Archive for the 'Press Mentions' Category

Bay Area Reporter, October 4, 2007 — read full article

Wanna buy a vowel? Litquake, the eighth annual festival of readings, panels and special events, features 350 Bay Area writers at nearly 60 venues. This rally of literary talent runs Oct. 6-13. All events are free, except where priced. Here’s a sampler….

San Francisco Chronicle,  October  4, 2007   — read full articleThe only thing harder than writing a book seems to be getting it published. To wit, from American novelist Thomas Wolfe: “Publishing is a very mysterious business. It is very hard to predict what kind of sale or reception a book will have, and advertising seems to do very little good.”

To help alleviate some of the lack-of-exposure problems for an emerging writer, Ransom Stephens, a physicist and would-be author, has organized a night at Litquake. Called Barely Published Authors, the event aims to bring some of the Bay Area’s newest talents to the fore alongside Litquake’s programs of more established writers.

The Examiner, October 3, 2007 read full article

SAN FRANCISCO - Litquake is back and bigger than ever. The eighth annual celebration, which gets under way Saturday, boasts panels and book readings galore, with more than 350 writers on board for eight days of pure, unadulterated literary mayhem. So, what’s worthy of your book lovin’ time? Here’s a run down of four, mostly free, events not to be missed.

Anecdotes with Armistead

Armistead Maupin, best known for the “Tales of the City” series, will be honored for his body of work by the who’s-who of the local literary world. On hand to read their favorite passages and present Maupin with the inaugural Barbary Coast Award for a lifetime of literary achievement will be the likes of Andrew Sean Greer, Amy Tan, Michelle Tea and Laura Linney, who in fact played the character of Mary Ann Singleton in the PBS series. In an attempt to out-due past Litquake openings, this will be the first bash to feature a performance by “Beach Blanket Babylon” and live music courtesy of Joshua Raoul Brody.

San Francisco Chronicle, October 1, 2007 read full article

More than 300 authors, poets and scribblers of indeterminate category will emerge from their dens, writing rooms and grottos next weekend for the start of the eighth annual LitQuake literary festival.

Founded by authors Jane Ganahl and Jack Boulware, the festival kicks off Saturday night with the presentation of the festival’s first Barbara Coast Award for lifetime achievement to “Tales of the City” author Armistead Maupin. Participants will include actress Laura Linney, Father Guido Sarducci, Judd Winick and Pamela Ling, Jon Ginoli of Pansy Division, Susie Bright and authors Amy Tan, Michelle Tea, K.M. Soehnlein and Andrew Sean Greer, with music by a house band fronted by Joshua Raoul Brody. The event is at 8 p.m. at Herbst Theatre.

San Francisco Chronicle, October 1, 2007. read full article

The next Literary Death Match, timed to the fifth print edition of Opium, happens at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Swedish American Hall. It’s part of the eighth annual LitQuake, a San Francisco literary festival that starts Saturday and runs through Oct. 13 and features such stars as Armistead Maupin, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jane Smiley, Daniel Handler and Gail Tsukiyama.

Even before they’d staged the first Literary Death Match in San Francisco - before they joined local lore with the beer-tossing incident - the Opium editors were invited by organizers Jane Ganahl and Jack Boulware to be LitQuake’s first Friday-night main event. . . .

SFist, 9/27/2007 read full article

Serialized gem/siren song Tales of the City drew many folks to SF. Well, it brought us here, anyway. And the character of Mary Ann Singleton acted as a temporary stand-in until many of us arrived…Laura Linney brought Singleton to life with brilliance and wide-eyed, no-so plain Jane beauty in the ’90s PBS and Showtime mini-series Tales of the City. Next week she will help celebrate Tales’ 31 years along with a local literary lineup of such talented key tappers as Amy Tan, Andrew Sean Greer, Michelle Tea, K.M. Soehnlein, Susie Bright, and…Father Guido Sarducci . Litquake will fete the anniversary of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City with a reading by Laura Linney and the aforementioned….

USA Today.com, September 2007. Read full article

Drinking and writing go together in San Francisco like fog and July, and never is this more evident than during Litquake, when the Bay Area’s literary luminaries literally crawl out of the woodwork to celebrate their craft.

San Francisco Chronicle, 9/24/2007 read full article

Dust off your mood ring for opening night of San Francisco’s annual literary festival, when the first Barbary Coast Award for a lifetime of literary achievement will be bestowed on one of the city’s favorite sons, the author of the “Tales of the City” series.

Contra Cost Times/MercuryNews.com- 08/05/07 - read full article here

For this year, Litquake introduces the Barbary Coast Award and plops it on the deserving head of San Francisco author Armistead Maupin, whose famed “Tales of the City” written between 1978 and 1989, were, so they say, responsible for “putting San Francisco on the modern day literary map.”

USA Today- 07/03/07 - read full article here

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark lists Litquake as one of his favorite activities in “San Francisco Encounter,” one title in a new series of Lonely Planets guidebooks. As reported in USA Today, Newmark’s personal recommendations include Litquake, described as “an annual author event held the second weekend in October.”

SFgate - 10/12/06 (read original here)

by Violet Blue

San Francisco is filthy with sex writers. It’s safe to say that at any given moment there’s one right next to you at a cafe or bar. After all, we look just like anyone else — we’re just dirtier on the inside. Like the old commercial put it, “You’re soaking in it” — but it’s more like an exquisite, high-priced lube rather than dishwashing liquid.

We’re lucky to have quantity and quality in sex writers around the bay. Sure, we’re a wonderfully permissive city. Historically, all kinds of people have moved to San Francisco for a variety of reasons, and we all learn to live together. Our strong literary culture is a sweet reflection of who we are. Our kickass queer culture is one of the fiercest and loudest voices in the world, so sexual health and sex politics are what’s for dinner (conversation), from the Castro to the Marina. The sex-positivity movement came of age here (and is now old enough to get a lap dance), thanks to the persistence of sex-ed-driven adult stores like Good Vibrations and a variety of highly esteemed sex-ed outlets such as San Francisco State’s Human Sexuality Studies Program, The Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, and San Francisco Sex Information.

It’s not just that we have sex on the brain here (OK, we do). We also have the powerhouses of sex publishing like Cleis Press (and historically Greenery Press, Down There Press and now even Seal Press) quietly rubbing out dozens of new sex titles a year, locally, for the past three decades.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that when a lit fest like Litquake — the yearly marathon of mostly local writers reading their work — struts its authorly stuff for all to see, you’ve necessarily got a date that’s a “sure thing.” Sure, the Lit Crawl is the best chance you’ve got at getting some in a highly literary sense; this is the night when selected writers cluster in Mission District venues to read until limp, essentially aurally gang-banging the senses of unsuspecting bar patrons, bookstore and cafe denizens. I mean, Lit Crawl has certainly always been the night to knock a few back, wander the Mission and listen to twisted souls dole out the reading equivalent of foreplay — SF Gate Columnist Mark Morford’s hotly teasing turn last year in a standing-room-only cafe comes to mind. But it left me wondering when Lit Crawl was going to let listeners get past first base and really dig into San Francisco’s rich sex writing culture.

This year, Lit Crawl packs enough sex-writer heat into Mission venues to tear down the walls and have us humping the smoking remains. The Saturday, Oct. 14, lineup reads like a tawdry who’s-who of literary lasciviousness, starting at 6 p.m. and going late into the night. The readings happen simultaneously in three scheduled time slots (called “phases”), so picking which curated collection of erudite pervs to pollute your mind with all their smart sexy words isn’t going to be easy.

Not all the readings are about sex or feature erotic writers. There are a total of 150 writers reading at 31 venues, so if you want to get lucky, you’ll need to be selective, for a change. But think of it this way: It’s like authors with benefits, but where you can decide whether your “date” is all flowers and chocolate — or all dirty and bitter and leaves you with rug burn.

