Litseen

Poetic Tuesdays with Litquake at Jessie Square
2019-10-15 12:30 - 13:30 UTC | Jessie Square, 736 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
The monthly collaboration between Litquake: San Francisco’s Literary Festival and the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival features an array of Bay Area poets and musicians.

An Evening with Neil deGrasse Tyson
2019-10-14 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | SHN: Broadway in San Francisco, 1182 Market St Ste 200, San Francisco, California, 94102
Astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson returns to San Francisco on Monday, October 14 at Davies Symphony Hall, for a special limited book tour for his new book, “Letters from an Astrophysicist”: http://bit.ly/NDT2019-SF
Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, the host of National Geographic’s StarTalk, bestselling author and Director of New York’s Hayden Planetarium, will be presenting an evening of engaging conversation on science, exploration and the world as we know it.
Tyson, a native of New York City is host of StarTalk, a radio and television series, as well as FOX’s Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. He is a New York Times bestselling author of 11 books and is also a frequent guest on The Daily Show. President George W. Bush appointed Tyson in 2001 and 2004 to serve on commissions studying the future of the U.S. aerospace industry and the implementation of the U.S. space exploration policy, respectively. Tyson is also the recipient of 18 honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest award given by NASA to non-government citizens.
VIP seating includes a copy of Dr. Tyson’s new book, Letters from an Astrophysicist, and an exclusive post show photo opportunity with Dr. Tyson. Purchasers will be contacted via e-mail on their order a few days prior to the performance with specific details.
Each ticket purchase includes a copy of Dr. Tyson’s new book, Letters from an Astrophysicist, redeemable at the performance.

TA-NEHISI COATES In Conversation with Michael Chabon
2019-10-14 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Sydney Goldstein Theater, 275 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA, 94102, United States
TA-NEHISI COATES
In Conversation with Michael Chabon
Monday, October 14, 2019, 7:30 pm
Venue: Sydney Goldstein Theater
Series: Special Events
Buy Tickets | 415.392.4400

Note: Ta-Nehisi Coates will be appearing at the Sydney Goldstein Theater on both Monday, October 14 and Tuesday, October 15, at 7:30pm
Each ticket includes a copy of Coates’ new novel The Water Dancer
In his debut novel, The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates tells the story of a young man born into slavery, who journeys from the plantation-dense South to the rebellious rumblings of the North, on a path that glimmers with magic and loss. Coates’ ever-relevant writing takes on a prescient force, as his 2014 cover story for The Atlantic, “The Case for Reparations,” re-enters the national discourse, in the build-up to the 2020 election. Coates is a distinguished writer-in-residence at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, and the author of The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, and Between The World And Me. He is also the current author of the Marvel comics The Black Panther and Captain America.
An “immensely gifted writer and magical prose stylist” (The New York Times), Michael Chabon is celebrated for his remarkable ability to transport his readers. His many novels include Moonglow, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Wonder Boys, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and Telegraph Avenue.

Daniel Poppick: Fear of Description
2019-10-14 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Daniel Poppick reads from his new poetry collection, Fear of Description.
Praise for Fear of Description:
“No matter where a reader begins in Fear of Description, the end is near and a beginning closer. As far as this book travels, it’s always there to meet itself, though its trajectory is never predictable. There is also the ancient lament of the worker/writer, trying to sing a timeless song in an age of ring tones. Poppick’s stop-motion ability to convey multitude in moments is genius—Merwin-like in its sensorial clarity, and, where the poet chooses formal restriction, Keatsian in density and bloom.” —Brenda Shaughnessy, author of Our Andromeda
“In Fear of Description, Daniel Poppick, like many of the most interesting writers of our time, folds the labor of writing into the content of his poetry, stirs it around, and comes up with something genuinely free. The wildness of his lines had me amazed and grateful.” —Lucy Ives, author of Impossible Views of the World
“Fear of Description is a bold book. Through Poppick’s memories we relive that brief window of youth when friendship is the magic audience that grounds us. In a world that seems stingy and random, Poppick and his friends glean meaning from seances, road trips, shared economic anxiety, houses, and shaving rituals. Tears, like the dead, sneak up on them.” —Jennifer Moxley, author of The Open Secret
About Fear of Description
From Midwestern bars to Brooklyn apartments, narrative poems that find millennials adrift–in political upheaval and personal crisis–and trying to find their way back to one another
Winner of the 2018 National Poetry Series competition, selected by Brenda Shaughnessy
These poems tell the story of a generation in crisis: at odds with its own ideals, precariously (or just un-) employed, and absolutely terrified of seeing itself in the planet’s future. Is our contemporary moment pure tragedy, or a dark joke? Can it be both? Cutting back and forth in time and ranging between elegiac lyrics and autobiographical accounts of a group of poets moving from Iowa to Brooklyn in the years just before and after the 2016 election, Fear of Description reinvigorates the prose poem, exploring the slippery terrain between grief and friendship, artifice and technology, writing and ritual, hauntings and obsessions–searching for joy in art but instead finding it in pitch darkness.

Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society - Litquake 2019
2019-10-13 17:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94133, United States
Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society – Litquake 2019
Sunday, October 13, 2019, 5:00 p.m., City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco

City Lights in conjunction with Litquake present
Tales of the San Francisco Cacaphony Society
with John Law and friends
celebrating the release of the revised edition of the counter culture classic

Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society
produced by Kevin Evans, John Law, and Carrie Galbraith
published by Last Gasp Books
A template for pranksters, artists, adventurers and anyone interested in rampant creativity, for years to come.
Tales Of The San Francisco Cacophony Society tells the history of the most influential underground cabal that you have never heard of.
Rising from the ashes of the mysterious and legendary Suicide Club, The Cacophony Society, at its zenith, hosted chapters in over a dozen major cities, and influenced much of what was once called the underground.
Flash Mobs, Urban Exploration, and Culture Jamming are a few of the pop culture trends that Cacophony helped kick off.
Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, Burning Man and Internet social networking powerhouse Laughing Squid were informed and inspired by Cacophony. The Burning Man Festival actually began as a Cacophony event as did the annual, and now world-wide SantaCon.
Cacophony events could range from something as simple as climbing the Golden Gate Bridge or having a discussion over drinks about a movie seen together, to something as elaborate as The Atomic Café — an event involving a hundred bedraggled “nuclear holocaust Survivors” mounting elaborate costumed rituals throughout the bowels of a massive abandoned tooth paste factory.
Yes…. Cacophony was that strange.
Cacophony’s heyday was concurrent with the rise of the internet. The story of this group is of historical significance for this reason. Information about upcoming pranks, street theater and other events hosted by Cacophony was spread by paper flyers posted on telephone poles and left in coffee shops, by the Societies mailer “Rough Draft” and by word of mouth. Then, with the genesis of personal computing and social networking, the jokers, artists and troublemakers of Cacophony were among some of the first non-geeks to explore the power of this new and world changing way of communicating.
Burning Man, Urban Exploration, flash mobs and the like were avenues of creativity with their roots in Cacophony, that spread like wildfire through the mechanism of these new communication technologies.
What has been said about the Cacaphony Society:
“Find out what you are afraid of and go live there” — Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
“A book every lover of eccentricity and enemy of the status quo should enjoy.” — Margaret Cho

Mike and Anne Howard / Comfortably Wild: The Best Glamping Destinations in North America
2019-10-13 16:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Bindery, 1727 Haight St, San Francisco , 94117, United States
The Bindery welcomes Mike and Anne Howard back for their second book, Comfortably Wild: The Best Glamping Destinations in North America. Join us!
River rafting between luxury camps, harvesting vegetables for a farm-to-table dinner, and ziplining to your treehouse suite, this is experiential travel at its finest. Breaking the mold of big-box hotels and transforming camping into a glamorous affair, this revolutionary travel style needed its story told. Traveling over 73,000 miles from Canada to Costa Rica, authors Mike & Anne Howard of the acclaimed blog HoneyTrek.com sought out the best glamping destinations in North America and the deeper meaning of this trending term. In the first guide of its kind, the Howards dive into the origins of glamping and this 21st-century craving for unconventional experiences that effortlessly connect us with nature, our loved ones, and ourselves. Rather than being organized by style of lodging, each chapter of Comfortably Wild offers a unique way to vacation, like the boutique farmstays in “Cultivate,” wellness retreats in “Rejuvenate,” and the action-packed journeys of “In Motion.” Seventy-plus destinations across nine countries come alive with colorful descriptions and hundreds of gorgeous photographs. In addition to inspiring stories, they offer practical tips to finding the right destinations for you and mobilizing a lifetime of unforgettable adventures.

Mike and Anne Howard left on their honeymoon in January 2012 and never came home. They created HoneyTrek.com to chronicle their journey across all seven continents and to help people mobilize their travel dreams. Their story as the “World’s Longest Honeymooners,” savvy tips, and blog have been acclaimed by the AP, Lonely Planet, USA Today, Condé Nast Traveler, CBS, and more. Having scouted hotels around the world for Honeymoons.com, blogged for Glamping.com, and authored National Geographic’s best-selling book on couples adventure travel (Ultimate Journeys for Two), the Howards were poised to write the first-ever book on glamping in North America. Through their writing, photography, public speaking, trip coaching, travel advising, and social media, the Howards hope to inspire more people to explore outside their comfort zone. Follow their adventures @HoneyTrek.

Please note: this event will be held at The Bindery, 1727 Haight.
This is an all ages event. The bar opens with the store at 2pm; event starts at 4pm.
As with all of our events, seating may be limited; you can guarantee a seat by pre-purchasing the book below — when checking out, just be sure to include a note that you’d like to attend the event. If you cannot attend the event but would like to request a signed copy of Comfortably Wild, order below and put your request in the comments field.
RSVP appreciated but not required.

The Wig Diaries Book Launch
2019-10-13 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Cartoon Art Museum, 781 Beach Street, San Francisco, 94109
“Cancer is a bitch. But cancer patients are bitches and bastards…in a good way. We ain’t no heroes. We complain. A lot. And we don’t need your sympathy. We just need your laughs. So come to our show and laugh with — or at — us. We don’t care. We have cancer. Hell, even heckle us. It only makes us stronger. By the end, you’ll be OUR bitch. With Don Asmussen and Mary Ladd, hosted by Vanessa Hua with Oscar Villalon.”
(https://litquake2019festival.sched.com/event/Si1B/the-wig-diaries)

