Litseen

Clark Coolidge
2017-05-22 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States
Moe’s welcomes poet, musician and old friend Clark Coolidge in celebration of two new releases, Selected Poems 1962-1985 (Barrytown/Station Hill Press) and The Circus (Flow Press).
Clark Coolidge is the author of more than forty books, including SELECTED POEMS: 1962-1985, Space, Solution Passage, The Crystal Text, At Egypt, NOW IT’S JAZZ: WRITINGS ON KEROUAC & THE SOUNDS, THE ACT OF PROVIDENCE, and most recently 88 SONNETS and A BOOK BEGINNING WHAT AND ENDING AWAY. In 2011 he edited a collection of Philip Guston’s writings and talks for University of California Press. Initially a drummer, he was a member of David Meltzer’s Serpent Power in 1967 and Mix group in 1993-94. Currently he has returned to active drumming with Thurston Moore and the free jazz band Ouroboros.

Peter Cole w/ Matthew Zapruder
2017-05-22 19:30 - 21:30 | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Praise for Peter Cole:
“A matchless translator and one of the handful of authentic poets in his own American generation. Hymns & Qualms is a majestic work, a chronicle of the imaginative life of a profoundly spiritual consciousness.” — Harold Bloom
“His vivid, sonorous English translations of secular and mystical Hebrew verse that was previously neglected or regarded as esoteric, parochial, or simply too difficult have remade the American Jewish canon.” — Joshua Cohen, The Paris Review

Amber Flame w/ Arisa White
2017-05-22 19:30 - 21:30 | The Booksmith, 1644 Haight St, San Francisco , CA, 94117, United States
Booksmith is excited to host Amber Flame for the San Francisco launch of her debut poetry collection,Ordinary Cruelty! With Amber will be the poet Arisa White—please join us!
In Ordinary Cruelty, Flame spells out rituals in everyday decisions to hold on or let go. While questioning the role of elder, mentor, mother in the face of losing those figures, Flame details the unrelenting nature of parenthood through the cycles of grief. Her poems rejoice in the brown skin of the female body, while soberly acknowledging the societal dangers of claiming such skin as home. Flame takes the reader through a visceral examination of the body’s processes of both dying and continuing to live and the joy to be found while we do.
An award-winning writer, composer and performer, Amber Flame is also a professional singer, Hedgebrook alum, and member of The Watering Hole tribe. Flame’s original work has been published and recorded in diverse arenas, including Def Jam Poetry, Winter Tangerine, The Dialogist, Split This Rock, Black Heart Magazine, Sundress Publications, Redivider Journal and more. A Jack Straw Writer and recipient of the CityArtist grant from Seattle’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, Flame’s first full-length collection, Ordinary Cruelty is just out with Write Bloody Press. Flame works with a Black independent media company, This Week in Blackness, co-produces the Oakland Slam, and teaches workshops for all ages. Amber Flame is a queer Black single mama just one magic trick away from growing her unicorn horn.
Arisa White is a Cave Canem fellow, a graduate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of the books Disposition for Shininess,dear Gerald, and Black Pearl. Her most recent book is the full length poetry collection You’re The Most Beautiful Thing That Happened (Augury Books, 2016.)

Bay Area Generations #45
2017-05-22 19:00 - 21:30 | Hotel Rex, 562 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA, 94102, United States
May 22 in San Francisco, California at Hotel Rex

Guest Curator: Teri Lee Kline
Bay Area Generations Curators: Sandra Wassilie + Amos White
READERS
TBA

MUSICAL GUEST
TBA

BAY AREA GENERATIONS, EDITION #45
Monday, May 22, 2017
at Hotel Rex, 562 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA
* Free On-street After 6pm * Full bar and menu * Walkable from BART
6:30 p.m. – Writers Mixer at the bar
7:00 p.m. – Doors open to Public
7:30 p.m. – Show Starts
Suggested donation $7.00 (admission), $10.00 with a souvenir chapbook
Directions Hotel Rex is located in San Francisco at 562 Sutter Street, SF, CA, near Union Square, and walkable from BART. Hotel Rex is a full service hotel offering a full bar and kitchen.. Map, Event Page.
Bay Area Generations: a literary reading series features notable authors, poets, writers, playwrights and musicians in a paired reading show, monthly.
Web: www.bayareagenerations.com
FB Page: www.facebook.com/bayareagenerations
Twitter: www.twitter.com/bayareagenerati
BAG Events: www.facebook.com/events
Literary and Poetry Submissions: www.bayareagenerations.com/how-to-submit/

Cole Swensen
2017-05-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Alley Cat Books, 3036 24th St, San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
Nightboat books presents legendary poet Cole Swensen reading from her new book “Walking On.” Additional readers include Susan Gevirtz and more TBA.

