Thursday

Thursday, October 9, 6:30 pm
Battling for the Environment: Stories from the Front Lines
Co-Presented by the Commonwealth Club
Commonwealth Club, 595 Market Street, 2nd Floor
$12 for Commonwealth and Litquake e-newsletter subscribers (bring a newsletter with you); $20 general; $7 student

The fight for the environment doesn’t stop at the edge of Antarctica’s icebergs. In fact, the front lines stretch from the WTO and South Korean farms to our shopping bags and gas tanks. Our panel of leading authors will not only explain what is happening to the environment around the globe, but also how we are being directly affected at home and how each of us can play a part in our struggle to save the environment.Featuring: Moderator Jane Kay, Sebastian Copeland, Claire Hope Cummings, Thomas M. Kostigen, Jerry Mander, Christie Matheson.

Thursday, October 9, 7 pm
Nightclub
The Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk St, FREE
21 and over

Featuring: Bob Calhoun, Alan Black, Jack Boulware, Michael Disend, Beth Lisick, Michelle Richmond, Sylvie Simmons, David Henry Sterry.

Thursday, October 9, 7 pm
Curtis Sittenfeld, author of American Wife, at Books Inc., Palo Alto
Books Inc., 55 El Camino Real #74, Palo Alto. FREE

Author Curtis Sittenfeld discusses American Wife.

Thursday, October 9, 7:30 pm
The Booksmith presents Lewis Buzbee
The Booksmith, 1644 Haight St. FREE

Lewis Buzbee discusses Steinbeck’s Ghost.

Thursday, October 9, 8 pm
Steampunk: Victorian Elegance Meets Science Fiction
Variety Preview Room, The Hobart Building, 1st Floor, 582 Market St.@ Montgomery Street. FREE, but limited seating.
Cash bar benefits Variety Children’s Charity
Lounge and doors open at 7 pm
Note new times

SF in SF: Science Fiction in San Francisco, Tachyon Publications, Variety Children’s Charity, and Litquake present an evening celebrating all aspects of Steampunk - impossibly fantastic adventures you’ll never forget. Steampunk is Victorian elegance paired with modern technology: steam-driven robots, souped-up stagecoaches, and space-faring dirigibles, all fueled by gaslight, romance, mad scientists, and oh-so-trim waistcoats. Readings followed by Q&A moderated by author Terry Bisson.

Featuring: Kage Baker, Joe R. Lansdale, Rudy Rucker,  Richard Botoms

Thursday, October 9, 8 pm
Off Book: Stories That Move
The evening also features JoAnn Selisker’s Off Leash: Who’s a Good Girl?
Project Artaud Theater, 450 Florida St . Admission $20 at the door; $18 in advance: $15 for seniors and students
Tickets available at odctheater.org or 415-863-9834

A special collaborative event between ODC Dance Theater and Litquake featuring dance interpretations of original fiction works. This evening of “page-to-stage” performances combine text and movement by pairing Litquake commissioned authors and ODC Theater commissioned choreographers in an evening that expands the boundaries of how dance and literature are presented in the City.

Pairings: Michelle Tea with Scott Wells; Alejandro Murguía with Erika Chong Shuch; Tess Uriza Holthe with Katie Faulkner

Off Leash is a creative fiction performance piece that explores the behavioral contortions and spectacle required if indeed we were to walk and talk with the animals - particularly, the hound. Elements of literary short fiction, theater, dance, and satirical humor form a narrative where the wires carrying the required currents of mutual trust, love and affection inevitably cross, producing sometimes giddy and sometimes darkly poetic short circuits.