Giacomo Sartori: I Am God
2019-10-12 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Italian writer Giacomo Sartori discusses his new novel, I Am God.
Praise for I Am God
“Who better to reflect on the state of the planet than its creator? I Am God is by turns funny, sad, outrageous, and tender—a cosmic romp.”— Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction
“I am God is like a mirthful dream made real by the ingenuity of Sartori’s prose and Randall’s splendidly pointed and sly translation.”— Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen
“A playful, exciting, mockingly modern voice, translated, what’s more, by one of the few translators who can really make the Italian vernacular sing truly and fluently in English.”— Tim Parks, author of Italian Ways and Italian Neighbors
About I Am God
Diabolically funny and subversively philosophical, Italian novelist Giacomo Sartori’s I am God is the diary of the Almighty’s existential crisis that ensues when he falls in love with a human.
I am God. Have been forever, will be forever. Forever, mind you, with the razor-sharp glint of a diamond, and without any counterpart in the languages of men. So begins God’s diary of the existential crisis that ensues when, inexplicably, he falls in love with a human. And not just any human, but a geneticist and fanatical atheist who’s certain she can improve upon the magnificent creation she doesn’t even give him the credit for. It’s frustrating, for a god.
God has infinitely bigger things to occupy his celestial attentions. Yet he can’t tear his eyes (so to speak) from the geneticist who’s unsettlingly avid when it comes to science, sex, and Sicilian cannoli. Whatever happens, he must safeguard his transcendental dignity. So he watches—disinterestedly, of course—as the handsome climatologist who has his sights set on her keeps having strange accidents. And as the lanky geneticist becomes hell-bent on infiltrating the Vatican’s secret files, for reasons of her own….
A sly critique of the hypocrisy and hubris that underlie faith in religion, science, and macho careerism, I Am God takes us on a hilarious and provocative romp through the Big Questions with the universe’s supreme storyteller.

Beth Elliott
2019-10-12 18:30 - 22:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Plymouth Jazz and Justice Church, 424 Monte Vista, Oakland, 94611
6:30 PM potluck, 7:30 PM show. Singer-songwriter and author Beth Elliott featured at Works in Progress Women’s Open Mic, a WOMEN-ONLY event. Open Mic for poetry, prose, music and more. Plymouth United Church of Christ, 424 Monte Vista, Oakland, CA. $7-10 admission buys raffle ticket for one of ten prizes.
The event is scent-free, and the meal and performance space are wheelchair-accessible. Unfortunately, the bathroom, while on the same floor as the meal and performance space, is not fully accessible.
All women, cis and trans, are welcome. If you would like to perform, please contact the host Linda Zeiser WELL IN ADVANCE at ZeiserpoetMC@aol.com or (510) 701-1022‬ to reserve your 5- to 10-minute open-mic slot.
A shadowy figure of lesbian culture, third-generation Bay Area native BETH ELLIOTT continues to write, make music, engage in feminist activism, and pursue her Goddess visions in a way true to her counterculture roots. Though she shares responsibility for some early milestones in lesbian freedom, she ended up a women’s community outlier at a young age. She credits this with pushing herself to explore her individual creativity, calling it a simple “lack of adult supervision.” Her songs delight with their wit, even the darker ones.

The Pugilist Poets of Venice book launch
2019-10-12 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Rolling Out Cafe, 1722 Taraval St, San Francisco, CA, 94116, United States
A Boomer, an Xer, and a Millennial walk into a book…
Join us for the launch of Jon Sindell’s new novel, The Pugilist Poets of Venice, from Big Table Publishing.
Music from The Book of Jones, John Blatchford of Wax Moon, Steven Kacsmar of Phantom City, and Michael Crabtree will be followed by a reading from the book and an author signing.
See the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNsCrxzUUs0&feature=youtu.be
Fine authors say:
“This is a rollicking, big-hearted tale, full of laughter, bravery and unflinching humanity. The touch is light, but the questions are big: family, loyalty, art, and love are the rightful subjects of Sindell’s troupe of misfits and raconteurs, each of them a poet and each of them a pugilist too in this deeply funny and deeply felt novel.”
~ Emily Kiernan, author of The Great Divide
“The Pugilist Poets of Venice is author Jon Sindell’s big fat juicy love letter to literature, Los Angeles and, most of all, love. Disguised as a novel about free-spirited parenting, boys becoming men and men becoming, well, grown-ups, The Pugilist pulls no punches. With prose that zings, swings and frequently sings, Sindell tells a tough yet tender tale of brazen heartbreak amid ’90s bohemian hipsters.”
~ Tracy DeBrincat, author of Hollywood Buckaroo and Troglodyte

“Funny, sad, relatable, and engrossing”
~ Stephen D. Gutierrez, American Book Award Winner

“With unflinching honesty, humor and a keen eye for detail, Sindell brings unforgettable characters to life in all their flaws and virtues. Page after page, they kept surprising me; I couldn’t put the book down.”
~ Martin McCaw, The Low Road, finalist in the International Book Awards

Bikes to Books Six-Year Anniversary Ride
2019-10-12 13:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Jack London Street, Jack London Street, San Francisco, CA, 94107, United States
Combining San Francisco history, art, literature, cycling, and urban exploration, Bikes to Books began as an homage to the 1988 street-naming project spearheaded by City Lights Books founder and former San Francisco Poet Laureate, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, in which 12 San Francisco streets were renamed for famous artists and authors who had once made San Francisco their home. Since 2013, we’ve been leading our signature 7.1 mile tour of literary San Francisco from South Park to North Beach, Jack London to Jack Kerouac, and we’re excited to celebrate our six-year anniversary with you! Bring anecdotes or snippets of work of the featured authors to share, or just come learn their stories as we ride through the city.
Meet us on the north side of Jack London in South Park at 12:45. Bring bikes with gears, snacks, and enthusiasm. This is an urban ride of moderate difficulty, recommended for riders 16 years of age and older.
Saturday, October 12, 12:45-4:00 p.m.
North side of Jack London Alley, in South Park, SF
Tour ends in North Beach outside City Lights Books
Event is Free, with maps and posters available for purchase.

