x
We're working hard to keep all of us connected.
Please consider supporting our efforts today!
Please consider supporting our efforts today!
|
During the spring and summer of 2020, we created a virtual series of literary entertainment, featuring local authors and those with cancelled book tours
|
|
Fiction Writing in a Time of Crisis
Fiction writers Nayomi Munaweera, R.O. Kwon, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, and host Lauren Markham discuss both the challenges and urgency of fiction writing at this moment in time. How do we write during bleak times, and into the bleakness? How does the loss and grief of our current moment impact what we are writing about, how we write, and who we are writing for? And perhaps most importantly, where might we be finding joy and how are we cultivating it—and what role could this joy play in our writing? |
|
|
Poets for National Poetry Month
Join Litquake for our annual National Poetry Month celebration, for readings from some of America's best poets: Kazim Ali, Tongo Eisen-Martin, and Jane Hirshfield. Curated and hosted by Rebecca Foust. |
|
|
Beth Lisick and Edie on the Green Screen
Beth Lisick's canceled book tour for her debut novel transmogrifies into an at-home spoken word and music performance with her husband, musician and studio wizard Eli Crews (Tune-yards, Deerhoof). Beth reads excerpts from her new book accompanied by organs, synths, and other assorted gadgetry. Presented live from their Spillway Sound recording studio in New York's Hudson Valley. |
|
|
DIY Flash with the Flash Fiction Collective
A reading of dozens of tiny stories from micro-fictionistas, plus a discussion of the Art of Flash and prompts. With Kirstin Chen, Jane Ciabattari, Grant Faulkner, Meg Pokrass, and more. |
|
|
ZYZZYVA's 35th Anniversary Issue Release
Celebrate ZYZZYVA's 35th anniversary issue with contributors from the issue. Featuring Dave Madden, Lysley Tenorio, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, Kristen Iskandrian, and Meg Hurtado Bloom. |
|
|
We All Want to Change the World
Fiction writers are often told – by teachers, editors, and agents – that politics and literature don’t mix. But in these times of political polarization and dissatisfaction, many writers are reconsidering this conventional wisdom. With Kirstin Chen, Andrew Altschul, Ramona Ausubel, Danielle Evans, and Joshua Furst. |
|
|
Bring the World into Your Home with World Editions
Let's connect our global literary community in a time of closed borders. Hear World Editions authors read from their works, discuss the current situation in their countries, and talk about what books mean to them during Covid-19. With Adeline Dieudonné, Pierre Jarawan, Sisonke Msimang, and Amin Maalouf. |
|
|
Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times
Hear from the writers of Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times as they read briefly from their contribution and engage in conversation about what's changed, what hasn't, how we weather what we're facing not only politically but also culturally, personally, artistically, and as communities who affirm our connections to each other. |
|
|
Ishmael Beah and Little Family
From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of the Sierra Leone child-soldier memoir, A LONG WAY GONE, comes this powerful new novel about young people living at the margins of society. LITTLE FAMILY portrays the lives of five youth who have improvised a household in an abandoned airplane, struggling to replace the homes they have lost with the one they have created together. Join us to celebrate the release of this remarkable work of fiction from Ishmael Beah, whom Vanity Fair has called “arguably the most-read African writer in contemporary literature.” |
|
|
Sarah Ray and A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety
Those inheriting our planet’s environmental problems expect to encounter challenges, but they may not have the skills to grapple with the feelings of powerlessness and despair that may arise. Author and professor Sarah Jaquette Ray releases her new book A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety (UC Press), an “existential tool kit” for the climate generation. Combining insights from psychology, sociology, social movements, mindfulness, and the environmental humanities, Ray explains why and how we need to let go of eco-guilt, resist burnout, and cultivate resilience while advocating for climate justice. In conversation with eco-engagement strategist Renee Lertzman. |
|
|
Nerd Novels—A Different Kind of Escape
As society grinds to a halt around us, many readers find themselves at home with time on their hands, yearning to think about something—anything—beyond the daily drama of the pandemic. In this conversation, authors Jean Hegland & Susan M. Gaines discuss "nerd novels," those books whose characters, plots, and themes depend on some specialized body of knowledge. Tonight's conversation covers the concept of the nerd novel, as well as the special challenges and rewards of reading and writing them, and invites questions and discussion from the virtual audience. |
|
|
Alka Joshi and The Henna Artist
A portrait of one woman’s struggle for fulfillment in a society pivoting between the traditional and the modern, The Henna Artist takes readers on a journey through 1950s Indian culture, a world that is at once lush and fascinating, stark and cruel. Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist—and confidante—to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own. Alka Joshi reads from and discusses her book, with bestselling author Tom Barbash. |
|
|
You, Me, and Everyone in Quarantine
Cutting-edge poetry and visuals from both coasts, on the theme of "You, Me, and Everyone In Quarantine." From the depths of their shelter-in-place, these writers will perform their literary hearts out for you! With SevanKele Boult, Wo Chan, Katie Fricas, Irene McCalphin aka Magnoliah Black, and Preeti Vangani. Curated and hosted by Baruch Porras-Hernandez. |
|
|
Literary Page Turners
Page turners are usually associated with genre or popular fiction rather than literary fiction. In this discussion, Melanie Abrams, Laura Mazer, and Kate Milliken will talk about what readers, agents, and editors are looking for when it comes to plot. We’ll talk about marketability, but also how to write a beautifully crafted narrative while still making readers turn pages. |
|
|
Wayétu Moore and The Dragons, the Giant, the Women