Phase I’s highlight pick will most certainly leave you with rug burns in places you didn’t know could be abraded, and will have you walking out of Good Vibrations with a slightly bigger grin than usual. This 18-and-over-only gig (at 603 Valencia St.) starts at 6 p.m. and features some of San Francisco’s most irreverent sex writers reading erotica and nonfiction that’ll make you wonder why you ever stay home to have sex anymore. I recommend closing your eyes and thinking of baseball at intervals when you listen in on “Getting Hot: Erotica Writers From Cleis Press and Good Vibes.” The lineup includes Charlie Anders, Jen Cross, Paul Festa, Carol Queen, Simon Sheppard and Mollena Williams (full disclosure: I’m reading in this block, too).

If this is too hot for your first course, an excellent alternative can be found at the same time at Intersection for the Arts (446 Valencia St.) in “The Anxiety Chronicles: How Fear Shapes Politics, Sex and Language” with Susie Bright, Mark Hertsgaard, Geoffrey Nunberg and Jack Boulware.

Phase I is certainly the one to get all worked up by. Make the evening last longer by tickling other mental erogenous zones with my top pick for Phase II’s sex-writer-studded scheduled readings. The hottest babe in the bar — or rather, bookstore — looks to be at Modern Times (888 Valencia St.) with “The G Spot With Seal Press: Gender, Geeks, Grooms, Grief and Getting It On.” The lusty lineup includes Linda Blachman, Gloria Lenhart, Annalee Newitz, Joan Price, Lisa Taggart and Max Wolf Valerio. It starts at 7:15 sharp, and I have it on good authority that when Annalee Newitz isn’t spanking articles for Wired or hot-oil-wrestling sex and technology for the Guardian, she’s vicious with a whip for late Lit Crawl attendees.

Phase III — the completion phase if ever there was one — has two exciting choices with which you may finish yourself off for the night. With a few drinks, I know I’ll be a sure thing for the lineup at the Latin American Club (21 and over; 3286 22nd St.) for “Getting Boozy: Writers With Drinks and Manic D Press.” The writers sure to spill your cold Speakeasy Prohibition Ale in your hot little lap include Claire Light, Lauren Wheeler, Alvin Orloff, Charlie Anders, Jennifer Blowdryer, Justin Chin, Jon Longhi and Jennifer Joseph.

Second to that particular literary group grope, I’d wander on over to see if there’s any action at the The Make-Out Room (21 and over; 3225 22nd St.), where “The Brat Pack: Local Fiction From MacAdam/Cage” — Craig Clevenger, Stephen Elliott, Michelle Richmond and Michelle Tea — may not read about sex (or they might — these people are dirty) but are certainly writers known to put out when the mood strikes.

Legendary local sex authors, editors, publishers and readers are all over this year’s Lit Crawl like skanky perfume on a businessman in North Beach. Bring your dollar bills and don’t miss seeing so many of our talented local writers showing off their biggest sex organs — their mouths.

Contra Costa Times - 10/12/06 (original article here)

…ROCK AND LITERATURE have been making friends lately … witness all of the novelists writing rock ‘n’ roll (and as we rock ‘n’ roll writers like to say, if it means the door’s open for us to write novels, then we’re all for it!). Last week, San Francisco’s annual Litquake Festival opened its festivities with authors Dave Eggers (a well-known rock superfan) and Frank Portman (also known in his musical guise from the East Bay’s Mr. T Experience) with honorary Bay Area musicians such as Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, and the Show’s friend, Chuck Prophet, sharing the stage.

This Saturday night, the festival wraps with the Litcrawl, authors from all walks of literature and life reading from their works in venues all along Valencia Street, and they’ve even given us music writers a stage. Join the Bay Area’s Dead expert Blair Jackson, along with Peter Ellenby, Beatles scribe Richie Unterberger, hip-hop’s Tamara Palmer, and me, reading from my novel for young rockers, “Starry Eyes,” at Amnesia, 853 Valencia St. in San Francisco. Reading starts at 7:15 p.m. Go to www.litquake.org for all the details.

San Francisco Chronicle - 10/12/06 (original article here)

by Reyhan Harmanci

Surprisingly, on a rather cold Monday night, the queue outside the Swedish American Hall for Litquake’s Porch Light storytelling event took up most of the Market Street block and then looped back on the sidewalk.

“This isn’t a literary event, this is a fiasco,” fumed Norman Patrick Doyle to the bouncer, adding that he was a tutor at 826 Valencia. The bouncer was unmoved. Doyle reluctantly rejoined the long line.

For all his kvetching, Doyle was one of the lucky ones: a ticket holder. At least 50 people were turned away at the door.

What made the Porch Light gig sell out and then some? The event’s rock star. A woman who, by her own admission, is nearing 80 — Pat Montandon, the former San Francisco socialite who hosted her own television show in the ’60s, wedded famous attorney Melvin Belli for less than 40 days in an unofficial shotgun ceremony in Japan, married and divorced Al Wilsey, wrote a gossip column for the San Francisco Examiner, founded the philanthropic group Children as the Peacemakers and currently resides in Beverly Hills. She was joined by her son, Sean Wilsey, whose story of growing up among San Franciscan royalty, “Oh the Glory of It All,” will soon be joined by Montandon’s tale, “Oh the Hell of It All,” which Regan Books plans to publish early next year.

The mood inside the Swedish American Hall was downright giddy. The bar was serving a Montandon-tini. The Porch Light hosts and founders, writers Beth Lisick and Arline Klatte, were dressed in demure ’50s style cocktail dresses, perhaps in homage to Montandon’s first book, “How to Be a Party Girl.”

“I’m crazy excited,” said Porch Light performer Marcus Ewert, who had “Oh the Glory of It All” tucked under his arm.

Speaking before the event, Wilsey said that it would be the first time he would be performing at a literary event as an adult with his mother. “When I was a kid, I would come up with her onstage all the time, for Peacemaker stuff,” he said, smiling, “but I don’t think we’ll actually be onstage together tonight.”

Hullabaloo about Montandon aside, the event functioned just as any other Porch Light event. The performers had eight minutes to tell a story about the night’s theme — in this case, it was the rather loosely defined “Writers, Muses, Flacks and Escorts.” Pianist Marc Capelle was on hand to nudge the performers along with a few tinkling notes at the six-minute mark and a more insistent refrain a few minutes later. The night started with Litquake co-founder Jack Boulware talking about his former magazine, the Nose, which aimed to be a West Coast version of New York’s insolent Spy. In keeping with the Montandon focus, he spoke of interviewing Belli (choosing to focus on his guest appearance as a “Star Trek” alien rather than, say, his defense of Jack Ruby). His story ended with a line not printable in a family newspaper. Let it be known that Porch Light is not for prudes.

The next storyteller, writer and literary agent, Arielle Eckstut spoke on “the small mindedness of big places” in book publishing, sharing how the New York publishing giants believe in marketing to only five cities in the country.

Writer and film noir expert Eddie Muller tackled the film side of the spectrum, talking about his encounter as the accidental escort for one of his noir heroes, Lawrence Tierney, at a festival he programmed. “He was just a badass,” Muller said. Age had failed to mellow Tierney, who managed both head butts and body slams that night. Later, though, Tierney did have some words of wisdom: “Kid, never get in a fight with a man who knows how to handle a knife.”

Before intermission, though, Montandon took the stage. Clad in a cream-colored sweater, a brown beret, a wide brown belt and a ruffled cream skirt, with her blond hair shining under the stage lights, she looked fantastic. She was a natural performer, moving between comic moments and more serious pronouncements with ease. She spoke of a disastrous booking on “The Tonight Show” before the publication of “How to Be a Party Girl” — “The person before me was George Burns; I had to follow George Burns” — and the steps leading up to the publication of said book. She went to New York with her then-boyfriend, Belli, and waltzed into the offices of McGraw Hill without an agent. “I would just stumble into these incredible things,” she said, her voice carrying an exaggerated innocence that appeared to be a effective deterrent to more worldly cynicism. She spoke of the advice her friend Alex Haley gave her, to not let events or people “pull her down.”

“It’s been hard for me to get credit for being a good writer, and I am, I’m a fine writer,” she said. “Maybe that’s because I’ve had a hard time taking myself seriously. It’s like we’re not supposed to. But I do now.”

