This was a really hard week for those who had to choose a best of from the SF literary scene. All week I thought I have to choose this one because I am so proud of Nic Alea and want everyone else to see her, but on that very same night one of my favorite poets, Sam Sax, gave what one could argue was one of his better performances (the second of Sam’s two poems in that clip is an open letter from J. Edgar Hoover to Larry Craig and quite fantastic). But those technically happened last week.

This week has to go to Shideh Etaat for her cultural satire “Origin of the Veil:”

Shideh told this story as well as she wrote it—a bonus since we had selected “Origin of the Veil” as Chapter 5 of our prose association on the merit of the writing (and, we hear, this performance might make an appearance on NPR).

[We’re considering adding full pick of the week text below each video. What do you think?]

This coming week » We’re really excited about Steve Almond, Joe Sabia, and Antonia Crane at The Rumpus on Monday, are big fans of all four of this month’s LDM writers, and at the very same time—across town on Friday in the historic Mechanics Institute Library—Charlie Getter, Paul Corman-Roberts, and a gang of other wordsmiths will wow a crowd of older folk (which should be as much fun to watch as the performances). That should be all, but it’s not. Looking forward to this week, San Francisco. Check out the rest.