Filipino American HOTP Literary Readings
2019-10-12 13:00 - 14:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Avenune, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 94102, United States
Hot Off the Press Literary Reading showcases Filipino American authors with new books. HOTP Literary Reading is part of the 5th Filipino American International Book Festival which will be held at the San Francisco Main Library. The HOTP Literary Reading will be on Saturday, October 12, 2019 at 1 p.m. at the Koret Auditorium of the Main Library.

JODI KANTOR & MEGAN TWOHEY In Conversation with Bernice Yeung
2019-10-11 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Sydney Goldstein Theater, 275 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA, 94102, United States
JODI KANTOR & MEGAN TWOHEY
In Conversation with Bernice Yeung
Friday, October 11, 2019, 7:30 pm
Venue: Sydney Goldstein Theater
Series: Cultural Studies
Buy Tickets | Buy Series Tickets | 415.392.4400

Each orchestra ticket includes a copy of Kantor & Twohey’s new book: She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement
In October 2017, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey broke the story of decades of sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Their work helped ignite the #MeToo movement, shift attitudes, and spur new laws, policies and standards of accountability around the globe. Together with a team of colleagues who exposed harassment across industries, they were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service. She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement is the untold story behind that investigative reporting, from confidential discussions with top actresses to meticulous research of decades-old secret payouts and nondisclosure agreements.
Bernice Yeung covers labor and employment for ProPublica. Previously, she was a reporter with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, where she was a member of the award-winning reporting teams that investigated the sexual assault of immigrant farm workers and night-shift janitors. These multi-platform projects led to her first book, In a Day’s Work: The Fight to End Sexual Violence Against America’s Most Vulnerable Workers (The New Press, 2018), which was honored with the 2019 PEN/Galbraith Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Unholy Trinity: A Lovecraft Triptych
2019-10-10 20:00 - 2019-11-02 22:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | EXIT Theatre, 156 Eddy Street, San Francisco, CA, 94102
Thursday – Saturday @ 8PM, until November 2
Inspired by the supernatural fiction of HP Lovecraft, an early 20th century writer known for creating his own mythos, Unholy Trinity is San Francisco writer/director Stuart Bousel’s adaptation and staging of “The Dunwich Horror,” “Nyarlathotep,” and “The Dreams in the Witch House.” Celebrate the Halloween season with these unholy works of classic horror.
Featuring Adrian Deane, Ellen Dunphy, Kyle Goldman, Tirumari Jothi, Brian Martin, Kyle McReddie, Sarah Negron, & Ron Talbot.

this event repeats Thurs-Sat, 8pm, until November 2

PICO IYER In Conversation with Dan Stone
2019-10-10 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Sydney Goldstein Theater, 275 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA, 94102, United States
PICO IYER
In Conversation with Dan Stone
Thursday, October 10, 2019, 7:30 pm
Venue: Sydney Goldstein Theater
Series: “On Arts” Benefiting 826 Valencia Scholarship Program
Buy Tickets | Buy Series Tickets | 415.392.4400

“As a guide to far-flung places, Pico Iyer can hardly be surpassed.” – The New Yorker
Pico Iyer is a travel writer, essayist, and novelist, whose many books include Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, The Man Within My Head, and The Art of Stillness, a beautiful and thoughtful investigation of the benefits of quiet contemplation and travel to “nowhere.” With his two newest books, Iyer turns his attention to Japan, his adopted home of thirty-two years. Autumn Light is a moving personal account of grief and family. When his father-in-law dies suddenly, Iyer begins to grapple with the question we all have to live with: how to hold on to the things we love. In A Beginner’s Guide to Japan, Iyer draws on readings, reflections, and conversations with Japanese friends in order to illuminate an unknown place for newcomers and to give longtime residents a look at their home through fresh eyes.

Kim Magowan: The Light Source
2019-10-10 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Kim Magowan discusses her new novel, The Light Source.
About The Light Source
The relationship between Heather Katchadourian and Julie Howe is complicated. Over the past two decades, they’ve been just about everything to each other: boarding school roommates, best friends, lovers, rivals, even co-parents–both together and estranged. Will they find their way back to each other, or have they inflicted too much damage along the way? Reminiscent of the work of Meg Wolitzer, and narrated by Heather, Julie, their lifelong friends, partners, and children, The Light Source is a prismatic portrayal of what everlasting modern love truly looks like and reminds us that what’s meant-to-be becomes harder to define with age.