Poetry Reading: Kassidat
2017-05-21 16:00 - 18:00 | Adobe Books, 3130 24th St., San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
An afternoon of Bay Area poetry, hosted by Bloodflower.

Alan Fleishman
2017-05-21 15:00 - 17:00 | Belmont Library, 1110 Alamade de las Pulgas, Belmont, CA, 94002, United States
Local author Alan Fleisman shares his new work of historical fiction, Odyssey of Chaos: And Other Stories. With the Gestapo pounding on every door, no Jew in Athens is safe. At the start of Odyssey of Chaos, Theo Kantos, a dress shop owner, has a desperate choice to make if he is to save his family. Does he trust the most despicable man he knows to hide them? Or does he place the lives of those he loves in the hands of a communist? And what does he do about his obsti-nate brother who always has to have the last word? Nearly 90% of Greece’s Jews perished in the Holocaust, the highest percentage lost in any country. Odyssey of Chaos was inspired by the true story of the author’s Greek cousins who survived hidden in a cellar by a shepherd. Other cousins joined the partisan resistance. And others died in Auschwitz. Six contemporary stories follow the title novella. All are about dramatic events and choices that alter the course of lives and form who we are.

Sydney Clemens
2017-05-21 14:00 - 15:30 | Bird & Beckett Books and Records, 653 Chenery St, San Francisco , CA, 94131, United States
Sydney Gurewitz Clemens is an author of books for adults about helping children grow. She has given workshops for parents and teacher in 41 states, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Nagoya, Japan.
A survivor of cancer, she has written a cycle of poetry about that struggle; an activist, she writes about those thing that need to be done, or congratulated.
A Q&A period and an open mic will follow Sydney’s reading.

Poets @ Play
2017-05-21 13:00 - 16:00 | Edwin Markham House in History Park, 1650 Senter Road, San Jose, 95112, United States
Free parking in the Staff/Volunteer lot on Phelan Avenue.
Please enter History Park from the Phelan Avenue side.
Questions? Call 408-368-0353
RSVP recommended but not required: poetsatplay@pcsj.org
With this month’s leader Pushpa MacFarlane.

Oakland Book Festival 2017
2017-05-21 11:00 - 18:00 | Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaze, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Oakland Book Festival
Free and open to the public
Read. Debate. Celebrate.

Oakland Book Festival
Sunday, May 21, 2017, 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland CA

One day – Seven Hours – 100 Writers – 50 Events
The Oakland Book Festival hosts over 100 novelists, poets, historians, philosophers, journalists, editors, and activists at City Hall, engaging event goers in panels, interviews, and open debate. This year’s Festival will feature Angela Davis, Judith Butler, Danielle Allen, Jeff Chang, Arlie Hochschild, Sheryl Oring, Mistah F.A.B, Wendy Brown, Ishmael Reed, Laura Albert and Anthony Marra (among many others).

Children’s Area – Music – Booksellers – Food
The outdoor portion of the festival, on Frank Ogawa Plaza, includes a dedicated children’s area with performances from Children’s Fairyland, “favorite-stories” read by librarians from the Oakland Public Library, and book-making projects courtesy of Chapter 510. Oakland Youth Poet Laureate will be announced on the amphitheater at 1:00pm.

There will be live music on the amphitheater all day. Booksellers, magazine publishers and local literary organizations will have booths on the plaza; food trucks will provide nourishment.

And don’t miss …

Keynote Address
When: Saturday, May 20, 2017, 5:00pm
Where: Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland CA
The Oakland Book Festival 2017 will kick off with a keynote address on “Equality” by Danielle Allen at 5pm on Saturday May 20th in Council Chambers at Oakland City Hall. This event is free and open to the public.

Opening night Party
When: Saturday May 20, 6:30pm
Where: Starline Social Club, 2236 M.L.K. Jr Way, Oakland, CA 94612
The Starline Social Club will host a gala reception for the OBF from 6:30-8pm. This is an opportunity for you to meet the novelists, journalists, philosophers, poets, artists, and editors participating this year, from Danielle Allen to Sheryl Oring to Mistah F.A.B., privately and in person, over the Starline’s delicious cocktails and food—all while supporting the Oakland Book Festival’s present and future efforts!
Please purchase tickets for the OBF gala here. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/975549984/2017-oakland-book-festival?ref=project_share

The event at the Starline will continue with a general admission party starting at 8pm. There will be mercifully few readings, many musical performances, and non-stop dancing from 8pm-2am.

