SF’s Bookstores and Readings Reflect a Lively Literary Scene

Litquake's own Jack Boulware, as quoted in The New York Times, Dec. 1, 2010:

“There isn’t an enormous publishing and entertainment industry in San Francisco,” said Jack Boulware, a journalist and author who is one of Litquake’s founders. “If you’re a writer here, you aren’t bound by restrictions you might find in other cities; you can express yourself and innovate and experiment.”

“And,” he deadpanned, “everyone is stoned and sitting in cafes in the middle of the day.”

There's more about San Francisco and our great literary community in the story on The New York Times website, but the opening focuses on Litquake:

"ON a balmy fall evening in the Mission District of San Francisco, hundreds of people spilled onto Valencia Street, where they chatted happily for a few minutes before pouring back into bookstores, cafes and theaters. It was a giddy, animated crowd, but most of all bookish — a collection of fans and believers, here to listen to the written word.

The occasion was an event called Litquake, which, over the course of nine days, would draw some 13,000 residents and visitors to readings by scores of authors, many of them — like Maxine Hong Kingston and Daniel Handler (a k a Lemony Snicket) — local celebrities. The “Lit Crawl” finale alone featured more than 400 readings at bars, laundromats and even the police station in a single evening.

Litquake is an annual event, but on almost any day or night in San Francisco, there is likely to be something for the literary-inclined — a poetry reading at a bar, a book swap in a cafe or a reading in the book-lined lobby of the Rex Hotel. This is a place, after all, where dozens of fiercely independent bookstores not only survive but thrive, thanks to a city of readers who seem to view books not only as a pleasure, but as a cause."

read full article at The New York Times website

Mark Twain Ball

On Thursday, November 4, 2010, Litquake, Bancroft Library, UC Press, and California Historical Society present the first-ever Mark Twain Ball to celebrate publication of his brand-new autobiography. If you think Twain was witty at his 70th birthday dinner (shown below, courtesy of The Mark Twain Project), just imagine what he saved for the autobiography that marks his 100th birthday.

This event will be the first Bay Area launch of this long-awaited book, held in the city that helped birth the career of America’s best-loved humorist. This new edition is already on bestseller lists, in advance of its November 15 publication date. Be sure to read all the reviews.
Come to the Mark Twain Ball and see what CBS, CNN, New York Times, Guardian, and the Independent are all raving about. Event features Twain video and slideshow, period music and special cocktails, Twain-themed snacks, and select readings from the Autobiography by actors from A.C.T.! Costumes and mustaches encouraged. Twain books and t-shirts will be for sale.
Thursday, November 4 Green Room, 401 Van Ness Ave. 7 pm Remaining tickets $20 available at the door.
Forbidden to be published until 100 years after his death, this new deluxe edition of Twain’s Autobiography (Volume 1 of 3) is at last presented according to the author’s specific instructions. Some highlights: President Theodore Roosevelt is described as “one of the most impulsive men in existence.”…the American soldiers Roosevelt sent to the Philippines are referred to as “uniformed assassins”…even Twain’s Italian landlady is called “excitable, malicious, malignant, vengeful, unforgiving, selfish, stingy, avaricious, coarse, vulgar, profane, and obscene.”

Twain Autobiography in the News

Litquake's the first-ever Mark Twain Ball, presented with the Bancroft Library, UC Press, and California Historical Society will be the first Bay Area launch  celebrating  publication of  Mark Twain's Autobiography, Vol. 1. We know you'll want to join us at the Ball.We're far from the only ones excited about the Autobiography—it's all over the web.  While you're waiting for the Ball, you can read all about it at the listings below, as well as a plethora of others.
Dead for a Century, Twain Says What He Meant, Larry Rohter, The New York Times "Wry and cranky, droll and cantankerous — that’s the Mark Twain we think we know, thanks to reading “Huck Finn” and “Tom Sawyer” in high school. But in his unexpurgated autobiography, whose first volume is about to be published a century after his death, a very different Twain emerges, more pointedly political and willing to play the role of the angry prophet." Dead 100 Years, Mark Twain Lets Loose, Jeff Glor, CBS Sunday Morning News "'The Adventures of Mark Twain' isn't the actual title of the memoir by the author of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.' But the story of how this book is finally coming to be published is a bit of an adventure tale all its own." After keeping us waiting for a century, Mark Twain will finally reveal all, Guy Adams, The Independent (London) "The creator of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and some of the most frequently misquoted catchphrases in the English language left behind 5,000 unedited pages of memoirs when he died in 1910, together with handwritten notes saying that he did not want them to hit bookshops for at least a century." Mark Twain's Discourse: A Timeless Writing Course, Patricia Benesh, Huffington Post "With the current excitement about the first volume of Mark Twain's autobiography to be published in November, I re-visited some pages of his quotes about writing I'd collected through the years. I was astounded by the number and scope of Twain's advice -- and admonishments. I've culled 3000+ words to a mere 700. I hope you'll comment and add your favorites..." Mark Twain's Last Stunt, David Downs, East Bay Express "As it turns out, Mark Twain had one more joke up his sleeve. Scholars at UC Berkeley are having the moment of their careers as they prepare to release the Autobiography of Mark Twain. Appearing in three hardcover volumes from UC Press starting November 15, the autobiography reveals the iconic American novelist's true feelings about his family and associates, as well as his frustrations with Christianity, Wall Street, and US foreign policy. The creator of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn is so candid in the half-million dictated pages that he mandated that the unedited text be suppressed until one hundred years after his death. On November 15, that date arrives..."

