City Lights Booksellers & Publishers

Today! City Lights and PEN America bring together human rights advocates and legal experts to discuss the alarming rise in book bans across the country. Click here to join us: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89496809735

Come to the bookstore to celebrate the publication of THE LANGUAGE OF CLIMATE POLITICS: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It by Genevieve Guenther, published by Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press). If you can't attend in person, register here to watch the livestream: https://citylights.com/events/genevieve-guenther-the-language-of-climate-politics/

Let's . . . READ! (then, dance . . .)

STAY THIS DAY AND NIGHT WITH ME by Belén Gopegui, translated from the Spanish by Mark Schafer, is a finalist for the 2024 Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award!

From the judges' citation:

"In a striking combination of a non-traditional love story and a study of AI, Belén Gopegui offers this tale as a book-length application for work at Google. Young Mateo and not-so-young Olga write, in third person, their story in an effort to secure a job for Mateo. Gopegui stresses certain words, such as ‘anodyne’ and ‘contemplate' in a study of philosophy questioning various modes of thinking in an exploration of universal queries.

Translator Mark Schafer masterfully captures the various voices, artificial and real, in this fascinating narrative."
🤸🤸‍♂️🤸‍♀️

The winner will be announced at the the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) annual conference in October!

"People who get attention for being generous often give to others from their surplus. They give their spare time or their extra cash. Josh gave from his core. He was living (and laughing, and grumbling) proof that you don’t have to have 'extra' before you give in an extraordinary way."—Audrey Heller from her essay "Remembering Josh Coffy: Lifting Others," published in the ArtSpan 2024 Guide

The cover of our new book, "CITY BIRD and Other Poems" by Patrick James Dunagan, features a detail from Joshua Coffy's "Bird Song #3," which you can view at 1540 Market Street in San Francisco.

Be sure to check out Artspan's entire schedule and help them celebrate their 50th anniversary!
You can see more of Joshua Coffy's art in the SF Main Library exhibition, "From Disco Days to the Tech Craze: 50 Years of ArtSpan"
More at ArtSpan

And, find the rest of Audrey Heller's remembrance: https://sfosguide.com/articles/26

Read about CITY BIRD and Other Poems: https://citylights.com/general-poetry/city-bird-other-poems-spotlight/

Excellent conversation about book banning with author Dave Eggers. Listen in!

Why Is This Happening? Discussing book bans with Dave Eggers Chris Hayes speaks with author Dave Eggers about the growing movement to ban literary works.

Save the Date!
Monday, October 14th, Noon to 8pm
Bird & Beckett Books
653 Chenery Street in San Francisco

Join Ammiel Alcalay, Michel Moushabeck, Hannah Moushabeck, Jordan Elgrably & Malu Halasa on Thursday, September 26, 1pm ET!

Sign up for the webinar here: https://bit.ly/3ZwWdzB

"I do not have mixed feelings about gatekeepers: they are everywhere, and have affected every aspect of my writing, cultural, and public life. While I am speaking of my own experience here, I am also drawing on the experiences of many others. I could go on at length, with example after example: as a poet, critic, translator, scholar, professor, journalist, political commentator, editor — there isn’t an experience or role I can think of in which some kind of gatekeeping hasn’t been involved. And the reasons for exclusion, marginalization, even slander, range widely."—Ammiel Alcalay, City Lights author and translator, from his essay "My Life Among the Gatekeepers" at The Markaz Review

Note about image:
Tayseer Barakat, "Recalling the Collage of a Place No.3," collage, ink, watercolor, dyes, pencil on paper, 47×68.5cm, 1993 (courtesy of Artsy).

Happy publication day to Patrick James Dunagan’s CITY BIRD and Other Poems, #24 in our City Lights Spotlight Series!

“grasps at the house of mirrors that are the thoughts and images which alternately batter and balm us daily.”— Lee Renaldo, artist and founding member of Sonic Youth

More at: https://citylights.com/general-poetry/city-bird-other-poems-spotlight/

Tonight! Join Stephanie Guilloud, Anuradha Mittal, Merle Payne, and David Solnit in a conversation reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the WTO protests.

Register here: https://citylights.com/events/the-wto-shutdown-25-years-on/

"A well-crafted summoning of people living ordinary lives on la frontera, in all their sorrow and splendor."--Kirkus Reviews on Dagoberto Gilb's NEW TESTAMENTS (forthcoming Oct 1 2024) https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/dagoberto-gilb/new-testaments/

EveryLibrary, EveryLibrary Institute, and IBPA Join Forces to Combat Book Bans and Send Books to Communities Facing Censorship We're joining Forces to Combat Book Bans and Send Books to Communities Facing Censorship

