Litquake Year-Round 2019: Full Schedule

1:00pm PST

Resolve to Write a Novel in 2019!

One of the biggest obstacles any writer faces is finishing the first draft of a novel. As Joyce Carol Oates said, "Getting the first draft finished is like pushing a peanut with your nose across a very dirty floor." Enter Grant Faulkner, exec director of NaNoWriMo, the organization that has generated thousands of first-time novels, and created one of the most effective approaches to writing a first draft. Get ready to leap to new creative heights!

In this session, Faulkner (also the author of Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo), will provide a crash course in novel writing and a framework to finish your novel in 2019. He'll discuss the power of diving in, banishing one's inner editor, and taking creative risks. He'll also talk about the often disregarded keys behind every great work: setting an audacious goal and a deadline, tracking your daily progress, and connecting with others in a creative community.

This is your year to finish the novel of your dreams. Come with laptop or notepad prepared to write--with abandon!

Authors

Grant Faulkner

Executive Director, NaNoWriMo

Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story. He has published a book of essays on creativity, Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo; Fissures, a collection of 100-word... Read More →

Saturday January 19, 2019 1:00pm - 4:00pm PST
Mechanics' Institute Board Room 57 Post Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104

Master Class Mixers, ticketed

4:00pm PST

Audible presents: The Indignities of Being a Woman (SF Sketchfest)

Join celebrated comedy writers Merrill Markoe and Megan Koester as they explore the increasingly relevant question – “Why the hell are women still being treated like second class citizens?” Merrill and Megan will be joined by a special guest moderator as they discuss issues from their latest Audible release, “The Indignities of Being a Woman”, such as body image, marriage, sex, and mental illness. They’ll examine what it was like to be a woman in the past versus what it’s like now, when women are constantly told equality between the sexes exists but reality proves otherwise. Check out the insightful Audible Original at audible.com/Indignities

Authors

Laraine Newman

Laraine Newman is a native of Los Angeles and began her career at the age of 15 when the improv group she worked with was hired to bring culture and self-expression to the youth of East LA and South Central.After High School she went to Paris and studied mime with Marcel Marceau... Read More →

Megan Koester

Megan Koester is a writer and comedian (obviously) who resides in Los Angeles (somewhat less obviously). LA Weekly (before it was taken over by right wingers, mind you) listed her as a "comic to watch," saying her "sets are as dark, self-effacing and in-the-moment as they come." Her... Read More →

Merrill Markoe

Merrill Markoe is a multi-award-winning comedy writer whose credits span television, magazines, and books. She has four Emmy Awards, one for each of her dogs.

Sunday January 20, 2019 4:00pm - 5:30pm PST
Swedish American Hall 2174 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94114

Featured Event, ticketed

7:30pm PST

Selected Shorts: Too Hot for Radio (SF Sketchfest)

It's an evening of Selected Shorts you won't hear on public radio. We're showcasing amazing stories that, due to language issues or content advisories, are, well, too hot for radio! Join actors Hope Davis, Neil Patrick Harris, John Cameron Mitchell and host Aparna Nancherla as they read aloud humorous and saucy stories that are just a little too edgy for that hour on Sunday following Car Talk. Hosted by comedian and podcast host Aparna Nancherla. Selected Shorts is a radio show and podcast broadcast on more than 150 stations around the country. The series began in 1985 and enjoys sold-out performances to this day. Selected Shorts was conceived with a simple premise: take great stories by well-known and emerging writers and have them performed by terrific actors of stage and screen. Featuring stories around a lively theme, the favorite works of a guest author, or a special collaboration, each Selected Shorts event is a unique night of literature in performance. $45/$35, All Ages Co-presented by LitQuake

Authors

Aparna Nancherla

Aparna Nancherla first started doing comedy in her hometown of Washington D.C. and now resides in New York City. In 2016, she was featured in Elle’s Women in Comedy Issue as one of the most exciting new voices to hit the comedy scene.Nancherla can be seen in Netflix’s "Master... Read More →

Hope Davis

Hope Davis has appeared in the films "About Schmidt," "American Splendor," "Synecdoche, New York," "Captain America: Civil War," and "Rebel in the Rye," among others. On television, Davis’s credits include "Deadline," "Six Degrees," "In Treatment," "The Newsroom," "The Special Relationship... Read More →

John Cameron Mitchell

John Cameron Mitchell is the co-creator of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." He also directed the films "Shortbus," "Rabbit Hole" and "How to Talk to Girls at Parties." He's a cast member of the forthcoming Hulu comedy, "Shrill," starring Aidy Bryant. Recently he's been on a world tour... Read More →

Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris currently stars as Count Olaf in Netflix’s series adaptation of “A Series of Unfortunate Events.” The third season will premiere in January 2019. Harris is a five-time Emmy Award winner for his role as host of the 63rd, 65th, 66th and 67th Annual Tony Awards... Read More →

Saturday January 26, 2019 7:30pm - 9:00pm PST
Marine's Memorial Theater 609 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

Featured Event

7:00pm PST

Tracy K. Smith, Poet Laureate of the United States

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co-presented with the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco

Join us for a conversation with Tracy K. Smith, the current Poet Laureate of the United States. In that role, she has traveled the country on a quest to bring poetry to people living in rural America. Smith authored the critically-acclaimed memoir Ordinary Light and three books of poetry including her most recent, Wade in the Water. Her collection Life on Mars won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize and was selected as the New York Times Notable Book. Duende received the 2006 James Laughlin Award and The Body’s Question won the 2002 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Smith has also been a recipient of a Rona Jaffe Writers Award and a Whiting Award, and received a fellowship from the Academy of American Poets, awarded to one poet annually for distinguished poetic achievement. She is the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor in the Humanities and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University.

Even the men in black armor, the ones
Jangling handcuffs and keys, what else

Are they so buffered against, if not love’s blade
Sizing up the heart’s familiar meat?

We watch and grieve. We sleep, stir, eat.
Love: the heart sliced open, gutted, clean.

Love: naked almost in the everlasting street,
Skirt lifted by a different kind of breeze.

– from “Unrest in Baton Rouge,” Wade in the Water

Authors

Tracy K. Smith

Tracy K. Smith is an American poet and educator. She is currently serving as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States, an office she assumed in 2017. She has published four collections of poetry, winning the Pulitzer Prize for her 2011 volume Life on Mars.

Wednesday January 30, 2019 7:00pm - 8:30pm PST
Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, Kanbar Hall 3200 California St, San Francisco, CA 94118

Featured Event

8:00pm PST

What If: The Fiction of the Future

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Fantasy and science fiction stories have long embraced the darker themes of a dystopian future, and our fascination continues unabated in recent films and TV shows such as Children of Men, Blade Runner 2049, Black Mirror, and The Handmaid’s Tale. Do these narratives speak to our fears of what the future will bring, or do they reflect the current reality in which the authors live and write? Is futuristic fiction pure escapism, or can it alter our destiny? Discussing these questions and more will be Bay Area authors Charlie Jane Anders (All the Birds in the Sky; The City in the Middle of the Night), and Meg Elison (The Book of the Unnamed Midwife), in conversation with Nilgun Bayraktar, a writer and professor at California College of the Arts.