After a break, the final four storytellers took the stage. Back in the more literary vein, Kathi Kamen Goldmark told a hilarious story about being the media escort for Hunter S. Thompson, and Ewert managed to make his tale of being the barely legal lover of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs believable (he ended it with the thought that, to his knowledge, he was Burroughs’ last lover, thus cementing his teenage fantasy of somehow joining his name with those of the great literary outlaws — even if it meant being a 19-year-old having sex with a 74-year-old). Joyce Maynard, looking leggy in a leopard-print dress, talked about completing her mother’s dream of performing in a movie by placing her ashes in a prop briefcase while playing Nicole Kidman’s lawyer in the film adaption of Maynard’s book, “To Die For.”

Wilsey, the last writer of the night, didn’t share stories from his childhood, but he did entertain with some misadventures at New Yorker magazine. After the show, he joined his mother at the side of the stage, greeting fans. The night had stretched to almost three hours of storytelling, but no one seemed to mind. People continued to stand at the bar to order the Montandon-tinis.

(original post here)

by Bucky Sinister

When I was 19, I thought I would move to San Francisco, go to open mike poetry readings and see Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg on the sign up sheet. I figured I’d read at the same readings where they read, they’d notice me, and that’s how I’d become a famous poet. But it didn’t quite work that way. Most of the people on the open mikes were wingnuts with a pen, some paper, and a lot of free time. Aside from Jack Micheline, Julia Vinograd, and Jack Hirschman, there were few well-published writers that read at the open mikes. Writers that I associated with San Francisco, such as many of the Beat writers, lived in other cities by the time I got here. The writers who did live here didn’t seem to get out much. The events at Litquake are much the way my 19-year-old self imagined San Francisco writing events would be.

Litquake events are just that: EVENTS. They’re more than readings or signings, they often have the feel of something bigger. Even if it’s at a venue such as Porch Light, the crowds will be more populous than normal. Litquake’s Pub Crawl turns tiny bar readings in the Mission district into a crowded walkaround neighborhood of poets and readings.

I went to Between the Bridges last Friday, this year’s festival kickoff event at the Regency Ballroom. It was a night spotlighting musicians inspired by literature. What better theme for a literary festival than “irony” That’s what I could figure, as they chose to open a literary festival not with writers, but with musicians. I enjoyed much of the music from Penelope Huston, Jill Tracy, and Dan Hicks, who performed songs inspired by specific pieces of writing. But in a festival already cramped for space, the coordinators chose to devote their prime hours to musicians who don’t really need more promotion, like Lars Ulrich, co-founder of Metallica, a band that has sold 90 million albums at last count.

Why include a hippie blowhard like The Doors’ Ray Manzerek? Does he have anything to do with literature? He babbled on in a “Reverend Lovejoy” type voice inspiring the well-dressed woman sitting next to me to exclaim that she wanted to beat him with her shoe, and then do something to him I can’t print here, but if you know what a “Cleveland Steamer” is — that’s close. Naming his band after an Alduous Huxley reference (almost 40 years ago), doesn’t make him literary.

Session musician and former Green on Red band member Chuck Prophet ridiculed literature altogether. He said that he had started some books before, but never finished one. Great, Chuck, thanks, this is an event ABOUT books, now get off the stage. I would’ve been more excited staring at a metronome. Mark Eitzel, who stated plainly that his music had nothing to do with books, at least admitted to having read a few.

Frank Portman, an actual author, closed the show with a bang. Frank’s new novel, King Dork, is now out in hardback. He read a hilarious exchange between two high schoolers who are forced to talk to each other using only the few French words they know. Then he closed by playing a song that one of the characters plays in the book. So it actually tied in to the evening’s theme AND he slaughtered the crowd.

I have to mention the pulled pork sandwiches at the afterparty, and direct you to the caterer’s blog.

Saturday I was off to the Koret Auditorium to check out Visual Language: Authors in Words and Images, which I thought was a graphic novel group, scheduled before my own reading there. I enjoyed Lev’s short cartoons, which were very stylistic, funny anecdotes from his own life. Then photographer Erick Davis discussed his photobook, The Visionary State: A Journey Through California’s Spiritual Landscape. The problem is Davis thinks in pictures, has devoted his life to the pursuit of the image, and had no ability to speak out loud whatsoever. He “walked” me. As a man who has sat through tortuous poetry many times, to walk me you have to be more than boring.

In what may have been the best Litquake gig I’ve gotten since the festival’s inception, I was grouped in a program called Noisy Lit: Writers Who Have Been There and Back with Bay Area performance artist Josh Kornbluth, which thrilled me until I found out he wasn’t going to be there, and not only that, I was looking at the audience when they made the announcement, and saw the looks on the faces of people as they realized The Guy They Came to See wasn’t going to be there. Following this disappointing news was…me. Thanks for the set up. Geez. But I’m glad I didn’t have to follow the others. Kate Braverman, Daphne Gottleib, and Kirk Read were all on top of their game that night and tore up the audience. Michael Tolkin, most notably the author of The Player, was a bit mis-grouped, but as he is one of my favorite screenwriters I was honored to be on the same bill. Ben Fong Torres, the long-time editor of Rolling Stone, filled in for Kornbluth.

There are plenty more good readings to come: Thursday, October 12 at the Edinburgh Castle join Alan Black and others in the Sports and Circuses: The nasty, brutish, and shorts of it program and Saturday, October 14, the infamous Lit Crawl runs 6-9:30pm through various Mission district dives.

Litquake runs October 6-14, 2006 at various San Francisco locations. Visit Litquake dot org for more information.

AOL City Guide

Being that it is so often a solitary, silent endeavor, reading festivals just don’t generate the buzz and mass that music and film festivals do. But leave it to the city that helped put the Beats on the map to turn a lit-con into a crowd-pleaser, in the form of LitQuake. This time around, the annual showcase brings together heavyweights from the worlds of texts and sonics to make their case. Ray Manzarek, who spent years backing a doomed poet named Jim Morrison in their legendary band The Doors, reads from his foundational narratives, as does hip-hop chameleon Dan the Automator, soundtracker for projects as cool as Dr. Octagon and Handsome Boy Modeling School. The Bay Area’s resident writing champ Dave Eggers is also on hand, as are artists as diverse as Maxine Hong Kingston and Jamie Lee Curtis. There are workshops, panels, children’s activities and much more on the slate — including a clever LitCrawl! — which stretches across nine days and the entire city. Reading may be fundamental, but it’s much more effective when it’s this fun.

– Scott Thill

Asian Week - 10/06/06 (link to original article)

by Lisa Lee

HANDSOME BOYS CAN READ, TOO

Litquake is rocking San Francisco and Handsome Boy Modeling School ingenue, Dan “The Automator” Nakamura, is proving that good looks and brains do run in the family. San Francisco’s favorite literary misfit and enfant terrible, Dave Eggers, will also be there ” with the possibility of his wife, Vendela Vita, making a cameo at the Regency Center. Fortunately, hipsters and dorks alike are welcome to the annual event.

The Examiner - 10/06/06 (link to original article)

by Jeffrey M. Anderson 

SAN FRANCISCO - Litquake lineup resembles the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll

Featuring a selection of punk rockers, metalheads, brooders, poets and partiers, the fifth annual Litquake’s opening-night festivities should set the tone for the entire weeklong event.

Guests include Ray Manzarek (keyboardist for The Doors), Penelope Houston of the pioneering S.F. punk band The Avengers, “King Dork” author Frank Portman (frontman for the Bay Area’s Mr. T Experience), Dan Nakamura, aka, Dan the Automator of Handsome Boy Modeling School, Chuck Prophet, Lars Ulrich of Metallica and local best-seller Dave Eggers. Mark Eitzel of American Music Club will also attend and plans to read from Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s “Journey to the End of Night.”

“I read a lot, but I’m not an intellectual,” Eitzel said. “I was reading that book and I kind of stole a couple of words for one of my songs.”