Litquake XI :: The Bow

Now that we've distanced ourselves a little bit from those 9 days of New Year I've had a chance to get caught up on all the footage we took. What follows is a wrap-up: The Effect of Fiction On Your Mind, Porchlight Storytelling: Takes of Hollywood Hell, Lit on the Lake, Quiet Lightning and Bikram Yoga from Lit Crawl, and links to all formerly covered events, just for the sake of convenience. Also, our friends over at We Who Are About to Die had a nice photo essay from the Crawl. Enjoy! Hopefully we'll see you at the Mark Twain Ball.




:: The Effect of Fiction on Your Mind ::

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5




:: Porchlight Storytelling : Tales of Hollywood Hell ::

Intro

Joyce Maynard

Martin Cruz Smith

Kristen Tracy

Jack Boulware

Audience

Exene Cervenka

Michael Tolkin

Jill Soloway




:: Lit on the Lake ::

Elaine Beale

Jacqueline Luckett

Kristen McCloy

Lisa Braver Moss

Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Melanie Abrams




:: The Lit Crawl ::

Quiet Lightning

Bikram Yoga

Photo Essay by Karli McAllister

beNOW.tv live-streamed phase 1 and phase 3




:: Festival Photos ::

Litquake by Cynthia Wood




:: Recap Footage ::

:: Day 1 ::

The Opening Party




:: Day 2 ::

» The Barbary Coast Award

» Off the Richter Scale




:: Day 3 ::

» The Literary Tour Stops Here


» Barely Published Authors




:: Day 4 ::

» Words and Waves: Surf Lit

» Tao Lin at Booksmith




:: Day 5 ::

» Virtual Reality: The Effect of Fiction on Your Mind

» Porchlight Storytelling: Tales of Hollywood Hell




:: Day 6 ::

» Lit on the Lake

» RADAR and Bawdy Storytelling




:: Day 7 ::

» Feminine Wiles

» Stories on Stage

 

:: Day 8 ::

» Confession: on the 8th day, I rested

 

:: Day 9 ::

» Poem recap

» Quiet Lightning, Bikram Yoga, and photos form Lit Crawl







In case you hadn't heard, this year's Litquake was the largest ever, with over 14,000 people in attendance, including 8,000+ during Lit Crawl. Wow. See you soon, lit lovers. This festival isn't just annual anymore—it's year-round.

xo,

Evan

A Few More Lines to Ease You Out of Whatever We have Been Doing

Overstimulation.

No time for polished thoughts

Forget sentences

Inspiration

Flashes

Sparks of recognition

spoken

in the mind

Just listen

and try to keep up






I have wanted to write since I was a child

and I’ve been an adult for a long time

There’s nothing between us

You and me

You and yr dreams

Me and mine






Our dreams are palpable

I’ve seen them walking down Mission St.

