Lauren Markham & Jenny Odell
Apr
14
6:00 PM18:00

Lauren Markham & Jenny Odell

Books! Banter! Cinema!

The ZYZZYVA 2025 Movie Night series kicks off on Monday, April 14, with Lauren Markham & Jenny Odell and the cult-hit documentary River and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time (2001). River and Tides examines the breath-taking outdoor sculptures of Goldsworthy, who only works with natural material and whose art (some of which can be found in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and the Presidio and at Stanford) was designed to “deteriorate.” Markham calls River and Tides “a study of reverence and impermanence that invites us to approach our art—and the world we live in—with a simultaneous diligence and improvisation, artistry and exertion, attention and whimsy, curiosity and devotion.”

The film will be introduced by Markham, whose most recent book, Immemorial—a dazzling synthesis of reporting, memoir, and essay—meditates on language in the face of climate catastrophe. Following the movie, there will be a short conversation between Markham and Odell about River and Tides.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with a book signing. Movie introduction starts promptly at 6, followed by a conversation at the end of the screening. ZYZZYVA Movie Night is copresented with Litquake, San Francisco's literary festival (October 9–25, 2025).

Lauren Markham’s work regularly appears in outlets such as Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine and VQR, where she is a contributing editor. She is the author of the award-winning The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life and the critically-acclaimed A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging. Her new book, Immemorial, was published in 2025.

Jenny Odell is the author of the New York Times bestsellers How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy and Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock. Her other writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Paris Review, and The Believer. Odell has been an artist in residence at the San Francisco Planning Department, the Internet Archive, and Recology SF. From 2013 to 2021, she taught art at Stanford University.

View Event →
Merve Emre, Ayşegül Savaş & Maureen Freely
Apr
7
12:00 PM12:00

Merve Emre, Ayşegül Savaş & Maureen Freely

Join Merve Emre, Ayşegül Savaş, and translator Maureen Freely for a virtual conversation to celebrate the launch of Journey to the Edge of Life,  a haunted and lyrical literary travelogue from NBCC Award–winner Tezer Özlü. Presented in partnership by Community Bookstore, Third Place Books, the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith, and Lost City Books.

Register to receive a link to attend.

View Event →
Lauren Markham & Joshua Jelly-Schapiro
Mar
6
7:30 PM19:30

Lauren Markham & Joshua Jelly-Schapiro

Lauren Markham returns to Greenlight to launch her speculative essay on language in the face of climate catastrophe: Immemorial. In a dazzling synthesis of reporting, memoir, and essay, Markham reflects on the design and function of memorials, from the traditional to the speculative and offers, what Kirkus star reviews as, "urgent, heartfelt, and lyrical reflections... an intimate meditation on the climate crisis.” Markham reads from the book before a brief discussion with fellow author Joshua Jelly-Schapiro (Names of New York), followed by an audience Q&A and signing.

View Event →
Lauren Markham & Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Mar
2
1:00 PM13:00

Lauren Markham & Ingrid Rojas Contreras

What's Creative Nonfiction, Anyway?

From memoir to journalism to linked essays to think pieces, creative nonfiction can wear a lot of hats. In this conversation between two award-winning writers, a memoirist and a journalist and essayist, we'll explore all the shapes creative nonfiction can take, including some unconventional ones, as well as how and where to get your Creative Nonfiction published.

After the craft talk, books will be for sale and prosecco will be served.

View Event →