Former Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres will MC the event.

“They’re all going to read from a favorite literary person or work and then tie it into their own work,” Fong-Torres said. “It’s interesting that you have all these people from various aspects of pop music, a punk rocker, a metal head and a ’60s icon, so it’s not just a bridge between music and literature but a bridge between all forms of music.”

This devil-may-care, rock ‘n’ roll approach continues throughout the week, featuring writers and artists of all different stripes. On Saturday, Fong-Torres will participate in a group of readings at the Koret Auditorium entitled “Noisy Lit: Writers Who Have Been There and Back.” His colleagues will include author Michael Tolkin (“The Player”) and monologist Josh Kornbluth. Other groups reading on Saturday will include legendary beat poet Diane di Prima and local writer/illustrator Lisa Brown.

The Koret will host more readings on Sunday, including appearances by novelist and screenwriter Barry Gifford (“Wild at Heart”) and the wonderful short story writer Gloria Kurian Broder. And on Tuesday night, the theatrical group Word for Word will perform the work of Andrew Sean Greer (“The Confessions of Max Tivoli”).

Other locals such as Eddie Muller, Keith Knight, Eric B. Martin, Daniel Alarcón, Beth Lisick, Michelle Tea, Rachel Howard and Kim Wong Keltner will appear throughout the week.

“I did Litquake last year and it was basically terrifying,” Keltner said. “Public speaking and being a writer are polar opposites, but I try to remember that the audience is made up of individual people. But maybe this will be my last year. I might disappear like Kaiser Soze for the next 30 years so people should catch me while they can!”

Of course, the festival has also invited many up-and-coming writers, notably in its “Barely Published” section.

That’s not all, be prepared for an incendiary night Wednesday with the “America at War” program. Non-fiction writers Lawrence Wright and Mark Danner will be sure to shed some light on Sept. 11, the Iraq War and all surrounding topics.

Things wrap up on Saturday, Oct. 14 with an appearance by children’s author (and sometime actor) Jamie Lee Curtis, as well as the climactic, free “Lit Crawl” down Valencia Street.

Speaking of his tastes in rock, Fong-Torres jokes, “I’m not a metal-head; I’m a egghead.” Either will be welcome at Litquake.

San Francisco Bay Guardian - 10/06/06 - (read original here)

by Nicole Gluckstern

Are you ready for the big one? Don’t worry if you still haven’t gotten around to replenishing your supply of flashlight batteries ” the only trembler due in town this week is Litquake. From its beginnings as a modest two-day event in 2002, Litquake has expanded to nine days this year and will feature over 300 participating readers in a variety of venues. Like to hear what literature inspires your favorite musicians? The opening night gala at the Regency Hotel, “Between the Bridges,” features heavy hitters such as Dan “the Automator” Nakamura from the Gorillaz and Handsome Boy Modeling School, King Dork author and Mr.T Experience frontperson Frank Portman, the Avengers’ Penelope Houston, and San Francisco’s first lady of melancholia, Jill Tracy.

Want a literary experience of cataclysmic proportions? Head to the Koret Auditorium on Oct. 7 and 8 for one (or all) of more than 60 10-minute-long readings performed for free on a variety of subjects. You might have to toss a coin Oct. 9, when both Porchlight and Stephen Elliott’s Progressive Reading Series host Litquake lineups: Sean Wilsey versus Mary Roach ” it is indeed a tough call. Though pricey, “The Politics of Food” panel at the Commonwealth Club is our pick for Oct. 10, and for unrepentant breeders, there’s a free Kidquake at the Main Library on Oct. 11. Thursday and Friday are equally fun-filled and action-packed, but the crowning culmination of Litquake is, of course, the legendary Lit Crawl on Oct. 14: 31 venues, ranging from theaters to Laundromats, playing host to over 150 readers in a mere three-and-a-half hours. It’s certainly one way to catch up on your summer reading. (Nicole Gluckstern)

LITQUAKE Oct 6″14. See www.litquake.org for locations, times, and prices

SFGATE - “The Poop” (link to original article)

By Peter Hartlaub

The geniuses behind this year’s Litquake Lit Crawl have organized a special parenting-themed event. Mommy Lit is scheduled from 6-7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14, at Ti Couz Restaurant (3108 16th Street) in the Mission. Kids are welcome!

Acclaimed authors of mommy-related literature Kate Hodson, Joan Blades, Ericka Lutz, Kathy Ellison, Polly Pagenhart and Rachel Sarah will be reading from their books and essays. I received copies of their work a couple of weeks ago and it’s a great group — the readings are really varied and should be a lot of fun.

I’ll write more about that next week. Ti Couz and Litquake have agreed to create a menu of specialty drinks with mommy themes — and we get to help pick the names! Mommy Lit producer Rosie Levy Merlin gave the example of “Mommy’s Little Helper,” which could be a dirty martini or whatever.

Please use the comments section to suggest drinks (either existing ones or of your own invention) and give them creative names. Deadline is Monday early a.m. Rosie says five or so will be used at the Mommy Lit event.

I’ve written an example in the comments section.

(I almost forgot — I’ll be emceeing this event. And I’m partial to bourbon. …)

North Gate News Online - 10/05/06 (link to original article)

by Erin Fitzgerald

SAN FRANCISCO - For nine days in October, Bay Area readers will put down their books and take to the streets.

It’s all in the interest of Litquake, the landmark San Francisco literature festival that offers nine days of writers and events with words to challenge the mind, open the heart, and satisfy every reader. This year’s Litquake takes place from October 6 to October 14 at venues throughout the city.

The event’s growing success is a testament to the Bay Area’s devotion to the written word. From humble beginnings in 2003, when Litquake covered three days and featured fewer than than 80 authors, the event has expanded to cover nine days and more than 300 authors.

Litquake’s producers have gone out of their way to provide something for everyone, says Litquake spokesperson Liam Passmore, as evidenced by event titles like The G Spot with Seal Press: Gender, Geeks, Grooms, Grief and Getting it On, and Mommy Lit: The Pleasures, Perils and Politics of Motherhood.

Both the big names and the lesser knowns are featured at Litquake. Maxine Hong Kingston will beguile with book excerpts and Jamie Lee Curtis will read from her new children’s book, but there are also opportunities to meet and greet up-and-comers on the literary scene.

Near the top of the nine day festival is Barely Published, an event that provides attendees the chance to meet authors who may be published, but are just shy of that all-important first novel.

Andrew Altschul, one of the writers in the Barely Published venue, is awaiting publication of his first novel Lady Lazarus in 2007. Altschul is a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, and is the winner of the O. Henry Prize for Literature.

“It’s wonderful for a city to take a week out of the year to put on such an extensive festival,” says Atschul.

But with historic bookstores like Modern Times and City Lights and poetry readings on every corner, Litquake may be an event that could only happen here.

“Younger people in San Francisco are savvy about literature,” says Altschul. “I’m not sure other parts of the country value literature as highly as we do.”

Altschul, who is pleased to be part of Litquake, says that many of his friends and colleagues from Stanford University and writers from out of town flock to Litquake.

The event’s success is due in large part to the commitment of producers and board members who fuse both the personal and the political into the event, providing an international perspective that is particularly appealing to Bay Area audiences.

Among the political offerings at this year’s Litquake is a special conversation entitled America at War: Al-Qaeda, Iraq and the Politics of Terror with authors Lawrence Wright and Mark Danner. Wright is the author of The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Danner is a UC Berkeley Professor who has written for 25 years on politics and foreign policy.

According to Passmore, the committee that puts on the event is well-versed in Bay Area literature. Committee members include venerables like Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and founder of the independent publishing company McSweeney’s, and Oscar Villalon, book review editor for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Litquake, now in its fifth year, will end with a perennial favorite, the streetwise “Lit Crawl”.

During the crawl, which takes place the evening of October 14, lit lovers overtake a neighborhood in the Mission and travel from venue to venue listening to writers deliver their work. From martini clubs to laundromats, Litquake promises literary belles and beaus will read from bandstands and bartops, turning the streets into what Passmore describes as “a staggered block party divided into three phases.”

