Amy Tan’s characters are so formulaic, she makes Dan Brown look like William Burroughs. Pow! Tan better get used to it: She’s the guest of honor at Litquake’s Amy Tan Tribute/Roast, which means elite scribes like Andrew Sean Greer, Michael Krasny, and Ben Fong-Torres will pay homage to the beloved local author by firebombing her, her work, and hopefully her band, the Rock Bottom Remainders, which can’t keep a beat steady without a tincture of heroin and a naked rent boy intoning the Kabbalah. Double pow! The nine-day event is stocked with author readings (James Ellroy, Sarah Vowell, and Tracy Kidder, to name a paltry three out of dozens) but so is every week in the city. It’s the oddball stuff that makes Litquake so special, such as tonight’s Book Ball, which requests that attendees don masks, à la Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball, and mingle semi-anonymously. On Oct. 12, Porchlight focuses on Bay Area punk history; the lineup includes Litquake co-founder Jack Boulware and SF Weekly contributor Silke Tudor, whose book on that very topic hit stores last month (see our music editor’s take here). Ending the event is the ridiculous Lit Crawl (Oct. 17), in which organizers stuff countless authors (Loren Rhoads, David Henry Sterry, Vendela Vida, and Alan Black, to name a paltry four out of many dozens) into Mission bars and venues, waves the public over, and watches everybody try to make sense of it all. Forget about finding a seat, just stand in back and eat street food — this year, more than 20 local food vendors plan to attend, making it delicious as well as thrilling, maddening, intoxicating, claustrophobic, and, for the yet-to-be-published, quietly devastating.
Search: porchlight
Litquake Schedule: Monday, Oct. 12
The SF Foundation Center hosts our annual industry panel discussions on how to get your first book published, and sage advice from first-time authors. You may need to clone yourself to guarantee seeing all the evening events, from punk rock storytelling at Broadway Studios, to “Poets in the Pews” at Grace Cathedral, and staged readings of new works by local playwrights!
- 3-5 pm: Getting Your First Book Published: A Publishing Industry Roundtable FULL
- 5:30-7:30 pm: Being Discovered: First-Time Authors Tell All FULL
- 7:30 pm: Poets in the Pews
- 8 pm: Journey to the End of the Bay: Punk Rockers Spill Their Guts
- 8 pm: The Play-Makers
3-5 pm
Getting Your First Book Published: A Publishing Industry Roundtable FULL
Hear insiders’ accounts of the publishing process. Learn everything from why your query letter may not be working, to how Web 2.0 might play a role in your publishing plans. Bring your questions.
Moderator: Foundation Center director Janet Camarena. With HarperOne V.P. associate publisher Claudia Riemer Boutote, literary agent April Eberhardt, Scribd.com content and marketing manager Kathleen Fitzgerald, Numina Press Editor-in-Chief Yanina Gotsulsky, literary agent Ted Weinstein.
Foundation Center, 312 Sutter Street, San Francisco; (415) 397-0902
5:30-7:30 pm
Being Discovered: First-Time Authors Reveal All FULL
Learn from a panel of newly published, first-time writers about all that was involved in making their dream of writing a reality. Topics covered will include: finding the time and discipline to regularly write, identifying potential publishers, getting noticed by literary professionals, dealing with rejection, and publicizing your book. The authors will also talk about the literary communities they belong to, and how these played a role in the journey to publication.
Moderator: Kemble Scott. With Allison Hoover Bartlett, Seth Harwood, Linda Himelstein, Kathryn Ma, Shana Mahaffey.
Foundation Center, 312 Sutter Street, San Francisco; (415) 397-0902
7:30 pm
Poets in the Pews
Celebrate Columbus Day with some of the country’s most riveting and electric young poets, in the intimate vaulted chapel of Nob Hill’s Grace Cathedral. A rare assembly of spirited, passionate, and powerfully contemplative voices. All donations benefit Poetry Flash, the West Coast’s premiere poetry review and event calendar. With Brendan Constantine, Jericho Brown, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, C. Dale Young, Ilya Kaminsky.
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Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street, San Francisco
(415) 749-6300
Admission: $5 suggested donation, no one will be turned away
8 pm
Journey to the End of the Bay: Punk Rockers Spill Their Guts
Litquake and Porchlight Storytelling collaborate for true tales of punk-rock anarchy and excess, launching the new book Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk from Dead Kennedys to Green Day, by Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor. Book sales and signing to follow.
