archived events & interviews

2020

March 30, 2020: Book Passage and Alta Asks Live with Heather Partington, Corte Madera. Watch the video here!

April 7: Green Apple Books with Daniel Handler and Andrew Sean Greer, San Francisco. Watch the video here!

April 14: Listen to this interview with Wisconsin Public Radio: “Like Fish to Water: Why We Swim”

April 14: Listen to this mini book reading on KALW’s Crosscurrents, “New Arrivals”

April 21: Harvard Book Store with Caroline Paul, Cambridge. Watch the video here!

April 23: DIESEL, A Bookstore with Mary Melton, co-sponsored by The Journal of Alta California, Santa Monica. Watch the video here!

April 25: Listen to this interview with NPR’s Weekend Edition host Scott Simon: “‘Why We Swim’ Looks for Answers in People and Places across the Globe”

April 29: Listen to this interview with host Evan Ratliff on the Longform podcast: Episode #390: Bonnie Tsui

May 4: Reading Group Choices’ Book a Day Facebook Live chat with Bridget Quinn. Watch the video here!

May 8: World Open Water Swimming Association conversation with Kim Chambers, Antonio Argüelles, and Steven Munatones. Watch the video here!

May 26: Instagram Live with Zibby Owens for Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books. Watch the video here, and listen to the June 28 podcast episode here!

June 3: Berkeley City Club with Susan Helmrich of Swim Across America. Watch the video here!

June 25: Readings by Writers with Pam Houston, hosted by Writing x Writers. Watch the video here!

June 29: St. Louis County Library presents its Virtual Author Series. Watch here!

June 30: Lockdown Lit @ Lunch salon with Jennifer Steinhauer, presented by The Booksmith/ZYZZVA, San Francisco. Watch the video here!

July 18: Politics & Prose Live with Leanne Shapton, Washington, D.C. Watch the video here!

July 28: Los Angeles Times Book Club with James Rainey, L.A. Watch the video here!

August 6: Powells Books with Crissy Van Meter, Portland. Watch the video here!

October 11: Six Bridges Literary Festival with Eliza Borné, editor of the Oxford American, Little Rock.

October 24: Litquake Festival reading with the Writers Grotto, San Francisco. Watch the video here!

November 21: Kendal Mountain Literature Festival, in conversation with poet Polly Atkin, Lake District, U.K. Watch the interview here!

December 22: Brooklyn Public Library and Writers Rebel NYC present Climate Reads: Why We Swim with Leanne Shapton, Lidia Yuknavitch, and Anna Weber, New York.

2021

January 18, 2021: Listen to or watch this interview with Rich Roll on the Rich Roll podcast: Episode #574: Bonnie Tsui and Why We Swim.

January 22: AAJA Book Club, in conversation with Amy Wu, New York.

February 2: The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio UK, London. Listen here!

March 3: Listen to this episode of The Forum on the BBC World Service, Making Waves: The History of Swimming, with Bonnie, Kevin Dawson, Mikael Rosén, and Howard Means.

April 11: Interview and photo essay for the Apiece Apart WOMAN series here.

April 13: PAPERBACK LAUNCH! Interview with Mina Kim on KQED Forum here.

Plus: Chaucer’s Books with Caitlin Roper of The New York Times, Santa Barbara. Watch the video here!

April 14: The Daily Stoic podcast with Ryan Holiday, listen to the conversation here! And read the Q&A about Why We Swim here.

April 21: Bookshop Santa Cruz with Boston Marathon champ and *NEW 50K WORLD RECORD HOLDER Des Linden, Santa Cruz. Watch the video here!

April 22: Interview with Haley Chura and Alyssa Godesky of the IronWomen podcast, listen here!

April 27: Tattered Cover with Christopher McDougall, Denver. Watch the video here!

April 29: Bookshop West Portal with Rachel Levin, San Francisco. Watch the video here!

May 3: The Forum at Grace Cathedral with Dean Malcolm Young, San Francisco. Watch the video here!

May 4: Instagram Live with Phyllis Grant, Rachel Levin, and Chris Colin. Watch here!