Passmore says that event producers purposely placed events in Lit Crawl venues that would reflect the grit and savvy of the street in keeping with Lit Crawl’s ambiance. Streetside Stories: Real Life Tales From San Francisco Youth; and Murder and Mayhem; An Evening of Mystery, Crime and Noir are just two of the notable events at Lit Crawl.

Passmore, who has been with Litquake since 2003 understands the joy of the crawl.

“I’m a jaded guy in many ways, but when I go to Lit Crawl I’m surprised and elated to see the energy and spirit with which people take to the street for literature,” Passmore says.

Atschul, who says he “crawled” a couple of years ago, agrees. “To see seven or eight blocks of people on Valencia Street, not bound for a rock show or a motivational speaker, but there instead for literature, is pretty amazing.”

SFGATE - 10/05/06 (link to original article)

by Reyhan Harmanci

If one of Litquake’s goals is to bring literature off the page, it’s logical that Metallica’s Lars Ulrich will be part of the opening festivities Friday at San Francisco’s nine-day celebration of the written word. No fewer than four Metallica songs have been inspired by books — two of them from the dark early 20th-century science fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft, whose dystopic tales are way, way metal.

Other festival headliners include Dave Eggers, Frank Portman (of the band Mr. T Experience and author of the bestselling “King Dork”) and more obviously literary musical stylings of Mark Eitzel (American Music Club) and Jay Farrar (Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt).

This year, Litquake offers a particularly rich mix of the usual local literati suspects and new faces. L.A.’s acclaimed storytelling series, “Sit ‘n’ Spin,” will be hosting a night of San Francisco writers on Saturday at the Edinburgh Castle Pub — prepare to hear terrifying tales of the entertainment industry. (The popular local storytelling series, Porchlight, will present its people on Monday night at the Swedish American Hall, with Sean Wilsey, of “The Glory of It All” fame, a memoir of growing up in San Francisco society, appearing on stage with his mother, Pat Montandon, whose own tell-all book, “Oh the Hell of It All,” will be published by Regan Books in 2007.)

During the day on both Saturday and Sunday will be the annual who’s who in Bay Area writing, as free readings are organized thematically for five hours each day at the San Francisco Main Library’s Koret Auditorium. The themes range from the genre-based (”Poetry by the Bay,” for instance, from 1-2 p.m. Saturday) to more ephemeral classifications. “Insiders and Outsiders: A Singular Perspective,” with readers such as Tamin Ansary and Brian Copeland, will close out the sessions from 3-4:30 p.m. Sunday.

To counter criticism that you have to be a bold-faced name to be included, Litquake has events that feature emerging writers, such as the participants in the “Barely Published Writers” program (at the Hemlock Tavern starting at 7 p.m. Sunday) and “Litquake Introduces …,” part of the library readings (12:30-1 p.m. Sunday.)

Litquake continues through the week and into next weekend. It’ll be downright hard to avoid, with more than 30 Mission District venues participating in next Saturday’s Litcrawl alone. But prepare to be pleasantly surprised at the diversity of voices involved.

You have to admire a festival that promises readings from a Metallica drummer, New Yorker journalists, a poet laureate, a former San Francisco police chief and a comic, Andrea Abbate, whose bio lists being Bob Saget’s girlfriend on “Full House” as one of her credits.

Bay Area Reporter- 10/05/06 (link to original article)

Bay Area LGBT writers appear in Litquake readings

by Kevin Davis

Members of the local queer writer’s community urge each other to pick up a pen or step onstage, read each other’s works, recommend each other to the city’s sprouting fringe publishers, and sustain each other’s many diverse readings year-round.

LGBTers at Litquake, the seven-years’-running celebration of the modern spoken word, with 350 writers, on October 6-14, are among this affirming community.

Big-bucks Manhattan book publishers may never pay attention to these open-mic rock stars, but that hasn’t dampened their let’s-put-on-a-show spirit or work for local imprints MacAdam/Cage, McSweeney’s, Suspect Thoughts and Manic D Presses.

This collaborative spirit is unique, said Andrew Sean Greer, 35, whose story “The Islanders” receives a staged reading at Intersection for the Arts on Tuesday, October 10.

“I’ve only found it in San Francisco,” said Greer. “Publishing isn’t here. There’s nothing to compete for. We don’t find out what people’s advances are, we go to each other’s readings. Everyone is in it together in this city.”

“Anyone can get up and read in the same community and setting and on the same footing as Kirk Read,” said Charlie Anders, who is hosting Writers with Drinks for the fifth time at Lit Crawl on Saturday, October 14, when Valencia Street gets saturated with thousands of readers basking in a spectrum of genres. “That’s really empowering. You just show up, and people welcome you. We’re all struggling to be heard, to get better and be part of something.”

“I really feel like there’s room for everybody,” said Tara Jepsen, 33, a gardener, who will read from her soon-to-be-published Like a Dog at Barely Published Writers, Sunday, October 8 at the Hemlock Tavern. “I don’t feel competitive that way. People genuinely helped me. Seeing my friends achieving and doing things motivates me to try more,” sa

id Jepsen, who was urged by writer and Fellow Sister Spit alumni Michelle Tea to read her e-mails on stage. “There’s no reason I shouldn’t be doing that, too.”

“When you’re in the world of freaks, doing things their own way because they don’t know any other, usually it’s something so fascinating and original,” said Jepsen, whose K’Vetch queer open mic night is 10 years old.

The writer community is not a “cut-throat environment” or a place “to meet your rivals,” said K.M. Soehnlein, who will read an original short story at Natoma Alley’s Varnish Gallery on October 12, on the assigned theme, Secrets Told and Untold .

“Karl [Soehnlein], after he read my book, he wrote me the most wonderful letter,” said Katia Noyes, 48, author of Crashing America and former dance critic for the SF Sentinel. “Charlie [Anders], months before my book came out, invited me to Writers with Drinks and shared information about the writing scene.”

Noyes reads with other Suspect Thoughts writers at Gender/Queer: Beyond the Binary at the Elbo Room, from her forthcoming novel about a revolutionary movement in a Belgrade-type urban capital under dictatorship.

Slut power

Simon Sheppard was “leading a checkered bohemian life” until a “midlife career moment” when he read Patrick Califia’s Macho Sluts. “I just needed something to goose me,” he said, calling the book “a pivotal moment, one that changed my life.”

Sheppard will read from his story “I Was JT LeRoy’s Fuckboy” at Litquake. Sheppard’s Homosex: 60 Years of Gay Erotica will be published next year.

Most of these ink-stained and carpal tunnel-strained storytellers do not eat or pay the rent by pen alone.

“It would be nice if you made a decent living by it,” said Sheppard, 58, who, though he has published erotic stories in 200 books, is on his partner’s health plan, lives in a rent-controlled space, and works at the Warfield Theater for minimum wage. Contributors to annual Best Of anthologies rarely make over $300 per submission, or receive royalties, he said.

“I have made money off writing, but it’s a very much pieced-together freelance life,” said Soehnlein. “It’s a struggle. Anyone dedicating their life to writing will tell you the same thing. But, it’s worth noting, I’d much rather be piecing together my life this way.”

Discipline in writing practice and structure vary wildly.

“You have to do it because it’s your passion and your means of expression,” said Soehnlein, 40, a USF creative writing instructor whose second book, You Can Say You Knew Me When, comes out in paperback next month. “You can’t do it expecting to transform your life or be loved by strangers. There has to be a lot of fortitude, a pretty strong sense of self to do it.”

Greer writes three pages daily in his “crummy” basement office near his Lower Haight home shared with boyfriend, David Ross, a computer trainer.

Alvin Orloff, 45, who only gained prolific steam in his 30s, needed “the maturity and wisdom of age,” and can only write when the spirit moves him.

“I might get drunk at nine at night and have to write for the next five hours, or go five days without writing,” said Orloff, earning his SFSU Creative Writing MFA while working his Dog Eared Books job. He has written two titles for Manic D Press.

