Tell Me Something, Anything, Even If It's a Lie with Steve Wasserman

Join author and Heyday publisher Steve Wasserman in conversation with journalist and historian Gary Kamiya on Wasserman’s latest book, . In thirty splendid essays, originally published in such diverse publications as the New Republic and the Nation, the American Conservative and the Progressive, the Village Voice and the Economist, Wasserman delivers a riveting account of the awakening of an empathetic sensibility and a lively mind. Taken together, they reveal the depth and breadth of his enthusiasms and range over politics, literature, and the tumults of a world in upheaval. Here is, as Joyce Carol Oates notes, “arguably the very best concise history of Cuba and the legendary Fidel Castro; beautifully composed eulogies for two close friends, Susan Sontag and Christopher Hitchens; sharply perceptive commentary on Daniel Ellsberg; a thrillingly candid interview with W. G. Sebald.”

Steve Wasserman is publisher of Heyday. A 1974 graduate of UC Berkeley, he holds a degree in criminology. His past positions include being deputy editor of the op-ed page and opinion section of the Los Angeles Times; editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review; editorial director of New Republic Books; publisher and editorial director of Hill and Wang at Farrar, Straus & Giroux and of the Noonday Press; editorial director of Times Books at Random House; and editor at large for Yale University Press. A former partner of the literacy agency Kneerim & Williams, he represented many authors, including Christopher Hitchens, Linda Ronstadt, Robert Scheer, and David Thomson. He lives in Berkeley, California.

is an author, journalist and historian of San Francisco. His 2013 book Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco was a runaway bestseller and won the 2013 Northern California Book Award for creative nonfiction. His latest book is Spirits of San Francisco: Voyages Through the Unknown City. His award-winning history column "Portals of the Past" appeared for more than 10 years in the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. Gary has hosted and been featured prominently as an expert on-camera source in many documentaries, including such critically-acclaimed works as Citizen Hearst, Moving San Francisco, and Water From The Wilderness. Gary is available as a speaker and gives unique San Francisco walking tours by reservation.

Host or Publisher Mechanics' Institute