News Release

April brings an eclectic mix of programs and events to the San Francisco Main Library. Highlights include: Two book award ceremonies, dance programs and author visits.

On April 12, author Susan Patron will read and discuss her 2007 Newbery Medal-winning book, The Higher Power of Lucky. Her talk will begin at 6 p.m. in the Fisher Children’s Center. A book signing will follow. By day, Patron is a children’s librarian for the Los Angeles Public Library. By night, she is an accomplished children’s book author. Her other works include: Maybe Yes, Maybe No, Maybe Maybe, Burgoo Stew and three other picture books.

Authors from Northern California and from the GBLT community will be honored at two separate awards ceremonies this month. On April 12, finalists for the 19th Annual Lambda Literary Awards will read their work, 5:30–7:30 p.m. in the Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room. Local finalists include Susan Stryker, Leslie Larsen, Michelle Tea, Max Wolf Valerio, Shannon Price Minter, Karin Kallmaker and Justin Chin. Sponsored by the Lambda Literary Foundation, the Lambda Awards honor the best LGBTQ writers and books.

On April 15, the 26th Annual Northern California Book Awards will celebrate the work of local authors in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translation and children’s literature. The festive event starts at 1 p.m. in the Koret Auditorium. Nominees from all five categories will be in attendance. Winners will present a special reading from their work. Andrew Hoyem, founder of Arion Press and considered one of today’s most accomplished printers, will receive the Fred Cody Award for lifetime achievement. Maxine Hong Kingston will receive the Special Award in Publishing for her work on Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace. A book signing will follow the ceremony in the Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room.

The Library will host two programs in celebration of National Dance Week. On April 21, at 2 p.m., Isadora Duncan: Mother of Modern Dance will be performed by Bay Area dancer Lois Flood with narrative by Joanna Harris, author of Beyond Isadora: Bay Area Dancing, 1915–65. On April 24, at 12 p.m., Marin County filmmaker/choreographer Frank Boehm will screen his 1986 film Alicia about Ballerina Assoluta Alicia Alonso. The film includes interviews with Alonso and American Ballet Theatre colleagues Maria Karnilova, Donald Saddler and Igor Youskevitch, and footage of Alonso in Cuba during her career as artistic director of the Cuban National Ballet. Like the award-winning Ballet Russes, Boehm’s documentary offers an inside look at company life with commentary by dancers, scenes of dance programs for blind children, and dancing on plazas and at workplaces. Both events take place in the Koret Auditorium.

Susan Casey, author of this month’s On the Same Page selection, The Devil’s Teeth, will read and discuss her book at 6:30 p.m. on April 24 in the Koret Auditorium. A book sale and discussion follows her presentation. Casey spent eight weeks with biologists Peter Pyle, Scot Anderson and other Farallon White Shark Project researchers observing the great white sharks who make the waters off of the Farallones their home. Her book reveals myth-shattering observations about the sharks, as well as explores both the human and natural history of the islands. Among her findings: Male sharks visit the Farallones annually, while the much larger females show up only every other year; sharks hunt by day, not by night, and rely on vision more than previously believed.

All events and programs are free and open to the public. For more information, please call (415) 557-4277.
The San Francisco Main Library is located at 100 Larkin St. (at Grove).