Why There Are Words Presents: Unrest
2019-10-10 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Studio 333, 333 Caledonia Street, Sausalito , CA, 94965, United States
Wake yourself up with Why There Are Words on October 10, 2019, at Studio 333 in Sausalito for a night of discussion with six powerhouse authors on the theme of “Unrest.”
Doors open at 7pm; readings begin at 7:15pm. $10 entry fee at the door. Cash bar. For more details, including the authors’ full bios, see the website, www.whytherearewords.com. For more details about WTAW Press, of which the reading series is a program, visit www.wtawpress.org.
Vincent Chu is a Bay Area writer and author of the debut story collection Like a Champion (7.13 Books, 2018). His fiction has appeared in STILL Magazine, Fjords Review, Pithead Chapel, PANK Magazine, East Bay Review, Stockholm Review, and elsewhere. He is a 2019 Hambidge Center Fellow and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from UCLA and is working on his first novel. He can be found online at @herrchu.
Rosa del Duca is a writer, journalist, teacher, and musician. She grew up a tomboy in rural Montana, where she joined the Army National Guard when she was seventeen. During her six-year contract, she became not only a conscientious objector, but a feminist and unlikely rebel. That tumultuous time is the focus of her memoir, Breaking Cadence: One Woman’s War Against the War, and her companion podcast, Breaking Cadence: Insights From a Modern-Day Conscientious Objector. She has been featured in the Democratic Left and was interviewed by the anti-war podcast Fortress on a Hill. When she’s not writing creatively, Rosa is writing cold hard facts as a broadcast journalist, leading peer writers’ groups, or singing and playing guitar at small venues across the Bay Area.
Lola Haskins’ most recent book is Asylum: Improvisations on John Clare (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019). She is the author of twelve additional books of poetry and three of prose. Among her honors are the Iowa Poetry Prize, two Florida Book Awards, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, several awards for narrative poetry, and the Emily Dickinson Prize from Poetry Society of America. She currently serves as Honorary Chancellor of the Florida State Poets Association. She taught computer science at the University of Florida, then, by invitation, poetry in a low-residency MFA program, Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writers Workshop. She divides her time between Gainesville, Florida and Skipton, and North Yorkshire in the UK.
Lillian Howan spent her early childhood in Tahiti and later graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Her writings have been published in Asian American Literary Review, Café Irreal, Calyx, New England Review, Vice-Versa, and the anthologies Ms. Aligned 2: Women Writing About Men and Under Western Eyes. She is the author of The Charm Buyers (University of Hawaii Press, 2017).
Lee Daniel Kravetz is the author of the international bestsellers Strange Contagion and Supersurvivors. He has written for print and television, including The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, Psychology Today, ​The Daily Beast, The San Francisco Chronicle, and PBS’s Frontline and Sesame Street. His work has been translated in ten languages, and he is a founding board member of the Lit Camp Writers Conference.
Jennifer Wortman is the author of the story collection This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love (Split Lip Press, 2019). Her work appears or is forthcoming in TriQuarterly, Glimmer Train, Normal School, DIAGRAM, Electric Literature, Brevity, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. She lives with her family in Colorado, where she serves as associate fiction editor for Colorado Review and teaches at Lighthouse Writers Workshop.
Why There Are Words (WTAW) is an award-winning national reading series founded in Sausalito in 2010 by Peg Alford Pursell and expanded to seven additional major cities in the U.S. The series draws a full house of Bay Area residents every second Thursday to Studio 333, located at 333 Caledonia Street, Sausalito, CA 94965. The series is a program of the 501(c)(3) non-profit WTAW Press. For more information see the website www.whytherearewords.com or email whytherearewords@gmail.com. Phone: Studio 333 at (415) 331-8272.

Augusten Burroughs / Toil & Trouble: A Memoir
2019-10-10 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Booksmith, 1644 Haight St, San Francisco , CA, 94117, United States
Booksmith hosts a special evening with Augusten Burroughs for his new book, Toil & Trouble: A Memoir. This will be his only SF/Bay Area appearance. Please join us!
Please note: this is a ticketed event, to be held at Booksmith (1644 Haight St.) in San Francisco. The price of admission is equal to the cost of Toil & Trouble, which is included with each ticket. Tickets can be purchased here.

“Here’s a partial list of things I don’t believe in: God. The Devil. Heaven. Hell. Bigfoot. Ancient Aliens. Past lives. Life after death. Vampires. Zombies. Reiki. Homeopathy. Rolfing. Reflexology. Note that ‘witches’ and ‘witchcraft’ are absent from this list. The thing is, I wouldn’t believe in them, and I would privately ridicule any idiot who did, except for one thing: I am a witch.”
For as long as Augusten Burroughs could remember, he knew things he shouldn’t have known. He manifested things that shouldn’t have come to pass. And he told exactly no one about this, save one person: his mother. His mother reassured him that it was all perfectly normal, that he was descended from a long line of witches, going back to the days of the early American colonies. And that this family tree was filled with witches. It was a bond that he and his mother shared — until the day she left him in the care of her psychiatrist to be raised in his family (but that’s a whole other story). After that, Augusten was on his own. On his own to navigate the world of this tricky power; on his own to either use or misuse this gift.
From the hilarious to the terrifying, Toil & Trouble is a chronicle of one man’s journey to understand himself, to reconcile the powers he can wield with things with which he is helpless. There are very few things that are coincidences, as you will learn. Ghosts are real, trees can want to kill you, beavers are the spawn of Satan, houses are alive, and in the end, love is the most powerful magic of all.

Augusten Burroughs is the author of Running with Scissors, Dry, Magical Thinking: True Stories, Possible Side Effects, A Wolf at the Table and You Better Not Cry. He is also the author of the novel Sellevision, which has been optioned for film. The film version of Running with Scissors, directed by Ryan Murphy and produced by Brad Pitt, was released in October 2006 and starred Joseph Cross, Brian Cox, Annette Bening (nominated for a Golden Globe for her role), Alec Baldwin and Evan Rachel Wood. Augusten’s writing has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers around the world including The New York Times and New York Magazine. In 2005 Entertainment Weekly named him one of “The 25 Funniest People in America.”

** Please note **
– This is an all-ages event.
– The duration of this event is up to the author.
– Tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable.
– 1 ticket = 1 book, no exceptions. The book must be purchased from Booksmith. If you already have a copy of Toil & Trouble, remember that books make great gifts! If you’ve already gifted Toil & Trouble to all of your friends, it’s ok to buy a different book from Booksmith instead — in that case, please write events AT booksmith DOT com.
– If you can’t attend the event but would like to request a signed copy of Toil & Trouble, order below and be sure to put your request in the special field.
– Signing, photo, and Q&A details to come.
– Facebook RSVP not required, but always appreciated.