holding the same festival guide

designed by Mitche Manitou

I’ve heard them so many times

in so many places

I don’t know the difference

Your words form the rhythms

I think in …






3 o’clock snapping pictures thru the alley

What is this they ask

new to the mission

and maybe San Francisco

It’s a literary festival

as if that explains everything

as tho this thing has been going on since the dawn of time

And we stutter to answer

This thing not conforming to conventional press releases

There are a lot of authors

we say

in explanation

It’s crazy,

Yes, there will be poetry

But what strikes me on this day after

so far in

the end is a blessing

What strikes me is the magnitude of its sanity

how much sense it makes

you make

We all make so many kinds of sense

meeting serendipitous in the middle of the street

We might be lost but there is a pretty bright light

between us and

we are going the same way now






Tearing away from conversation

because I had to see Bucky

I was so excited

Crowding around the crowd around the door

A girl I didn’t know wanted to know

if I wanted to get closer

and everyone moved aside

She smiled

and I made it thru the door

The joy on her face

the joy that must have been on my face

Bucky telling the room

This Is What It Was Like To Be Here

A “yes” from someone in the crowd

because it’s true

Time was coming out of his mouth

and into our current

understandings

I have never lived in Punk House or any punk house

wasn’t ever crying in the 90s

didn’t have fucked up friends

or need help until later

But Bucky is a vessel

We are all vessels of our own choosing





Do you know

we filled bars that are never full

with books in our hands,

every door we passed we passed on greatness,

hurrying

with our heads down

to the next big thing

unsure what it is

but certain to find it?






There are different degrees of serious

and now that you don’t know what to do with yourself

now that the congregation has ceased

and we no longer chase one another

for sport

or whatever we were doing

Allow me to proffer a resolution:

Make a resolution.

Write it down so no one can see it.

Work on it.

Spend your extra time for your self.

If you don’t have extra time

resolve to learn

how to make time.

Time is synthetic:

it must be constructed.






If so,

take what is yours

and spend it wisely

Take chances

but talk to yourself

like you mean it

You mean it

I’ve seen it

in everyone.






There are some things for which the only appropriate response is a poem or a story or a painting or a song. Resolve to surround yourself with more of these things, with more of these people, for more of the time.






You are older

Don’t forget

part of who you are has settled

There are different degrees of self-trust

You are not always right

You want comfort

as much

or maybe more

than you want anything else

You can justify this

if you want to




Think about it

just a little more

You can widen the distance between yr own revolutions

You can pick up and keep going.






None of this matters

if we don’t harken The Call

This isn’t a journal

but you could have written this

It’s not what you think

that makes this special

if you consider this special

It carries both of us inside of it

like a womb

to a place that we might go






You might be surprised

if you sit instead of standing

shut up instead of talking

who might approach for the first time

to show you their truths




You might recognize childhood for what it is again

Alien to the way you see yourself

and the rest of the world

Open

you might remember who makes the resolutions

and who follows them






There are so many sides to you

and this poem

or whatever it is

is too long

There is so much more than heart

to satisfy






Be proud of what we have

and do it justice



--

I wanted to write a personal retrospective in response to my introductory Happy New Year, about how this year's experience was different for me than last year's, and maybe I will yet … but in due time.





Charles and I took so many videos between Oct 1-9 that we are still wading through them. He has done a write-up of Surf Lit here and is doing a piece on Bawdy and RADAR now. I’ve got videos from the Virtual Reality panel and Porchlight that I’m in the process of rendering, followed by Lit on the Lake and Quiet Lightning. So come on back. In the next week or so we will put this puppy to rest … until the Mark Twain Ball!!



I will say really quickly a big Thank You to all the volunteers and to the committee for all of the yearlong work you do (it’s not quite enough to say it on Facebook, you see). This festival expands us in more ways than we can celebrate in nine days.

Hope to see you soon and often,

Evan

Lit Crawl Video Linkfest with Suggestions (and an invitation)

Disclaimer: you can't lose. Do not fret. Bring emergency supplies. Be smart. Trust strangers only if they're holding Festival Guides. Trade books for books. Share poems. Dance in the corridor between yourself and the rest of the world.

Tomorrow is the largest literary crawl in the world. Ever, as in, across space and time. 400 or so authors, 65 venues, 3 and a half hours. You know that part. But what are you going to do about it? What follows is something of a guide and a few suggestions.






But first, a mobile guide to the entire crawl.




:: Phase 1 ::

Ashcan Magazine in Clarion Alley » There is something about literature in an alley that is just right. Plus I'm a fan of Jim Nelson and Doctor Popular.

BARtab at Martuni's » Meliza Banales and Kirk Read should pretty much ensure that this is outrageous.

Babylon Salon | Mina Dresden Gallery » High-quality authors in a fantastic, open space. Here's an example of one of their shows.

Why There Are Words | Artzone 461 » Two words: Tom Barbash. Here's an example.