Lit Crawl also includes Susie Bright’s The Anxiety Chronicles panel discussion on how fear shapes politics, sex and language.

View www.Litquake.org for event dates, venues, and times.

Bay Area Reporter - August 24, 2006

(Read original article here)

Hob-nobbing with author types at a benefit for Litquake 2006

by Roberto Friedman

Thanks to the lovely press liaison Liam Passmore for inviting Out There to the Green Room for Monday night’s Booked: A Benefit for Litquake, the SF literary festival that begins its seventh year of readings and pub crawls this coming October 4. Deep down under all the artifice, Out There is a literary type, because there’s more to life than books ” but not much more.

The party’s official hosts included SF Chron editor Phil Bronstein and Craig Newmark of Craigslist fame. “Special guest authors” like Tobias Wolff and Ishmael Reed wandered around the room and balcony overlooking City Hall. We chatted with author K.M. Soehnlein, whose second novel You Can Say You Knew Me When gets a paperback release this fall.

The invitation specified “literati attire,” but since we do most of our writing in a bowling shirt and shredded jeans, we weren’t sure what this entailed. “Shabby chic” and “bling” were also acceptable according to the invite, so we decided to go with our basic gumshoe ensemble. Last year, we made the society pages; this year, maybe we’d merit a cameo in someone’s neo-noir novel.

Party games included a silent auction of books and chances to lunch with your favorite boldface author. Litquake co-founder Jack Boulware said, “You wouldn’t believe what a pain in the ass a silent auction is.” When last we saw Passmore, he was toting around spoken-word performer Beth Lisick’s purse, we guess for safe-keeping. For more info on the upcoming literary fest, this year featuring 350 authors at 45 events, go to litquake.org.

San Francisco Chronicle - Catherine Bigelow

August 13, 2006

(Read original article here)

Invitation of the week

Litquake Booked is a cocktail buffet reception featuring special guest authors (including Robert Mailer Anderson, Peter Coyote, Beth Lisick, Ishmael Reed, Deborah Santana, Tobias Wolff), local pooh-bahs (including Mayor Gavin Newsom, Chronicle Editor Phil Bronstein, ACT Artistic Director Carey Perloff, Book Passage founder Elaine Petrocelli), live music by Marc Capelle and the Casuals, and a (short) program on this weeklong local literati hootenanny coming soon (Oct. 6-14) to a bookstore or club near you. 6 p.m. Aug. 21. The Green Room, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. $75; $300, $500 and $1,000 (sponsor levels). (415) 452-2801.
 

Santa Cruz Sentinel - August 13, 2006

(Read original article here)

Litquake gets ready to rumble in S.F.

Although the San Francisco literary extravaganza known as Litquake is scheduled for October, a benefit launch party will be held Aug. 21 in San Francisco.

Tickets to “Booked” are $75 and include food, wine, a silent auction including a crank call by Lemony Snicket and house cleaning by Beth Lisick and the chance to mingle with special guests Tobias Wolff, Michelle Tea, Amy Tan, Mary Roach, Ishmael Roach, ZZ Packer, Bharati Mukherjee, Peter Coyote and others.

The bash will run 6-9 p.m. at The Green Room, 401 Van Ness at McAllister. An upscale event, you’re asked to dress in “shabby chic” or “bling” attire.

For more information or to order tickets, Litquake asks you to visit www.litquake.org/fundraisersevents/booked-a-litquake-fundraiser.
 

Contra Costa Times (read original article)

SUE GILMORE: BOOKENDS

DON’T LOOK now, but quake season is just around the corner — Litquake, that is.

The 2006 version of San Francisco’s annual weeklong festival celebrating fine Bay Area writers, culminating with the by-now infamous Lit Crawl down Valencia Street to the Mission, doesn’t take place until October. But a rather impressive benefit bash called Booked!, featuring such lit luminaries as Tobias Wolff, Amy Tan, Peter Coyote, ZZ Packer and Ishmael Reed among many others, takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 21 in the Green Room of the Veterans Memorial Building, 401 Van Ness Ave., S.F.

In addition to the food, the wine and the rubbing of writerly elbows, there will be music provided by Marc Capelle and the Casuals, and a silent auction of donated items both traditional — weekend getaways, signed books, guest certificates — and, well, downright wacko. My personal favorite in the latter category is a “customized” crank call to the friend (or foe) of the winner’s choosing, courtesy of Daniel “Lemony Snicket” Handler.

Tickets to the affair — at which both “shabby chic” and “bling” attire is strongly encouraged — start at $75 for the price of admission for one. More information is available at the Web site at www.litquake.org/fundraisersevents/booked-a-litquake-fundraiser.

Litquake 2006 takes place Oct. 6-14 at 35 San Francisco venues, with more than 350 authors participating. 

SF Weekly (see original article)

Best of San Francisco ® 2006: Lose Yourself in the City
Arts & Entertainment
Best Literary Event

Litquake

It all started in 2002, when a group of intrepid readers and writers decided to throw a literary version of the myriad music and arts festivals around town, offering readings and panel discussions with an eye toward mayhem. Since then Litquake has grown exponentially. Though the event spans a week, its nightly gigs feature something rare for literary happenings — author lineups that sometimes reach the double digits (due to the staggering number of participants). It all comes to a head during Lit Crawl, the capper and shoo-in for Best Drinking Event Within a Literary Event. The four-hour, multivenue crawl combines all the elements that make for a good day — drinks, authors, drinking authors, the Mission District, a pub crawl, and the ability to follow a map — in a wild mix of inspired thinking and hope-it-all-works gamesmanship. At last year’s event, more than 20 venues held readings, with starting times staggered so determined fans could put together solid runs through the boozy afternoon.

Saturday, April 15, 2006
The Guardian

(Read original article here)
…The ultra-hip San Francisco literary festival, Litquake, is not until September, but details of the first fundraiser - on the voguish theme of the literary hoax - have been announced. Examination is promised of the JT Leroy hoax in which the “big-sunglasses-wearing-boy-hooker-with- a-past” literary meteor turned out to be a 40-year-old woman, and The Education of Little Tree, acclaimed as a Native American memoir until it was reclassified as fiction when the author was exposed as a former white supremacist who had written Governor George Wallace’s “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” speech. The Hitler diaries and the Howard Hughes autobiography are also set for scrutiny as well as non-literary hoaxes, including Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds broadcast and “informed conjecture about whether we ever really did put that man on the moon”.

NW

The Best PageTurners (see original article)

by Staff, PW Daily — 11/23/2005

Dallas County Community Colleges and San Francisco’s Litquake festival were the two top winners in the first PageTurner Awards sponsored by James Patterson. The Dallas Community Colleges were honored for their support of its annual citywide African American Read-In, which provides books to children and adults. Litquake was hailed for conducting an annual event that makes reading fun. Both organizations received $25,000.

A total of 34 winners were announced yesterday by Patterson, and a total of more than $100,000 awarded. Patterson launched the program earlier this year to reward people and organizations that promote the joy of reading. A full list of the winners can be found at www.pattersonpageturner.org.

Lit Crawl packs ‘em in like a hot nightclub act with words

Reyhan Harmanci, SF Chronicle
Monday, October 17, 2005
(Read the original article here.)

It’s easy to imagine how one could have constructed a drinking game from watching the literary hoards roam Valencia Street on Saturday night as part of Litquake’s final event, Lit Crawl. Drink once for every tweed blazer, once for every pair of leather elbow patches, once for every sensitive ponytail on a man or sexy librarian tortoise-shell glasses on a woman. Drink twice if both members of a couple embody a literary cliche. Take two sips for every notable author or Matt Gonzalez sighting. Chug the bottle if San Francisco celebrity Robin Williams makes a cameo.

Or you could have done like the rest of the crowd and gotten a civilized drink while taking in one of the 26 scheduled readings in the four-hour tour. Beginning on 16th Street at places like Adobe Books and Casanova Lounge at 5 p.m. and promenading down the Mission in three distinct stages, the tour enlisted a wide array of stores, galleries, coffee shops and bars along Valencia Street.

