book events, bright and warm
martinesque
by manjula martin
hello from the redwood forest, where it feels dark at like 3:30pm even though i can plainly see, out my kitchen window, that across the gulch the sun is still bright and warm and shining upon all the aisles and ridges of green, out there.
this email is to remind you that my book, The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History, comes out January 16. that's in two weeks! if you plan to read it, i suggest you pre-order it right now. most bookstores and all online retailers take pre-orders and will be thrilled to hold it for you, or mail it to you, the moment they get it in stock. there will also be an audiobook, read by moi.
LAUNCH EVENTS
if you're on the West Coast, please consider this your formal invitation to come see me (in real life!) at one of many events i'll be doing over the next month or so.
the book first launches in the Bay Area with a pair of dreamy events, at beloved bookstores, in conversation with very smart people:
POINT REYES BOOKSTORE
w/ JENNY ODELL, author of How To Do Nothing and Saving Time
3pm, Saturday, January 13, 2024
The Dance Palace, 503 B St., Point Reyes Station
event info
CITY LIGHTS BOOKS
w/ Oscar Villalon of Zyzzyva mag
6pm, Tuesday, January 16, 2024
261 Columbus Ave, North Beach, San Francisco
event info
for complete tour dates, see the images below—including a couple of North Bay events later that same week, at Russian River Arts & Letters with Ed Yong and Copperfields with Dani Burlison. over the next month i'll be in and around the greater Bay Area, "wine country," Portland, Seattle, and LA! it's a lot! i will be excited to see a familiar face!
RECENT PRESS
—The Last Fire Season was highlighted as an anticipated January release by The New York Times, who used the phrase "exquisitely attuned" in their summary.
—the San Francisco Chronicle also recommends the book as one to cozy up with this winter. They chose adjectives like "electrifying" and "masterful."
—the LA Times is diggin' it, too.
for those of you not lucky enough to live on the west coast (sorry but i had to say it), here are a couple more ways to support the book:
—buy it.
—request it at your local library. libraries rule.
—if you post pictures of the book or events on social media, please tag me and/or Pantheon Books! insta. bluesky. the bad place.
i've been told not to apologize for self-promotion, but i must say it feels dissonant to me to be entering into this promo-heavy phase in my career at this particular moment in my life/year. for me and mine, the past month has been a weird and often dark time. there has been illness. death. all that ongoing, escalating world-grief. there has been anxiety (insert fragile-writer-ego joke here). my body has been tired. the earth has been wet, the ocean mad. i hope wherever you are, you are sidling up to the new year in whatever way best suits you. i hope you find some kind of company in this book. i wrote it for you.
keep loving, keep fighting, keep emerging from dead organic matter ready to bloom in the coming cold.
-m.
you're receiving this email because you know me, know my work, or might want to.