You’re invited to our

10th Annual Authors Gala...
and this year we are VIRTUAL!

The Gala

Let's celebrate the San Mateo Public Library and the vital role it plays

in our community!

Tickets are FREE—Like Your Library!

Our one hour program for this festive evening will feature:

local dance group Str8jacket

young writers in our community

bestselling authors C Pam Zhang and Anna North in conversation with Wendy Voorsanger

Master of Ceremonies, Caitlin McGinty Beanan

Post-Gala, California-Themed Trivia Challenge

Open to premium ticket holders and to anyone who donates $500 to

our Fund-A-Need anytime between now and the end of the Gala.

Meet Our Authors

C Pam Zhang

Author C Pam Zhang's debut novel How Much of These Hills is Gold has earned extraordinary praise as a notable book of the year from both the New York Times and Washington Post and one of NPR's best books of 2020. It's long-listed for the Booker Prize, a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was one of Barack Obama's favorite books in 2020. The National Book Foundation recently named Zhang as one of five fiction writers under the age of 35 whose debut work promises to leave a lasting impression on the literary landscape. Born in Beijing but mostly an artifact of the United States, Zhang has lived in thirteen cities across four countries and is still looking for a home. She’s been awarded support from Tin House, Bread Loaf, Aspen Words, and elsewhere, and currently lives in San Francisco.

C Pam Zhang

How Much of These Hills is Gold paperbac

Anna North

Anna North is the author of Outlawed, published by Bloomsbury in 2021, which was a Reese's Book Club pick and a New York Times bestseller. She has also been a writer and editor at Jezebel, BuzzFeed, and the New York Times, and is now a senior reporter at Vox. North is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the author of two previous novels, America Pacifica and The Life and Death of Sophie Stark, which won a Lambda Literary Award. She grew up in Los Angeles and now lives in Brooklyn.

Anna North

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Wendy Voorsanger

Born and raised on the American River in Sacramento, Wendy Voorsanger has long held an intense interest in the historical women of California. Her debut historical novel—Prospects of a Woman—tells the story of one woman’s passionate quest to carve out a place for herself in the liberal and bewildering society that emerged during the California gold rush frenzy, and is included in 2 BuzzFeed Books must read lists. Voorsanger currently manages SheIsCalifornia.net, a blog dedicated to chronicling the accomplishments of California women throughout history. She earned a BA in journalism from Cal Poly SLO and an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and has attended Hedgebrook, the Squaw Valley Writers Workshop, and Lit Camp. She is a member of the Castro Writers' Cooperative, the Lit Camp Advisory Board, the Historical Novel Society, and the San Mateo Public Library Literary Society.