A reader with a rose for me!
Many thanks.

past events

Imagining Justice, Heart and Soul Center of Light, Oakland, CA

May 19, 2021

With Valerie Joi Fiddmont, co-host

In collaboration with Book Passage

Order signed copies

Greenlight Books, Brooklyn, NY

May 20, 2021

With Ellery Washington, Professor of Writing, Pratt Institute, author of the forthcoming novel Buffalo

Watch Video

Politics and Prose. Washington, D.C.

May 24, 2021

With Beverly Daniel Tatum, president emerita of Spelman College and

NY Times Best-selling author, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

Watch Video

East End Books, Provincetown, Mass.

May 26, 2021

With Jewelle Gomez, award-winning author of The Gilda Stories, Maxine Wolfe, co-founder of Act Up National Women's Committee

MoAD (Museum of the African Diaspora), San Francisco, CA

June 11. 2021

A special event in honor of Loving Day

With Sarah Ladipo Manyika, award-winning author of Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun

Watch video

Alta Mesa Center for the Arts, Orinda, CA

Sunday, July 11, 4 pm PST

With Irma Herrera, playwright, Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name?

watch video

Buy signed copies

Seattle's East West Bookshop

Tuesday, October 19, 2021, 5 pm PST

With the legendary Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington

Topic: LOVE, Essential for Social Justice

watch video

University of California Extension, Berkeley

Love Stories: Memoir Writing and Allyship

In conversation with Katya Cengal, author of From Chernobyl With Love

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

12 Noon PT

PAST KEYNOTES AND FEATURED SPEAKER EVENTS

American Association of University Women, Los Angeles

American Express Financial Advisors, Minneapolis

American Society of Newspaper Editors, Dallas

Antioch College, Yellow Springs

Association for Women in Science, San Francisco

Book Passage, Corte Madera

Books, Inc, San Francisco and Berkeley

California Association of Affirmative Action Officers, Monterey

California Faculty Association Annual Conference, Los Angeles

California NOW, San Francisco

California State University, San Marcos

California Writers Club, Book Passage, Corte Maders

Columbia University, NYC

Community Colleges of California, Sacramento

Elderpride 2020, Oakland

EPA Regional Office, San Francisco

Equal Rights Advocates Conference, San Francisco

Golden Gate School of Law, San Francisco

Great Good Place for Books, Oakland

Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn

Hewlett Packard Women's Tech Annual Conference, San Jose

Harvard University, Cambridge

Howard University, Washington, DC

Iowa State University, Ames

Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, San Francisco

Litquake, Oakland

Lutheran Hospital Annual Symposium, La Crosse

Merritt College, Oakland

MRTTA Bookclub Brothers, Oakland

Mt. Holyoke College, Hadley

National Education Association, New Orleans

National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, Minneapolis

San Francisco Writers Conference

Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville

Smith College, Northampton

Spelman College, Atlanta

U.S. Department of Agriculture Leadership Institute, Pacific Grove

University of California, Berkeley and Santa Barbara

Western Association of College and University Housing Officers, Santa Barbara

Women and Children First Booksore, Chicago

Joan Steinau Lester

BAY AREA BOOK FESTIVAL, BERKELEY, CA 2025

Joan on Panel Paths to Publishing

Caracking up the panelists, as well as audience

A wonderful Oakland family: three daughters who are community leaders, with their dynamic mother holding my memoir. Honored!

Joan reading at Mrs. Dalloway's Books for launch of Mama's Child

A happy couple showing off their copy of

Loving Before Loving: A Marriage in Black and White

Another Happy Reader, thank you, Achebe!

Joan at Sea Ranch book party hosted by Alison Owings, August, 2021

(Photo by Maynard Hale Lyndon)

To schedule an event please email

Dr. Lester through the contact tab above.