Booksmith is thrilled to host an in-store event with Jeremy Atherton Lin, celebrating the paperback edition of his "absolute tour de force" (Maggie Nelson), the National Book Critic Circle Award-winning Gay Bar: Why We Went Out. He'll be in conversation with Queer Rebels founder Celeste Chan. Join us!

*** PLEASE NOTE: advance sales for this event have ended. We have some seats remaining, which will go on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors are at 7pm PDT. Please note all of the following:

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 As She Appears: 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 (or here for a signed hardcover).
• 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.

About the book

Strobing lights and dark rooms; throbbing house and drag queens on counters; first kisses, last call: the gay bar has long been a place of solidarity and sexual expression—whatever your scene, whoever you’re seeking. But in urban centers around the world, they are closing, a cultural demolition that has Jeremy Atherton Lin wondering: What was the gay bar? How have they shaped him? And could this spell the end of gay identity as we know it?

In Gay Bar, the author embarks upon a transatlantic tour of the hangouts that marked his life, with each club, pub, and dive revealing itself to be a palimpsest of queer history. In prose as exuberant as a hit of poppers and dazzling as a disco ball, he time-travels from Hollywood nights in the 1970s to a warren of cruising tunnels built beneath London in the 1770s; from chichi bars in the aftermath of AIDS to today’s fluid queer spaces; through glory holes, into Crisco-slicked dungeons and down San Francisco alleys. He charts police raids and riots, posing and passing out—and a chance encounter one restless night that would change his life forever. 

The journey that emerges is a stylish and nuanced inquiry into the connection between place and identity—a tale of liberation, but one that invites us to go beyond the simplified Stonewall mythology and enter lesser-known battlefields in the struggle to carve out a territory. Elegiac, randy, and sparkling with wry wit, Gay Bar is at once a serious critical inquiry, a love story and an epic night out to remember.

About the authors

Jeremy Atherton Lin is an Asian-American essayist now based in East Sussex, England. His work has been published in the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, The Face, The White Review, GQ Style and The Yale Review, for which he was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Essays and Criticism. Jeremy’s debut book Gay Bar (2021) was listed as a book of the year by critics at the New York Times, NPR, Artforum and Vogue. It received the National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography and has been shortlisted for the Randy Shilts Award. Jeremy is an editor at the journal Failed States. 

Celeste Chan is a San Francisco–based writer. She moderated National Book Foundation’s Revolutionary Joy panel in 2021and has taught Queer Ancestors writing workshops for LGBTQ youth. She’s now writing her memoir. Author photo by Yuska Tuanakotta.

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 As She Appears: 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 (or here for a signed hardcover).
• 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.