Hosted by Beth Lisick and Arline Klatte. Storytellers include Lynn Breedlove (Tribe 8), Anna Joy Springer (Sister Spit, Cypher in the Snow), Bucky Sinister (Gilman spoken-word), Oran Canfield (the Farm), Rozz Rezabek (Negative Trend), Jesse Luscious (Blatz, the Gr’ups), John Geek (Fleshies, Triclops!), Chicken John (Circus Redickuless), Kareim McKnight (Barrington/Cloyne), Johnny Strike (Crime), and Hank Rank (Crime). Live music by the Avengers’ Penelope Houston and her band.
Broadway Studios (formerly the On Broadway), 435 Broadway, San Francisco
(415) 291-0333
Admission: $15 General, $30 includes dinner at 6pm; advance tickets to be available at brownpapertickets.com
8 pm
The Play-Makers
New playwrights and supporting organizations talk about how to get started as a playwright in the Bay Area. Staged readings of short plays by local writers, followed by panel discussion on the art, craft, and business of making plays. With playwrights Eugenie Chan, Aaron Loeb, and Geetha Reddy. In conjunction with Playwright’s Foundation, PlayGround, and SF Playhouse.
SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco
Admission: $5-$10 sliding scale
Journey to the End of the Bay: Punk Rockers Spill Their Guts
October 12, 8:00 p.m.
Litquake and Porchlight Storytelling collaborate for true tales of punk-rock anarchy and excess, launching the new book Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk from Dead Kennedys to Green Day, by Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor.
From the art-damage of San Francisco’s Fab Mab in North Beach, to the still vibrant all-ages DIY ethos of Berkeley’s Gilman Street, Gimme Something Better chronicles over two decades of Bay Area punk, including the Sex Pistols’ notorious final performance, Jello Biafra’s bid for mayor, the creation of Maximum RocknRoll, and the rise of the East Bay pop-punk sound that took the world by storm…This definitive oral history explores the music, progressive politics, divine decadence, and smartass wit of Bay Area punk—with members of Dead Kennedys, Avengers, Flipper, MDC, Green Day, Rancid, NOFX, and AFI.
Penelope Houston of the Avengers
“When punk broke in the Bay Area, with the clamor and the rage, the sex and the safety pins, the sound and the fury, you were either there or you weren’t. If you were there you’re probably in this book. If you weren’t you should read it.”—Daniel Handler
Storytellers include Lynn Breedlove (Tribe 8), Anna Joy Springer (Sister Spit, Cypher in the Snow), Bucky Sinister (Gilman spoken-word), Oran Canfield (the Farm), Rozz Rezabek (Negative Trend), Jesse Luscious (Blatz, the Gr’ups), John Geek (Fleshies, Triclops!), Chicken John (Circus Redickuless), Kareim McKnight (Barrington/Cloyne), Johnny Strike (Crime), and Hank Rank (Crime). Live music by the Avengers’ Penelope Houston and her band.
Book sales and signing to follow.
Broadway Studios (formerly the On Broadway)
435 Broadway, San Francisco
Tickets at Brown Paper Tickets
More info: www.gimmesomethingbetter.com
Literary Links
Litquake’s mission is to unite a community of writers, readers and lovers of the written and spoken word through events that celebrate the literary arts of the SF Bay Area. As part of our mission, we include the following links to vital San Francisco Bay Area literary organizations and publications.