May 5: Bay Area Book Festival presents a Writer to Writer conversation with Nathaniel Rich and Annalee Newitz, moderated by Bonnie.

May 11: SARAH AND THE BIG WAVE BOOK LAUNCH! Books Inc. with Sarah Gerhardt and illustrator Sophie Diao. Watch the video here!

May 25: Waterlog Reissue Celebration with Craig Popelars of Tin House and Pete Mulvihill of Green Apple Books, with special guest star Rufus Deakin! San Francisco. Watch the video here!

June 10: Sarah and the Big Wave is featured on KALW’s “New Arrivals.” Listen here!

June 16: Bonnie is profiled in the July/August issue of Harvard Magazine: “The Wave Rider.”

July 11: Authors on the Street presents a FREE, IN-PERSON OUTDOOR EVENT! Hosted by Charlie Jane Anders, Inner Sunset Flea Market, and Green Apple Books on the Park, San Francisco.

July 16: The Berkeley Public Library presents Children’s Author Talk: Bonnie Tsui, author of Sarah and the Big Wave.

July 23: On Day 1 of the Tokyo Olympics, four-time world champion surfer and gold-medal favorite Carissa Moore reads SARAH AND THE BIG WAVE for Warwick’s Books’ weekly storytime! Watch the video here!

Plus: Bonnie is featured in Outside magazine’s primer on Olympic sports debuts: “We love everything Bonnie Tsui writes about water sports.” Read more here!

Aug 1: Bonnie is featured in The Telegraph’s story about swimming and the Olympics for the UK paperback release of Why We Swim.

Aug 4: Interview with Bonnie about Sarah and the Big Wave, in the 2021 Waters of the West summer issue of Sunset magazine here.

Aug 12: Bonnie and Pop-Up Magazine senior producer Haley Howle appear at a special NightLife x Pop-Up Magazine event at the California Academy of Sciences, as the FIELD GUIDE audio experience and art project takes over.

Oct 14: Litquake Festival 2021 presents Bonnie in conversation with J.M. Thompson about his new book, Running Is a Kind of Dreaming.

Nov 16: Emma Watson selects Why We Swim as a COP26 Book Fairies selection for the U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow.

Nov 17: The San Francisco Chronicle’s Total SF Book Club presents its first LIVE, IN-PERSON event at the San Francisco Public Library! Bonnie is in conversation with The Chronicle’s Heather Knight and Peter Hartlaub.

2022

January 24, 2022: Bonnie interviews Bill Hayes about his new book, Sweat: A History of Exercise, in a virtual event with Green Apple Books in San Francisco. Watch the video here!

April 28: Podcast and photo essay for the Finisterre “Hell or High Water” series here.

July 7: In-store book reading and open conversation with Bonnie at Finisterre London! An evening of beers and cold water tales.

July 8: Bonnie swims with the historic Serpentine Swimming Club in Hyde Park, the oldest swimming club in Britain. Read the club swim report here!

August 18: Bonnie is a guest on the Looking Sideways podcast with Matt Barr. Listen to the episode here.

September 9: American Swim Coaches Association 54th Annual World Clinic, “Why We Swim” Open Water session with Aaron Peirsol, Steven Munatones, and Quinn Fitzgerald; Las Vegas.

October 7: Litquake Literary Festival presents Kidquake 2022! Bonnie presents Sarah and the Big Wave to SFUSD K-2 students at the Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch.

October 19: Bonnie performs live onstage for the San Francisco debut of Generation Women for Litquake at the Verdi Club.

October 20: As part of NEA’s Big Read, Bonnie hosts a conversation with Charles Yu, author of the National Book Award-winning novel Interior Chinatown, co-sponsored by the Mechanics’ Institute, Litquake, and the Chinese Historical Society of America. Video to come!

November 1: The Portland Book Festival presents a special episode of Literary Arts’ The Archive Project: “Keep Swimming” with Bonnie and Karen Eva Carr, moderated by Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Paul Marshall.

November 9: Bonnie is the guest speaker at this year’s MCDS Book Fair Literary Luncheon and fundraiser; Marin Country Day School, open to the public.