At The Page on the First Floor of the San Francisco Public Library, hear Savala Nolan discuss her essay collection Good Woman: A Reckoning in conversation with Christl Rikka Perkins. Through a blend of memoir, history and cultural critique, Nolan examines the pressures of gendered expectations and the cost of being “good,” exploring what it means to break free from these constraints. Book sales and signing to follow.
Gorgeous, badass, and practically waiting to pounce, Good Woman: A Reckoning is acclaimed essayist Savala Nolan’s follow-up to her “standout collection” (New York Times Book Review) Don't Let It Get You Down. A lifetime of playing by the rules of female social conditioning is not what it’s cracked up to be for Nolan. The years of making herself smaller (literally and metaphorically); the sexual advances that led to more than she wanted; the bad marriage she fought like hell to keep; all the ways others questioned her identity or choices and she let it slide to keep the peace; her silence when requested; her body when desired—none of it worked. None of it protected her the way it was advertised to.
Nolan noticed the same was true for the women around her and the women in history she read about. Across time and location, they were raised to be agreeable and “good.” Hyper-visible as sexual objects but invisible as full people. Living in a physical world created by men for men. Taking on the ultimate role of birth-giver and caretaker, yet seeing it remain an unsung act, even as it’s a God-like endeavor. Only in midlife did Nolan begin to realize she was capable of living outside these cages of conditioning so slyly insidious that they’re nearly invisible.
Good Woman elegantly probes the knotty conditions themselves, the costs of adhering to them and what happens when one refuses to comply. The twelve stunning and unforgettable essays blend memoir, reportage and history to create a collection that is alternately bold, brash and explosive ... and ravishingly tender, sensual and joyous. Nolan takes aim at big and old ideas, and she does not miss. Hers is a testimony to witness and to savor.
Savala Nolan is a writer, public speaker and professor at UC Berkeley. Her new book, Good Woman: A Reckoning, was named a Most Anticipated Feminist Book of 2026 by Ms. Magazine. Her first book, Don’t Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender and the Body, was shortlisted for the William Saroyan Prize and celebrated as a “standout collection” by the New York Times. Savala's writing has been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times, NPR, Essence, TIME and more.
Christl Rikka Perkins is a Black/Japanese writer and teacher living in Oakland, CA. She was a freelance writer and teacher in China for 8 years. She was published in Short Beasts, Half and One, God’s Cruel Joke Literary Magazine and other literary journals. Christl’s poetry was published in the WriteNow-SF anthology, Essential Truths: The Bay Area in Color. She has completed Body Mind Heart, her debut novel.