Dave Eggers didn’t know what to do with all the books gathering dust in his garage. These weren’t copies of the bestselling author’s award-winning books — though surely some of those were lying around too. These were books written by 6- to 18-year-olds from San Francisco and around the world, and Eggers felt pretty strongly that someone should be reading them.
So in September, he soft-launched the International Library of Youth Writing, which sits at the front of the headquarters of his publishing house McSweeney’s on Valencia Street, across from 826 Valencia, the youth writing center he founded 22 years ago. The library features the works of children and children only. No grown-ups allowed.
“It’s, as far as we know, the only one of its kind: a library that consists only of books written by young people,” Eggers said when The Standard visited Thursday for the official launch.
But these are not, for the most part, hand-made zines. They are high-quality paperback books, beautifully produced and published through the 826 Valencia network, which has grown into an international consortium of quirky spaces devoted to fostering a love of writing in children.
The International Library of Youth Writing is a space that both celebrates kids and lets them hang out and feel inspired, Eggers said. When they see that the books inside the library were written by other young people, they are often shocked; once that feeling wears off, they realize that they, too, could write a book.
A group of second-graders couldn’t believe all the books were by children. “They were like, ‘What? What’s their deal? What’s so special about them?’” curator Jade Howe said. She explained to them, “They’re kids like you, kids that like to write!” At the end of that visit, Howe and Eggers invited the class to leave copies of the group book they had made with their teacher at the library. “You guys are now published writers in an official library,” Howe said. The kids were astounded.
“The library will be sort of a document of how young people felt [about] this time,” Eggers said. “If you don’t publish these books, if you don’t codify their thinking at that time, if you don’t honor it in a way that it’s going to be sustained, then it also just disappears, you know?”
The library took over the space from Refugee Eye, a gallery that gave up its claim last summer (though Eggers said gallerist Lara Aburamadam will continue to show art at the library). It is cozy and small, with a velvet couch from Community Thrift and a bunch of Persian rugs and throw pillows for kids to curl up on while reading the words of their peers.
But the plan is to go bigger. The middle section of the McSweeney’s space is vacant, after NoisePop, which runs a popular concert series, vacated for bigger digs elsewhere in the city. The library will expand to fill the space in early 2025.
“It’ll look rich and warm and quiet. It’ll kind of have the vibe of an old university library,” Eggers says. It will also serve as an extension of 826 Valencia, allowing kids to pop by after school, with or without their parents (so long as they have permission), and make themselves at home. They can do schoolwork, read, and interact with adult volunteers from 826 Valencia. “Let’s say the house is loud,” says Eggers. “Let’s say you’ve got siblings that are bugging you. You can come in and do your homework.”
To fund the expansion, Eggers has made a bunch of limited-edition prints of his drawings that will be sold at the library. “These are my first foray back into printmaking since, like, high school,” he said. Extra copies of books are also available for sale.
And if any local kids have written books they want to contribute, Eggers and Howe invite them to drop them off. They will be proudly displayed at the official International Library of Youth Writing.