ZYZZYVA | Elixir » Howard Junker released a novel this year? How come I didn't know this? I'm fairly outraged. Oh yeah, M.G. Martin's pretty much the most talented person in the universe. I have no idea what to expect from this group, but it should be interesting and perhaps the most wide-ranging of events in Phase 1.

BANG OUT | Double Dutch » This series is always high-octane, even when the pieces aren't in-your-face. Here's an example of one of their shows.

Small Desk Press | Adobe Books » I just have so much faith in SDP. They put out great books. Plus you're probably also in love with Sarah Fran Wisby.

Quiet Lightning | Gestalt » What is there to say? We have Sam Sax. 13 authors back to back to back to back et ceteranium to your cranium. That's all it is. Here's one of our shows.

Instant City | Dalva » Joshua Citrak. Andrew Dugas. Rob McLaughlin. Plus you're sure to enjoy a Gravity Goldberg sighting. Readings form the release of Issue #7.

Narrative Magazine | The Lab » Editor Carol Edgarian emcees a host of big name readers in an appropriately classy venue. Pia Z. Ehrhardt, for one. From Narrative Night 2010.

Counterpoint Press | Muddy Waters » This is going to be a quality all-around session, with "tales of television, religion, murder, and revolution."

Significant Objects | Root Division » Beth Lisick. Chris Colin. I have no idea what's going on here but I promise it will be thrilling.

Ambush Review | 18 Reasons » Primal meets new-age in the form of poetry. Check out Ana Elsner.




Top pick: Quiet Lightning

if there were 2 top picks: Instant City

Where I'll be: I host Quiet Lightning with Rajshree Chauhan.









:: Phase 2 ::

Own Your Story | Clarion Alley » Joe Loya started and will read in this series to engage the community in personal storytelling. Also featuring Cassandra Dallett and Wendy Merrill.

Mystery and Mayhem | Mission Police Station » Michelle Gagnon and Seth Harwood, but also the fact that it's in a police station. Trust me on that one - I've been many times. In the right circumstance, they're pretty neat. Mystery and Mayhem!

SF Writer's Grotto | Elbo Room, upstairs » Gerard Jones and Elizabeth Bernstein will emcee six accomplished Grotto-ites, including Kathryn Ma, James Nestor, and Justine Sharrock. Every time I've seen someone from the Grotto I've been impressed. And usually pleased.

Anger Management and Revenge | Elbo Room, downstairs » Nic Alea. Paul Corman-Roberts. Charlie Getter. Amy Glasenapp. H.K. Rainey. Jezebel Delilah X. Here's another one of their shows. This is one of the best collections of talent in the whole Crawl.

Corium Magazine | Sub/Mission Art Space » These writers are prone to quirky short pieces and have a mastery of the literary quickpivot. Andrea Kneeland. Ben Loory. Stefanie Freele.

The Threepenny Review | Bruno's » Yiyun Li. Charlie Haas. Tobias Wolff. As if you needed to know anything else (and you probably know I am not a sucker for 'big names'), you should know that this will be a mixture of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction (of which I am a sucker).

RADAR | Lexington Club » Ali Liebegott. Kirya Traber. Ali is one of my favorite local poets and is soft-spoken but uber-pungent like a really strong but delicious beverage, and Kirya has been known to spit fire, so I would really love to see them read together. Plus Michelle will be there.

826 Valencia | 826 Valencia » Student readings! Prepare to be blown away. And possibly jealous.

Indie Press Review | The Marsh Mock Cafe » D.W. Lichtenberg. Surprise guest. I have a good feeling about this one.

Emperor Norton Lives | Blue Macaw » This collection of Bay Area iconoclasts is certain to shock you with delight. Why else would Litquake co-founder Jack Boulware be emceeing? Lynn Breedlove. Chicken John Rinaldi.



Top pick: The Threepenny Review

if there were 2 top picks: Anger Management and Revenge

Where I'll be: Bikram Writing @ The Beauty Bar. I'm gonna do some pomes with a group of beautiful ladies getting their nails done and drinking martinis and reading short stories. That doesn't sound too bad either, actually.



:: Phase 3 ::

Bawdy in the Alley | Clarion Alley » This series is outrageous. Porchlight for the sex party scene. With a crowd full of clowns. No, really. Clowns. J. Delicious.

San Quentin | Ritual Coffee » This is one of the reasons I love Litquake. Inmates of the prison have a class called "Finding Your Voice on the Page." Inmate alumni will present readings and talk about their feelings re: this program and its effects on the community.

