or college ID card

Doors at 6PM
Event begins at 6:30PM

Books for sale courtesy of Borderlands Books; feel free to bring titles from home for signing. Note: 3 books at a time, then back in line, please, so everyone has a chance to get their books signed

Event podcasted, courtesy of SOMA FM, San Francisco’s premier internet radio station.

The American Bookbinders Museum
366 Clementina, off 5th St.,, between Howard & Folsom. Street parking is free; garages are at 5th & Mission, and 3rd & Folsom. NOTE: there is NO access to Clementina from 4th St due to construction.

All proceeds go to the American Bookbinders Museum

KIM STANLEY ROBINSON is an American writer of science fiction. He has published 19 novels and many short stories but is best known for his Mars books. His work has been translated into 24 languages. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes running through them and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award.

Robinson’s work has been labeled by The Atlantic as “the gold-standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing.” According to an article in The New Yorker, Robinson is “generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers.”

CECELIA HOLLAND is an American historical fiction author, also well-known for her science fiction novel, Floating Worlds. Her first novel, The Firedrake, was published in 1966, and Holland has been a full-time professional writer ever since. Her character-driven plots, scrupulously researched, are often developed from the viewpoint of a male protagonist.

With plenty of action (her battle scenes are noteworthy for their bottom-up viewpoint and understated verisimilitude), her work focuses primarily on the life of the mind—whatever that might mean in a particular culture—and especially on politics, in the broadest sense, whatever politics might be in a monarchical, feudal or tribal society. Holland lives in rural Humboldt County, CA. For ten years, Holland taught creative writing classes at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, CA. She was visiting professor of English at Connecticut College in 1979. Holland was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1981–1982.

Since 2004, SF in SF has offered readings, films, and special events in the Bay Area for readers of science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction. Hosted by Terry Bisson, past guests have included Connie Willis, Gene Wolfe, Laurie King, Nancy Kress, Lev Grossman, Samuel R. Delany, Patrick Rothfuss, Gail Carriger, Cory Doctorow, Peter S. Beagle, and many others. We hope you will join us!

You can listen to our event with Hannu Rajaniemi & Christopher Brown below. Our thanks as always to SomaFM for their help in providing this service.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

CHARLIE JANE ANDERS & ANNALEE NEWITZ
with moderator Terry Bisson

Doors open at 6:00PM – Event begins at 6:30PM
$10 at the door / $8 for students with valid high school or college ID card

Join two of the Bay Area’s most fascinating and entertaining authors, Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz, in conversation and Q&A with the audience, moderated by author Terry Bisson.

Books will be for sale at the event, courtesy of Borderlands Books.*

Event will be podcasted by SomaFM, Listener-supported, commercial-free, radio broadcasting from San Francisco to the world.

All proceeds go to the American Bookbinders Museum.

*Note: due Ms. Anders’ tour travel requirements, and the need to leave a bit early, only presigned copies of her new book will be available for sale at the event. Annalee will be present afterwards to sign her new book in person.

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, NEIGHBOURS!!

HELP US KEEP BRINGING YOU SF IN SF !!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

CHARLIE JANE ANDERS is an American writer and commentator. She has written several novels and is the publisher of other magazine, the “magazine of pop culture and politics for the new outcasts.” In 2005, she received the Lambda Literary Award for work in the transgender category, and in 2009, the Emperor Norton Award. Her 2011 novelette “Six Months, Three Days” won the 2012 Hugo and was a finalist for the Nebula and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. Her 2016 novel All the Birds in the Sky was listed No. 5 on Time magazine’s “Top 10 Novels” of 2016, won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2017 Crawford Award, and the 2017 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel; it was also a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel. With her partner Annalee Newitz, she won the 2019 Hugo “Best Fancast” Award for their podcast Our Opinions Are Correct. Her new book is The City In the Middle of the Night, published by Tor books.

ANNALEE NEWITZ is an American journalist, editor, and author of both fiction and nonfiction. They have written for the periodicals Popular Science and Wired. From 1999 to 2008 they wrote a syndicated weekly column called Techsploitation, and from 2000 to 2004 they were the culture editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian. In 2004 they became a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. With Charlie Jane Anders, they also co-founded other magazine, a periodical that ran from 2002 to 2007. From 2008 to 2015 they were Editor-in-Chief of Gawker-owned media venture io9, and subsequently its direct descendant Gizmodo, Gawker’s design and technology blog. As of 2019, they are a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. Their new book is The Future of Another Timeline, published by Tor Books.

The American Bookbinders Museum’s entrance is located at 366 Clementina Alley, off 5th Street, between Howard and Folsom. Street parking is free; garages are located at 5th & Mission, and 3rd & Folsom. The closest BART station is Powell Street – just turn down 5th Street, cross Mission and Howard, and turn left onto Clementina.