This Week’s Events at City Lights Live:
Tuesday, September 17, 6pm PT (Virtual)
Join Stephanie Guilloud, Anuradha Mittal, Merle Payne, and David Solnit in a conversation reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the WTO protests. Register here: https://citylights.com/events/the-wto-shutdown-25-years-on/
Thursday, September 19, 7pm PT (In-person & Virtual)
Come to the store to celebrate the publication of THE LANGUAGE OF CLIMATE POLITICS: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It by Genevieve Guenther, published by Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press). Learn more: https://citylights.com/events/genevieve-guenther-the-language-of-climate-politics/
Friday, September 20, 6pm PT (Virtual)
Join Tim Z. Hernandez in conversation with Octavio Solis as they discuss THEY CALL YOU BACK: A Lost History, A Search, A Memoir, published by the University of Arizona Press. Register here: https://citylights.com/events/tim-z-hernandez-2/

Rest in Peace, Elias Khoury

July 12, 1948 – September 15, 2024

"I awoke this morning to the devastating news of the loss of my very dear friend Elias Khoury. To his wife Najla, his children, and extended family, my profound condolences. I had a premonition as I’d been trying to call all last week to see how he was, but no response. I’m not even sure when we first met as my own chronologies seem to have become as jumbled and intricate as some of Elias’s stories since, if we allow ourselves to, it turns out we do actually live in a constantly present Nakba, a catastrophe now manifesting itself in the genocide taking place in Gaza and, increasingly, the rest of the occupied territories. I will forever treasure Elias's utter irreverence for all forms of officialdom, his humor, his profound humanity, and the wounds he suffered on behalf of others and things greater than himself. As our dear mutual friend Anton Shammas wrote me since hearing the news: “I’ve been trying to collect the shards of my heart."—Ammiel Alcalay, City Lights author and translator, at the The Markaz Review
https://themarkaz.org/remembering-elias-khoury-1948-2024/

Grief is cheap;
death a worn-out horse;
the hospitals heaving with the calls of the drowned . . .
https://arablit.org/2024/09/11/new-poetry-by-nasser-rabah-amjad/

From a new poem by Nasser Rabah
Translated by Wiam El-Tamami
Published by ARABLIT

City Lights will publish Nasser Rabah's "Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece, Pocket Poets Number 64" in April 2025

New Poetry by Nasser Rabah: ‘Amjad’ Poet and short-story writer Nasser Rabah is on the list of finalists for this year’s Arabic Flash Fiction Prize from ArabLit and Komet Kashakeel. He and translator Wiam El-Tamami share this p…

Join us today for a virtual discussion and reading of LOVING CORRECTIONS (AK Press) by adrienne maree brown. The author will be in conversation with Matt McGorry at 6:00pm PT. Click here to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81417586875

Don’t miss tomorrow’s virtual event with adrienne maree brown and Matt McGorry as they discuss LOVING CORRECTIONS, by adrienne maree brown, published by AK Press. Click here to attend the event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81417586875

If you are like us, you're probably missing Lawrence Ferlinghetti. If that's true and you're in San Francisco, after visiting City Lights be sure to check out "Ferlinghetti | An exhibit in 6 vignettes," opening this Friday, September 13th at the San Francisco Historical Society Museum, located in downtown SF at 608 Commercial Street, between Montgomery and Kearny Streets.

The show runs until the end of March 2025 and museum hours are Thursday- Saturday, 10am - 4pm !

Register for the opening this Thursday! https://www.sfhistory.org/event/ferlinghettiexhibitparty/

Today, at 11 am PT, join Elif Shafak and Ipek Burnett for a virtual conversation about THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY (Alfred A. Knopf). Click here to join the event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89127132405

Tomorrow, Elif Shafak will join Ipek Burnett for a virtual conversation to read from and discuss her new book, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, published by Alfred A. Knopf. Register on our website to participate: https://citylights.com/events/elif-shafak/

Join us today for First Fridays with Neblinas del Pacífico at 5pm in Kerouac Alley in between Vesuvio and City Lights!

Come hear them weave a sonic tapestry of marimba de chonta music from the Afro-Colombian Pacific coast.

"The book that kept me up way too late: THREE TO KILL by Jean-Patrick Manchette: vicious and hilarious, Manchette was a new discovery for me about three years ago."—Rachel Kushner, author of CREATION LAKE

Manchette's first novel translated in English was published by yours truly at City Lights! Read more about the book here: https://bit.ly/3TgSnXo

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Find more of Kushner's book recs in Elle Mag, here: https://bit.ly/4gchmFg

"This book, and all of my writing, is really trying to understand memorialization as not necessarily consoling us or offering a way to connect but as a way of distancing ourselves from an event."-- Brandon Shimoda discusses his forthcoming book with Matt Seidel Publishers Weekly https://bit.ly/3z7njT4

More about Shimoda's THE AFTERLIFE IS LETTING GO, forthcoming from City Lights in December, here: https://citylights.com/city-lights-published/afterlife-is-letting-go/