Indie Fiction Extravaganza | Casa Bonampak » Two Dollar Radio and Manic D Press are pioneers and torch-bearers of the independent publishing world. Then there's Jon Longhi, Joshua Mohr, Alvin Orloff, and Larry-bob Roberts. This will be funny and intense.

Portuguese Artists Colony | Laszlo Bar » These guys do this every month. Their stories range from subtle character development and the dissection of emotions to poignant and hilarious social commentary. Here's an example of their shows. Caitlin Myer. Benjamin Wachs. Leslie Ingham. Daniel Heath. Carey Tennis.

InsideStoryTime | Lone Palm Bar » Emcee James Warner knows how to pick em. Jonathan Keats. Linda Robertson. Here's an example of their shows.

The Rumpus | Latin American Club » This one will be hard to beat. Latin America Club seems like a perfect venue for the monthly variety show. Lit Crawl edition features Stephen Elliott, Isaac Fitzgerald, and Bucky Sinister. Here's an example show. Oh, what? music by Michael Mullen of the Size Queens?!

Canteen Magazine | The Revolution Cafe » Sean Finney, Mia Lipman, and Susan Steinberg are 3 good reasons to do anything. Plus Malena Watrous and Ghita Schwartz.

Tenderloin Reading Series | Doc's Clock » These guys are a year young, but don't let that fool ya. Jonathan Hirsch. Joel Landfield. Joanna Lioce. Chris Moore. Anna Seregina. Here's an example.

Anthemion | Gypsy Honeymoon » This is such an excellent little boutique shop - I saw a reading there once and it was very intimate. Plus this is one of those Litquake's cool shows: writers respond to an antique object. Should be a great demonstration of a potentially lucrative exercise. Gravity Goldberg joins a collection of inneresting folk for this one.

The Believer and McSweeney's | Heart » You love both publications. You also love Matthew Zapruder. What's to lose? Troy Jollimore. Sandra Simonds. Holy poetry!

14 Hills + Eleven Eleven | Muddy's Coffee House » Two impressive, local publications combine forces for a fury of fiction and floetry. Lauren Hamlin. Zara Raab. Loren Rhoads. Here's a 14 Hills party. And here's something from Eleven Eleven.




Top pick: The Rumpus

if there were 2 top picks: The Believer and McSweeney's

Where I'll be: After Quiet Lightning and Bikram Writing, I figure I'll just wing Phase 3. See what happens.



REMEMBER » You can't go wrong. Bring your booklet with you and follow the map. Eat tacos. Stampede!!!

STAY TUNED » I am going to scan the map/guide and load it onto Scribd. I think I might go grocery shopping first, though.



I am going to practice reciting my poems on top of Bernal Hill tonight. Wouldn't it be fun to have a pre-crawl reading party? Answer: Yes, in so many ways. I will be there and would love to see you: 912 658 2333. I don't get texts, however.

Rest up, San Francisco. Or party. Whatever you do, make sure you can crawl tomorrow.

xoxoxox

— Evan

Stories on Stage, Poems on the Street Corner

Last night I met recent MacArthur Genius Award recipient Yiyun Li right after she watched her short story “Souvenir,” from Gold Boy, Emerald Girl acted out on stage at the Berkeley Rep. Ms. Li did not know me but I recognized her and immediately after the show I walked up to her (actually, I was walking up to Alia Volz, who was sitting right in front of her, but Yiyun got up first) and I asked, “What did you think?"

I had deduced before the show, talking to New Yorker top 20 under 40 author Daniel Alarcon, that these artists did not know anything about the proceedings. “Are you excited,” I asked him. “I’m curious. I have no idea what’s going to happen.”

Li responded: “I thought it was exceptional. I had no idea there were going to be multiple actors.”

Like July’s shindig with Christopher Moore at the Brava Theater, for which ACT had some of their actors read from the author’s recent book, a group of 6 actors took the stage to read a story apiece by each of the aforementioned authors and one by Mr. Daniel Handler. Produced by San Jose, who is co-founder of Intersection for the Arts’ award-winning resident theater company Campo Santo, the stories were broken into lines not demarcated by punctuation or even character shift.

As the actors delivered the lines of the authors, I couldn’t help but desire to one day write something good enough to be read by actors on a stage. It felt like The Big Time. The lines were broken up to emphasize different aspects not only of the characters themselves but also of the text, the story. It was very clever and in fact more often than not elucidated the stories in a way that would not be as apparent on the page.

