Booksmith is thrilled to host Kate Folk for the launch of her phenomenal debut, Out There. She'll be in conversation with speculative fiction writer Ploi Pirapokin (who you may remember from our fun event with Aimee Bender). 

THIS EVENT IS CURRENTLY SOLD OUT. We will announce if more seats become available; if you're interested in ordering a signed copy, you can order one here.

Please note:

• Safety: ID and proof of full vaccination, including booster, will be required at the door. Masks will be required throughout the duration of the event, capacity will be limited to allow indoor distancing, and we'll have extra ventilation in place. 
• Because we’re limiting capacity, we can't guarantee we'll have space for walk-ins. The best way to ensure you’ll get a seat is to order the Book + Seat ticket through this link; you can also RSVP for a free standing room spot right here.
• We are happy to offer *signed copies* of Out There: order a Book + Seat ticket bundle if you'd like to pick up a signed copy at the event, or order here if you just want a signed copy.
• This is a free, all-ages event, but RSVP is required.
• If we feel it is not safe to gather, as the event gets closer, we will pivot to a virtual event and your registration will remain valid.
• Questions? Write events@booksmith.com.

We'll ship all orders directly to you or hold for pickup at our San Francisco shop. We are happy to fulfill orders anywhere in the world – international postage will be invoiced separately.

About the book

With a focus on the weird and eerie forces that lurk beneath the surface of ordinary experience, Kate Folk’s debut collection is perfectly pitched to the madness of our current moment. A medical ward for a mysterious bone-melting disorder is the setting of a perilous love triangle. A curtain of void obliterates the globe at a steady pace, forcing Earth’s remaining inhabitants to decide with whom they want to spend eternity. A man fleeing personal scandal enters a codependent relationship with a house that requires a particularly demanding level of care. And in the title story, originally published in The New Yorker, a woman in San Francisco uses dating apps to find a partner despite the threat posed by “blots,” preternaturally handsome artificial men dispatched by Russian hackers to steal data. Meanwhile, in a poignant companion piece, a woman and a blot forge a genuine, albeit doomed, connection. 

Prescient and wildly imaginative, Out There depicts an uncanny landscape that holds a mirror to our subconscious fears and desires. Each story beats with its own fierce heart, and together they herald an exciting new arrival in the tradition of speculative literary fiction.

“One could fancy Kate Folk as the literary love child of Kafka and Camus and Bradbury, if Kafka and Camus and Bradbury were penning episodes of Black Mirror, but that still wouldn’t capture the blazing originality and exhilarating weirdness of her writing. From the moment you read these tales, you’ll know you’re in the presence of a singularly brilliant vision.”– Chang-Rae Lee 

About the authors

Kate Folk has written for publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Granta, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, and Zyzzyva. She’s received support from the Headlands Center for the Arts, MacDowell, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Recently, she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in fiction at Stanford University. She lives in San Francisco. Out There is her first book. Author photo by Emily Ray Reese.

Ploi Pirapokin is the Nonfiction Editor at Newfound Journal and the co-editor of The Greenest Gecko: An Anthology of New Asian Fantasy forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press in 2021. Her work is featured in Tor.com, Apogee Journal, The Offing, The Bellingham Review, Fiction International, and more. She lives in San Francisco.

This event is free and all ages, but RSVP is required.