Elif Batuman, author of The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them (2010), was working on a book inspired by a Chekhov…
Quiet Lightning presents their 105th show at Edinburgh Castle,curated by Meghan Thornton + Olga Zilberbourg and performed live on Mar 6, 2017: Peggy Schimmelman » Jenny Xie » Logan…
Shortly after Dixie De La Tour moved to the Bay Area, she received an invitation that would change her life. “I used to have a…
Quiet Lightning presents their 104th show at The Stud Bar, curated by Josey Rose and Christine No and performed live on Feb 6, 2017: Joe Wadlington Heather Bourbeau Peter Bullen…
In 2006, Kim Rosen arrived at the Tasaru Safe House in Narok, Kenya, and stood before a group of Maasai girls who had run away…
Disaster has long been an obsession for Oakland poet Madison Davis, whose debut book of that name is out this week from Bay Area press…
On January 15, Bay Area Writers Resist, in solidarity with Writers Resist groups around the world, hosted a night of readings and recommitment to Democracy—a benefit…
Ingrid Rojas Contreras and Jeremiah Barber were sitting on their couch, horrified by Donald Trump’s 100-day plan. “It occurred to us that he’s such a…
Quiet Lightning presents their 103rd show outside the Montgomery Street BART Station, curated by Evan Karp + Kate Folk and performed live on Jan 2, 2017: A.D. Winans…
From the website: 100 Days Action is a counternarrative to Trump’s one hundred day plan. A calendar of activist and artistic strategy, 100 Days Action…
In the midst of a feud with the poet Denise Levertov about the possibilities of politically motivated art, George Oppen wrote his only essay, “The…
An interview with Matt Carney, from The Write Stuff series: What’s your biggest struggle—work or otherwise? Excess. If someone said I want to do what you do, what…
Quiet Lightning presents their 102nd show at the Tenderloin Museum, curated by Josey Rose Duncan + Jonathan Carroll and performed live on Dec 5, 2016, QL’s seven year anniversary show: Rohan DaCosta…
Cleve Jones’ new memoir, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement, begins with a single-sentence paragraph: “The movement saved my life.” “That’s not rhetoric,…
For two months in 1913, the San Francisco Bulletin published daily installments of the autobiography of an anonymous prostitute the paper called Alice Smith. Her…
Quiet Lightning presents their 101st show at The American Bookbinders Museum, curated by Kelsey Schimmelman + Christine No and performed live on Nov 7, 2016: Wesley Cohen josé vadi Kate Ambash…
It started with the simple, perhaps under-asked question: “Wouldn’t it be fun if we did something really crazy?” So said City Lights events director Peter…
In the beginning of her first book, House A (Omnidawn), Jennifer S. Cheng writes: “It is important to note that before language, children experience memories…
Now in its 17th year, Litquake began when a group of friends organized an afternoon of readings in Golden Gate Park. Over the years, it’s…
Born in Ecuador, Mauro Javier Cardenas planned to return home after receiving an education in the United States, with the intention of changing the political…
Litquake runs Oct. 6-15 and begins with an opening-night gala celebrating 400 years of Shakespeare, with poet Gary Soto, harpist Shelley Phillips and a special…
Shortly after winning the 2013 National Book Award for her second collection of poems, Incarnadine, Portland’s Mary Szybist told the Paris Review that she started…
An interview with Zach Wyner, from The Write Stuff series: Zach Wyner is a writer and teacher who works with incarcerated youth in the San Francisco Bay Area. HIs debut novel,…
Quiet Lightning presents their 99th show at PianoFight, a launch for their Kickstarter curated by Chris Cole, Kelsey Schimmelman, Christine No, & Evan Karp and performed live on Sept 12,…
In a tribute to the life and work of Justin Chin, who died late last year at age 46, Jennifer Joseph of Manic D Press…