Moderators

Nilgun Bayraktar

Nilgun Bayraktar is an assistant professor of film in the Visual Studies Program at California College of the Arts. She received her Ph.D. in Performance Studies with a designated emphasis in Film & Media Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Her work focuses on migrant... Read More →

Authors

Charlie Jane Anders

Charlie Jane Anders is the former editor-in-chief of io9.com, the extraordinarily popular Gawker Media site devoted to science fiction and fantasy. Her SF and fantasy debut novel, All the Birds in the Sky, won the 2017 Nebula Awards for Best Novel and was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo... Read More →

Meg Elison

Meg Elison is a science fiction author and feminist essayist. Her debut novel, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, won the 2014 Philip K. Dick award. Her second novel, The Book of Etta, was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick, and both were longlisted for the James A. Tiptree award. She... Read More →

Saturday February 2, 2019 8:00pm - 9:00pm PST
San Francisco Public Library, main branch, 1st Floor Deaf Services Center 100 Larkin St., San Francisco, CA

Featured Event

TBA

SUBMISSIONS OPEN!

Since 1999, San Francisco's annual Litquake literary festival has drawn booklovers of all types to enjoy words and ideas, straight from the artists' mouths. This year's festival dates will be October 10-19, 2019.

Submissions open on February 15 for the Litquake festival, Lit Crawl SF, and the fifth annual Litquake Writing Contest. All submissions close May 1. Submitters will be notified by August 2019. We look forward to reading your submission.

Click here to submit.

Friday February 15, 2019 TBA

12:00pm PST

Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People (JFI: Winterfest)

Joseph Pulitzer's New York newspaper, The World, would transform American media and make him wealthy, admired and feared. Throughout his four decades as a reporter and publisher, he created a powerful artistic vehicle that spoke to an unprecedented number of readers. Towards the end of his life, both sickly and blind, Pulitzer's commitment to fearless reporting would be tested by the most powerful person in American life, President Teddy Roosevelt. Pulitzer spoke of "fake news" over one hundred years ago and fought the dangers that the suppression of news had for a democracy. While he is remembered for the prizes that bear his name, his own heroic battles in the face of grave illness and Presidential ire have been forgotten as has the artistry and game changing originality he brought to newspapers. How did Joseph Pulitzer, once a penniless young Jewish immigrant from Hungary, come to challenge a popular president and fight for freedom of the press as essential to our democracy?

Adam Driver narrates this riveting account of a fascinating man. Liev Schreiber is the voice of Pulitzer. Tim Blake Nelson is the voice of Teddy Roosevelt and Rachel Brosnahan is the voice of Nelly Bly.

Saturday February 16, 2019 12:00pm - 2:00pm PST
Alama Drafthouse & Cinema at New Mission 2550 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Featured Event, ticketed

8:15pm PST

Untogether (JFI: Winterfest)

Untogether is the story of Nick (Jamie Dornan, Fifty Shades of Grey) and Andrea (Jemima Kirke, HBO's Girls) whose one night stand evolves into something more, though the exact parameters are blurry and undefined. He is a doctor and author whose heroics in the Middle East gained him international fame. She is a writing prodigy fully consumed with destructive vices, navigating Los Angeles without a driver's license or credit card and sharing a home with her sister Tara. Meanwhile, Tara (Lola Kirke, Mozart in the Jungle) is dealing with relationship issues of her own as she slowly slips away from her boyfriend Martin (Ben Mendelsohn), who gave up his Australian fame as a rock 'n' roll god to be with her. Her way of acting out is to lose herself in religion and seek solace in a charismatic Rabbi, in a 'mahvelous' performance by Billy Crystal. This is who they've all been so far but do they have the courage to find out who they really are?

Saturday February 16, 2019 8:15pm - 10:00pm PST
Alama Drafthouse & Cinema at New Mission 2550 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Featured Event, ticketed

7:30pm PDT

Evan James / Cheer up, Mr. Widdicombe

Litquake and The Bindery present Evan James reading from his debut novel, Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicombe.

In a return of a not-so-prodigal son, author Evan James who lived, wrote, and worked in SF for years before heading to the Iowa Writer’s Workshop to earn his MFA – all prior to landing on his feet in New York a few years later – comes to San Francisco on book tour for his comedy of manners debut novel that tells the story of a family summer on Puget Sound; conjuring a Wes Anderson meets John Updike vibe, it tells a tale filled with tennis, a personal assistant in search of romance, a preppy screenwriter with a penchant for pills, a landscape gardener named Marvelous Matthews, and a bewitching self-help author and others, all attempting to find that elusive something that will as Marie Kondo says, “spark their joy.”

Authors

Evan James

Evan James is an award-winning writer whose personal essays and fiction have appeared in such publications as the Oxford American, Travel + Leisure, and The New York Times, among others. He received an MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has received fellowships... Read More →

Wednesday April 3, 2019 7:30pm - 9:00pm PDT
The Bindery 1727 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117

Featured Event, ticketed

12:30pm PDT

The Art of Flash Fiction

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“Since brevity is the soul of wit / And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief…” - Billy Shakespeare

Join flash fiction specialists as they talk about their craft. Featuring moderator Thaisa Frank, Kim Magowan, Jane Ciabattari, Nancy Au, and Kara Vernor. $20

Media sponsor: BookLife
Book sales courtesy of Borderlands Books

Moderators

Thaisa Frank

Thaisa Frank’s recent flash fiction has been anthologized in Short Fiction (Bloomsbury 2019) and New Micro (Norton 2019). Her third collection of short fiction , Enchantment (2012) includes two semi-autobiographical novellas as well as thirty-three stories. Her most recent... Read More →

Authors

Kim Magowan

Kim Magowan’s debut collection, Undoing, won the 2017 Moon City Short Fiction Award. It was published in March 2018 by Moon City Press, available from the pressand from Amazon. Her novel The Light Source is forthcoming from 7.13 Books.Magowan lives in San Francisco with her partner and their two daughters, and teaches in the Department of Literatures and Languages at Mills College. Her fiction is published or forthcoming in Atticus Review, Bird’s Thumb, Cleaver, The Gettysburg Review, Hobart, New World Writing... Read More →

Jane Ciabattari

Jane Ciabattari is the author of two critically acclaimed short story collections: "California Tales" and "Stealing the Fire" (Kirkus Reviews: "Ciabattari is a master of transformation as she gives these stories of loss, woe, crisis and collapse the salutary and sometimes bracing... Read More →

Kara Vernor

Kara Vernor’s fiction has appeared in Wigleaf, The Los Angeles Review, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Fanzine, and elsewhere, and her fiction chapbook, Because I Wanted to Write You a Pop Song, is available from Split Lip Press. She is the recipient of an Elizabeth George Foundation scholarship... Read More →

