Booksmith and Berkeley Arts & Letters are thrilled to present an evening with beloved, bestselling author and critic Roxane Gay for her new book Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People’s Business. She'll be in conversation with There There author Tommy Orange. Join us!

About the book

Since the publication of the groundbreaking Bad Feminist and Hunger, Roxane Gay has continued to tackle big issues embroiling society—state-sponsored violence and mass shootings, women’s rights post-Dobbs, online disinformation, and the limits of empathy—alongside more individually personalized matters: can I tell my co-worker her perfume makes me sneeze? Is it acceptable to schedule a daily 8 am meeting? In her role as a New York Times opinion section contributor and the publication’s “Work Friend” columnist, she reaches millions of readers with her wise voice and sharp insights.

Opinions is a collection of Roxane Gay’s best nonfiction pieces from the past ten years. Covering a wide range of topics—politics, feminism, the culture wars, civil rights, and much more—with an all-new introduction in which she reflects on the past decade in America, this sharp, thought-provoking anthology will delight Roxane Gay’s devotees and draw new readers to this inimitable talent.

About the authors

Roxane Gay is the author of the essay collection Bad Feminist, which was a New York Times bestseller; the novel An Untamed State, a finalist for the Dayton Peace Prize; the memoir Hunger, which was a New York Times bestseller and received a National Book Critics Circle citation; and the short story collections Difficult Women and Ayiti. A contributing opinion writer to the New York Times, she has also written for Time, McSweeney’s, the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Rumpus, Bookforum, and Salon. Her fiction has also been selected for The Best American Short Stories 2012, The Best American Mystery Stories 2014, and other anthologies. She is the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She lives in Lafayette, Indiana, and sometimes Los Angeles.

Tommy Orange is a graduate of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, he was born and raised in Oakland, California. His first book, There There, was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and received the 2019 American Book Award. His second novel, Wandering Stars, will be published in March. He lives in Oakland, California. Photo by Elena Seibert.

Please note:

• This is a ticketed, in-person event to be held at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway in Oakland, CA (cross street is 27th).
• Masks will not be required for this event but we will be limiting capacity somewhat. As a result, we can't guarantee we'll have space for walk-ups. The best way to ensure attendance is to get a ticket now. Protocols subject to change.
• We are happy to offer *signed copies* of Opinions: order a ticket if you'd like to pick up a signed copy at the event, or order here if you just want a signed copy and no admission.
• You can order books by Tommy Orange here.
• 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? Accessibility requests? Write [email protected].