In this interview I conducted with author Matt Stewart in August, he said: “This is a time when publishing hasn’t really evolved like other industries. And I think the book is a terrific art form. But I think we’re looking at a generation that expects more bells and whistles.” Last night it was resounding: bells and whistles can in fact enhance our writing – not just adorn it. Here’s a far lesser but still debatably good example.

I can’t stress to you how much I enjoyed this production. I thought the stories were all excellent, and again (I really can’t stress this enough) San Jose’s decisions were profoundly affecting, even down to the order in which they were read (Alarcon, Li, Handler). I have the videos but am not sure we have clearance from the actors, so stand by. I do not accept bribes (but you should offer. I'd love to watch them with you).






What did I do afterward? Sure, Litquake was over for the evening. But was I through with Litquake? Well, kinda … I went to 16th and Mission, where every Thursday for almost the past 7 years now a devoted group of poets and musicians convene between 10pm and midnite to share a circle in which anyone who wants to express him or her self can so do … so long as they can get into the circle (there is no order and there are essentially no rules). Here’s a video I made from 3 weeks ago. It was a pretty random sampling, and I apologize for being in there myself …

It was packed last night, and people were well-behaved (if not over-zealous to jump in). Charlie Getter, who was one of the founders of this unofficial congregation, has a tendency to say, when people are chomping at the bit to do their bit, “Don’t be vultures.” I looked around and saw over 100 people, mostly youngsters (and by that, people, I mean younger than my 28), and I wondered how many of them even knew about Litquake. I would say probably – and this is only a guess – no more than 25%.

What struck me though was how strongly this scene was flourishing without any knowledge of what they might do with their words. This scene is an important forum, for as my friend (and poet, or probably it’s the other way around) Andrew Paul Nelson said, and I paraphrase: “Without a place to share art it becomes neurosis, and that’s why I support the corner. It has to be public.” And some of the street poets who just last year had only recited their hearts there, at 16th and Mission, have spent the year climbing up the literary ladder and onto their own stages; some conduct reading series; some, oh lord, some are going to steal the show in Saturday’s Lit Crawl. I promise you that.

I stood there in my vest and tie and lavender button down shirt - it’s not important, but it wasn’t out of place either, even though the homeless weren’t out of place (and far from that, I’d say – they were home), and the drug addicts were not out of place …

I stood there and I filmed these young poets who do not have ambitions beyond expression, I filmed them with no intentions myself and I thought about Ms. Li, who again has just won a prize for being a genius, for that ultimate accomplishment wherein one is supported for the creation they have already achieved so that they may produce even more of it for the good of society, I thought of her sitting in the back of the Berkeley Rep watching these actors read one of her stories and smiling, and I remembered being in kindergarten. I remembered cutting up different colors of construction paper with plastic green scissors for my favorite teacher, even then having moments of what am I doing. I remembered graham crackers and apple juice and simply chewing. This is just like a poem I’ve written, only not as good.

What I want to say is that I saw two ends of the spectrum last night, and I know everyone comes from a different place but I also know we are what we make ourselves. I don’t know what these artists eat for breakfast and I don’t know what books they read; I do know, however, that a star shines in all of their eyes, and when it twinkles we see ourselves and lean over into one another’s ears because it’s exactly what we are trying to say.



— Evan

Tao Lin and Tomorrow

Because I don't have a car and getting to Park Chalet for Surf Lit would have been nearly impossible, I biked straight down to the Haight, to Booksmith, to see Tao Lin read. Now I have neither read nor seen Mr. Lin before, but I am an avid reader of the Daily Rumpus and quite a Stephen Elliott fan, as those of you who know me know, and Stephen is rather fond of Lin and speaks of him often. So I went to check it out.

Actually, I also forewent A Feast of Words: A Storytelling Potluck and also Original Shorts: Bottom Up, which included stories from my friends James Warner and Shanthi Sekaran. In other words, it was a tough decision. As you can see in the videos below, Lin read for only 6 minutes, and his Q&A, while more informative than his reading, was overly affected and not very sincere. I was pretty disappointed for the subsequent hour or so, honestly. But it got me to thinking …

Lin's performance, as Charles Kruger pointed out to me after having seen him at Radar yesterday, is very similar to what you might expect from a smart child trying to express himself; so simplistic yet mysterious in delivery, it is difficult and sometimes seemingly not worth it to figure out what he's trying to say. Because I don't think — and I think he would agree with this — I don't think that he's really trying to say anything.