Nancy Au

Nancy Au's writing appears or is forthcoming in Redivider, Gulf Coast, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Cincinnati Review, Catapult, Lunch Ticket, The Pinch, SmokeLong Quarterly, among others. She has an MFA from San Francisco State University where she taught creative writing. She... Read More →

Saturday April 13, 2019 12:30pm - 1:45pm PDT
Z Below 450 Florida St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Writers Weekend, ticketed

2:15pm PDT

The Art of the Short Story

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"Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and other dreams." - Neil Gaiman

Join short fiction writers as they about their craft. Featuring moderator Rita Bullwinkel, Kim Addonizio, Ethel Rohan, Kate Folk, and Yang Huang. $20

Media sponsor: BookLife
Book sales courtesy of Borderlands Books

Moderators

Rita Bullwinkel

Rita Bullwinkel is the author of the story collection Belly Up, which won the 2018 Believer Book Award, and is currently being translated into Italian and Greek. Bullwinkel’s writing has been published in Tin House, Conjunctions, BOMB, Vice, NOON, and Guernica. She is a recipient of grants and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Brown University, Vanderbilt University, Hawthor... Read More →

Authors

Kim Addonizio

Kim Addonizio is the author of seven poetry collections, two novels, two story collections, and two books on writing poetry, The Poet’s Companion (with Dorianne Laux) and Ordinary Genius. She has received fellowships from the NEA and Guggenheim Foundation, two Pushcart Prizes... Read More →

Ethel Rohan

Ethel Rohan's debut novel The Weight of Him was an Amazon, Bustle, KOBO, and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book, and winner of a Plumeri Fellowship, Silver Nautilus Award, and the Northern California Publishers and Authors’ Award. She is an award-winning short story writer with... Read More →

Yang Huang

Yang Huang grew up in China and came to the U.S. to study computer science. While working as an engineer, she studied literature and pursued writing. Her collection of linked family stories My Old Faithful won the Juniper Prize for Fiction. Her debut novel Living Treasures won the... Read More →

Kate Folk

Kate Folk's stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Zyzzyva, One Story, Conjunctions, Granta, and lots of other places. She has completed a story collection, Doe Eyes, and is currently at work on a novel about artificially intelligent limbs and a clandestine... Read More →

Saturday April 13, 2019 2:15pm - 3:30pm PDT
Z Below 450 Florida St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Writers Weekend, ticketed

4:00pm PDT

The Art of the Novel

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"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." – Jane Austen

Authors in conversation about the art of longform fiction. Featuring moderator Melanie Abrams, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Laleh Khadivi, Hannah Michell, Namwali Serpell. $20

Media sponsor: BookLife
Book sales courtesy of Borderlands Books

Moderators

Melanie Abrams

Melanie Abrams is the author of the forthcoming novel Meadowlark. Her novel Playing (Grove Atlantic) has been acquired in Italy, France, Germany, India, and Israel. She teaches writing at UC Berkeley and is married to the writer Vikram Chandra. They live with their daughters in Oakland, CA... Read More →

Authors

Hannah Michell

Hannah Michell was born in England and raised in South Korea. She is the author of two novels The Defections and A Buried Life (forthcoming, 2020) and teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.

Namwali Serpell

Namwali Serpell was born in Lusaka and lives in San Francisco. Her first novel, The Old Drift, is forthcoming with Hogarth (Penguin Random House) in 2019.She won the 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing for her story, "The Sack." In 2014, she was chosen as one of the Africa 39... Read More →

Laleh Khadivi

Laleh Khadivi was born in Esfahan, Iran. Her debut novel, The Age of Orphans, received the Whiting Award for Fiction, the Barnes and Nobles Discover New Writers Award and an Emory Fiction Fellowship.Her debut documentary film 900 WOMEN aired on A&E and premiered at the Human Rights... Read More →

Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Lucy Jane Bledsoe's collection, Lava Falls, a novella and stories at the intersection of wilderness, family, and survival, is just out. Her most recent novel, The Evolution of Love, came out in May and is currently a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. She's the author of a previous... Read More →

Saturday April 13, 2019 4:00pm - 5:15pm PDT
Z Below 450 Florida St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Writers Weekend, ticketed

8:00pm PDT

Grace Notes: Poets at Grace Cathedral

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Hosted by the inimitable D.A. Powell, our National Poetry Month celebration will feature poets Paola Capó-García, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Henri Cole, Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Barbara Jane Reyes. You don't want to miss this. FREE

Authors

Brenda Hillman

Brenda Hillman is author of 10 collections from Wesleyan University Press, most recently Extra Hidden Life, among the Days (2018), Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire (2013), and Practical Water (2011). She has has recently co-translated At Your Feet, the poems of Ana Cristina Cesar... Read More →

Henri Cole

Henri Cole was born in Fukuoka, Japan. He has published nine collections of poetry, including MIDDLE EARTH, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. His most recent collection is NOTHING TO DECLARE, and a memoir “Orphic Paris” was published last spring. He... Read More →

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is a co-founder of the Undocupoets campaign and the author of Cenzontle, winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. prize (BOA editions 2018), and a winner of the 2019 Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award in poetry as well as a finalist for the Norther... Read More →

Paola Capó-García

Paola Capó-García is the author of CLAP FOR ME THAT’S NOT ME (Rescue Press, 2018). She is the co-founder/editor of the literary/arts journal littletell, alongside Maria Flaccavento. Originally from San Juan, PR, she now lives in San Diego, CA, where she teaches 12th grade Eng... Read More →

Robert Hass

Robert Hass, (born March 1, 1941, San Francisco, California, U.S.), American poet and translator whose body of work and tenure as poet laureate consultant in poetry (1995–97) reveal his deep conviction that poetry, as one critic put it, “is what defines the self.”Hass atten... Read More →

D.A. Powell

D. A. Powell's books include Repast (Graywolf, 2014) and Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys (Graywolf, 2012), the latter a recipient of the Northern California Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry. His honors include fellowships from the National Endowment... Read More →

Barbara Jane Reyes

Barbara Jane Reyes is the author of Invocation to Daughters (City Lights Publishers, 2017). She was born in Manila, Philippines, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is the author of four previous collections of poetry, Gravities of Center (Arkipelago Books, 2003), Poeta en... Read More →

Saturday April 13, 2019 8:00pm - 9:30pm PDT

Featured Event

12:30pm PDT

Tried and True: What's So Great About Traditional Publishing

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With so many new paths to publishing, should emerging writers still consider the traditional route? Find out what the professionals have to say about how the publishing industry has changed and what it still has to offer. Natalie Baszile of Queen Sugar moderates this panel of publishing pros with Trisha Low of Small Press Distribution, indie-publishing consultant Pamela Feinsilber and literary agents Anna Ghosh and Ted Weinstein. $20

Media sponsor: BookLife
Book sales courtesy of Borderlands Books

Moderators

Natalie Baszile

Natalie Baszile is the author of the debut novel, Queen Sugar, which was adapted for TV by writer/director, Ava DuVernay of “Selma” fame, and co-produced by Oprah Winfrey for OWN, Winfrey’s cable network. Queen Sugar was named one of the San Francisco Chronicles’ Best Books... Read More →