Social Media Information:

Website
http://www.oaklandbookfestival.org/

Facebook
We hope you will tag us on Facebook (Oakland Book Festival)
The Festival event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/268851293569074/
The Festival Facebook page: http://bit.ly/obf-event

Twitter and Instragm
On Twitter, find us @oaklandbookfest
Instagram @oaklandbookfestival.
For any posts on the day of the Festival, please tag them #oaklandbookfestival.

Kickstarter
http://kck.st/2qthU3p

Norman Zelaya
2017-05-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Galería de la Raza, 2857 24th Street, San Francisco , CA, 94110, United States
Book Launch: Orlando & Other Stories by Norman Zelaya
Saturday, May 20, 2017

Join us in celebration for the book launch of Orlando & Other Stories, a collection of poetry by Norman Zelaya published by Pochino Press.

Pochino Press is proud to present Orlando & Other Stories, a collection of short stories by Nicaraguan American writer Norman Zelaya. Passionately writing about the highs and lows of the human experience, he skillfully weaves in the diversity of the San Francisco Bay in a way that highlights the uniqueness of the region, but touches on our common humanity. No stone goes unturned. The layers of gentrification, love, substance abuse, violence, friendship, and religion are given a human face in this powerful dedication to the everyday people of his beloved Mission District.

About the author:

Norman Antonio Zelaya was born and raised in San Francisco, CA. He has published stories in ZYZZYVA, NY Tyrant, 14 Hills, Cipactli, Apogee Journal, among others, and he was a 2015 Zoetrope: All-Story finalist. He is a founding member of Los Delicados, and has performed extensively throughout the US with them. Zelaya has appeared on stage, in film and in the squared circle as luchador, Super Pulga. Currently, he lives and works in San Francisco’s Mission District as a special education teacher. Orlando & Other Stories is his first published book.

Revolutionary Poets Against Fascism
2017-05-20 18:30 - 21:00 | Alley Cat Books, 3036 24th St, San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
POETS AND MUSICIANS AGAINST FASCISM!NOTABLE POETS AND MUSICIANS WILL COME TOGETHER IN THIS, THE SECOND IN A SERIES OF EVENTS TO EXPRESS OUR SHARED SOLIDARITY AS WE DECLARE “ALL ARE WELCOME HERE!”
FEATURED ARTISTS INCLUDE:
*ALFREDO GOMEZ–GUITAR AND VOCALS ( ACCLAIMED MISSION BASED MUSICIAN/RECORDING ARTIST)
* MAURO FORTISSIMO–PIANO, POETRY AND SONG (OF “TWELVE PIANOS” FILM)
*ALEJANDRO MURGUIA, POET LAUREATE
*JACK HIRSCHMAN, EMERITUS POET LAUREATE
* CHRISTINA GUITEREZ THE “MOTHER WARRIOR” OF THE FRISCO FIVE HUNGER STRIKERS, LIFELONG MISSION ACTIVIST
AND THE FOLLOWING POETS:
*CHITO CUELLAR
*MAURISSA THOMPSON
*DOTTIE PAYNE
*MAHNAZ BADIHIAN
*ROSEMARY MANNO
*DAVID KUBRIN
*FRANCISCO ORREGO
*SARAH MENEFEE
***FOOD AND LIBATIONS OFFERED***
***************************************
THIS FREE EVENT IS SPONSORED BY THE REVOLUTIONARY POETS BRIGADE AND THE JUANA BRIONES CULTURAL COMMITTEE

Mike Marinacci Reads
2017-05-20 14:00 - 16:00 | Florey’s Book Co., 2120 Palmetto Ave., Pacifica, CA, 94044, United States
Author Mike Marinacci will read from, and sign his book CALIFORNIA JESUS: A (Slightly) Irreverent Guide to the Golden State’s Christian Sects, Evangelists, and Latter-Day Prophets (Berkeley: Ronin Publishing – ISBN 978-1-57951-230-9) on Saturday, May 20th, from 2-4pm, at Florey’s Book Co., 2120 Palmetto Ave., Pacifica, CA.
The author of several titles about California’s more unusual cultural byways, Mike will read from this book about Golden State’s strangest and most unorthodox Christian groups and leaders, and discuss how their sometimes-scandalous and always-colorful doings affected not only the region, but worldwide religious history and practices.
Copies of the book will be available at Florey’s for purchase, and will be signed by the author. Believers, skeptics, and the merely curious alike are encouraged to stop by this landmark Pacifica business for a unique view of an eccentric spiritual subculture and its saintly and sinful inhabitants.