Given the overlapping nature of the event, it would have been nearly impossible to attend every reading. The Chronicle rose to the challenge, though, squeezing into the back of at least 15 locations. It must be admitted that we got behind during Phase One but more than made up for it during Phase Two, and then lagged a bit on Phase Three. What can we say? The organizers set a brutal pace.

We can report that the readings were very well attended. Almost every room was overflowing, the crowds spilling all over the streets as some people listened to authors from the sidewalk. It was striking that in the midst of such chaos, people’s attention was so focused on the authors. They were clearly hungry to put faces next to names.

The readings and the venues were thoughtfully paired: Good Vibrations sex store hosted the erotic writers, 826 Valencia writing lab had a youth reading, Spanish-language and Brazilian writers at La Casa del Libro. The Den furniture store made a very nice place to hear some girly advice from Chronicle Books writers if you got there early enough to snag a seat. The beatific smile on a man seated on a plush couch facing the street practically taunted the standing crowd clogging the doorway.

The composition of audiences across Lit Crawl, of course, reflected the themes of the events. The science-fiction reading at Borderlands was extremely quiet, as the polite crowd skewed older and paler, while younger people packed into Amnesia bar to hear music writers like Erik Davis speak on Led Zeppelin and Christian turntablism.

Seeing as the literary scene in San Francisco is fairly intertwined, there were a few writers who were booked more than once on Lit Crawl. Stephen Elliot said he was supposed to speak three times, but he had to scale it back to two: introducing the youth writing at 826 Valencia and reading from his own work at the MacAdam/Cage publishing house event with Michelle Tea, another writer who has been a Litquake staple. Charlie Anders, publisher of Other magazine was spotted at Adobe Books, then heard at the Latin American Club. Organizers, such as Edinburgh Castle’s Alan Black predictably drifted through the venues.

An informal survey showed that the two most highly anticipated events occurred near the end of the crawl: parental-themed reading ("They Make You, They Mold You, They Mess You Up") by famed San Francisco writers’ collective the Grotto at 12 Galaxies and the MacAdam/Cage affair at the Make-Out Room.

Bucky Sinister from Last Gasp publishing, who was reading at Revolution Cafe, mentioned that he had heard buzz about Stephen Beachy, reading next door at the Latin American Club, who had just published a piece in New York magazine alleging writer JT LeRoy was a hoax. Although one man in a messy blond wig and white shiny jacket did announce he was "pulling a JT," the reclusive LeRoy was not spotted.

But, then again, neither was Williams.

It wouldn’t be a party without an afterparty. Those lucky enough to receive invitations crowded the mezzanine level of Medjool restaurant, wading in the three-person deep drink line at the bar. Anyone who hadn’t already been noticed at the readings was in attendance at the afterparty — Beth Lisick cleverly evaded the long line up the stairs by taking a back entrance. Most of the readers were seen as well. Chronicle Book Review Editor Oscar Villalon entertained in a corner near the olive dishes, while Stephen Elliot discussed his upcoming trip with Fiona Apple for the Believer magazine.

As the evening wore on, attention turned from Litquake to the all-night reopening at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum. People leaving the party began to fill the sidewalk of Mission Street outside Medjool. "Where are you? How long is the line?" screamed one well-dressed woman into her cell phone. Next to her, a man paced, cell phone at ear, repeatedly asking: "Why can’t you just pick me up?"

Three people huddled together to make a group decision. "Let’s have just one more drink upstairs with the book people," said the man in a tweed jacket with leather arm patches. "The de Young will be open all night."

The San Francisco Weekly
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
(Read the original article here.)

Author readings can be boring, but little is dull when you’re working on an evening drunk in the Mission. Litquake’s "Lit Crawl" wisely combines the two, scattering nearly 150 top-shelf authors throughout 30 venues around Valencia Street (plenty of them bars) and staggering reading times for rosy-cheeked attendees. Your course is your own, depending on your tastes in bottles or books. We recommend starting with Violet Blue at Good Vibrations, catching Robert Coover at the Elbo Room, and finishing with K.M. Soehnlein at the Marsh or the "Writers With Drinks" crew at the Latin American Club. After that, requisition a park bench and sleep it off. "Lit Crawl" starts at 5 p.m. at various venues. Admission is free; visit www.litquake.org
– Michael Leaverton

The San Francisco Weekly
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
(Read the original article here.)

Based on the title, the group lecture "Science Is Sexy" seems to have a definitive answer to the question that’s plagued geeks since the time of Newton. Let’s see if you agree: Is Michael Chorost’s life with a cochlear implant — essentially a computer embedded in his skull that allows him to hear — sexy? How about Michael Pollan’s ethics of eating, revealed in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, or David Ewing Duncan’s feelings on the biotech scare, shared in The Geneticist Who Played Hoops With My DNA? Perhaps. But an atom bomb — that definitely sizzles, and so does participant Richard Rhodes, whose book The Making of the Atomic Bomb won a Pulitzer and a National Book Award. These authors and more appear at 6:30 p.m. at the Commonwealth Club, 595 Market (at Second Street), S.F. Admission is $7-18; call 597-6701 or visit www.commonwealthclub.org.

San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, October 11, 2005

"Howl Redux,” a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first reading of Allen Ginsberg’s landmark poem and the opening event in Litquake festivities, heated Herbst Theatre on Friday with a bonfire of words. Most authors read works by other authors, except Michael McClure, who read poems he’d introduced at the original event, and Ginsberg himself, whose taped performance ended the program.
And now, the naughty bit: Cintra Wilson, saucy in tight checked suit, began with vigorously read bon mots from Ambrose Bierce; Armistead Maupin, who followed her with Mark Twain, emerged from backstage and observed that "looking at the ass of Cintra Wilson is enough to turn this gay boy straight.” Next up: Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown reading Jack London, followed by Daniel Handler, who before reading Gertrude Stein said, "Waiting backstage looking at the ass of Jerry Brown is enough to turn this straight boy gay.”

Litquake 2005: The Hip Revisit of Howl

By Vene Franco/LitRave
(Read original article here.)

In the words of our emcee, Jack Boulware, “Is it hot in here or is it me?” Well, it was both as nearly 1,000 literary fans packed Herbst Theatre for the opening night of Litquake and its Howl Redux presentation.

The event kicked off the Litquake 2005 schedule and marked the 50 th anniversary of the debut of Allen Ginsberg’s epic poem “Howl”—a literary milestone credited as giving birth to the Beat movement. With a crowd somewhere between 150 and 200, the original reading—hosted by poet Kenneth Rexroth—took place across town at a small space known as Six Gallery. That location, 3119 Fillmore Street, is now home to a furniture store but has a new plaque marking its place in SF’s literary history. According to the original promotional postcard, the reading was titled 6 Poets at 6 Gallery. Featured poets included Philip Lamantia, Mike McClure, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Phil Whalen. And among those attending were Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The postcard read, “…remarkable collection of angels on one stage reading their poetry. No charge, small collection for wine and postcards. Charming event.”

Litquake’s Howl Redux proved itself as far more than just homage to Ginsberg and “Howl.” It was a celebration of several other revolutionary Bay Area authors, including Mark Twain, Dashiell Hammett, John Steinbeck, Jack London, Jack Kerouac, Gertrude Stein, Ambrose Bierce, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Randy Shilts, Ken Kesey, and Iris Chang. The lineup of celebrity readers was equally impressive and included Oakland mayor Jerry Brown, Armistead Maupin, Amy Tan, Michael McClure, James Dalessandro, Daniel Handler, Peter Coyote, Cintra Wilson, Andrew Sean Greer, Eddie Muller, and devorah major.

An admitted literary groupie, I was waiting for the doors to open promptly at 7 p.m. After a good hour of people watching, I stopped counting black berets after the first dozen and noted several people walking in with their own copies of “Howl.” The crowd included a few senior hipsters, and I wished there could have been a show of hands to see how many, if any, were in attendance on that night in ‘55. Was it really as magical as they say? And, to be honest, did anyone go home with Kerouac? How about McClure?