Authors

Trisha Low

Trisha Low is the Publicity Manager at Small Press Distribution, the only non-profit literary distributor in the US. She is a poet and performer living in the East Bay and is the author of The Compleat Purge (Kenning Editions, 2013) and Socialist Realism (Emily Books/Coffee House... Read More →

Ted Weinstein

Ted Weinstein is a literary agent with broad experience on both the business and editorial sides of publishing. Before founding his agency in 2001 he held senior positions in licensing, marketing, publicity and business development with several major publishing companies. Also a widely... Read More →

Anna Ghosh

Ghosh Literary is an independent literary agency founded by Anna Ghosh. Anna started her career as a literary agent in New York city in 1995 and was previously a partner at Scovil Galen Ghosh.The agency offers world wide literary representation for print and digital media and all... Read More →

Pamela Feinsilber

Pamela Feinsilber is a writing coach and editor of fiction and nonfiction at every level, from big-picture analysis, or developmental editing (consulting on overall theme, structure, storyline, plot), through line editing, copy editing, even proofreading. While many of her authors... Read More →

Sunday April 14, 2019 12:30pm - 1:45pm PDT
Z Below 450 Florida St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Writers Weekend, ticketed

2:15pm PDT

Debut Authors: Fame and Fortune in Five Easy Steps

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"Publishing a book is super fun and easy."
— said No One Ever

Join debut authors Lauren Markham (The Far Away Brothers: Two Teenage Immigrants Making a Life in America), Huda Al-Marashi (First Comes Marriage), Rebecca Gomez Farrell (Wings Unseen) and Victoria Piontek (The Sprit of Cattail County) as they spill the secrets of determination and perseverance that helped them make the journey from emerging writer to published author. Moderated by Sarita Cannon, book club director of WordSpaceStudios. $20

Media sponsor: BookLife
Book sales courtesy of Borderlands Books

Moderators

Sarita Cannon

associate professor, SFSU

Sarita Cannon is associate professor of English at San Francisco State University, where she teaches classes on 20th-century American literature. Her scholarship has appeared in Interdisciplinary Humanities, The CEA Critic, Asian American Literatures: Discourses and Pedagogies... Read More →

Authors

Lauren Markham

Lauren Markham is a fiction writer, essayist and journalist based in Berkeley, California who covers issues related to youth, migration, the environment, and her home state. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in outlets such as Orion, Harper’s, The New Republic, Guernica... Read More →

Huda Al-Marashi

Huda Al-Marashi is the author of First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story, a book the Washington Post called "a charming, funny, heartbreaking memoir of faith, family, and the journey to love. If Jane Austen had grown up as a first-gen daughter of Iraqi parents... Read More →

Rebecca Gomez Farrell

Rebecca Gomez Farrell writes all the speculative fiction genres she can conjure up. Her first fantasy novel, Wings Unseen, debuted in August 2017 from Meerkat Press. You can find her shorter works in over twenty publications including Typehouse Literary Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless... Read More →

Sunday April 14, 2019 2:15pm - 3:30pm PDT
Z Below 450 Florida St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Writers Weekend, ticketed

4:00pm PDT

The Author Hustle: Finding Readers in the Interwebs and Beyond

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In a world where attention spans are short and reading recommendations are determined by algorithms, how do today's authors find their readership? Devi S. Laskar (The Atlas of Reds and Blues; Gas & Food, No Lodging), Hilary Zaid (Paper is White), Leslie Carol Roberts (Here Is Where I Walk: Episodes from a Life in the Forest, The Entire Earth and Sky: Views on Antarctica) and Melinda Mullin (Senior Director of Publicity at HarperOne) share their strategies with Litquake's Janine Kovac. $20

Media sponsor: BookLife
Book sales courtesy of Borderlands Books

Moderators

Janine Kovac

co-founder, Moxie Road Productions

Janine Kovac is the author of SPINNING: Choreography for Coming Home, a memoir about the death of a career but the birth of miracle twins and a 2017 semifinalist for Publisher Weekly's BookLife Prize and the 2019 memoir winner of the National Indie Excellence Awards. A former ballet... Read More →

Authors

Melinda Mullin

Senior Director of Publicity, HarperOne

MELINDA MULLIN is Senior Director of Publicity at HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers and a seasoned publicity professional. She has handled publicity for a diverse array of New York Times bestselling authors and debut writers across a variety of genres. Some of the authors... Read More →

Hilary Zaid

A 2017 Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers' Conference, Hilary Zaid is also an alumna of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers and the Tin House Writers' Workshop. Her short fiction has appeared in print and online venues including Lilith Magazine, The Southwest Review... Read More →

Devi S. Laskar

DEVI S. LASKAR is a native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and holds an MFA from Columbia University. Her work has appeared in Tin House and Rattle, among other publications. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and is an alumna of The OpEd Project and VONA. The Atlas of... Read More →

Leslie Carol Roberts

Leslie Carol Roberts’ work as an author explores the eco-memoir, layered stories reflecting on climate, ecologies, art, histories, and the narrative of place, through the lens of the personal essay. Her books include Here Is Where I Walk: Episodes from a Life in the Forest (Nevada... Read More →

Sunday April 14, 2019 4:00pm - 5:15pm PDT
Z Below 450 Florida St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Writers Weekend, ticketed

4:30pm PDT

L'HOMME DU LARGE (SF Silent Film Festival)

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Musical accompaniment by the Guenter Buchwald and Frank Bockius with intertitle narration by Paul McGann

A first-born son brings great pride and hope for the future to the family of a Breton fisherman. But like the sea itself the boy’s nature cannot be controlled. Made at a time in French cinema when experimentation and narrative storytelling were one and the same, L’Homme du Large borrows from all of it for a lyrical portrait of a traditional way of life negotiating threats from the modern world. Shooting on location in the Breton Isles, Marcel L’Herbier mixed professional and nonprofessional actors, documentary-style shooting with meticulous mise-en-scène, and expressive intertitles with striking photography for what is often considered his first masterwork. Big themes of good and evil play out in this distinctive culture as L’Herbier brings mythological struggles down to earth.