Megan Miranda
2017-05-20 13:00 - 14:00 | Book Passage Marin, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd. , Corte Madera, CA, 94925, United States
In The Perfect Stranger, the masterful follow-up to the runaway hit All the Missing Girls, a journalist sets out to find a missing friend, a friend who may never have existed at all.
Confronted by a restraining order and the threat of a lawsuit, failed journalist Leah Stevens needs to get out of Boston when she runs into an old friend, Emmy Grey, who has just left a troubled relationship. Emmy proposes they move to rural Pennsylvania, where Leah can get a teaching position and both women can start again. But their new start is threatened when a woman with an eerie resemblance to Leah is assaulted by the lake, and Emmy disappears days later.
Determined to find Emmy, Leah cooperates with Kyle Donovan, a handsome young police officer on the case. As they investigate her friend’s life for clues, Leah begins to wonder: did she ever really know Emmy at all? With no friends, family, or a digital footprint, the police begin to suspect that there is no Emmy Grey. Soon Leah’s credibility is at stake, and she is forced to revisit her past: the article that ruined her career. To save herself, Leah must uncover the truth about Emmy Grey—and along the way, confront her old demons, find out who she can really trust, and clear her own name.
Everyone in this rural Pennsylvanian town has something to hide—including Leah herself. How do you uncover the truth when you are busy hiding your own?
Megan Miranda is the author of several books for young adults, including Fracture, Hysteria, Vengeance, and Soulprint. She grew up in New Jersey, attended MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children. Her novels for adults include All the Missing Girls and Watch Me Go.

Gina Gold's Sex Worker Confidential + Cinnamon Maxxine Late Show
2017-05-19 20:00 - 23:30 | Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, 410 14th St, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
This evening the Opening Night of the 10th Biennial Sex Worker Festival, we present two fantastic shows!
8PM – 10PM Gina Gold’s TMI: Sex Worker Confidential and
10:15 PM Cinnamon Maxxine, Fierce Solid Gold Warrior Diva
More about:
Gina Gold’s TMI: Sex Worker Confidential
An incredible evening of drama, comedy and insight as sex workers tell true, personal stories about their experience in the exotic dance, escort, porn industries and more, hosted by former phone sex operator and stripper Gina Gold.
Soul food buffet, Sex Worker Festival Opening Party with full bar, music and more.