Co-presented by Museum of the African Diaspora Spanning this harrowing journey in Moore’s early childhood, her years adjusting to life in Texas as a black woman and an immigrant, and her eventual return to Liberia, The Dragons, the Giant, the Women is a deeply moving story of the search for home in the midst of upheaval. Moore shines a light on the great political and personal forces that continue to affect many migrants around the world, and calls us all to acknowledge the tenacious power of love and family. In converation with author and professor Faith Adiele. |
|
|
Jaimal Yogis and Mop Rides the Waves of Life
Going to school and navigating classmates can be hard—but all that goes away when little surfer Mop paddles out in the waves. With a few tips from his clever mom, Mop studies the wisdom of the water and learns to bring it into his life on land: taking deep breaths, letting the tough waves pass, and riding the good ones all the way. With newfound awareness and courage, Mop heads back to land—and school—to surf the waves of life. Celebrated San Francisco surfer-journalist-dad Jaimal Yogis teaches 4-8 year olds timeless beach wisdom with the story of Mop, a sensitive and fun-loving kid who just wants to be in the ocean. |
|
|
Ilana Masad and All My Mother's Lovers
Told over the course of a funeral and shiva, and written with enormous wit and warmth, All My Mother's Lovers is the much-anticipated debut novel from Israeli-American fiction writer and book critic Ilana Masad. A unique meditation on the universality and particularity of family ties and grief, and a tender and biting portrait of sex, gender, and identity. |
|
|
A Family Divided
Millions of families are separated today, by circumstances of the current pandemic, by draconian immigration policies, and by war. Family separation has long been used as an intentional political tool to pressure, frighten, and terrorize. Through the lens of fiction, we can understand the impact of such wounds, and strengthen our shared belief in family and community connection. Authors Donna Hemans, Aimee Liu, Ellen Meeropol, and Kristen Millares Young discuss their Spring 2020 novels, and explore the paths of families torn apart. |
|
|
Caitlin Myer and Wiving with Joe Loya
Co-presented by Green Apple Books At 36 years old, Caitlin Myer is ready to start a family with her husband. She has left behind the restrictive confines of her Mormon upbringing and early sexual trauma, and believes she is now living her happily ever after. In a single week, she suffers the twin losses of a hysterectomy and the death of her mother, and is jolted into a terrible awakening that forces her to reckon with her past—and future. Myer's electric debut memoir Wiving is the story of one woman’s “escape” from religion at age 20, only to find herself similarly entrapped in the gender conventions of the secular culture at large. The biblical characters Yael and Judith, wives who became assassins, become her totems as she evolves from wifely submission to warrior independence. In conversation with author Joe Loya. |
|
|
Billy-Ray Belcort and A History of My Brief Body
Billy-Ray Belcourt's debut memoir opens with a tender letter to his kokum and memories of his early life in the hamlet of Joussard, Alberta, and on the Driftpile First Nation. From there, it expands to encompass the big and broken world around him, in all its complexity and contradictions: a legacy of colonial violence and the joy that flourishes in spite of it, first loves and first loves lost, sexual exploration and intimacy, and the act of writing as a survival instinct and a way to grieve. What emerges is not only a profound meditation on memory, gender, anger, shame, and ecstasy, but also the outline of a way forward. With startling honesty, and in a voice distinctly and assuredly his own, Belcourt situates his life experiences within a constellation of seminal queer texts, among which this book is sure to earn its place. Eye-opening, intensely emotional, and excessively quotable, A History of My Brief Body demonstrates over and over again the power of words to both devastate and console us. In conversation with writer and professor Greg Sarris. |
|
|
Alexandra Petri and Nothing is Wrong and Here is Why
“One of the difficulties of being alive today, is that everything is absurd but fewer and fewer things are funny.” In her new essay collection Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why, acclaimed Washington Post satirist Alexandra Petri offers perfectly logical, reassuring reasons for everything that has happened in recent American politics that will in no way unsettle your worldview. Petri reports that the Trump administration is as competent as it is uncorrupted, white supremacy has never been less rampant, and men have been silenced for too long. The “woman card” is a powerful card to play! Q-Anon makes perfect sense! This Panglossian venture into our swampy present offers a virtuosic first draft of history—a parody as surreal and deranged as the Trump administration itself. Petri’s essays have become iconic expressions of rage and anger, read and liked and shared by hundreds of thousands of people. In conversation with Vox political reporter Jane Coaston. |
|
|
Afrofuturism: Risen from a Poet's Sun
Co-presented by the Museum of African Diaspora Afrofuturism: Risen From a Poet’s Sun explores the intersection of technology, science, and the arts, as well as culture, of the African Diaspora. Featuring Bay Area poets James Cagney, Tongo-Eisen Martin, Thea Matthews, and Tureeda Mikell. FREE, $5 suggested donation |
|
|
Peter Orner and Maggie Brown & Others with Paul Madonna
In this powerful and virtuosic collection of 44 interlocking stories, each one “a marvel of concision and compassion” (Washington Post), Peter Orner chronicles people whose lives are at inflection points, gripping us with a series of defining moments. Whether it's a first date that turns into a late-night road trip to a séance in an abandoned airplane hangar, or a family’s memories of the painful mystery surrounding a neglected uncle’s demise, Orner reveals how our fleeting decisions between kindness and abandonment chase us across time. These stories are anchored by a poignant novella that delivers not only the joys and travails of a 40-year marriage, but an entire era in a working-class New England city. Peter Orner reads from and discusses his work, with bestselling illustrator Paul Madonna. |
|