When asked if his writing was culturally significant because it's accessible, for instance, he replied that his writing is not culturally significant … or accessible. "I didn't really think about that." One audience member asked how his use of Gmail-Chat affected his writing of the novel: "Was it a joke or was there something more to it?"

This question really reverberates for me, as though it stands for the whole presentation. I see this event as something of a performance piece, a marketing tool, something to help sell the book. And while that's clearly what author readings are, you don't normally wander into one this … strange or compelling. Again, I was pretty outraged. But it begs the question: am I inclined to read the man's book(s). Yes. But why?

What I value is honesty and hard work. I don't want you to sell me something. What I want is prose that makes me say hot damn, that makes me stop what I'm doing and leave the room because I'm too inspired to hear or see anything that is not of my own choosing.

What I see here is an interesting equilibrium trying to form between being popular/understanding how to communicate, and actually having something to say. For me, in a certain small circle in San Francisco, there are a lot of people who want to listen to me, who shut up when I'm in front of the microphone. Why is this? I haven't published any stories or poems; I never really claimed to have anything to say; I spend all my time filming other people. Is Presence enough to instruct us? What I'm wondering is if Tao Lin has something to say or if he just knows how and when to comment on blogs and how to speak to a generation of people who spend all their time doing so.

Check out his blog. He's asked people to identify what drug he was on during this reading. There is a long and somewhat ridiculous conversation going on over there. Some good points are raised, particularly the one in which @Andy has recommended Lin present himself with a modicum of self-respect. I don't know how far that gets you these days. Last night in Phone Booth talking with Kruger and Andrew Paul Nelson, Kruger said that writers in this country aren't respected because there are no patrons anymore and we are all poor—look at Bukowski, he said. People respect the poor lowlife artist, the one who is a loud and proud degenerate (that summation is my own). Where/Who is the modern writer with self-respect that has an impact on the current generation? (Oh, there are plenty, I would argue. But can you name some?)

Maybe I'll pick up a book by Tao Lin some time. The man made me think. Thanks, Tao Lin.




Tao Lin reads from Richard Yates

Tao Lin Q&A

The Booksmith did a live-stream of the whole event




I'm currently rendering videos from the panel: Virtual Reality: The Effect of Fiction on Your Mind and from Porchlight: Tales of Hollywood Hell. I've actually already out-rendered my video capacity for the week on Vimeo, even though the week starts on Wednesday and I have a Plus account, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all these videos. Can you wait until next week? I'm also loading Lit on the Lake and Charles is loading vids from Bawdy Storytelling.

Speaking of additional coverage, check out these fine reports (with additional video) by Mr. Kruger:


His thoughts on the Barbary Coast Award ceremony
The Literary Tour Stops Here
Stay tuned for coverage of Surf Lit, Radar and Bawdy




Now, here's what's up on Friday, the last day before the crawl!

(stay tuned for crawl suggestions)




Jonathan Lethem on Chronic City,11 am-12:30 pm. Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California Street, San Francisco. Admission: $20 general public, $17 JCC members, $10 students, available only through subscription at jccsf.org



TeenCrawl, 1-7 pm. Various locations.


Published Teen Authors Panel, 1-3 pm: San Francisco Public Library’s Koret Auditorium, Main Branch, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco. Admission: Free for school groups—teachers must sign their classes up in advance.
Writing Workshops, 3-5 pm: San Francisco Public Library’s Teen Center, Main Branch, 100 Larkin St., 3rd Floor, San Francisco. Free. Taught by rganizations working with Bay Area youth to encourage their literary pursuits, including WritersCorps, Streetside Stories, and contributors from the recently published 826 Valencia Young Authors’ Book Project, We the Dreamers.
Not Your Mother’s Book Club, 5-7 pm: Books Inc. Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. Free.
Kristen Tracy, Cameron Tuttle, Katie Williams




Life, Death, Love, Lies…and Cupcakes: Litquake’s All-Memoir Women’s Night, 6:30 pm (Doors open at 6 pm). Hotel Monaco, Paris Ballroom, 501 Geary St., San Francisco. Admission: $5-10 donations requested. No host bar. 21 and over.






It’s All Over But the Crying: A Night of Authors on Sports, 7 pm (Doors open at 6:30 pm). Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk Street, San Francisco. Admission: $10 in advance at brownpapertickets.com.