Litquake Allies
826 Valencia
Artists for Literacy
City Lights Books
Edinburgh Castle Pub
The Grotto
Media Bistro
McSweeney’s
Porchlight
San Francisco Public Library
Streetside Stories
Local Reading Series
Artifact Reading Series
Asian American Storytelling
InsideStoryTime
Intersection Literary Series
Lit & Lunch at the Center for the Art of Translation
Literary Death Match
Lunada Literary Lounge & Open Mic @ Galeria de la Raza
Poetry & Pizza
Porchlight Storytelling Series
Radar Reading Series at SFPL
SF in SF – Science Fiction. San Francisco
SF State Poetry Center Reading Series
Why There Are Words
Writers with Drinks
Local Literary Organizations and Venues
CounterPulse
Bay Area Literacy
Bay Area Writing Project
California Poets in the Schools
Center for Literary Arts at San Jose State University
Cell Space
City Arts & Lectures
Friends of the San Francisco Public Library
Intersection for the Arts
Locus Arts
Marin Poetry Center
The Northern California Independent Booksellers Association
The Poetry Center
Poetry Flash
Red Room Writers Society
San Francisco Center for the Book
San Francisco Literary Tours
San Francisco Public Library
SF Screenwriters
Small Press Distribution
Small Press Traffic
Word for Word
The Writing Salon
Local Publishers
AK Press
Apogee Press
Arion Press
Aunt Lute Books
Backbeat Books
Berrett-Koehler
Children’s Book Press
Cleis Press
Electric Works
Greenery Press
Instant City
Jossey Bass
Last Gasp
Lonely Planet
MacAdam Cage
Manic D Press
Mercury House
No Starch Press
Nolo Press
North Atlantic Books
RE/Search Publications
Sierra Club Books
Sixteen Rivers Press
Small Desk Press
Tachyon Publications
Ten Speed Press
Travelers’ Tales
UC Press
Ulysses Press
Local Literary Journals & Magazines
The Believer
Cherry Bleeds
Fourteen Hills
h2so4
Lodestar Quarterly
Narrative Magazine
Opium Magazine
Persimmon Tree Magazine
SoMa Literary Review
The Threepenny Review
To-Do List Magazine
Watchword Press
Zoetrope All-Story
Zyzzyva
Local Writers Conferences
Napa Valley Writers Conference
San Francisco Writers Conference
Squaw Valley Writers
Bay Area Independent Bookstores
San Francisco
Alexander Book Company
Bird & Beckett Books & Records
Book Bay Bookstore
Books Inc.
Bookshop West Portal
Booksmith
Borderlands Books
Browser Books
Builders Booksource
A Different Light
Dog-Eared Books
Foto-Grafix Books
Get Lost Travel Books
Green Apple Books
Modern Times Bookstore
Phoenix Books
Red Hill Books
SFSU Bookstore
Zen Center Bookstore
East Bay
A Great Good Place for Books
Black Oak Books
Dark Carnival Bookstore
Diesel, A Bookstore
Eastwind Books of Berkeley
Lafayette Bookstore
Moe’s Books
Orinda Books
Pegasus Fine Books
Rakestraw Books
North Bay
The Book Beat
Book Passage
Copperfield’s Books
Depot Bookstore
Habitat Books
Point Reyes Books
Reader’s Books
Sonoma Bookends Bookstore
Peninsula
Schedule 2009
Click on any date to see full author and event details for that day.
FRIDAY, October 9
Berkeley Breathed, author of Flawed Dogs, the novel: The Shocking Raid on Westminster, 6:30 pm. Kepler’s Books, Menlo Park. Free.
Black, White, and Read: Litquake’s Book Ball, 8 pm. Music! Dancing! Authors and more authors! Green Room, War Memorial Building. $19.99 including one drink and nibbles.
SATURDAY, October 10
Off the Richter Scale: Readings at the Main Library, 11 am- 5 pm. Biography, memoir, poetry, sci-fi, illustrated works, contemporary life. Free.
Chaos is a Friend of Mine, 6-8 pm. Authors and musicians spew forth on the topic of music. Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk. $5.
Color Me SF: The Science Fiction Worlds of Octavia Butler and Carl Brandon, 7 pm. The Variety Preview Room Theatre, 582 Market. $5. Note: 7 pm is the correct starting time.
Be Afraid! Evil Queens, Menacing Dykes, and Secret Gay Agendas,
8 pm. Joe’s Barbershop, 2150 Market. $5.
SUNDAY, October 11
Shaken and Stirred: Litquake in Conversation , 12:30-4:30 pm. Panel discussions on the literary life. Main Library. Free.
Roz Savage, author of Rowing the Atlantic: Lessons Learned on the Open Ocean, 3 pm. Books Inc. in the Marina. Free.
Literary North Beach Walking Tour, 5 pm. A ramble through North Beach. Starts at: The Beat Museum, 540 Broadway. Free.
Barely Published Authors, 7 pm. Readings by the Bay Area’s best up-and-coming masters of prose. Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd. St. Free.
One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur, 7:30 pm. Exclusive Bay Area premiere of the documentary. Barrel House, 80 Tehama. $15.
MONDAY, October 12
Getting Your First Book Published: A Publishing Industry Roundtable 3 pm. Foundation Center, 312 Sutter St. FULL
Being Discovered: First-Time Authors Reveal All
5:30-7:30 pm. Foundation Center, 312 Sutter St. FULL
Poetry at Grace Cathedral, 7:30 pm. A benefit for Poetry Flash.
Grace Cathedral, 1100 California St. $5 suggested donation; no one turned away.
Punk Rockers Spill Their Guts, 8 pm. Litquake and Porchlight collaborate for true tales of punk-rock excess. Broadway Studios. $15 general; $30 with dinner.