2019 Marin Poetry Center Anthology Launch
2019-10-10 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Mill Valley Public Library, 375 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley , CA, 94941, United States
This event celebrates local poets reading their work from the anthology. The theme is “The Wild.” There will be many different voices and a lively reading.

How to Cure a Ghost: Poems with Fariha Róisín
2019-10-09 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley , CA, 94704, United States
How to Cure a Ghost: Poems with Fariha Róisín

Wednesday, October 9, 7:30pm
Pegasus Books Downtown
Fahira Róisín shares poems from her new collection, How to Cure a Ghost.
Following in the footsteps of such category killers as Milk and Honey and Whiskey Words & a Shovel I, Fariha Róisín’s poetry book is a collection of her thoughts as a young, queer, Muslim femme navigating the difficulties of her intersectionality. Simultaneously, this compilation unpacks the contentious relationship that exists between Róisín and her mother, her platonic and romantic heartbreaks, and the cognitive dissonance felt as a result of being so divided among her broad spectrum of identities.

PRAISE
“When I first encountered Fariha’s writing, I let out a sigh of relief. Was it refreshing? Yes. But there was something more. Her words allow us to feel visible. Fariha’s writing has the power to heal and transform. She pulls you into her stories until you’re at the edge of your seat, emphatically rooting for her subjects.”
— Rupi Kuar
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fariha Róisín is an Australian-Canadian writer, editor, and podcaster based in Brooklyn. Her writing often explores Muslim identity, race, pop culture, and film. It also examines the intersection of queerness and being a femme of color while navigating a white world. She has written for The New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Vice, Fusion, Village Voice and others.

Event date:

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 – 7:30pm

Event address:

Pegasus Books Downtown
2349 Shattuck Ave

Berkeley, CA 94704

Creative Writing Reading Series with Ingrid Rojas Contreras
2019-10-09 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Hagerty Lounge, SMC, 1928 Saint Mary's Road, Moraga , CA, 94575, United States
DATE & TIME:

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 –
7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

LOCATION:
De La Salle Hall: Hagerty Lounge, Hagerty Lounge, 1928 Saint Mary’s Road, Moraga, CA 94575
View a map and get directions.

DESCRIPTION:

Ingrid Rojas Contreras was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her first novel Fruit of the Drunken Tree won the Silver Medal in First Fiction from the California Book Awards. Fruit of the Drunken Tree was an Indie Next selection, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and a New York Times editor’s choice. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, Buzzfeed, The Believer, Nylon, Guernica, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, the Camargo Foundation, and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures. She is working on a family memoir about her grandfather, a curandero from Colombia who it was said had the power to move clouds.

Nick Flynn: a Reading, a Conversation
2019-10-09 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Green Arcade, 1680 Market St, San Francisco , CA, 94102, United States
The Reading: Nick Flynn’s latest book is I Will Destroy You, poetry that interrogates the potential of art to be redemptive, to remake and reform. But first the maker of art must claim responsibility for his past, his actions, his propensity to destroy others and himself. The poems delve into the deepest, most defeating parts of the self: addiction, temptation, infidelity, and repressed memory. These are poems of profound self-scrutiny and lyric intensity, jagged and probing.
The Conversation: Nick will be in conversation with Ben Terrall, publisher of Namaste Motherfu**er. The Reading: Nick Flynn’s latest book is I Will Destroy You, poetry that interrogates the potential of art to be redemptive, to remake and reform. But first the maker of art must claim responsibility for his past, his actions, his propensity to destroy others and himself. The poems delve into the deepest, most defeating parts of the self: addiction, temptation, infidelity, and repressed memory. These are poems of profound self-scrutiny and lyric intensity, jagged and probing.
The Conversation: Nick will be in conversation with Ben Terrall, publisher of Namaste Motherfu**er.

San Francisco in Queer Fiction, by the Decade
2019-10-09 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Booksmith, 1644 Haight St, San Francisco , CA, 94117, United States
Booksmith welcomes Perfectly Queer Reading Series back as they present a night of readings: San Francisco in Queer Fiction, by the Decade. Please join us!
San Francisco has been the location for many works of fiction, from McTeague by Frank Norris to Less by Andrew Sean Greer. Join us Tuesday, October 8, 7pm at The Booksmith, 1644 Haight (in San Francisco, of course) to hear readings from four novels with San Francisco as their setting, written by LGBTQ authors: Blackmail, My Love by Katie Gilmartin, Eat Sleep Love by Chuck Forester, Steam by the late Jay B. Laws (as read byRichard May), and Five Windows by Jon Roemer. These books span life in San Francisco from the 1950s to the 70s and 80s to the contemporary city. Free admission and free refreshments. Book signing after the readings.