Need more info? Drop Rina a line at sfinsfevents@gmail.com.

Wednesday, October 2nd

Join Garth Nix in reading and conversation with Terry Bisson

A chance to hang out with one of the most popular young adult novelists in the field! Garth will read and then delve into Q&A with attendees, moderated by Terry Bisson. Books will be available for sale, but you’re welcome to bring your favourites from home too!

Doors and cash bar open 6:00PM
Event begins at 6:30 PM
The American Bookbinders Museum
355 Clementina, at 5th Street between Folsom & Howard
San Francisco, CA

$15 with Brown Paper Tickets reserves your seat!!
(general seating)

$20 at the door

All proceeds benefit the American Bookbinders Museum

Books will be for sale courtesy of Borderlands Books, and attendees are welcome to bring books from home for signatures.

Podcasted by SOMA FM – SFs internet radio station

For more information, please email sfinsfevents@gmail.com

ABOUT GARTH NIX

Garth Nix has been a full-time writer since 2001, but has also worked as a literary agent, marketing consultant, book editor, book publicist, book sales representative, bookseller, and as a part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve.

Garths books include the Old Kingdom fantasy series, comprising Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen, Clariel and Goldenhand; SF novels Shade’s Children and A Confusion of Princes; and a Regency romance with magic, Newt’s Emerald. His novels for children include The Ragwitch; the six books of The Seventh Tower sequence; The Keys to the Kingdom series and others. He has co-written several books with Sean Williams, including the Troubletwisters series; Spirit Animals Book Three: Blood Ties; Have Sword, Will Travel; and the forthcoming sequel Let Sleeping Dragons Lie. A contributor to many anthologies and magazines, Garths selected short fiction has been collected in Across the Wall and To Hold the Bridge.

More than five million copies of his books have been sold around the world, they have appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, Publishers Weekly and USA Today and his work has been translated into 42 languages. His most recent book is Frogkisser! now being developed as a film by Twentieth Century Fox/Blue Sky Animation.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

HANNU RAJANIEMI & CHRISTOPHER BROWN
with moderator Terry Bisson

Doors and bar open at 6:00PM – Event begins at 6:30PM
$10 at the door / $8 for students with valid high school or college ID card

Each author will read a selection from their work, followed by conversation and Q&A with the audience, moderated by author Terry Bisson. Books will be for sale at the event, courtesy of Borderlands Books. Event will be podcasted by SomaFM, Listener-supported, commercial-free, radio broadcasting from San Francisco to the world. All proceeds go to the American Bookbinders Museum.

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, NEIGHBOURS!!

HELP US KEEP BRINGING YOU SF IN SF !!

HANNU RAJANIEMI is a Finnish author of science fiction and fantasy, who writes in both English and Finnish. He holds a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Oulu, a Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in Mathematical Physics from the University of Edinburgh. Prior to starting his PhD candidature, he completed his national service as a research scientist for the Finnish Defense Forces. While pursuing his PhD in Edinburgh, Rajaniemi joined Writers’ Bloc, a writers’ group in Edinburgh that organizes semi-regular spoken word performances, and counts Charlie Stross amongst its members.

Early works included his first published short story “Shibuya no Love” in 2003 and his short story “Deus Ex Homine” in Nova Scotia, a 2005 anthology of Scottish science fiction and fantasy, which caught the attention of his current literary agent, John Jarrold. Rajaniemi gained attention in October 2008 when John Jarrold secured a three-book deal for him with Gollancz, on the basis of only twenty-four double-spaced pages. His debut novel, The Quantum Thief, was published in September 2010 by Gollancz in Britain and was published in 2011 by Tor Books in the U.S. The novel was been nominated for the 2011 Locus Award for Best First Novel. A further two books in the series, The Fractal Prince, and The Causal Angel, were published by Gollancz in the UK, and Tor in the U.S.

Rajaniemi has stated that the literary works of Jules Verne originally inspired both his career in science as well as his science fiction writing. Other influences include Maurice Leblanc, Arthur Conan Doyle and architecture blogger Geoff Manaugh. He lives in Oakland, California, and was a founding director of a commercial research organisation, ThinkTank Maths, and a co-founder of Helix nanotechnologies.

Learn more in this fantastic interview at Clarkesworld Magazine

CHRISTOPHER BROWN is a writer and lawyer living in Austin, Texas. His 2017 debut novel, Tropic of Kansas, was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for best science fiction novel of the year. His current novel, Rule of Capture, is just out from Harper Voyager. Brown’s shorter work—stories, nonfiction, and criticism—has appeared in a wide variety of magazines and anthologies. Brown was a 2013 World Fantasy Award nominee for the anthology he co-edited, Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic.