Use Discount Code: LITQK

Authors

Guenter Buchwald

Conductor, composer, pianist, and violinist Guenter Buchwald is a pioneer of the renaissance in silent film music. He has accompanied silent films for thirty-eight years with a repertoire of more than three thousand titles and has conducted orchestras worldwide from Iceland to Romania... Read More →

Frank Bockius

Versatile percussionist Frank Bockius specializes in jazz and is versed in medieval, flamenco, and Latin music styles. He has performed for dance and theater companies as well as in his own bands, including the jazz quintet Whisper Hot and the percussion ensemble Timpanicks. He joined... Read More →

Paul McGann

British actor Paul McGann made his film debut opposite Richard Grant in the cult movie Withnail and I and he went on to appear in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun, Ken Russell’s The Rainbow, and David Fincher’s Alien 3. His television work includes the eighth incarnation... Read More →

Saturday May 4, 2019 4:30pm - 6:00pm PDT

Featured Event

9:15pm PDT

L'INFERNO (SF Silent Film Festival)

Musical accompaniment by the Matti Bye Ensemble with intertitle narration by Paul McGann

A tour through the Nine Circles of Hell, Inferno from 1911 depicts the first part of Dante’s 14th century epic poem The Divine Comedy in such vivid imagery even nonbelievers might find themselves lurching toward the confessional. Its elaborate tableaux and stunning special effects took two years to produce, with exorbitant production costs unheard of at the time. One of a flurry of films made in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Italy’s Risorgimento, Inferno caught the attention of the country’s intelligentsia who had previously dismissed movies as mere novelty. “A noble example,” said one after the film’s premiere, “of wanting to distance itself from the vulgarities of which we are all sated by now.” Enhanced by Cineteca di Bologna’s pristine restoration of the original tinting and toning this presentation of Inferno is not to be missed. An international blockbuster, it incited the rest of the world to try to produce films of equal ambition.

Use Discount Code: LITQK

Authors

Paul McGann

Matti Bye Ensemble

The Matti Bye Ensemble seeks that magical, emotional alchemy between music and images, playing a wide variety of instruments that include piano, glockenspiel, violin, musical saw and percussion. It is led by award-winning film composer Matti Bye, who has been the Swedish Film Institute's... Read More →

Saturday May 4, 2019 9:15pm - 10:30pm PDT

Featured Event

12:30pm PDT

Poetic Tuesday–May

Enjoy line breaks during your lunch break, as some of the Bay Area’s best poets and musicians share their work in the great outdoors.

Moderators

Baruch Porras Hernandez

Baruch Porras Hernandez is the author of the chapbooks “I Miss You, Delicate” and “Lovers of the Deep Fried Circle” both with Sibling Rivalry Press. He had the honor of touring with the legendary Sister Spit Queer poetry tour with Radar Productions in 2019, is a is a two-time... Read More →

Authors

Natalia M. Vigil

Natalia M. Vigil is a queer Xicana writer, multimedia curator, and big sister of six, born and raised in San Francisco. She is the proud co-founder of Still Here San Francisco for which she was honored as a Local Hero by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. She is a VONA Voices... Read More →

Katherine Agard

Katherine Agard is an interdisciplinary artist and writer from Trinidad and Tobago. She recently graduated from the MFA program in Writing at UC – San Diego and now lives in San Francisco. You can find her writing in Yes Femmes, Anmly, the Black Warrior Review and Feminist Stud... Read More →

Imani Sims

Imani Sims is a curator, alchemist, and author from Seattle. She believes in the healing power of ritual and performance art. As the Curator of Kitchen Sessions, a running show series in collaboration with Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas, Bellevue Art Museum, Seattle Art... Read More →

Luna Merbruja

Luna Merbruja is a Mexican-Athabaskan writer and artist. They’re the author of Trauma Queen and the poetry book Heal Your Love. They have been published in the anthologies Nerve Endings: The New Trans Erotic, Resilence, and the 2nd edition of Colonize This! Currently, Merbruja is... Read More →

Azuah

Azuah’s music weaves roots in alternative folk and soul with a poet's sensibility and an unforgettable voice to create an infectious sound all her own. A Bay Area native, she has played all over the West Coast from the Roxy in Los Angeles to stages in Oakland and San Francisco... Read More →

Tuesday May 14, 2019 12:30pm - 1:30pm PDT
Yerba Buena Gardens Esplanade Mission St. between 3rd and 4th Streets, San Francisco, CA 94103

Poetic Tuesday

7:00pm PDT

Julie Orringer & Michael Chabon at JCCSF

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Julie Orringer (The Invisible Bridge) joins Michael Chabon (Moonglow) for a conversation about The Flight Portfolio, Orringer’s new historical novel set in occupied Europe and based on the true story of American journalist Varian Fry’s extraordinary rescue of Jewish artists and writers threatened by the Nazis including Hannah Arendt, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp and Marc Chagall.

"No book this year could possibly compare with The Flight Portfolio: ambitious, meticulous, big-hearted, gorgeous, historical, suspenseful, everything you want a novel to be."
– Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less

Authors

Julie Orringer

Julie Orringer is the bestselling author of the novel The Invisible Bridge and the award-winning short-story collection How to Breathe Underwater, which was a New York Times Notable Book. She is the winner of The Paris Review's Plimpton Prize for Fiction and the recipient of fellowships... Read More →

Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Model World, Wonder Boys, Werewolves in their Youth, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Summerland, The Final Solution, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Maps and Legends... Read More →

Tuesday May 14, 2019 7:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, Kanbar Hall 3200 California St, San Francisco, CA 94118

Featured Event, ticketed

6:30pm PDT

Namwali Serpell at MoAD

Litquake and MoAD present...

Namwali Serpell’s electrifying debut, THE OLD DRIFT, is the first novel ever to tell the story of Zambia from its very beginnings to the present day—and beyond.

Crossing centuries, borders, and genres, THE OLD DRIFT tells a sweeping tale of a small African country as it comes into being, and the trials and tribulations of its people. Their stories, told by a mysterious swarm-like chorus that calls itself man’s greatest nemesis, form an epic meditation on what it means to be human.

With playful language, Serpell masterfully blends historical fiction, fairy-tale fables, romance, and science fiction. On each page, she turns stereotypes and tropes on their heads, unsettling the stories we think we know about Africa, from colonialism to migration, gender to race, poverty to politics, and nationhood to technology. Through THE OLD DRIFT’s cast of vivid characters—including Zambia, which proves to be a character itself—Serpell shows that, if to err is human, then even the slightest error can still be a powerful force for transformation. Incisive, expansive, and subversive, THE OLD DRIFT announces Namwali Serpell as a major new literary talent.

Authors

Namwali Serpell

Wednesday May 15, 2019 6:30pm - 8:00pm PDT
Museum of African Diaspora 685 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94105

Featured Event

12:30pm PDT

Poetic Tuesday–June

Enjoy line breaks during your lunch break, as some of the Bay Area’s best poets and musicians share their work in the great outdoors.

Authors

Lourdes Figueroa

Lourdes Figueroa was born in Yuba City, California during a trip her parents made from Mexico to the USA when they worked in the campo tilling the soil for tomatoes. Lourdes is a proud 2009 and 2011 VONA alum. Her work has been published in the SF Poet’s 11 2008 & 2010 an Anthology... Read More →

Sanjana Shukla

Sanjana Shukla is a vocalist, theatre artist, and Bay Area native who strives to highlight diasporic experiences and voices through her work.

Baruch Porras Hernandez

Maggie Tokuda-Hall

Maggie Tokuda-Hall is the author of the Parent's Choice Gold Medal winning book, Also an Octopus. She has books forthcoming from Chronicle Books, Candlewick Press and Harper Collins. She's also the host of the animal facts podcast, Drunk Safari. Her dog is objectively perfect.

