San Francisco Litquake and Lit Crawl 2014

Litquake, San Francisco's literary event of the year, is happening as I write. If I had the energy to hop into my car at the end of a weekday and travel south I would, but I returned last night from a 3-day weekend (and 9-hour drive round-trip) to Humboldt County, visiting a friend where I used to live. We headed north to the mouth of the Klamath River, where we stayed overnight at the historic Requa Inn, watching gray whales during our day hike along the Yurok trail alongside the Pacific and observing two bald eagles swoop low over the river as they fished while we ate our breakfast.











In case you're in the vicinity, check out this week's happenings, ending in the annual Lit Crawl:

The tenth annual Lit Crawl will span over three hours in the Mission District's Valencia Street corridor, featuring an astonishing 101 literary readings and events, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, comedy and more, in bookstores, bars, galleries, restaurants, stores, cafés, community spaces, a bookmobile, a vibrator store, and a police station.

If I still lived on Valencia Street I'd run over right now to the Make-Out Room to hear Thaisa Frank shed her words of wisdom, then continue the next night to Vesuvio--which I passed by on the bus during many days in my youth and wondered what it was like inside--and on to Craigslist inspiration (I once tried my hand at a short story with a composite character based on my 3-month foray), and onward to Andrew's talk since he was a wonderful facilitator at Lit Camp this year... ah, if only...

Original Shorts: Plan C
Oct. 13, 7 PM at the Make-out Room
Six short story authors take on the challenge of writing an original short story using the theme “Plan C.” Stories about post-fallback-plan fallback plans.

Straight, No Chaser: Writers at the Bar
Oct. 14, 7 PM at Vesuvio Café
In what has become a Litquake tradition, hallowed North Beach watering hole Vesuvio Café opens its doors for an edgy and hilarious evening reading. This is a rare opportunity to glimpse authors performing new work in their natural habitat. 

The Best of Craigslist
Oct. 15, 7:30 PM at the Hattery
Join us for a hilarious, eye-opening evening of “found literature” culled from the best-ever postings of this legendary website. Seven Bay Area authors will read from craigslist’s greatest hits in all the classic categories: missed connections (“To the Crackhead Who Stole My Bicycle Wheel”), sale items (“Haunted Coffee Grinder for Sale”), and job postings (“Bong Operations Engineer”).

Andrew Sean Greer at California College of the Arts
Oct. 17, 6 PM at CCA
CCA’s MFA Program in Writing hosts a one-week Master Writer in Residence, a writer of prominence in fiction, poetry, or nonfiction to serve as a teacher and voice on trends and issues in writing and literature. The week culminates in a free, public reading/lecture by the resident.

Beyond Poop and Puberty: Presented by Rad Dad Magazine
Oct. 18, 6 PM at Elixir
Join the fathers (and one token mother), all contributors to Rad Dad Magazine, as they share stories about the beauty and complexity of parenting!

For the full list of Lit Crawl venues and schedule, you can download the map here.

Litquake--San Francisco's literary festival

Litquake is happening Oct. 5-13! It's the 13th annual week-long literary festival in San Francisco, including 163 events and more than 850 authors. 

Here’s the entire schedule at a glance. Check out select highlights or the full roster of 2012 Festival authors with links to their bios. Here’s a list of Litquake special programs, including the new Words and Pictures museum series, A Cultural Stroll through Yerba Buena--an art-centric series on Sunday, Oct. 7. You can wander through an array of museums and galleries, exploring art, language, culture, and all intersections between.

If you can't make it this week, there's always the Lit Crawl finale next Saturday, Oct. 13. Included is a reading by students of Take My Word For It!--a Bay Area creative writing program that I helped bring to the north bay. I've been teaching two after-school, 8-9 week classes with TMWFI for fourth graders at local schools. The LitQuake writers will read their food writing at 6 pm at 18 Reasons in the Mission. TMWFI is also part of this year's Rockridge Out & About Festival in Oakland tomorrow from 1 - 6 pm. They'll have a "Type-In" booth where you can type on carbon paper.

I'm too busy picking blackberries in the backyard (in October!), but I hope to catch Litquake on Tuesday after I train in the city for my new copywriting job at Viator. I'll excited to have a part-time contract writing online tours and activities for travelers worldwide. In addition, I'm the Press Democrat's new Towns correspondent for Cotati/Penngrove and  Rohnert Park, covering human interest stories in two local, adjacent towns. I publish several short posts online each week as well as a longer centerpiece that appears in print each Sunday.