He’s also taken two companies public, restored a small prairie, worked on two Supreme Court confirmations, rehabilitated a brownfield, reported from Central American war zones, washed airplanes, co-hosted a punk rock radio show, built an eco-bunker, worked day labor, negotiated hundreds of technology deals, protected government whistleblowers, investigated fraud, raised venture capital, explored a lot of secret woodlands, raised an amazing kid, and trained a few good dogs. He used to write as “Chris Nakashima-Brown,” until that was no longer an accurate representation. Brown currently lives in Austin with his family, in the edgeland woods between the river and the factories, where he works in a 1978 Airstream trailer.

The American Bookbinders Museum’s entrance is located at 366 Clementina Alley, off 5th Street, between Howard and Folsom. Street parking is free; garages are located at 5th & Mission, and 3rd & Folsom. The closest BART station is Powell Street — just turn down 5th Street, cross Mission and Howard, and turn left onto Clementina. The entrance onto Clementina from 4th Street is now open — just make a right after the hotel.

Need more info? Drop Rina a line at sfinsfevents@gmail.com.

Join SF in SF and the American Bookbinders Museum
Sunday July 21, 2019

Vylar Kaftan & Megan O’Keefe

with moderator Terry Bisson

Doors and bar open at 6:00PM – Event begins at 6:30PM
$10 at the door / $8 for students with valid high school or college ID card

Each author will read a selection from their work, followed by conversation and Q&A with the audience, moderated by author Terry Bisson.

Books will be for sale at the event, courtesy of Borderlands Books. Event will be podcasted by SomaFM, Listener-supported, commercial-free, radio broadcasting from San Francisco to the world. All proceeds go to the American Bookbinders Museum.

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, NEIGHBOURS!!

HELP US KEEP BRINGING YOU SF IN SF !!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

VYLAR KAFTAN writes speculative fiction of all genres, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, and slipstream. She won a 2013 Nebula Award for her novella The Weight of the Sunrise, and a 2013 Sidewise Award for Short-Form Alternate History. She was also nominated for a 2010 Nebula Award for her short story, “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno”. Her stories have appeared in Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Asimov’s, and Clarkesworld. Her work has been reprinted in Horror: The Best of the Year, honorably mentioned in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and shortlisted for the WSFA Small Press Award.

A graduate of Clarion West, she’s also a member of SFWA, Codex, Broad Universe, and the Carl Brandon Society. In 2011, she founded FogCon, a literary-themed science fiction and fantasy convention in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more about Vy and her work at https://vylarkaftan.com/.

MEGAN O’KEEFE was raised amongst journalists, and as soon as she was able joined them by crafting a newsletter which chronicled the daily adventures of the local cat population. She has worked in both arts management and graphic design, and spends her free time tinkering with anything she can get her hands on. Megan lives in the Bay Area of California. She’s won the Gemmell Morningstar Award for her fantasy debut, Steal the Sky. Learn more about Meg and her work at http://meganokeefe.com/

The American Bookbinders Museum’s entrance is located at 366 Clementina Alley, off 5th Street, between Howard and Folsom. Street parking is free; garages are located at 5th & Mission, and 3rd & Folsom. The closest BART station is Powell Street — just turn down 5th Street, cross Mission and Howard, and turn left onto Clementina. The entrance onto Clementina from 4th Street is now open — just make a right after the hotel.

Need more info? Drop Rina a line at sfinsfevents@gmail.com

SAVE THE DATES!

Sunday, September 15th
Hannu Rajaniemi and Mike Chen
Sunday, November 10th
Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz

JOIN SF IN SF
WITH WONDERFEST
The Bay Area Beacon of Science!

SPIDERMAN: FAR FROM HOME
TUESDAY, JULY 2 – 6PM

Buy your ticket for the 6PM showing here

And the science comes along afterwards for FREE
with
Dr. Jack Fraser, Past-President, Northern California Spider Society

For 20-30 minutes following a special screening of the just-released Spider-Man: Far From Home, Wonderfest “Cinema Science” presents REAL spidey insights plus audience Q&A with
Dr. Jack Fraser, arachnophile extraordinaire.
We humans have formally identified some 50,000 spider species, ranging in size from sandgrain to small skateboard. Spiders breathe air, have four pairs of eyes, and spin silk that is stronger (pound for pound) than steel. Jack Fraser, PhD (entomology, UC Berkeley), is past president of the Northern California Spider Society. He has conducted spider seminars at Point Reyes and at East Bay Regional Parks. (This true spider-man cannot (yet) shoot spider silk.)