Chuck Forester was raised in northern Wisconsin. He attended Dartmouth and Penn and holds an MCP in city planning and an MFA in poetry. Chuck worked on staff for three San Francisco mayors. His philanthropic work includes leading the successful campaign to establish the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center at the San Francisco Main Library, which raised $3.5 million. Michael A. Schoch, his partner of 18 years, succumbed to AIDS in 1994. Chuck has been an HIV-survivor since 1987. Eat Sleep Love is his latest novel.
Katie Gilmartin’s checkered past includes stints as a buoyant union organizer, bona fide sex researcher, and deeply engaged college professor. She teaches linocut and monotype classes at Chrysalis Studio in SOMArts and runs the Queer Ancestors Project, devoted to forging sturdy relationships between young Queer and Trans artists and their ancestors. Her illustrated noir mystery, Blackmail My Love, explores real and imagined Queer ancestors in early 1950s San Francisco. Katie’s next novel, Thrill Spot, will be a fictional account of an actual 1954 raid on a lesbian bar called Tommy’s Place, in North Beach.
Jon Roemer is a writer and editor based in San Francisco. He is founder and senior editor of Outpost19, an award-winning book publisher. He is Queer, a San Francisco resident since 1991, and an explorer of urban change. Jon studied literature and fiction writing at Northwestern University. Five Windows is Jon’s first novel.
Jay B. Laws was a San Francisco playwright and writer. His first novel, Steam, was published by Alyson Books in 1991 and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. Jay died from AIDS in 1992, a week after completing changes on the manuscript for his second novel, The Unfinished, which was published posthumously in 1993. This re-issue of Steamis from ReQueered Tales, a new publisher specializing in republishing out of print Gay and Lesbian works.

About ReQueered Tales:
Perhaps forty years of gay fiction – and notably gay and lesbian mystery, detective and suspense fiction – has been teetering on the brink of obscurity. Orphaned works, orphaned authors, many living and some having passed away – with no one to make the case for their creations to be returned to print (and e-print!). Until now. That is the mission of ReQueered Tales. We are honored…to be custodians shepherding back into circulation some of the best Gay and Lesbian fiction writing. See their list of current and upcoming re-publications at requeeredtales.com.

This event is free and all ages.
RSVP appreciated but not required.
If you cannot attend the event but would like to request a signed copy of any of the authors’ books, send your request to events@booksmith.com.

Ian Haney López in conversation with Eva Paterson
2019-10-09 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94133, United States
Ian Haney López in conversation with Eva Paterson
Wednesday, October 9, 2019, 7:00 p.m., City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco

Presented by City Lights in conjunction with The Equal Justice Society and The New Press

discussing the subject of his new book
Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America
published by The New Press

From the acclaimed author of Dog Whistle Politics, an essential road map to neutralizing the role of racism as a divide-and-conquer political weapon and to building a broad multiracial progressive future

“Ian Haney López has broken the code on the racial politics of the last fifty years.” —Bill Moyers

Today more than ever, warnings to fear immigrants and people of color bombard us incessantly. Quite simply, the Right’s fundamental strategy has been to divide and distract while rigging the rules to benefit the superrich. No more. It’s time to reject this kind of purposeful division and to join together to demand that government work for all of us, whether we’re white, Black, or brown.
Ian Haney López has spent the last two years collaborating with a team of union activists, racial justice leaders, communications specialists, and pollsters. Based on conversations and interviews with people all over the country, the team discovered that a large majority of the population (people of color included) fall into “the persuadable middle”—they hold both progressive and racist views and can be shifted in one direction or another based on different stories about America.
For decades, while the Right has exploited racial fear-mongering, the Left has splintered. Some have wanted to tackle racism head-on; others have insisted that a race-silent focus on class avoids alienating white voters. Merge Left distills the heartening results of cutting-edge new research: naming racism as a weapon of the rich and calling for cross-racial solidarity builds unity across the base and enlists the broad middle in supporting progressive dreams.
A work of deep research, nuanced argument, and urgent insight, Merge Left is an indispensable tool for the upcoming political season and in the larger fight to build racial justice and shared economic prosperity.
Ian Haney López is the Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Dog Whistle Politics and White by Law, as well as Merge Left (The New Press). He lives in Richmond, California.
Eva Jefferson Paterson has campaigned for civil rights with passion, courage and tenacity for more than three decades. Paterson is the President and a co-founder of the Equal Justice Society, a legal organization transforming the nation’s consciousness on race through law, social science, and the arts.
The Equal Justice Society is transforming the nation’s consciousness on race through law, social science, and the arts. Led by President Eva Paterson, our legal strategy aims to broaden conceptions of present-day discrimination to include unconscious and structural bias by using social science, structural analysis, and real-life experience.

I Will Destroy You: Poetry With Nick Flynn and Matthew Zapruder
2019-10-09 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Green Arcade, 1680 Market St, San Francisco , CA, 94102, United States
Nick Flynn’s latest book is I Will Destroy You, poetry that interrogates the potential of art to be redemptive, to remake and reform. But first the maker of art must claim responsibility for his past, his actions, his propensity to destroy others and himself. The poems delve into the deepest, most defeating parts of the self: addiction, temptation, infidelity, and repressed memory. These are poems of profound self-scrutiny and lyric intensity, jagged and probing.
Special guest Matthew Zapruder’s new book is Father’s Day. He’s also the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Come On All You Ghosts, and Sun Bear as well as Why Poetry, a book of prose.

An Evening with Carolina de Robertis
2019-10-09 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | San Francisco Public Library, Main Branch, 100 Larkin St., San Francisco, CA, 94102
Join us for a reading and discussion of Cantoras, the newly acclaimed novel by Uruguayan American author Carolina de Robertis.
A Bay Area resident, De Robertis is the author of the The Gods of Tango, Perla, and the international bestseller The Invisible Mountain. Her books have been translated into seventeen languages, and have been named Best Books of the Year in venues including the San Francisco Chronicle, O, The Oprah Magazine, BookList, and NBC.
She is the recipient of a Stonewall Book Award, Italy’s Rhegium Julii Prize, and a 2012 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Happy Endings: Spooooky Theme TBD
2019-10-08 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd St, San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
HAPPY ENDINGS is a monthly reading series that showcases new writing and wants to shine a little sun on your soul.
What’s gonna happen? Five writers will come with a piece they’ve prepared in response to a monthly prompt. A panel of judges will be selected from the audience, and that panel will honor their favorites.
Cover is $10/Pay what you can and all the endings are happy(ish)!

