Join us on Tuesday, March 23rd at 7pm as we welcome Evan Calder Williams to the space to celebrate the release of The Losing Team! He will be joined in conversation by the co-owner of our store and lead buyer, Camden Avery. Save the date! RSVP is not required, but appreciated. Seats are first come, first served and can be guaranteed with the purchase of a book or a $3 sliding scale donation to our program.

About the book

A bold, profound, kaleidoscopic novel about a crime family’s struggle for power in a rapacious new American era

1867: Wash Loomis returns from the blazing West to the winter slush of Utica, New York, epicenter of his infamous family’s sprawling web of swindlers and counterfeiters. Here everyone—snake oil salesman or sex worker, journalist or preacher—has a hustle, but these days even the most audacious scam is dwarfed by the unchecked venality of the railroads and banks. As Wash and his mother, Rhoda, battle for control of their empire across a tumultuous decade, the lusty, contentious Loomises and their enemies, lovers, and conspirators find themselves at both the mercy and the cutting edge of a ruthless new capitalist order.

Freewheeling and sexy, suspenseful and intensely subversive, The Losing Team is a tragicomedy of small cons and big lies that introduces an unforgettable new voice with the power and range—by turns lyrical, absurd, furious, and elegiac—to make the past resound unforgettably into the present.

About the author

Evan Calder Williams is a writer, filmmaker, translator, and associate professor at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. He is the author of several books of scholarship and theory, and a regular contributor to Film Quarterly, New Inquiry, and other journals. He lives in upstate New York. The Losing Team is his first novel.

About the bookstore

The Booksmith is an independent bookstore located in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco since 1976.

Please note:

• Check-in for the event will begin at 6:45pm.
• Priced ticket holders (Book+seat, Pay it Forward!+seat) will have seats held until 7pm. Arrivals after 7pm will be allowed admission, but seats are not guaranteed.
• General admission ticket holders will be offered seats at check-in on a first-come, first-served basis. May be standing room.
• Space at the door on the day of the event is usually available, but not guaranteed.
• Books will be for sale on the night of the event.
• ADA accessible. Bathrooms on site during event hours.
• Events typically end between 8:30 and 9pm.
• Questions? tickets@booksmith.com