Josiah Luis Alderete

Josiah Luis Alderete is a full blooded Pocho spanglish speaking poet from La Area Bahia who learned to write poetry in the kitchen of his Mama’s Mexican restaurant. He was a founding member of San Francisco's outspoken word troupe The Molotov Mouths and is also a radio insurgente... Read More →

Camilo Villa

Camilo Villa is a Colombian artist, poet, and educator based in Oakland, California. He has performed in venues, such as Lit quake, The Queer Open Mic and Donde esta mí gente. Camilo holds a Fine Arts Degree with a minor in Social Action & Public Forms from the California College... Read More →

Tuesday June 11, 2019 12:30pm - 1:30pm PDT
Yerba Buena Gardens Esplanade Mission St. between 3rd and 4th Streets, San Francisco, CA 94103

Poetic Tuesday

6:30pm PDT

The White Devils’ Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown

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Co-presented by Mechanics' Institute Library and California Historical Society

With an investigative historian’s sharp eye, Siler tells the story of both the abolitionists who challenged the corrosive anti-Chinese prejudices of the time and the young women who dared to flee their fate. She relates how the women who ran the Cameron House defied contemporary convention by physically rescuing children from the brothels where they worked or by snatching them off ships as they were being smuggled in–and how they helped bring the exploiters to justice. This is a remarkable chapter in an overlooked part of San Francisco history, told with sympathy and vigor.

Authors

Julia Flynn Siler

Julia Flynn Siler is a New York Times best-selling author and journalist. Her most recent book is Lost Kingdom: Hawaii’s Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America’s First Imperial Adventure. Her first book, The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty, was... Read More →

Bonnie Tsui

Bonnie Tsui is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and the author of the award-winning American Chinatown. She has written about Michelin street food, Hong Kong’s rooftop farmers, the world’s first surf film, shark fin soup, the Baghdad swim team, race in America, and... Read More →

Wednesday June 12, 2019 6:30pm - 8:00pm PDT
Mechanics' Institute Salon 57 Post Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104

Featured Event

1:00pm PDT

The All-Important Rewrite: Befores and Afters with Laurie R. King

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Laurie R. King has had so many New York Times bestselling crime novels (27 at last count) that it’s tempting to think books emerge from her computer fully formed. Not so! Every novel goes through drafts - some of them pretty terrible. King is willing to share her rewrites with students as a learning tool, and discuss why she made her choices on the final revision. She will tackle the questions on self-editing: when do you know when your writing is “off?” Is there such a thing as too many revisions? How do you know when you’ve finally “nailed it?” There will be a bit of pre-reading for this class.

Authors

Laurie R. King

Laurie R. King has won every major award for crime and mystery novels: the Agatha, Edgar, Nero, Creasey, Macavity and the Lambda. Her crime novels are both serial and stand-alone. First in the hearts of most readers comes Mary Russell, who met the retired Sherlock Holmes in 1915 and... Read More →

Saturday June 29, 2019 1:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Mechanics' Institute Board Room 57 Post Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104

Master Class Mixers

12:30pm PDT

Poetic Tuesday–July

Lines and lyrics from Litquake Nation! Enjoy line breaks during your lunch break, as some of the Bay Area’s best poets and musicians share their work in the great outdoors. Curated by Baruch Porras-Hernandez.

Authors

Nazelah Jamison

Nazelah Jamison is a performance poet, actor, vocalist, and emcee. She is an East Coast transplant, former organizer of the Oakland Poetry Slam and sometimes reluctant superhero. Her first book of poetry, Evolutionary Heart, was released in Fall of 2016 on Nomadic Press. Nazelah... Read More →

Amanda Muñiz

Amanda Muñiz is a Mexican writer born in Puebla and raised in Oakland, California. She majored in English Literature from San Francisco State. Her work has been published by Pochino press, and she has been a featured reader in various shows in the Bay Area including the electrifying... Read More →

Vernon Keeve III

Vernon Keeve III is a Virginia born writer. He currently lives and teaches in Oakland. His purpose is to teach the next generation the importance of relaying their personal narratives, sharing their experiences, and taking control of their destinies. He holds a MFA from CCA, and a MA in Teaching Lit... Read More →

Thea Matthews

Born and raised in San Francisco, CA, Thea Matthews earned her BA in Sociology from UC Berkeley, where she studied and taught June Jordan’s Poetry for the People. She is a published poet / scholar / activist who writes on the complexities of humanity, grief, and resiliency... Read More →

Gabi Díaz-Hernández

Musical guest Gabi Díaz-Hernández is a Mexican-American musician and general lover of arts raised in south Georgia who has lived in The Bay Area for the past four years. She uses music to process her immigrant disorientation, melancholy, and bittersweet beauty of not being “ni... Read More →

Tuesday July 9, 2019 12:30pm - 1:30pm PDT
Yerba Buena Gardens Esplanade Mission St. between 3rd and 4th Streets, San Francisco, CA 94103

Poetic Tuesday

12:30pm PDT

Lit Crawl Jr.

Phase One - 5-8 years old
12:30 - 1:45 pm
Manny’s
3092 16th Street

Featuring children’s authors, Tony Piedra and Naomi Lau, doing readings and more for the little ones.

Phase Two - 8-12 years old
2- 3:15 pm
826 Valencia

Featuring 826 Valencia young authors and acclaimed middle grade author Aida Salazar (The Moon Within) doing readings and a panel on getting published.

Phase Three - Young Adult
3:30 - 4:45 pm
Borderlands Books
866 Valencia

Featuring debut author Kalyn Josephson (The Storm Crow), Katy Rose Pool (There Will Come a Darkness), and Shannon Price (A Thousand Fires).

Authors

Shannon Price

SHANNON PRICE is a YA author living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her debut novel A Thousand Fires is a YA reimagining of the Iliad set in modern day San Francisco.

Katy Rose Pool

Katy Rose Pool is a writer living in Berkeley, California. She grew up in Los Angeles, where her screenwriter father taught her about three act structure, characterization, and inciting incidents all before she could tie her shoes. Her debut novel There Will Come a Darkness will be... Read More →

Tony Piedra

Tony Piedra crafted worlds at Pixar Animation Studios for nine years. Now, he's bringing his skills and experiences from the film industry and putting them to use as an author and illustrator of children’s books. His debut picture book, The Greatest Adventure, is published by Arthur... Read More →

Naomi Lau

Naomi Lau is a book creator, former teacher and business consultant. She creates stories about life’s fruit, integrating diversity and heart values for meaningful learning. She is the Founder and Chief Storyteller at San Francisco-based independent publisher Wildberry Ink and creator... Read More →

Aida Salazar

Aida Salazar is a writer and arts advocate whose writings for adults and children explore issues of identity and social justice. She is the author of the middle grade verse novels,The Moon Within (2019), the upcoming The Land of the Cranes (2020), and the bio picture book Jovita... Read More →

Kalyn Josephson

Kalyn Josephson graduated from Santa Clara University with a degree in Biology and a degree in Creative Writing and works as a technical writer in the tech industry. The Storm Crow takes place in the tropical kingdom of Rhodaire, where magical crows are part of every aspect of life…until... Read More →

Sunday July 14, 2019 12:30pm - 4:45pm PDT

Featured Event

7:00pm PDT

LQ@20–20 Years of San Francisco’s Literary Festival

Help the Bay Area literary community celebrate two decades (to the day) of the world-famous festival known as Litquake. Founded in a dive bar 20 years ago, Litquake returns to its roots to host this action-packed literary bash. Hear highlights for the upcoming 20th anniversary festival. Mingle with the word nerds. Hear readings and stories from LQ veterans. Slake your thirst on discounted specials from Fort Point Beer. Watch in amazement as five author bands take the stage in a Battle Royale to the death.

