About Us

CHRISTIN EVANS & PRAVEEN MADAN

Christin Evans, literary entrepreneur, runs two Bay Area bookstores. In 2007, she and her husband, Praveen Madan, purchased  The Booksmith in San Francisco’s historic Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. In 2008 with Melissa Mytinger, they launched Berkeley Arts & Letters, now the East Bay’s most successful author event series. In 2012, Christin assumed leadership of store operations for Kepler’s Books, the Silicon Valley’s landmark bookstore established by pacifist Roy Kepler in 1955, now a hybrid business with an affiliated non-profit events program..Having made it her work to re-imagine the role independent bookstores play in their communities and how best they can be sustainable cultural institutions, she's active in neighborhood associations and she welcomes conversations! Christin worked as a management consultant for A.T. Kearney; she holds a B.A. from Vassar College and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Contact Christin.

Meet The Booksmith Staff!

Amy
                         

Amy is a 'hood-blogger and a whiskey enthusiast. She's Booksmith's resident twitterer (tweeter?) and party-thrower. Her New Year's Resolution is to grow her hair out. She cries a lot, but it's usually not your fault. She is only listed first because her name starts with A.

Camden

Camden reads an awful lot. He is fond of extremity. Lately he is interested in how things are different, also how they are the same. If you have some time he'd love to talk to you about that.

 Carolyn

is a poet and artist living in San Francisco, and is pursuing her MFA in poetry at SFSU. She is a Kundiman fellow, recipient of the William Dickey Fellowship, the San Francisco Foundation's Phelan Award, the Anne Fields Poetry Award and the Kathryn A. Manoogian Scholarship. She folds cranes obsessively as a performative act with no desire to develop the art further. The crane as a symbol is irrelevant and arbitrary. She believes the over 10,000 cranes she’s made over a three-year period is merely a byproduct of coping with, among other concerns, the disenchantment of earning a fine arts graduate degree during a recession.  

 Christopher

Christopher is an author and award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in Harper's, The Economist, The Nation, The Los Angeles Times and elsewhere. His book Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis, now in paperback, examines the human and ecological impacts of increasing corporate control over our diets. Chris is a longtime member of the SF Writers' Grotto, and a contributing writer for The Progressive magazine. You can see more of his work at www.christopherdcook.com

Colin

Colin both reads and writes books. He Tumbls too, from time to time. This is his favorite person, but he likes most people quite a bit. He's new to San Francisco, but it has always been his home.

 Cynthia

Cynthia is the honey badger of the Booksmith, which means you better treat her well or she'll attack ... She looks harmless enough, but watch out. Cynthia wants to know what you're reading. She doesn't give a $#*+ if you buy physical books or Google e-books. She only wants you to buy them from The Booksmith.

 Eden

Eden hails from the rural South and loves tea, climbing (on everything), astronomy, yoga, video games, puns, warm weather, painting, and lingerie (ooh la la!). Her dislikes include smudges on her glasses, cold weather, rude people, mushrooms, coffee, and reality television. She is very clumsy and wastes way too much time on the internet. Often heard talking in memes and making sound effects, Eden can be found hiding away in the science fiction section of The Booksmith.

Greer

Greer thinks that tea is the answer to most things, except when the answer is a smoothie. She detests coffee, but is usually able to forgive people who drink it, as long as they don't make her smell it too strongly. Then she gets grumpy. When Greer is not reading, she is maybe writing. (Her first stories, written when she was six, were Angelina Ballerina fanfiction. She is happy to report she has since moved on to different subject matter.) One of her coworkers says she has a broken internal thermostat, which is a fancy way of saying she is probably currently too hot.

 Kelly

Kelly is writer, student, tutor, and is currently serving as Editor-in-Chief of Fourteen Hills: SFSU Review. She also really likes to try on other roles such as: event host at The Booksmith, beach bum, crazy cat lady, girl who always drops something when she's trying to get on the bus, underdog advocate, giggler, and bartender. 

Kiara

A good day is spent on the couch with a book and a cup of tea. 

Usually, though, something happens or needs to be done. 

www.kiarabrinkman.com

  Lauren G.

Reader, writer, ballerina, letter-writer.  Singer, swinger, paper and art book buyer.  Lover of London and Paris, New York and her bed, she's done the time and has got the street cred.

 Lauren O.

 
Lauren has been an avid reader of children's books since the age of 4. She has Big Plans to whip the Booksmith's children's department into shape. When she's not searching for the perfect book for eager readers of all ages, Lauren can be found reading (on the BART, in line at the grocery store, or at home on the sunny side of the Bay), baking, and art-making. Ask her anything, we promise she won't bite.

 Megan

Megan Kurashige is a dancer and a writer. She dances for Liss Fain Dance and burns : work in San Francisco. Her fiction and poetry has appeared, or will appear, in Sybil's Garage, Strange Horizons, and Electric Velocipede. She likes to rock socks and shake souls. She is also an inveterate reader, and when she is not dancing or writing, she is most likely curled up somewhere, turning pages and traveling to other worlds.

 Melissa

Has been a bookseller since forever, is always looking for a story she hasn’t heard before, is doubtful there are ever enough books, produces Berkeley Arts & Letters, and books and manages Booksmith’s author events, in between books. Email events@booksmith.com

 Rachel

Rachel grew up literally and figuratively in San Francisco. She spent a long time away before she wised up and came back to "the city." When you don't know where to eat, what is happening in pop culture or want a book suggestion in a variety of genre's she is your gal. She is also called "411."

 Sadie

Sadie has too much on her plate 100% of the time and likes it that way.  She digs on non-fiction, cookbooks, dystopian fiction, stories set in the south, and attending pool parties.  She also has a soft spot for children's books, and will gladly reminisce or recommend some.  When she is not working she hopes to be cooking, listening to soul music, hanging with her pup, reading, learning something really cool, and/or saving the world.

Sean

Sean is a rugged outdoors-man by nature, but as a keen observer of the human condition, he enjoys working in a bookstore for the added perspective. When no one is looking, he draws funny pictures. www.seanchiki.com

 Todd

Telecommuting guru of store reorders and special projects. Lover of literary fiction, sociological reportage, music journalism, and nature writing. A fool for a good cookbook, always ready for a new challenge in the kitchen. An unrepentant music junkie, known to lose himself in record shops for hours on end. A runner, an amateur photographer, a tireless traveler, and-- most importantly-- the proud Daddy of the sweetest, most charming dog in the entire world.