Virtual Book Talk Event “At the Edge of the Haight” w/ Green Apple Books

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Join us on Monday, January 25th at 6pm PT when Katherine Seligman discusses her debut novel, At the Edge of the Haight, with Vanessa Hua on Zoom!

*In partnership with the Homeless Youth Alliance. Green Apple will donate 10% of each copy of At the Edge of the Haight sold to HYA.

Zoom Login Info
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82821476805

Praise for At the Edge of the Haight
“What a read this is, right from its startling opening scene. But even more than plot, it’s the richly layered details that drive home a lightning bolt of empathy. To read At the Edge of the Haight is to live inside the everyday terror and longings of a world that most of us manage not to see, even if we walk past it on sidewalks every day. At a time when more Americans than ever find themselves at the edge of homelessness, this book couldn’t be more timely.”—Barbara Kingsolver, author of Unsheltered and The Poisonwood Bible

“I love Maddy Donaldo. I can’t wait for you to meet her. Not since Carson McCullers’s Frankie Addams have I seen a character so defined by her deep dualism—an electric desire to be both invisible and seen, free and bonded.”
—Mesha Maren, author of Sugar Run

“I loved this novel: its tenderness, its toughness, its brilliantly-named protagonist Maddy—these days, what thoughtful person isn’t mad? Maddy is a Holden Caulfield for our times, smart, streetwise, a survivor who is not jaded. Seligman’s vivid portrait leads us to understand San Francisco’s street people not as “the other” but as extensions of our friends, our families, our neighbors, ourselves. If there is hope for our species, it begins there.”
—Fenton Johnson, author of At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life

About At the Edge of the Haight

The 10th Winner of the 2019 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, Awarded by Barbara Kingsolver

Maddy Donaldo, homeless at twenty, has made a family of sorts in the dangerous spaces of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. She knows whom to trust, where to eat, when to move locations, and how to take care of her dog. It’s the only home she has. When she unwittingly witnesses the murder of a young homeless boy and is seen by the perpetrator, her relatively stable life is upended. Suddenly, everyone from the police to the dead boys’ parents want to talk to Maddy about what she saw. As adults pressure her to give up her secrets and reunite with her own family before she meets a similar fate, Maddy must decide whether she wants to stay lost or be found. Against the backdrop of a radically changing San Francisco, a city which embraces a booming tech economy while struggling to maintain its culture of tolerance, At the Edge of the Haight follows the lives of those who depend on makeshift homes and communities.
As judge Hillary Jordan says, “This book pulled me deep into a world I knew little about, bringing the struggles of its young, homeless inhabitants—the kind of people we avoid eye contact with on the street—to vivid, poignant life. The novel demands that you take a close look. If you knew, could you still ignore, fear, or condemn them? And knowing, how can you ever forget?”

About Homeless Youth Alliance

HYA exists to meet youth experiencing homelessness where they are, and to help them build healthier lives. We believe that reducing harm is possible through the provision of accessible, non-judgmental outreach, one-on-one counseling, and medical and mental health care, as well as creative and educational workshops, syringe access and disposal, and accurate up-to-date referrals and information. We strive to empower young homeless people to protect themselves, educate each other, reduce harm within the community, and when they are ready transition off the streets.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.