The Play-Makers, 8 pm. Readings of short plays by new Bay Area playwrights, followed by a discussion of the craft. SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter. $5-10.
TUESDAY, October 13
Mary Roach, author of Stiff, Spook, and Bonk, at noon and 7 pm.
Center for Literary Arts, Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, San Jose. Free.
Where the Mind Meets the Brain, 6-7 pm. What is the relationship between the body and the spirit? Mechanics Library. Free to Mechanics Library Members and Litquake Bestsellers; $12 to the public (415-393-0100).
One City One Book’s Doug Dorst (Alive in Necropolis) in conversation with Adam Johnson, 6 pm. Main Library. Free.
Christian Siriano, author of Fierce Style: How to Be Your Most Fabulous Self, 3:30 pm., Book Passage, Ferry Building, San Francisco. Free.
National Book Critics Circle presents Collapsing Borders: Reading Global Culture Through Literary Translation, 7 pm. City Lights. Free.
Thad Carhart, author of Across the Endless River, 7:30 pm.
Kepler’s Books, Menlo Park. Free.
Dreaming Awake: How James Joyce Invented Experimental Cinema & Disguised it as a Book, 7:30 pm. Delancey St. Screening Room. $10 for SF Cinematheque members; $15 non-members.
WEDNESDAY, October 14
Kidquake, Elementary School Program, 10 am.-Noon. A morning of readings and workshops for grades K-5. Main Library. FULL
John Besh, author of My New Orleans: The Cookbook, 6:00 p.m. Omnivore Books on Food, 3885A Cesar Chavez St. Free.
Kathleen Kent, author of The Heretic’s Daughter, 7 pm
Books Inc. in Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness. Free.
Fred Rosenbaum discusses Cosmopolitans: A Social and Cultural History of the Jews and the San Francisco Bay Area , 7-9:30 pm
Jazz Heritage Center, 1330 Fillmore Street. Free. FULL
Linda Gordon, author of Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits,
7:30 pm. Kepler’s Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park. Free.
Amy Tan receives Litquake’s annual Barbary Coast Award at 8 pm. Tributes by her famous friends, music and mayhem. Herbst Theater. $25 general admission; $75 with post-event reception.
THURSDAY, October 15
Kidquake, Middle School Program, 10 am.-12:15 pm. Readings, and workshops for grades 6 through 8. Main Library. FULL
Readings in Bed: A Sensuous Night at supperclub, 5-8 pm. A panel of erotica writers hold forth from beds. supperclub, 657 Harrison. $10 suggested.
A Wild Imagination, 6 pm. A group of Sendak-inspired authors in a multi-media presentation at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. Free with museum admission; $5 after 5 pm.
Original Shorts: Survival of the Fittest, 7 pm. Short stories presented in conjunction with Evolve 2009. Varnish Fine Art (note change of venue). Free.
Subterranean SF: Hard Boiled Writing With An Edge, 7 pm.
Noir and mystery in San Francisco. Location: also a mystery. Free.
Sarah Vowell, author of The Wordy Shipmates and star of This American Life, 7:30 pm. The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street. Free.
James Ellroy, author of Blood’s a Rover, 7:30 pm. Books Inc. in the Castro, 2275 Market St. Free.
Tracy Kidder, author of Strength in What Remains, 7:30 pm.
Kepler’s Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park. Free.
Literary Death Match, 9 pm. Writers compete for bragging rights;
beer occasionally thrown. Verdi Club, 2424 Mariposa St. $15.
FRIDAY, October 16
Tom Dolby, author of Secret Society, 5:30 pm
Books Inc. in Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness. Free.
Teenquake: Teen Takeover Night at the Library, 6:30-9 pm. YA author panels, workshops, performances and more. Main Library. Free.
Mouthy Dames! 6-8 pm. Litquake’s annual women’s night features some famous and vociferous femmes. Hotel Monaco, 501 Geary. $5-10.
The Drums Inside Your Chest, 9:15 pm. Presented in conjunction with DocFest. Producer Amber Tamblyn appearing. Roxie Theater. $10.
Underground Exposed: A Zine Retrospective, 8 pm. Panels will feature some of the city’s best zinesters. Chrome Bags, 580 4th St. Free.
SATURDAY, October 17
The annual Lit Crawl just happens to take place on the 20th anniversary of Loma Prieta. Coincidence? We don’t think so. Join us for Phase 1 (6-7 pm), Phase 2 (7:15-8:15 pm), and Phase 3 (8:30-9:30 pm). Absolutely Free!
