California Writer’s Week

Eight years ago, a Joint Legislative Resolution  was passed in Sacramento to recognize California Writer’s Week which begins today. The authors of note include a fine list that we can all be proud of.

Gertrude Atherton (1857-1948)	Mary Austin (1868-1934)
Raymond Barrio (1921-1996)	Delilah L. Beasley (1872-1934)
Raymond Chandler (1888-1959)	Ina Coolbrith (1841-1928)
Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961)	Bret Harte (1836-1902)
Jack London (1876-1916)	Joaquin Miller (1837-1913)
William Saroyan (1908-1981)	John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
George Sterling (1869-1926)	Mark Twain (1835-1910)

But I can’t help feeling that this reinforces the old adage that the only way for an author to be successful is to be a dead author. So I want to spotlight several authors who are alive today and crafting their magic in the Golden State.

My list includes (with no significance to order) Christopher Moore, Kemble Scott, Adam Mansbach, Deborah Majors,  Matt Stewart, Seth Harwood, Tanya Egan Gibson, John Putnam and… I’m sure there are many more.

I realize as I am writing that most of them actually share something in common – they write about San Francisco, or at least Northern California. I guess this is important to me. My next three books will be based here because San Francisco is a magical city that I have fallen in love with, so I guess this makes sense, even though I haven’t connected the two in creating this list.

It's in Black & White.

Therefore, I want to share a few of my favorite local authors with you over the next week, all of whom are alive and can be met at numerous author events that they participate in. Meeting inspiring authors remains a thrill for many of us and perhaps this is a flaw of the newly consecrated California Writer’s Week, that it highlights authors from the past.

So it is slightly ironic that California Writers Week follows Litquake, a San Francisco smorgasbord of literature-related events, apparently based on the premise from USA Today, that San Francisco has the highest per capita consumption of both alcohol and books.

Whatever the reason, it is a great event. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to curl up with a good book and a bottle of wine. How I love San Francisco! Who is your favorite Bay Area author?

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Alon Shalev is the author of The Accidental Activist (now available on Kindle) and A Gardener’s Tale. He is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Hillel Foundation, a non-profit that provides spiritual and social justice opportunities to Jewish students in the Bay Area. More on Alon Shalev at http://www.alonshalev.com/and on Twitter (#alonshalevsf).

 

Local Author – Adam Mansbach

Adam Mansbach’s work is not jut a pleasure to read, he is a great author to listen to. Adam is the author of two novels:

Angry Black White Boy is an amazing race ride – in a New York cab. It tells of a white boy who moves to New York and works as a cab driver to support himself through college. He is consumed by the hip hop culture and yet, as white boy, he is straddling two worlds.both of which treats him as an outsider. Consumed by guilt of white privilege, he begins robbing white customers. The authorities and media think the criminal is a black man and…well I’ll leave you hanging there.

The End of the Jews is not your average inter-generational insight into one culture, whether Jewish, Italian etc. What stands out here are the totally believable characters. This is a novel where the characters stay with you long after you’ve finished it. I read this book about a year ago, and there is one scene that has stayed crystal clear in my mind. Imagine a young American connecting with his Eastern European grandfather over spraying graffiti. I’ll leave you there.

If ever you have the opportunity to hear Adam speak, it is worth it. Hip hop oozes from him, so when he addressed the Berkeley Writer’s Group a year ago, as he got excited, he spoke almost in an unconscious rap beat. I wish I had recorded him, not only for this, but for the valuable and honest knowledge he shared with the group. Here is a taste of what I mean.

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Alon Shalev is the author of The Accidental Activist (now available on Kindle) and A Gardener’s Tale. He is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Hillel Foundation, a non-profit that provides spiritual and social justice opportunities to Jewish students in the Bay Area. More on Alon Shalev at http://www.alonshalev.com