The Writers' Lunch: Writing About San Francisco as a Place
moderated by Taryn Edwards

This event continues our exploration of the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read book selection Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu.  It will be conducted via Zoom. Register and you will be emailed the Zoom credentials.

This month librarian Taryn Edwards will moderate the discussion Writing About San Francisco as a Place with writers Gary Kamiya, Edmund S. Wong, Ann Parker, and Woody LaBounty.

Gary Kamiya is an author, journalist, and historian of San Francisco. His books include Spirits of San Francisco: Voyages Through the Unknown City (in collaboration with artist Paul Madonna), and Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco. He is also the author of the award-winning history column "Portals of the Past" which appears every other Saturday in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Edmund (Ed) Wong is a Baby Boomer who was born and raised in Chinatown, San Francisco. He served in the US Navy both ashore and at sea as a Hospital Corpsman. After serving as a Peace Corps teacher in the South Pacific Ed moved to Louisville, Kentucky where he and his wife continue to live. Ed began to write in earnest after retiring in 2013. Both of Ed's books about San Francisco's Chinatown, Growing Up in San Francisco's Chinatown: Boomer Memories From Noodle Rolls to Apple Pie and More Memories of Growing Up in San Francisco's Chinatown are Ed's contribution to the legacy of one of America's great ethnic neighborhoods and the post-war generation of American Born Chinese who were raised there.

California born-and-raised, Ann Parker is a science writer by day and a fiction writer at night. Her award-winning Silver Rush historical mystery series is set in the 1880s U.S. West and features Colorado saloon-owner Inez Stannert. In the most recent books, Inez has moved to San Francisco, where she reinvents herself as the manager of a music store and a 19th-century "angel investor" for women-owned small businesses. The newest book in the series, The Secret in the Wall, is an Historical Novel Society Editors' Choice and an Amazon Editors' Pick. Ann and her family reside in the San Francisco Bay Area, whence they have weathered numerous boom-and-bust cycles. During her not-so-copious free time, Ann walks, reads, and drinks way too much coffee.

Woody LaBounty writes weekly about San Francisco history at SanFranciscoStory.com. He is the author of books on the 1890s Carville-by-the-Sea community of transit vehicles turned into housing, and the Ingleside Terraces neighborhood. He was recently Vice President of Advocacy and Programs at San Francisco Heritage, a 50-year-old nonprofit with a mission to protect and enhance San Francisco's unique architectural and cultural identity. He grew up in San Francisco and continues to believe it is the greatest place on earth.

The Writers' Lunch is a casual brown-bag lunch activity on the 3rd Friday of each month. Look forward to craft discussion, informal presentations on all forms of writing, and excellent conversation. Please contact Taryn Edwards if you have any questions or if you would like to be a panelist - [email protected]

Join us, share and learn!

NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
El proyecto NEA Big Read es una iniciativa del National Endowment for the Arts (el Fondo Nacional para las Artes de Estados Unidos) en cooperación con Arts Midwest.