Suyi Davies Okungbowa: David Mogo, Godhunter
2019-10-08 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Suyi Davies Okungbowa discusses his new novel, David Mogo, Godhunter.
Praise for David Mogo, Godhunter
“A number of books have been termed ‘godpunk,’ but Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s novel may be the subgenre’s platonic deific ideal, from its title to its plot to its terse but vivid prose… Assured and arch, unsettling and thoroughly enjoyable—an auspicious debut from one of the most promising new voices in the growing coterie of African SFF writers.” ~ WIRED
“Vivid, visceral and with a strength of the voice that just pulls me right in. The god-littered world of David Mogo’s Lagos just won’t let go.” ~ Jeannette Ng, author of Under the Pendulum Sun
“A fantastic adventure of gods and mortals—highly recommended.” ~ Tasha Suri, author of Empire of Sand
“A Nigerian Harry Dresden. Okungbowa’s voice is great, and makes Lagos feel familiar.” ~ Jacey Bedford, author of Winterwood
About David Mogo, Godhunter
Nigerian God-Punk – a powerful and atmospheric urban fantasy set in Lagos.
LAGOS WILL NOT BE DESTROYED
The gods have fallen to earth in their thousands, and chaos reigns.
Though broken and leaderless, the city endures.
David Mogo, demigod and godhunter, has one task: capture two of the most powerful gods in the city and deliver them to the wizard gangster Lukmon Ajala.
No problem, right?

PATTI SMITH In Conversation with Dan Stone
2019-10-07 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Sydney Goldstein Theater, 275 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA, 94102, United States
PATTI SMITH
In Conversation with Dan Stone
Monday, October 7, 2019, 7:30 pm
Venue: Sydney Goldstein Theater
Series: Special Events
Buy Tickets | 415.392.4400

Each ticket to include a copy of Smith’s new memoir Year of the Monkey
Patti Smith is a writer, performer, and visual artist who gained recognition in the 1970s for her revolutionary merging of poetry and rock. She has released numerous albums and many books including Just Kids, M Train, and Devotion. In The Year of the Monkey, Smith is about to embark on a year of solitary wandering, following a run of concerts at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore. Taking us from California, to the Arizona desert, to a Kentucky farm, to the hospital room of a valued mentor, and by turns to remembered and imagined places, this haunting memoir blends fact and fiction, punctuated by Smith’s signature polaroid photographs, which both document and complicate our understanding of events.

BERKELEY ARTS & LETTERS: Stephen Mitchell with Paul Hawken / Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness
2019-10-07 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States
Berkeley Arts & Letters presents Stephen Mitchell in conversation with Paul Hawken about his new book, Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness.
Please note: This event is ticketed, and will take place at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Street, Berkeley. Tickets, including discounted book bundles, are available in advance here. Advance sales are highly recommended. Unless otherwise noted here, general admission tickets will be available at the door.
Stephen Mitchell’s gift is to breathe new life into ancient classics. In Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness, he offers us his riveting novelistic version of the Biblical tale in which Jacobs favorite son is sold into slavery and eventually becomes viceroy of Egypt. Tolstoy called it the most beautiful story in the world. Whats new here is the lyrical, witty, vivid prose, informed by a wisdom that brings fresh insight to this foundational legend of betrayal and all-embracing forgiveness. Mitchell’s retelling, which reads like a postmodern novel, interweaves the narrative with brief meditations that, with their Zen surprises, expand the narrative and illuminate its main themes. By stepping inside the minds of Joseph and the other characters, Mitchell reanimates one of the central stories of Western culture. The engrossing tale that he has created will capture the hearts and minds of modern readers and show them that this ancient story can still challenge, delight, and astonish.

Stephen Mitchell was born in Brooklyn, educated at Amherst, the Sorbonne, and Yale, and de-educated through intensive Zen training. His many books include the bestselling Tao Te Ching, Gilgamesh, The Gospel According to Jesus, The Book of Job, The Second Book of the Tao, The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, Bhagavad Gita, The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Beowulf. He is also the co-author of three of his wife Byron Katie’s bestselling books.
Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and author. Starting at age 20, he dedicated his life to sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. His practice has included starting and running ecological businesses, writing and teaching about the impact of commerce on living systems, and consulting with governments and corporations on economic development, industrial ecology, and environmental policy. Paul authors articles, op-eds, and peer-reviewed papers, and has written eight books including five national bestsellers: The Next Economy (Ballantine 1983), Growing a Business (Simon & Schuster 1987), and The Ecology of Commerce (HarperCollins 1993) Blessed Unrest (Viking, 2007), and Drawdown, The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming (Penguin).

*** ​Please note ***
– Doors at 6pm. Program at 7pm.
– Duration of event is subject to author’s preference.
– Signing details TBA soon.
– Tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable. All ticket sales are final.
– If you can’t attend the event but would like to request a signed copy of Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness, order below and put your request in the special field. If you’d like to request signed copies of any of Stephen’s other books, order here and be sure to add your request in the special field; for signed copies of Paul’s books, do the same here.
– This event is all ages. Accessibility is important to us! If you have special needs of any kind, please write events AT booksmith DOT com and we will do our best to accommodate you.
– Facebook RSVP not required, but always appreciated.