The evening consisted of nearly 20 readings, one right after the other, with an intermission halfway through – all in all, three hours. “Howl” tribute or not, you might expect a little shifting in the chairs, a little text messaging, maybe some early departures. But, no. Each reading was given its due respect and the pieces were so thoughtfully selected and moving that the audience seemed rewarded for its good behavior with one gem after another. As each reader spoke, photographs of the featured author were projected onto a screen behind them.

Some highlights:

New York writer Cintra Wilson, formerly of San Francisco, got things off to a saucy start, walking on stage in a figure-hugging, two-piece skirt and jacket ensemble. Hair up, retro cat eye glasses atop a well-powdered nose (think sexy librarian). Her enunciation was perfection as she delivered some amusing word definitions, taken from Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary .

Armistead Maupin, who followed Cintra Wilson, began, “Sitting on the side, looking at Cintra Wilson’s ass is enough to turn a gay boy straight.” This joke took on a life of its own as several readers throughout tweaked it to best describe the derriere of the reader that preceded them. The Tales of the City author proceeded to read a Mark Twain piece on the 1865 earthquake, “back when it was still known as The Big One.”

Jerry Brown, dressed in a dark suit and silver tie, read from Jack London’s The People of the Abyss, a moving commentary on poverty and the conditions of paupers and children in ghettos. The Oakland Mayor finished, adding, “It’s pretty heavy, but it’s still going on.” Jack London was also an Oakland mayoral candidate.

Daniel Handler, creator of the Lemony Snicket series, read from Gertrude Stein. He told the audience that on her deathbed, Stein reportedly asked, “What was the question?” He also announced, as he first stepped up to the microphone, that “looking backstage at the ass of Jerry Brown, it’s enough to turn a straight boy gay.”

Eddie Muller, nicknamed the “Czar of Noir,” read from Dashiell Hammett, doing a fine impersonation of The Fatman as he purred the famous opening line, “Ah, Mister Spade…”

And so on and so forth…like I said, each reader presented a gem.

Michael McClure, now 73, still lives and teaches in the Bay Area. Handsome in black jeans and blazer, his silver white hair tousled back, he came out and bowed to the audience. The youngest of the original poets from the Six Gallery reading, McClure read four of the same poems he read that evening in 1955, including “For the Death of a 100 Whales.” Intense and dramatic, hands gesturing, McClure read with focus and passion. Of that historic evening, he said, “We knew it instantly…that we had created a spark.” Of “Howl,” he said, “It was a poem about the nature of a new society in America.” And of the night’s celebration, he joked, “There are more people here tonight.”

I was surprised and saddened that the entire audience did not give McClure a standing ovation. I mean, I know San Francisco audiences are subdued but, People, C’mon! It’s one of the original six. It’s 50 years later. He’s reading the same damn poems. What’s it gonna take?

Realizing that no one could read Ginsberg better than Ginsberg, the organizers arranged for the final reader to be the man himself (on video) reading from “Howl.” The footage was from 1992, for the documentary The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg by Jerry Aronson. The filmmaker put together this short excerpt especially for the Howl Redux reading.

The Litquake evening may not have brought about revolution as it did 50 years ago, but it gracefully ushered in a week devoted to celebrating the city’s current literary renaissance. Jack Boulware, Litquake’s co-director, announced during the show that the mayor’s office had declared October 7–15 Litquake Week. So now it’s official. Litquake will, no doubt, continue to energize the city’s literary scene, showcasing new works by contemporary writers, and providing a space for those who still remember how to, you know, howl.

Week of literary readings in San Francisco kicks off with homage to Ginsberg

John Beck/The Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Thursday, October 6, 2005
(Read original article here.)

"Today, if you’re a poet in San Francisco, you better have a damn good day job," says Litquake co-founder Jack Boulware.

But 50 years ago, when Allen Ginsberg first read "Howl" at the Six Gallery, things were a little different. You could couch surf your way across the country on a dime. A bottle of red wine was nothing, and jazz was even cheaper. What more did you need?

The idea of anyone "dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix" in San Francisco today evokes either Tenderloin tweakers or the nouveau riche craving Prada.

Recalling the foggy heyday of the Beats, Litquake kicks off a week of readings and events at Friday night’s "Howl Redux," pairing authors and celebs with dopplegangers from the distant past. Armistead Maupin does his best Mark Twain. Amy Tan mounts a tribute to Iris Chang. Even Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown summons Jack London (get it, the square?).

But Michael Madsen invoking John Steinbeck?

Imagine the tough-guy actor who sliced off a cop’s ear in "Reservoir Dogs" reading "The Red Pony."

"Why not?" says Boulware, who penned the freaky travel guide "San Francisco Bizarro." Rounding up more than 250 authors can be like "herding cats" anyway, so when Madsen called and said he wanted to be part of the festival, the only hesitation was the first-class plane ticket. It turns out, Madsen is footing the bill. After all, he’s a poet with a day job (Witness: "The Complete Poetic Works of Michael Madsen, Vol. 1: 1995-2005").

When Boulware founded the festival five years ago with Chronicle reporter Jane Ganahl, the goal was to "give everyone who reads a reason to put down their books and get out of the house."

It worked. Bookworms and wonks not only shed the sofa, they partied. Drinks were had and music played somewhere in the background. The festival took a year off for the dot-com bust, but now it lures a bigger draw every year. At this point, the only elusive Bay Area author seems to be Isabele Allende. And even if "Trainspotting" author Irvine Welsh won’t be there this year, as he was the first two years, the festival has all the necessary ingredients when it comes to sex, drugs and you-know-what.

Chemicals arrive first as the Sunday night pub seminar, Drugschool: Writers on Pills, Powders, Plants and Pints, examines "authors under the influence and the work they produce." Then the Lit Crawl finale next Saturday warms up with a "Getting Hot" erotica reading at Good Vibrations, and dozens of readings at Mission District clubs like 12 Galaxies and Elbo Room might even inspire some good old rock ‘n’ roll.

But don’t get the wrong idea; the finale blowout is not all about booze and Baudelaire.

"There were actually people running down the street last year at the Lit Crawl to see people reading," Boulware says. "That’s amazing in this day and age."

matt munday/SF Station
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
(Read original article here.)

Like books? Enjoy the unsolicited intimacy of crowded rooms? Want to take intrusive, ill-timed flash photographs of some of your favourite local authors? Simply have a drinking problem? Then you’ll be glad to hear that on October 7th, Litquake is back for its fourth year — this time bigger and more literary than ever before.

Since its inception in 2002, the Litquake festival has grown from a sizeable local mini-fest to a burgeoning literary phenomenon. In 2001, they had fifty authors signed up — now they have over two hundred. While, the original festival lasted a weekend, this year’s comprises seventeen events over nine days. Throughout these notable changes, Litquake’s website has stuck firmly to this nugget of deadpan self-analysis: "A San Francisco Literary Festival", which, I suppose, about sums it up.

It’s about the books. And — almost as important — it’s about San Francisco. Because, behind the sleek website and extensive list of participating authors (think Daniel "Lemony Snicket" Handler, think Lawrence "City Lights" Ferlinghetti) there’s a genuine grass-roots message. Litquake is primarily about cultivating literariness and getting everyone writing. It’s a call to pens.

And pencils. And crayons. Because Litquake is not only for adults. After the opening night (which commemorates the 50th anniversary of Allen Ginsberg’s first reading of his epic, satirical poem, Howl), Kidquake starts at 2pm on the 8th. Featuring Bay Area children’s writers and workshops designed to "help build the magical imaginations of kids aged 5-10", Kidquake reinforces the creative ethos behind the whole festival.

And then, as if to allay any fears that Litquake’s gone soft, and to calm the shaking hands of the alcoholics among us, the drinking starts. At noon on the 8th, Savoring the Page: A Celebration of Wine and Food Writing provides a calm segue to the day’s closing event, Drugschool: Writers on Pills, Powders, Plants and Pints, which is held at the Edinburgh Castle Literary Pub and is for over 21s only. Presumably