More on Gina Gold at Sex Worker Fest Opening Night
The Festival opens with this topical edition of Gina Gold’s storytelling series. Join us for this evocative theme as sex workers educate and seduce you. Learn our skills and tricks as we survive and build community with others who are also targets in these harrowing times. Then stick around for a whole night of fun, humor and further destruction of stereotypes at this Sex Worker Festival opening event, with full bar plus $10 extra for Geoffrey’s Inner Circle Buffet (the best soul food buffet in the bay (greens, fish, chicken, Louisiana ‘tata salad, the works!) followed by a provocative Late Show with Cinnamon Maxxine and much more.
More on Cinnamon Maxxine:
Cinnamon Maxxine, Fierce Solid Gold Warrior Diva
The Sex Worker Festival’s opening night presents peformer and, activist Cinnamon Maxxine, presenting work that spans genres of burlesque and performance art. Heady and sexy, angry and juicy, bold and intimate, Cinnamon, a self-identified “naked brown, fat, curvy, queer, big booty, space perv, fierce solid gold warrior diva” explores expectations and challenges boundaries of politics of gender, size, art and race. Join us for this Sex Worker Festival opening night with full bar, Geoffrey’s Inner Circle Soul Food Buffet and much more. Come early for Gina Gold’s “Sex Worker Confidential” story telling.
“I’m tired of the fact that pale skin, blond hair, and straight bodies (as in size), are seen as the most desirable and therefore worth more and than mine. It’s bullshit,” says Cinnamon.
Maxxine’s performances are always a surprise and always offer a new insights in the intersection of politics and aesthetics–Heady and sexy, angry and juicy, bold and intimate, Cinnamon, a self-identified “naked brown, fat, curvy, queer, big booty, space perv, fierce solid gold warrior diva” explores expectations and challenges boundaries of politics of gender, size, art and race.
Her unabashed courage is one of the backbones of our community. Queer porn fans know her as a super hot diva, an outstanding favorite who you can always count for super intense, hot scenes. Political whores look to her for guidance. Her performance is a meld of raw eroticism, burlesque and performance art.
A dedicated artist Maxine scales the terrain of taboo topics and representations: “Even still in the queer porn, queer sex worker, and queer adult work communities where everyone wants to talk about inclusion. fat people and black people are still less included than white people thin people. They’re less popular. ”
Read more in an interview by Chris Hall “Q&A With Cinnamon Maxxine: A Fat Black Sex Worker Speaks Out” https://the-orbit.net/literateperversions/cinnamon-maxxine/
Cinnamon will also be part of Wednesday May 24, evening panel on Sex Worker and Mental Health at the Women’s Building, hosted by Laure McElroy.
Sex Worker Fest Opening Night Party with full bar, music and soul food buffet. Party!
Tickets $10-40 (includes both May 19 shows) Sliding Scale/NOTAFLOF/
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Gina Gold is a humorist, filmmaker and stage artist. She grew up in a New York neighborhood thinking “oy vey” was something all black people said. Inspired by comedians like Carol Burnett and Lewis CK, Gina boldly pokes fun at her own idiosyncrasies as a Jewish African-American Bay Area native who is really from Queens. At the age of thirteen Gina attended The American Academy Of Dramatic Arts and later wrote her own one woman shows before venturing into filmmaking. She launched her own show on a New York cable access channel. Calling it “The Gina Gold Show,” she filled the airtime with comedic, sometimes surreal, Saturday Night Live-style sketches and short films. After telling a story called Hands Up on NPR’s radio show Snap Judgment, Gina fell in love with storytelling and started her own series called TMI (Too Much Information ) which she currently produces. TMI features a rotating cast of storytellers giving an unadulterated, often hardcore look at life. She is also on tour in a show called You’re Funny But You Don’t Look Jewish, a touring stand up comedy show with some very funny African American, Indian, Italian American and Vietnamese Jewish comedians.Also visit The Gina Gold Show http://theginagoldshow.com/
Cinnamon Maxxine is a Bay Area original. Born and raised in Oakland, Cinnamon Maxxine is determined to be an advocate for those who are typically left under-represented. From people of color to people of size to people with invisible disabilities and trauma. Cinnamon Maxxine seeks to give those communities a voice.

Flash Fiction Forum Reading
2017-05-19 19:00 - 21:00 | 364 S. Market St., 364 S. Market St., San Jose, CA, 95113, United States
Flash Fiction Forum reading.

Flash Fiction Forum Reading
2017-05-19 19:00 - 21:00 | 364 S. Market St., 364 S. Market St., San Jose, CA, 95113, United States
Flash Fiction Forum Reading Series event.

At The Inkwell Reading Series
2017-05-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Alley Cat Books, 3036 24th St, San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
At The Inkwell returns with its usual variety of tender mayhem.

MARY: A Journal of New Writing Print Issue Release Party
2017-05-19 19:00 - 21:00 | The Octopus Literary Salon, 2101 Webster St #170, Oakland , CA, 94612, United States
On Friday, May 19th, MARY: A Journal of New Writing will be holding a release party for the latest print edition of MARY Journal!
Join us from 7pm – 9pm at Octopus Literary Salon in Oakland, California for a night of celebration and literary readings.
Featured readers include Matthew Zapruder, Arisa White, Brontez Purnell, Meg Elison, Cesca Waterfield, Emily Vizzo, and Nicoleta Leontiades. Dramatic readings of MARY Journal published works by Genre Editors: Katie Walker, Jennifer Burnside, and Paola Vergara.