Authors

Alan Black

Alan Black is the author of Kick the Balls and co-author, with David Henry Sterry, of The Glorious World Cup. Her is the literary manager of San Francisco’s famous bookish venue Edinburgh Castle Pub. His work has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon.com, and The... Read More →

Merle Kessler

Merle Kessler is a writer, humorist, and performer, best known perhaps by his pen name, Ian Shoales. As Ian Shoales he has been churning out cranky yet strangely humorous commentaries since 1979. First heard on NPR's “All Things Considered,” he has been featured on “Morning... Read More →

Vata & the Vine

Vata & the Vine is a collaboration between poet/musicians Evan Karp and Maw Shein Win. The first poet laureate of El Cerrito (2016-2018), Maw is the author of Invisible Gifts: Poems (Manic D Press, 2018), the chapbook Score and Bone (Nomadic Press), and a second full-length forthcoming... Read More →

Heather Bourbeau and Raman Osman

Heather Bourbeau and Raman Osman work where music and poetry meet. They were featured at “3+3: A Collaboration Between 3 Poets and 3 Musicians” and “Words and Music,” a benefit for UNICEF Syria. Heather Bourbeau’s fiction and poetry have been published in 100 Word Story... Read More →

Tongo Eisen-Martin & Steven Gray

Tongo Eisen-Martin is a poet. He also plays music. He has a friend, Steven Gray.

Delco (A Delaware Corporation)

Saddle up to the rhythm of the authentic Delta blues, filtered through the sensibilities of middle-aged white men vaguely connected to journalism: John Caperton (“Subterranean Living”), harmonica; Jack Boulware (Litquake, “Gimme Something Better”), vocals, guitar, bass; Tyler... Read More →

The Deadliners

Writers who play, players who write. The world’s most literate garage band. A rock ’n’ roll band made of authors, including Zoe FitzGerald Carter (“Imperfect Endings”), rhythm guitar and lead vocal; Gary Kamiya (“Cool Gray City of Love”), lead guitar; Mark Hertsgaard... Read More →

Tamim Ansary

Tamim Ansary writes books, teaches writing workshops, and speaks on a variety of topics related to history, politics, and culture. His literary memoir West of Kabul, East of New York was selected by both Waco, Texas and San Francisco, California as a One City One Book pick. Destiny... Read More →

devorah major

A California born, San Francisco raised, granddaughter of immigrants, documented and undocumented, devorah major served as San Francisco's Third Poet Laureate (2002-2006). She has published two novels, four poetry books and four poetry chapbooks, along with two young adult titles... Read More →

April Sinclair

April Sinclair is an Oakland-based best-selling author known for her books about young black women coming of age. Her debut novel, Coffee Will Make You Black, was named Book of the Year (Young Adult Fiction) for 1994 by the American Library Association and received the Carl Sandburg... Read More →

Tuesday July 16, 2019 7:00pm - 10:00pm PDT
Make-Out Room 3225 22nd St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Featured Event

6:00pm PDT

The Godfather: A Benefit for Litquake's 20th Anniversary **SOLD OUT**

Join us in celebrating 50 years of Mario Puzo's seminal novel The Godfather, a benefit for Litquake's 20th anniversary!

With readings and stories from special guests, including Eddie Muller (TCM's "Czar of Noir") and a performance by the acclaimed Word for Word performing arts company. Admission includes three-course dinner with wine, and hosted cocktail hour. Music from Orchestra Nostalgico, a Bay Area ensemble specializing in classic cinema compositions of Nino Rota. Plus, a silent auction for 2 tickets to see renowned Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli give the inaugural performance at Chase Center on December 5.

Community partners include Adastra Wines, Cafe Zoetrope, Caffe Trieste, and City Lights Bookstore.

Reception at 6 PM
Dinner and program at 7 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Soldier - $150 per ticket

3 course Italian dinner with premium wine
2 drink tickets

Capo - $200 per ticket

3 course Italian dinner with premium wine
2 drink tickets
Online recognition
Zoetrope gift bag

Consigliere - $1250 per ticket

3 course Italian dinner with premium wine
2 drink tickets
Online recognition
Zoetrope gift bag
Table for 10
2 drink tickets/person

Boss - $2500 per ticket

3 course Italian dinner with premium wine
Online recognition
Zoetrope gift bag
Table for 10
2 drink tickets/person
Print recognition in Litquake's 20th anniversary festival guide

To cover online payment processing fees, an additional 5% has been added to each RSVP level. Litquake greatly appreciates our supporters' understanding.

Honorary Committee
Lisa Brown and Daniel Handler
Jeannette Etheredge
Wendy MacNaughton and Caroline Paul
Armistead Maupin
Nicola Miner and Robert Mailer Anderson
Don "Father Guido Sarducci" Novello
Amy Tan
Vendela Vida and Dave Eggers

Host Committee
Luca Brasi
Constanzia Corleone
Frederico Corleone
Michael Corleone
Santino Corleone
Vito Corleone

Litquake Board of Directors
Natalie Baszile
Jack Boulware
Angie Chau
Frances Dinkelspiel
Jane Ganahl
Jordan Gill
Scott James
Michelle Jeffers
Bora Reed
Julia Flynn Siler
Jody Weiner

Special Thanks
Adastra Wines
Cafe Zoetrope
Caffe Trieste
Chronicle Books
City Lights Booksellers

Authors

Orchestra Nostalgico

From its birth in San Francisco's swanky Bruno's nightclub, the 9-piece Orchestra Nostalgico has received rave reviews for its blend of faithful and eclectic interpretations lovingly drawn from the Golden Age of film music.The Orchestra was originally commissioned to bring the classic... Read More →

Word for Word

WORD FOR WORD Performing Arts Company is an ensemble whose mission is to tell great stories with elegant theatricality, staging performances of classic and contemporary fiction.

