Dave Eggers doesn't need a smartphone, the internet or your Flock camera

Dave Eggers does his best thinking on his bicycle. The San Francisco author, artist and literary activist rides an old British production bike that he picked up for $300 in North Beach. A few weeks back while riding between outdoor concerts in the Mission during SF Porchfest, inspiration struck. Without a pen and paper handy, he was stuck texting the idea to himself. The problem? Eggers doesn't own a smartphone.

"It takes 20 minutes to write a sentence," Eggers said.

It's a funny predicament for Eggers, given that he's arguably the city's biggest proponent of the written word.

Eggers is speaking with me at the offices of McSweeney's, a nonprofit publishing company on Valencia Street. It's run in the back of the International Library of Young Authors, which houses 2,000 works by people under the age of 18. To enter the offices, you walk through a secret door in the form of a mirrored armoire, then emerge into a room of wall-to-wall books that the imprint has published: issues of McSweeney's Quarterly shaped like trapper keepers, pocket-sized hardcover novellas from Eggers' "Forgetters" series, curious nonfiction titles like a reissue of a 100-year-old autobiography by the founder of Hollister, the San Benito County city now known for its annual biker rally.

Eggers moved to the Bay Area from Illinois in the early 1990s and started working as a graphic designer, then writing for Salon.com. In 2000, he released a memoir called "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He's since published in just about every medium you can imagine - a dozen novels, 20 children's books, short story collections, nonfiction works. He also co-founded the educational writing nonprofit 826 Valencia, which doubles as a store that sells pirate accessories.

Now age 56, Eggers' latest book is called "Contrapposto." Released this week, it follows childhood friends Cricket and Olympia as their lives intersect over the course of decades. Cricket is a principled artist who abhors the spotlight and commercialization, whereas Olympia has an uncanny ability to charm her way through the art world as a curator.

A visual artist himself, Eggers doesn't suffer from the same afflictions as Cricket. "I really have always been very comfortable with selling the pieces of paper that you've created art on to help pay for something," he said.

The book is a gripping treatise on artistic principles, friendship and the messy boundaries of platonic love. Pulitzer Prize-winning author and fellow SF resident Andrew Sean Greer called it "ravishing." By the end of the novel, you feel you've lived alongside the two characters as they've traveled across the globe from Indiana to Philadelphia, Turkey and Paris. Although it's truly just the story of two friends, the passage of time makes it feel grandiose in scope.

"I think that when you're my age, you definitely have a better grip on the whole sweep of life and what changes and doesn't change," he said. "And more importantly, how many things don't in terms of your oldest friends and how you relate to them."

On writing days, Eggers bikes to his sailboat docked near the Golden Gate Bridge. He writes using a hefty 1998 Mac that has never been connected to the internet. On the boat, he keeps "banker's hours," working 9 to 5 without any meetings or interruptions except for the occasional wildlife visit.

"You're there with the cormorants and the occasional porpoise and sea lions and seals, and when you want to take a break, you walk around and you're in the thick of it, one of the most beautiful spots on Earth," he said. "Especially coming from the Midwest, it never gets old."

Given Eggers' decidedly low-tech existence, it's not surprising that the current state of San Francisco gives him pause, but there's a streak of hope that underlies his concerns. He abhors the growing surveillance technology that's gripping the city, refusing to get into Ubers that use recording devices, but he feels a well-written ballot measure about Flock cameras could potentially save our dwindling privacy. ChatGPT's effects on the art of writing are demoralizing, but he welcomes that teachers are re-embracing pencil and paper, with cursive making a big comeback. The wave of artificial intelligence ads blanketing bus stops imploring companies to stop hiring humans are so over the top, they'd sound cliché if he were to include them in one of his dystopian tech industry novels like "The Circle" or "The Every," but tech philanthropy has helped many of his projects flourish.

Case in point, Art + Water, a new art space scheduled to open next year on Pier 29 funded largely by art world donations. Eggers stumbled onto the building, an enormous empty warehouse begging for a purpose, while biking down the Embarcadero. Co-founded with the artist JD Beltran, the space is slated to operate as an old-school apprenticeship system, hosting 10 artists in residence mentoring 20 students, all free of charge. There are also plans for rotating art shows, starting off with an exhibition of sets and props from Boots Riley's films, plus the unveiling of a large-scale wooden model of the city circa 1940. The ultimate goal is to break down the financial barriers that keep students from pursuing art.

"The costs have ballooned to an irrational place and a really stratifying place. ... It's super exclusionary, and it should be the most wide open and accepting," he said.

Creating an environment for art to flourish is something that Eggers is particularly adept at, with 826 Valencia as a prime example. It's grown into three locations, but the flagship remains on Valencia Street, with its pirate shop being a whimsical way to both skirt retail zoning regulations and establish a stigma-free environment that encourages creativity.

"Once you unleash the weird, then you're golden, you have kids that are passionate about reading and writing forever," he said.

The 826 Valencia offices in the Mission and Tenderloin have also given him greater appreciation of how those neighborhoods have changed - and remained the same - over time. Eggers is quick to point out his other favorite San Francisco places. He loves Golden Gate Park, noting his Newbury Award-winning children's novel "The Eyes and the Impossible" is set there. The waterfront is particularly important to him, as well, as are Crissy Field and the Presidio Tunnel Tops, which he calls one of the best urban projects in his lifetime. Ultimately, though, he's simply a San Francisco optimist at heart.

"There's really no part of the city that I don't love," he said.

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