Uptown Fridays Presents: Denise Benavides + Trey "Drow Flow" Amos
2017-05-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Nomadic Press: Uptown, 2301 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Join us for an Uptown Fridays reading you won’t forget, featuring readings by Shideh Etaat and Ingrid Rojas Contreras, with music by Phillip Michael Hermans.
Suggested donations of $5-25 collected at the door, but no one turned away for lack of funds.
Red wine and Red Bay coffee will be available.
Information about performers:
Denise Benavides is an Oakland based queer xicana performance artist, poet, and radical educator sharing her work with urgency—using the stage/page to confront themes of xenophobia, relocation, sexuality, religion, and love. Always, love. She writes to document, to archive, and to hold space for what has been lost—most of all, she writes for the women in her family. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and a Bachelor’s of Arts in English from Mills College. Her debut collection of poetry, Split, was released in the fall of 2016 by Kórima Press.
Trey “Drow Flow” Amos is a poetic emcee originally from Nashville, Tn by way of Chicago. He is a nationally recognized performer and teaching artist. He has shared stages with artists and public figures such as Talib Kweli, Dr. Cornel West, Saul Williams, Lemon, Mick Jenkins and more. Trey is currently working as a Poet Mentor Fellow at Youth Speaks, Inc.
Musical Guest Meaghan Owens is an Americana Roots performer with three critically acclaimed albums: “No Whiskey in a Good Girl’s River”; “Gun Shy of a Kiss” and the recent “Bounty on my Heart.” She has been a whirlwind nomad for the past two years with stops in Maui, Colorado and currently, a brief stint in San Francisco.

Jennifer Finney Boylan
2017-05-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Books Inc. Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness, San Francisco , CA, 94107, United States
Nationally recognized civil rights advocate and New York Times-bestselling author Jennifer Finney Boylan discusses her new work of fiction, Long Black Veil.
Review Quotes:
Praise for Long Black Veil
“This is Boylan’s best book. It’s one of the most eloquent pleas for empathy and moral imagination I’ve ever encountered.
RICHARD RUSSO, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Nobody’s Fool
“In the tradition of Donna Tartt, Jennifer Finney Boylan has crafted a thriller that’s intellectual, existential, and compulsively readable. If change is the only constant in life, how much can a person reinvent himself and still be the same? Long after the last page is turned, you will be thinking about the nature of identity, the pull of the past, and whether you can ever outrun the person you used to be.
JODI PICOULT, New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and Leaving Time
Jennifer Finney Boylan rewards her fans with a riveting whodunit.The plot shapeshifts along with the unforgettable characters–including a woman whose family could be dismantled by her long-buried secrets. All this is rendered in Jenny’s signature hilarious, wise and wise-assed prose. Bravo, Boylan, bring us another one!
MARY KARR, New York Times bestselling author of Liar s Club, Lit and Cherry

Sarah Gailey
2017-05-19 18:00 - 20:30 | Borderlands Books, 866 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
Sarah Gailey’s wildfire debut River of Teeth is a rollicking alternate history adventure that Charlie Jane Anders calls “preposterously fun.”
In the early 20th Century, the United States government concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This is true.
Other true things about hippos: they are savage, they are fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two.
This was a terrible plan.
Contained within this volume is an 1890s America that might have been: a bayou overrun by feral hippos and mercenary hippo wranglers from around the globe. It is the story of Winslow Houndstooth and his crew. It is the story of their fortunes. It is the story of his revenge.

Dawn McQuire + David Watts
2017-05-18 19:30 - 21:30 | Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States
Dawn McGuire’s new book of poems is American Dream with Exit Wound. Carol Muske-Dukes says, “McGuire is inspired by her work with post 9/11 vets, by her brain research as a neurologist and her immersion in myth. You will take your life in your hands as you read these super-charged poems—and you will…’come to’ with an exit wound…” Both a neuro-scientist and a poet, she has published three collections, including The Aphasia Café, which won the 2013 Indie Book Award for Poetry. Born in the Appalachian region of Kentucky, her graduate education was both in Theology and Medicine.
David Watts is both a physician and a poet. His new book of poems is Having and Keeping. Al Young says, “Watts’ quiet poems couple with their subjects in an intimacy so strong, you can smell their crackle and spark. When it comes to singing the uncontrollable messiness of family life, growing pain and growth; the stickiness of love life, the clumsiness of loss, the pleasures of cranky togetherness, this little book takes the cake.” His literary credits include seven books of poetry, two collections of short stories, a mystery novel, a bestselling western and essays. He has received numerous awards in academics, literature, and television production.

