Book Launch: Odyssey in San Jose《圣荷奥德赛》
🌊 Book Launch: Odyssey in San Jose《圣荷奥德赛》
📍 Location: Now Place 此间 | 679 Clay St, San Francisco
📅 Date: Sunday, Sept 21, 2–5 PM
💰 RSVP required: $10 deposit
(The credit can go toward the purchase of the book 🛍️)
📦 Limited first-edition copies will be available at the event
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📖 What is Odyssey in San Jose?
A bilingual, riso-printed, and hand-bound book in three volumes.
Written by Buwa 布瓦, designed and illustrated by Akaa Ling 阿卡, and typeset by Qi An 齐谙, this project marks the very first title from Now Press 此书, the publishing imprint of Now Place 此间.
How do we live slowly in a land built for speed?
This question echoes through the pages of Odyssey in San Jose, a handmade bilingual artbook composed of 6 poems and 1 fiction, collaboratively created by Now Press 此书 and Buwa 布瓦 — a Chinese writer whose journey from Baltimore to San Jose traces the gentle negotiations between self-preservation and creation.
At the heart of Odyssey in San Jose lies a soft defiance —
a lyrical resistance to urgency, to distance, to the cold logic of reproducibility.
“Even if it means driving for a while, we still go for a walk.”
In a world that demands acceleration, walking becomes a sacred act:
to pause, to reflect, to remember.
In Buwa’s words: “Lyricism stays irreproducible.”
From the dislocation of migration to the everyday stubbornness of creating —
this book is an ode to the in-between, the halfway homes we build through language, friendship, and print.
🌿 Each copy is hand-bound, Riso printed, and folded with care.
🧷 Exposed stitches speak of the labor and trust behind the scenes.
📚 The book comes as a 3-volume set, housed in a sleeve —
like fragments of a journey gathered gently in both hands.
“When words tangle, we go for a walk.” — Buwa
“To make ferns grow from the cracks in a book spine —
that is the meaning of independent publishing.” — Akaa
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🌀 What to Expect
📚 Live Reading by Buwa 布瓦
🎤 Artist Talk with Shiran 石然, Buwa 布瓦, and Akaa 阿卡 — on the making of the book, place-making, and friendship
(This talk will be bilingual 中英双语)
🧵 Behind-the-scenes Process Table
🗺️ A shared Bay Area map of displacements and quiet reflection spaces
💬 Slow time, and conversations in the margins
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💌 Who is this for?
This event is for those living in-between.
Readers, zine lovers, writers, diaspora wanderers, artists, introverts, soft revolutionaries, and friends of independent publishing.
It’s for anyone learning how to pause, how to create, how to resist the rush — and how to honor the strange beauty of hand-bound books stitched with memory and care.
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📚 About the Book
Title: Odyssey in San Jose《圣荷奥德赛》
Format: 3-book set | 80 pages total
Language: English + 中文
Printing: Risograph + Digital
Binding: Hand-bound, limited first edition
🛍️ Available for purchase onsite or online after the launch:
nowplacesf.com/shop
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🪷 We hope this book finds its way to your hands — and heart.
🌁 See you on 9.21 at Now Place 此间.