We are sad to report the passing of a very influential author and Women’s National Book Association member, Kathi Kamen Goldmark. Goldmark was a member of the San Francisco chapter, who described her as, “a wonderful spirit, a fabulous organizer, a fun loving and generous colleague and a beautiful woman.”
Photo Credit: www.rockbottomremainders.com
Kathi Kamen Goldmark was perhaps best known as the founder of The Rock Bottom Remainders, an all-author rock band including such authors as Stephen King, Amy Tan, Roy Blount, Jr., Matt Groening, and her husband, Sam Barry. The Rock Bottom Remainders is a charitable organization that donates funds to literacy programs, and was one of the many ways in which Goldmark gave back to her community. She was a celebrated author, writing the novel And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You, as well asco-authoring and contributing to various other books, such as Write That Book Already! and The Great Rock & Roll Joke Book. She also had her own record company, Don’t Quit Your Day Job. For her work with the Remainders, and her constant support of literacy and the literary community, Goldmark was awarded the WNBA Award in 2008.
A beloved member of the San Francisco literary community and the WNBA, Kathi Kamen Goldmark will be dearly missed. To learn more about her inspiring life, you can read the New York Times obituary here. Or, for more on Goldmark from the members of her own chapter, read “In Memoriam: Kathi Kamen Goldmark.”
I am shocked to hear that Kathi Kamen Goldmark has passed away. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard at a song as I did when she performed her ‘Older Than Him’ in New York when the Remainders played here in 2010. (You can see her perform it on YouTube.) As busy as she was, she still found time to give us an interview for The New York Bookwoman, which we will reprint in June’s issue.
My condolences to her family and friends for their loss.