Poetry + Music: Brian Laidlaw + Ken Waldman
2017-05-18 19:30 - 21:30 | Falkirk Cultural Center, 1408 Mission Ave, San Rafael , CA, 94901, United States
Brian Laidlaw is a troubadour-poet from San Francisco. He studied Creative Writing at Stanford and earned his MFA in Poetry at the University of Minnesota. His poems have been published widely in journals including New American Writing, The Iowa Review, Quarter After Eight, Agni, and many others. Paper Darts Press released his acclaimed hybrid poetry/music project called Amoratorium, a vinyl LP with a companion poetry chapbook as the liner notes. His first full-length book of poems, The Stuntman, was published in 2015 by Milkweed Editions; a follow-up called The Mirrormaker is under contract as well. He tours to festivals, colleges, and arts venues around the country, both solo and with his folk band The Family Trade.
Ken Waldman has drawn on his 30 years in Alaska to produce poems, stories, and fiddle tunes that combine into a performance uniquely his. Nine CDs mix Appalachian-style string-band music with original poetry. Eight books include six poetry collections, a memoir, and a children’s book. Since 1995 he’s performed at some of the nation’s leading concert series, festivals, universities, and clubs. Of note are two CDs. Some Favorites, contains tracks from Waldman’s first seven CDs. The double- CD, All Originals, All Traditionals consists of one CD with a five-piece band playing Waldman’s originals, and a second CD of Waldman and friends playing traditional tunes to Alaska-set poetry, and includes a ten-minute treatment of Waldman’s 1996 plane crash near Nome.

Poetry Readings at Willow Glen Library
2017-05-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Willow Glen Library, 1157 Minnesota Ave, San Jose , CA, 95125, United States
Poetry Readings @ Willow Glen Library
Third Thursday of Every Month
Thursday, May 18, 2017, 7:00pm
Feature: Dennis Richardson
open mic evening
Willow Glen Library
1157 Minnesota Avenue, San José, CA, 95125
(408) 808-3045 or (408) 266-1361
Free and open to the public
Bio to come.

Khaled Hosseini + Ellen Grace O'Brian
2017-05-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Book Passage Marin, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd. , Corte Madera, CA, 94925, United States
In the luminous poems contained in The Moon Reminded Me, Ellen Grace O’Brian manages to braid contemporary moments of everyday life with ancient spiritual teachings–the sight of a hummingbird’s red throat, bread on the table, a couple’s quarrel, a mother’s advice–become doorways into the divine mystical heart. The Moon Reminded Me, subtly laced with Sanskrit, gives us an insight into a poet who bridges two worlds eloquently enough to take us along with her. Sandhya, the numinous time for stepping into the temple, suddenly becomes this moment, now.
Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian is the Spiritual Director of the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment (CSE) with headquarters in San Jose, California, serving seeking souls since 1981. CSE is a meditation center in the spiritual tradition of Kriya Yoga that serves people from all faith backgrounds who are seeking Self- and God-realization.
Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written And the Mountains Echoed, a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.
Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and moved to the United States in 1980. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains Echoed. He is A U.S. Goodwill Envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency, and the founder of The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

Fourteen Hills Release Party - Issue 23.2
2017-05-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Alley Cat Books, 3036 24th St, San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
Fourteen Hills Press is proud to announce the release party for issue 23.2! Join us for wine, snacks, and readings by the following contributors:
JEN SULLIVAN BRYCH has published most recently in sPARKLE + bLINK and The Bygone Bureau. Past publications include The Rumpus, The Los Angeles Timesand Wired. Her plays have also been read and performed in various Bay Area theaters. She’s currently working on a novel and advising Forum, CCSF’s literary magazine.
SYLVIA CHAN is a poet from Hayward, California. She teaches in the Writing Program at the University of Arizona and serves as contributing editor for Entropy. Her debut collection, We Remain Traditional, is forthcoming from the Center for Literary Publishing in 2018. She will be in conversation with CHET WIENER, who selected Chan as the winner of the 2017 Stacy Doris Memorial Poetry Award.
Originally from San Francisco, TONGO EISEN-MARTIN is a movement worker and educator who has organized against mass incarceration and extra-judicial killing of Black people throughout the United States. His latest book of poems titled Someone’s Dead Already was nominated for a California Book Award. His next book of poems, Heaven Is All Goodbyes, is being published by the City Lights Pocket Poets Series.
TIFFANY HIGGINS is the author of The Apparition at Fort Bragg (2016), an e-chapbook, winner of Iron Horse Literary Review’s contest, selected by Camille Dungy; And Aeneas Stares into Her Helmet (2009), Carolina Wren Poetry Prize winner; and Tail of the Whale, translations from Alice Sant’Anna’s Portuguese (Toad Press, 2016).
LORRAINE LUPO is the author of By Way Of (Green Zone Editions). Her work has appeared in The New England Review, Fourteen Hills, and the Art Book Review, among others. She edits the poetry/art series Periodic Postcards and lives in Oakland, California.
ANDREW MURPHY lives in San Francisco, where he currently teaches English at San Francisco State University and Skyline College.

