Featured

• Charif Shanahan and Airea D. Matthews
  Two poets, Stegner Fellow Charif Shanahan ("Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing," winner of the 2015 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award), and Airea D. Matthews ("Simulacra," winner of the 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets prize), read from their books.
• Nicole Krauss and Elizabeth Rosner
  Notoriously dubbed a "New Yiddishist" by Vanity Fair in 2009, and one of Granta's Best American Novelists Under 40, Nicole Krauss joins Elizabeth Rosner ("Electric City" and "Survivor Cafe") to read from and discuss her latest novel, "Forest Dark," which journeys between Brooklyn and Tel Aviv to examine what it means today to be Jewish-American.
• Jesmyn Ward with Julia Scheeres
  Jesmyn Ward, National Book Award winner in 2011 for "Salvage the Bones" and editor of the remarkable anthology "The Fire This Time," visits Booksmith to read from and discuss her haunting new novel "Sing, Unburied, Sing," which is reminiscent of Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying." Ward is joined in conversation by Julia Scheeres ("Jesus Land" […]
• Josephine Rowe
  Young Australian writer Josephine Rowe, author of the story collection "How a Moth Becomes a Boat," visits Green Apple Books on the Park to read from her new novel "A Loving, Faithful Animal." Rowe is in conversation with Berkeley-based Elizabeth Rosner ("Electric City"), whose "Survivor Cafe: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory" […]
• Tongo Eisen-Martin
  Tongo Eisen-Martin exploded onto the poetry and Bay Area literary scenes in 2015 with his debut collection "someone's dead already" (Bootstrap Press) and his singular performances therefrom, that combine revolutionary, fragmented poetics with a lyrical and understated presentation. His anticipated second book, "Heaven is All Goodbyes," is City Lights Books' Pocket Poet Series No. 61.
• Salman Rushdie with Michael Chabon
  Salman Rushdie, the charmed storyteller and internationally renowned author of the two-time Best of The Bookers Prize-winning "Midnight's Children" and "The Satanic Verses," the latter of which provoked controversy, protests, bans and a fatwa ordering Rushdie's execution, returns to City Arts & Lectures for a conversation with Michael Chabon ("Moonglow") in support of his new […]
• Bill Nye
  Booksmith presents the inimitable Bill Nye the Science Guy in conversation with Bay Area Science Fest organizer Kishore Hari for "Everything All At Once," a call to arms to examine the world's most difficult problems--from climate change to personal success--in more detail, until they prove solvable. Nye encourages curiosity, the desire for a better future […]
• Poetry in Parks 2017
  For the third year, California State Parks teams up with Quiet Lightning for Poetry in Parks, a free, daylong, all-ages arts festival featuring QL's signature submission-based literary mixtape and annual Neighborhood Heroes show, with live music, modern dance, interactive painting, kids' activities, food vendors and adult beverages.
• Matthew Zapruder with Natalie Baszile
  Author of the poetry collections "Sun Bear" and "Come On All You Ghosts" Matthew Zapruder reads from his new book of prose, "Why Poetry," which makes a passionate argument for a return to reading poetry. Wave Books editor and assistant professor at St. Mary's, he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the William Carlos Williams […]
• Achy Obejas
  Cuban-American Achy Obejas reads from her new story collection, "The Tower of the Antilles." Obejas won a USA Ford Fellowship for literature and translation and an NEA fellowship in poetry. She's written three novels, a poetry collection and two other story collections, edited and translated multiple anthologies, and received a Pulitzer Prize for her work […]