Thursday July 18, 2019 6:00pm - 8:30pm PDT
Italian Athletic Club 1630 Stockton St, San Francisco, CA 94133

Featured Event

TBA

Standing Up, Falling Down

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Thursday, July 25 • 6:o0pm at CineArts (Palo Alto)
Saturday, July 27 • 6:05pm at Castro Theatre (SF)
Sunday, July 28 • 3:25pm at Albany Twin
Saturday, August 3 • 6:25pm at Smith Rafael

A comedy about the unlikely friendship that kindles between a struggling stand-up comedian from L.A., forced to move back home to Eastern Long Island with his tail between his legs, and a tragically flawed, but charming and charismatic, alcoholic dermatologist. Feat. Billy Crystal and Ben Schwartz. West Coast premiere. Appearances by director Matt Ratner in SF and Albany.

A co-present of Jewish Film Festival screenings.

Thursday July 25, 2019 TBA
Multiple Venues

Featured Event

TBA

What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

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Sunday, July 28 • 12:00pm at Castro Theatre (SF)
Sunday, August 4 • 4:05pm at Piedmont Theater (Oak)

Pauline Kael (1919-2001) was likely the most powerful, and personal, movie critic of the 20th century. Writing for The New Yorker and publishing a dozen bestselling books, she ruthlessly pursued what made a movie or an actor’s performance work, or not, and why. Her passion made her both admired and despised amongst her readers. Featuring new interviews with Paul Schrader, David Edelstein, David O. Russell, Quentin Tarantino, and Alec Baldwin, and with Sarah Jessica Parker lending her voice to read Kael’s personal writings and letters. Bay Area premiere.

A co-present of a Jewish Film Festival screening.

Sunday July 28, 2019 TBA
Multiple Venues

Featured Event

TBA

Safe Spaces

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Wednesday, July 31 • 8:30pm at Albany Twin
Sunday, August 4 • 6:30pm at Smith Rafael

A dysfunctional-functional family attempts to work together to support their grandmother during her final days of life -- and hilarity ensues. This laugh-out-loud comedy is about how sometimes your crazy family really can come through, just when you need them the most. Feat. Justin Long, Fran Drescher, Kate Berlant. California premiere. Appearances by director Daniel Schechter in Palo Alto and SF.

A co-present of Jewish Film Festival screenings

Wednesday July 31, 2019 TBA
Multiple Venues

Featured Event

12:30pm PDT

Poetic Tuesday–August

Authors

Baruch Porras Hernandez

Raina León

Raina León is an Afro-Latina, native Philadelphian, daughter, sister, madrina, comadre, partner, poet, writer and teacher educator. She believes in collective action and community work, the profound power of holding space for the telling of our stories, and the liberatory practice of humanizi... Read More →

Preeti Vangani

Preeti Vangani is a poet & essayist. Her work has been published in BOAT, Buzzfeed, Gulf Coast, Threepenny Review among other journals. She is the winner of the RL Poetry Award 2017 and her debut book of poems titled Mother Tongue Apologize was published by RLFPA Editions in February 2019. She hol... Read More →

Tanea Lunsford Lynx

Tanea Lunsford Lynx is a fourth generation Black San Franciscan on both sides. Tanea is a proud alum of Voices of Our Nation (VONA) and the Lambda Literary Retreat. In 2018 she co-curated ‘Still Here VI: Existence as Resistance’, a performance featuring queer Black San Franciscans... Read More →

Lauren Wheeler

Lauren Wheeler writes poetry, fiction, and about the places where the personal, the political, and pop culture intersect. She sometimes contributes to Black Nerd Problems. After years in the game industry, she now makes robots in San Francisco and lives in Oakland with a a four-year-old and two... Read More →

Jade Way

Jade Way is a singer/songwriter and musician from Michigan. Raised by musician parents, from an early age, Jade had many teachers of classical, jazz, pop and RnB influence. Jade is the front-person of her band, Jade VELVET, where she cultivates the sounds of being lost and found in the Bay... Read More →

Tuesday August 13, 2019 12:30pm - 1:30pm PDT
Yerba Buena Gardens Esplanade Mission St. between 3rd and 4th Streets, San Francisco, CA 94103

Poetic Tuesday

1:00pm PDT

Writing Nonfiction Like a Novel with T.J. Stiles **SOLD OUT**

This class is currently sold out. We've added another session on Sept. 7!

Researching that sprawling nonfiction book project, but finding yourself bogged down in the narrative? Every great nonfiction book, from biography to academic tome travelogue to memoir, needs the same arc, the same tension found in great fiction. But how to unearth the throughlines of your work? Two-time Pulitzer Prize recipient T.J. Stiles will share his secrets on making facts come alive, and the place for literary writing in nonfiction. To quote the master: "I try to work in the space where scholarly and literary virtues overlap, where new knowledge and art (or, at least, the enjoyable narrative) enhance each other.”

Authors

T.J. Stiles

Two-time Pulitzer Prize recipient T.J. Stiles won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in History for Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America, and the 2010 Pulitzer for Biography and the 2009 National Book Award for Nonfiction for The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius... Read More →

Saturday August 17, 2019 1:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Mechanics' Institute Board Room 57 Post Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104

Master Class Mixers

1:00pm PDT

Finding the Funny in Facts with Mary Roach **SOLD OUT**

Writing nonfiction need not be a drudgery; pretty much every factual topic contains elements that can be mined for humor, no matter how mundane. Mary Roach, called “America’s funniest science writer” by the Washington Post, has proven this repeatedly in her New York Times best-selling science-based tomes. From her most recent book, Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War, for example, we learn that zippers can be a problem for snipers, and that there is such a thing as caffeinated meat. In this seminar, Roach will talk about humor based on fact. Is anything off-limits? What are the tricks to finding the funny? Can an un-funny person still elicit grins from readers?

Authors

Mary Roach

Mary Roach is the author of Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife and Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Her writing has... Read More →

Saturday August 24, 2019 1:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Mechanics' Institute Board Room 57 Post Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104

Master Class Mixers

1:00pm PDT

Writing Nonfiction Like a Novel with T.J. Stiles **SOLD OUT**

GET TICKETS

First class was sold out...so we brought you another session!

Researching that sprawling nonfiction book project, but finding yourself bogged down in the narrative? Every great nonfiction book, from biography to academic tome travelogue to memoir, needs the same arc, the same tension found in great fiction. But how to unearth the throughlines of your work? Two-time Pulitzer Prize recipient T.J. Stiles will share his secrets on making facts come alive, and the place for literary writing in nonfiction. To quote the master: "I try to work in the space where scholarly and literary virtues overlap, where new knowledge and art (or, at least, the enjoyable narrative) enhance each other.”

Authors

T.J. Stiles

Saturday September 7, 2019 1:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Mechanics' Institute Board Room 57 Post Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104

Master Class Mixers

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Alama Drafthouse & Cinema at New Mission
Italian Athletic Club
Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, Kanbar Hall
Make-Out Room
Marine's Memorial Theater
Mechanics' Institute Board Room
Mechanics' Institute Salon
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Museum of African Diaspora
San Francisco Public Library, main branch, 1st Floor Deaf Services Center
Swedish American Hall
The Bindery
Yerba Buena Gardens Esplanade
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