The Worlds of João Gilberto Noll: Adam Morris + Scott Esposito
2017-05-18 19:00 - 21:00 | City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94133, United States
Called “one of the most celebrated writers in contemporary Brazilian literature” by Guernica magazine, author João Gilberto Noll made a splash in the United States last year with the novel Quiet Creature on the Corner, named a “Best Book of 2016” by World Literature Today and praised in Literary Hub, the Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, and The Rumpus.
Now, Two Lines Press is very proud to announce a launch event at longtime Bay Area publishing mecca City Lights Booksellers to celebrate the release of the follow-up to Quiet Creature, Noll’s career-defining novel Atlantic Hotel.
Two Lines Press’s Scott Esposito will be in conversation with author and Portuguese translator Adam Morris, who has brought both Quiet Creature on the Corner and Atlantic Hotel into English.
Compared to David Lynch, César Aira, the Dadists, and the Situationists, Noll creates strange, surprising books that question our basic assumptions about identity, while delivering madcap plots that revolve around modern-day flâneurs. His innovative stories and difficult-to-pin-down sentences have been met enthusiastically by experimental American authors like Matt Bell, Brian Evenson, and Lance Olsen.
Join us at City Lights Booksellers on May 18 for a reading from Atlantic Hotel, along with an intriguing conversation delving into modern-day Brazil, Noll’s influences (including Clarice Lispector), his mysterious protagonists, and the challenges of translating his labyrinthine, twisty sentences into English.

Granta's Best Young American Novelists
2017-05-18 19:00 - 20:00 | DIESEL, A Bookstore, 5433 College Ave, Oakland, CA, 94618, United States
DIESEL, A Bookstore in Oakland welcomes Lauren Groff, Esmé Weijun Wang, and Anthony Marra from Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists to the store on Thursday, May 18th at 7:00 pm.
Every ten years Granta magazine publishes a special issue of new fiction from the most exciting American writers under the age of forty. The third list of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists was announced on April 26th.
The last Best of Young American Novelists issue was published in 2007 and featured an extraordinary selection of young writers: Kevin Brockmeier, Anthony Doerr, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, Yiyun Li, Karen Russell, Akhil Sharma and Gary Shteyngart among them. Similarly, the list of writers from twenty years ago showcases some of today’s most successful and talented writers: Jonathan Franzen, Edwidge Danticat, Jeffrey Eugenides, Lorrie Moore, ZZ Packer, Mona Simpson, Elizabeth McCracken, David Guterson, Madison Smartt Bell, Sherman Alexie and more.
Lauren Groff, born in New York in 1978, is the author of four books, including The Monsters of Templeton, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers. Her most recent novel, Fates and Furies, was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award and the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award.
Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic and Tin House, among others. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.
Photo Credit- Megan Brown

Esmé Weijun Wang is a mental health advocate, essayist and the author of the novel The Border of Paradise. She won the 2016 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize for her book of essays, The Collected Schizophrenias. Her work has appeared in Elle, Catapult, Hazlitt, the Believer and Lenny. She lives in San Francisco, California.

Anthony Marra, born in Washington DC, is the author of the collection of stories The Tsar of Love and Techno, a finalist for the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of the 2016 American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Family Foundation Award. His first novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, won the inaugural National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and is currently the Jones Lecturer in Fiction at Stanford University

Natural Heir: The Arisa White Extension Exhibition
2017-05-18 18:30 - 21:00 | Qulture Collective, 1714 Franklin Street, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Beautiful Things Project presents Natural Heir: The Arisa White Extension, a photographic collaboration with Nye’ Lyn Tho. For the Natural Heir series, Nye’ replaces the subject’s hair with beautiful plant life that represents African and African American cultures. However, in The Arisa White Extension, the models’ hair will be graphically altered with images inspired by poems from White’s You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened. The five participating models, who are queer and trans black women, include: Janet Halfin, health education specialist for TransVision, Tri-City Health Center; Zakiya Harris, cultural architect, artist, and founder of Hack the Hood; UC Berkeley doctoral candidate Kerby Lynch; ecotherapist and Oricha priest J. Phoenix Smith, founder of EcoSoul; and visual artist and educator Orlonda Uffre. The evening includes the unveiling of the photographic portraits, a poetry reading, and a Q& A. Funded by the Akonadi Foundation, Beloved Community Fund.