***Please note***
Tickets for this film must be purchased through the Balboa Theatre website
SF IN SF ATTENDEES! raffle afterwards in the lobby!
Look for Rina to get your raffle tix after the talk
Questions – email Rina at sfinsfevents@gmail.com

Join SF in SF and the American Bookbinders Museum

Sunday June 9, 2019

LOREN RHOADS – NANCY ETCHEMENDY – E. M. MARKOFF
Tales for the Camp Fire

In November 2018, fire broke out on Camp Creek Road and soon raced through Butte County, California. By the time the fire was finally extinguished, the town of Paradise had been scoured from the map. Nearly 100 people were dead. Damage ran to an estimated $16 billion. The disaster has been named the Camp Fire, in memory of its place of origin.

The horror writers of Northern California rallied to raise money for the survivors. Tales for the Camp Fire ranges from fairy tale to science fiction, from psychological terror to magical realism, from splatterpunk to black humor, all rounded out by a messed-up post-apocalyptic cookbook. Through these pages roam werewolves, serial killers, a handful of ghosts, plenty of zombies, Cthulhu cultists, mad scientists, and a pair of conjoined twins.

Tomes & Coffee will be donating all the profits from sales of the book to the North Valley Community Foundation, which writes grants to organizations that support victims of the Camp Fire.

All profits from the sale of this anthology will be donated to Camp Fire relief and recovery efforts.

With moderator Terry Bisson
Doors and bar open at 6:00PM – Event begins at 6:30PM
$10 at the door / $8 for students with valid high school or college ID card

Each author will read a selection from their work, followed by conversation and Q&A with the audience, moderated by author Terry Bisson. Books will be for sale at the event, courtesy of Borderlands Books.

The event will be podcasted by SomaFM, Listener-supported, commercial-free, radio broadcasting from San Francisco to the world. All proceeds go to the American Bookbinders Museum.

LOREN RHOADS – editor and publisher of the monthly magazine, Morbid Curiosity, published in San Francisco from 1997 to 2006. The magazine was devoted to first-person nonfiction essays, exploring “the unsavory, unwise, unorthodox, and unusual: all the dark elements that make life truly worth living.” In September 2009, the book, Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues, was published by Scribners, a collection of Rhoads’ favorite stories from all issues. 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die, a guidebook to cemeteries around the world, came out in a BEAUTIFUL illustrated full-color hardcover from Black Dog & Leventhal Books in October 2017. Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel, part cemetery history, part travel memoir, is a collection of Rhoads’ essays from Gothic.Net, Morbid Outlook, Eleven Eleven, and Morbid Curiosity magazine, alongside pieces written specifically for the book. She also published a grimdark space opera trilogy, In the Wake of the Templars (The Dangerous Type, Kill By Numbers, and No More Heroes), in 2015, along with various short fiction in anthologies Best New Horror #27, Strange California, The Haunted Mansion Project: Year One, Sins of the Sirens: 14 Tales of Dark Desire, and nEvermore!: Tales of Murder, Mystery, and the Macabre.

She is the editor of the anthology, Tales for the Camp Fire, to raise money for the survivors of the most devastating wildfire in California’s history. Contributors include Nancy Etchemendy, Dana Fredsti, L. S. Johnson, E. M. Markoff, Ben Monroe, Gene O’Neill, and more.

NANCY ETCHEMENDY – Etchemendy’s novels, short fiction, and poetry have appeared regularly since 1980, both in the United States and abroad. Awards won include three Bram Stoker Awards (two for children’s horror), a Golden Duck Award for excellence in children’s science fiction, and an International Horror Guild Award. Her fourth novel, The Power of Un, was published in March 2000. Cat in Glass and Other Tales of the Unnatural, her collection of short dark fantasy for young adults, was published in 2002, and appears on the ALA Best Books for Young Adults list for 2002. She holds a B.A. in Fine Arts and English Literature from University of Nevada, Reno. She is a former officer of the Horror Writers Association, and currently serves on the board of the Clarion Foundation. She attended the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop in 1982 at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. She is a contributor to Tales for the Camp Fire.

E. M. MARKOFF — Latinx author and publisher E.M. Markoff writes about damaged heroes and imperfect villains. Growing up, she spent many days exploring her hometown cemetery, where her love of all things dark began. Upon coming of age, she decided to pursue a career as a microbiologist and spent a few years channeling her inner mad scientist. Her works include The Deadbringer, To Nurture & Kill, and her recent short story “Leaving the #9.” She recently published the charity anthology Tales for the Camp Fire under her imprint, Tomes & Coffee Press, to raise money for California wildfire recovery and relief efforts. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association and is mostly made up of coffee, cat hair, and whiskey. Markoff is a contributor to Tales for the Camp Fire.

The American Bookbinders Museum’s entrance is located at 366 Clementina Alley, off 5th Street, between Howard and Folsom. Street parking is free; garages are located at 5th & Mission, and 3rd & Folsom. The closest BART station is Powell Street – just turn down 5th Street, cross Mission and Howard, and turn left onto Clementina. The entrance onto Clementina from 4th Street is now open — just make a right after the hotel.