Julia Flynn Siler

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Recent Posts

  • Remembering 1882
  • Guidebooks to Sin
  • Book Passage in Sausalito: Hope, Community, and Yes, Books
  • The end of the library (as we know it?)
  • Devotees of the Bancroft Library: “We’re archive rats!”

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Archives

Remembering 1882

May 7, 2017 by Julia Flynn Siler Leave a Comment

On Saturday, May 6th, several hundred protestors gathered in San Francisco’s historic Portsmouth Square in Chinatown carrying such signs as “Remember 1882” and “2017 Has Become 1882.”

They were there to mark the 135th anniversary of the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first law implemented to exclude a specific ethnic group from immigrating to the U.S. It was one of the most shamefully racist pieces of legislation ever enacted in America and was repealed in 1943.

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Filed Under: Asian Americans, History, The Writing Life, Uncategorized Tagged With: 1882, Chinatown, Chinese-American Exclusion Act, History, Writing life

Guidebooks to Sin

April 5, 2017 by Julia Flynn Siler Leave a Comment

At opening night of the 2017 Tennessee Williams Festival in New Orleans, I met a librarian who also happens to be a champion ham kicker.

Pamela D. Arceneaux at the Williams Research Center in New Orleans

She shimmied her way onto the stage of Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre in New Orleans in a sparkly black top and full-length skirt. Channeling the spirit of one of her heroes, Mae West, she delivered a lively and ribald talk on a subject that has fascinated her for some 35 years: the “blue books” of Storyville, the red-light district of New Orleans that flourished from 1897-1917. The “blue books” were guidebooks to the prostitutes and brothels in the district

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Filed Under: History, Literary Festivals, Performing, The Writing Life Tagged With: librarians, Libraries, Literary, Literary life, new orleans, red-light districts, storyville, Tennessee Williams /New Orleans Literary Festival

Book Passage in Sausalito: Hope, Community, and Yes, Books

February 9, 2017 by Julia Flynn Siler Leave a Comment

 A guest post by Pamela Feinsilber Bay Area Writer and Editor

In these strange and often scary times, I’m sure I’m not the only one finding hopeful signs in whatever I can: a new baby, a sunny day, the fact that books by Rep. John Lewis, George Orwell, Sinclair Lewis, and, most recently, the long-departed Frederick Douglass are flying off the shelves.

And speaking of books, the literary website Lithub.com (highly recommended!), taking note of “the growing number of regularly scheduled book events across the U.S.,” just introduced a bimonthly column about community-based reading series. “Pages may be written in solitude, but the mingling and exchange of ideas at literary gatherings can be revitalizing for writers and lit enthusiasts, especially for those living in isolated areas outside cultural hubs.”

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Book Passage, Books, Bookstores, community

The end of the library (as we know it?)

October 19, 2016 by Julia Flynn Siler 1 Comment

Ralph Lewin, executive director of the Mechanics' Institute, photo courtesy of the Sacramento Bee.

Ralph Lewin at the Mechanics’ Institute, photo courtesy of the Sacramento Bee.

A few months ago, San Francisco’s venerable Mechanics’ Institute hosted a discussion titled “The End of the Library (As We Know It)?”

As the oldest library in the city of San Francisco, the Mechanics’ Institute founded in 1854 and opened a year later with a grand total of four books, a chess room, and a mission to offer vocational education to out-of-work gold miners. (The San Francisco Public Library was founded more than two decades later, in 1879.) As one of the oldest libraries in the state, the Mechanics’ was a fitting place for this discussion.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Bancroft Library, California State Library, librarians, Libraries, Mechanics' Institute, research, San Francisco Public Library, U.C. Berkeley

Devotees of the Bancroft Library: “We’re archive rats!”

June 9, 2014 by Julia Flynn Siler 1 Comment

This past Saturday, I went to the annual meeting of the Friends of the Bancroft Library. I love this University of California campus and especially U.C. Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, which houses some of the most precious and rare manuscripts of the American West. That day, I met other people — historians, authors, and avid readers – who are also devoted to preserving and supporting the library’s treasures. It was a gathering of fellow “archive rats.”

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Books, History, Libraries, research, volunteering, Writing

Dispatches From Squaw’s Annual High-Altititude Literary Gathering

July 15, 2013 by Julia Flynn Siler Leave a Comment

Almost a decade ago, I joined the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley for an intensive, week-long non-fiction workshop. It was a summer camp-like experience in the high Sierras. Each morning, about a dozen of us in the non-fiction workshop gathered around a table to critique each other’s manuscripts — usually discussing two submissions each morning. In the afternoons, we’d either stay for the craft talks or hike through the mountains. After dinner, we’d stay up late, swapping stories with fiction and non-fiction writers alike.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Books, community of writers, literary agents, Literary life, North 24th Writers, squaw, svcw

Book group pick: Lost Kingdom is now out in paperback!

January 25, 2013 by Julia Flynn Siler 1 Comment

Mahalo nui loa –  Hawaiian for thank you very much – to the dozens of book groups I’ve spoken with from around the country that have picked Lost Kingdom as their monthly or quarterly read. I’ve met some of these groups in person and have skyped with some and phoned in to others. It’s been a wonderful experience and now that Lost Kingdom is just out in paperback, I hope to meet with even more groups (including a wonderful group in Kentfield, Ca. that invited me to join them to discuss the book over a feast of kalua pig, poi, and coconut layer cake — so ono!)

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Book groups, Hawaii, Lost Kingdom, Writing

Hau’oli Lānui from San Francisco….

December 28, 2012 by Julia Flynn Siler 2 Comments

My husband and I went to several holiday parties this year and perhaps the most heartfelt took place in early December, at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center in San Francisco.

We were invited to the J-Town hui’s annual holiday show and potluck. The hui (Hawaiian for a club or association) was made up of students in the music and vocal classes led by a beloved and longtime Hawaiian music teacher in the city named Carlton Ka’ala Carmack. There were ukeleles, hula performances, and mountains of delicious food. As the island saying goes, it was real ono!

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Carlton Ka'ala Carmack, Hawaii, Hawaii Book and Music Festival, Hawaiian music, Julia Flynn Siler, Lost Kingdom

So you want to start a writing group…

October 31, 2012 by Julia Flynn Siler 7 Comments

A hand popped up in the back of the room. “So where did you get your name?” asked a man last Sunday afternoon. Seated before him were four members of North 24th Writers, who’d gathered at Book Passage for a panel discussion on writing groups.

The occasion was the monthly meeting of the Marin branch of the California Writers Club, a group incorporated in 1913 that had Jack London as one of its first members. About forty people had decided to spend a few hours during a beautiful fall afternoon inside (shortly before the Giants won the World Series) to hear a discussion about writing groups, including how to form them, and the challenges and surprising side-benefits of creating your own work group.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: book stores, North 24th Writers, writing groups

Call Me Ishmael: Herman Melville and the San Francisco Opera

October 25, 2012 by Julia Flynn Siler Leave a Comment

It is one of the most memorable first sentences of a novel ever written. With three simple words, it draws us into the story, lets us know who the narrator is, and hints at dramatic transformations to come.

This opening line – Call me Ishmael – was written by Herman Melville in his epic about Captain Ahab’s quest to kill the white whale Moby Dick. One of the surprises of the San Francisco Opera’s current production of Moby Dick is that this line is used in a different way in the story – to very good effect. I won’t spoil the pleasure in telling you how, but would urge you to see this wonderful production  yourself.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Books, Hawaii, Literary life, Melville, Opera

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