Rene Pena-Govea's Estela, Undrowning In-Store Event/Book Signing for Teens
Saturday, March 21, 2026, 18:30 -
Saturday, March 21, 2026, 20:00
Event duration 1 hours
General Admission / Open Seating:
USD 0.00
About Rene Pena-Govea's Estela, Undrowning In-Store Event/Book Signing for Teens
Peña-Govea shares her riveting, uplifting, and unflinching story about the power of language and the courage it takes to face injustice
Join us at Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore on Saturday, March 21 at 6:30 PM when San Francisco author René Peña-Govea comes to the store to present her new novel for Young Adults Estela, Undrowing. René will be joined in conversation by Aida Salazar and will sign copies of her book after the presentation.
In her raw and resonant debut novel, René Peña-Govea seamlessly interweaves prose and poetry to uplift the power of language, the courage to fight injustice, and the complex beauty of finding your people—perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X and Carolina Ixta’s Shut Up, This is Serious.
Estela Morales is one of the only Latinas who tested into San Francisco’s most exclusive public high school. In her senior year, Estela just wants to keep her head down, eke out a passing grade from her racist Spanish teacher, and get into her dream college.
But after placing second in the Latiné Heritage Poetry Contest behind a non-Latino student, Estela is thrust into citywide debates about merit, identity, and diversity.
Things only get messier when her family is threatened with eviction. As Estela’s friends organize against bigotry and her landlady increases the pressure, Estela is suffocating and finds release only in poetry and in a breathless new romance. When tensions finally reach their breaking point, Estela must find a way to undrown the community she loves—and herself.
René Peña-Govea is a writer, educator, and musician born and raised in San Francisco. René published her first poem and released her first album at age fifteen, and since then, has been named a Publishers Weekly Spring 2026 Writer to Watch, an inaugural Bay Beats musician, a YBCA-100 Honoree, a Las Musas Hermana, an SFPL Brown-Handler Resident, a Creative-in-Residence at The Ruby, and a Nomadic Literary awardee. She works as a middle school librarian, and performs music with three generations of La Familia Peña-Govea and as René y Familia. Estela, Undrowning is her first novel.
Aida Salazar is an award-winning author, translator, and arts activist whose writings explore issues of identity and social justice. Her critically acclaimed verse novels and picture books have received over twenty five awards including an ALA Caldecott Honor, an ALA Pura Belpre Honor, The Malka Penn Human Rights in Children's Literature Award, The Américas Award, two Tomás Rivera Book Awards, a NSK Nuesdtat Finalist, several Gold Medal International Latino Book Awards among other distinctions. She lives with her family of artists in Oakland, CA.
THIS EVENT is free but registration is requested. Registration ends at 6:00 pm on March 21.
BECAUSE SEATING is limited, please register only if you plan to attend.
DUE TO SPACE limitations, we may not be able to accommodate every person at an event, so early registration is encouraged.
WALK-INS will be accommodated only if space allows.
WE ASK that attendees arrive between 6:15 and 6:30 PM for the event.
PLEASE leave your non-support companion animals at home.
OUR shared restrooms are not accessible after 6:30 PM, please plan accordingly.
Events Schedule
Saturday, March 21, 2026, 18:30
Saturday, March 21, 2026, 20:00
Event Categories
Book Signings
Community Connections
Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore
https://mrsdalloways.com/
2904 College Ave
Mrs. Dalloway’s is a vibrant, full-service, independent neighborhood bookstore located in the beautiful, historic Elmwood District of Berkeley. The store was founded in 2004 when longtime friends and residents of the Elmwood, Marion Abbott and Ann Leyhe, decided to pool their passions, talents, and resources. The store’s name derives from the first line of Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel, Mrs. Dalloway: “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.” In 2021, Marion and Ann decided that the time had come to retire and put the store up for sale. They chose Eric and Jessica Green as the best equipped to carry on the store’s legacy and the two of them took ownership on November 10th, 2021. With longtime publisher sales and retail buying and merchandising experience, Eric and Jessica have carried on the Mrs. Dalloway’s traditions and maintained the store’s attractive look-and-feel. Spacious and inviting, Mrs. Dalloway’s offers an exciting and diverse selection of titles—both comprehensive and contemporary—and is renowned for its skillfully curated fiction, non-fiction, poetry, garden book and children’s book sections, all of which feature a remarkable and relevant variety of rare and innovative small presses. The store also carries a variety of hand-selected merchandise geared to lifestyle, literature and gardening, a revolving art exhibition, and fresh plants. From the day we opened our doors, our bookstore fostered a sense of community. Today, Mrs. Dalloway’s hosts over 100 stellar in-store author events each year, serving as a dynamic cultural center and resource for its neighborhood, its ever-expanding and devoted customer base, and as an outreach to the San Francisco Bay Area literary community. Mrs. Dalloway’s outgoing and talented booksellers are passionate about reading, love to share their eclectic tastes with illuminating staff picks, and are most happy when engaged in book talk.