Litquake in the Bikestore: David V. Herlihy at Public Bikes, 7 pm. Public Bikes, 123 South Park Avenue, San Francisco. Free



Litquake in the Bookstore: Steve Roby and Brad Schreiber at Book Passage, Corte Madera, 7 pm. Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Boulevard, Corte Madera. Free



The Expert’s Mind: Across Bodies, 7:30 pm. LGBT Center, Andrew Spencer Ceremonial Room. 1800 Market St., San Francisco. Admission: $10-20 online.






You could have checked that last part out here. But you probably know that.


(I'm having a hard time deciding between Litquake's All-Memoir Women's Night and It's All Over But the Crying. Because on one hand I love Alan Black and David Henry Sterry, but on the other hand I hate sports (that hasn't always been the case, so lay off). Plus, as I said earlier, Litquake (I mean Jane Ganahl?) always puts together a quality all-women's night. They call it, in Jack Boulware's words, the estro-fest. Or the testro-fest. What are you doing?

—Evan



ps. a quick addendum as I run out the door:


Tao had this to say in response: "'What I’m wondering is if Tao Lin has something to say or if he just knows how and when to comment on blogs and how to speak to a generation of people who spend all their time doing so.' I think i say most accurately what i want to say in my books. i'm able to, and do, edit a book hundreds of times. That is where what i want to say can be found."
And Charles wanted clarification: "I am complimented that you quoted me about his "childlike" qualities but I want to clarify. I do not think he was like a "smart child" (that sounds belittling); I think he has found an authentic childlike voice in writing like Picasso and other modernists found a childlike vision in painting. My intent is to be very complimentary and I fear you didn't capture that.

I think Tao Lin's ability to capture child-like simplicity of vision and diction is astonishing and extremely potent. It gives a mystery and depth to the writing because it seems closely connected to something primal.

I think that what he is saying is less important than the way he is saying it - he is using that childlike mentation to evoke something like it in the reader and I suspect that is the point. It is not information he is conveying so much as the experience of a certain way of being in one's mind.

Hearing him read, for me, was like taking a mind-altering drug.

I thought this was brilliant.
I have now enabled comments on this post. I'm not sure if that's cool with the Litquake committee, so get them in while you can!

Toolkit for New Writers and Night 7

Holy Moly!

Are you quaking?

The thing with a 9-day long festival is that you want to get caught up but it keeps happening. So let's try and get caught up before tonight's Stories on Stage (altho once again there are so many quality options tonight, it almost makes me weep).

On Monday (I know, it's Thursday - can you even believe all the things we can talk about!), I caught the two part series entitled Writer's Toolkit, which consisted of two panels. The first, called Authors Reveal All, included 5 first-time novelists and 1 (bloody) two-timer. Hosted by Litquake's CFO Elise Proulx, the main function of this panel was to discuss the various paths each author underwent, from personal exercises all the way to sitting on the panel. First, to give you an idea of the type of writing each author does, Elise had them read about 5 minutes from their books:

Elise's Intro

Joanna Smith Rakoff

Michael Sledge

Vanitha Sankaran

Jason Headley

Elaine Beale

Shanthi Sekaran

:: Part 1 ::

— When did you start writing and how long until you published something?

— Was getting an MFA part of the process and how do you feel about MFAs?

:: Part 2 ::

— What would be your single biggest tip if you could give your start-up self advice?

:: Part 3 ::

— What is your personal writing process?

— How do you write if you have kids?




The second part of the series, called How to Navigate the New World of Publishing, was moderated by Scott James and featured various industry experts: founder and CEO of Blurb Eileen Gittins, Untreed Reads founder Jay A. Hartman, Graywolf Press Editor-at-Large Ethan Nosowsky, literary agent Amy Rennert, and Associate Publisher of Cleis Press, Brenda Knight. The conversation was wide-ranging and audience participation quite lively. I've broken it into smaller chunks:

:: Intro ::

Scott introduces each panelist

:: Part 1 ::

The panelists explain what their jobs really consist of

:: Part 2 ::

— Where does the industry stand at the moment. Are deals really up?

— How do you get your work out there?

— How has the role of agents changed?

— Here we are. The dawn of eBooks.

:: Part 3 ::

— How the cost of a book breaks down.

— How do publishers justify their jobs?

— Social media rocks the boat. How?

:: Part 4 ::

— Who is Stephen Elliott? This is one of the freshest perspectives on new-age publishing. Sign-up for the Daily Rumpus.

— Is there a role for the misfit writer in our culture anymore?

— What are publishers doing in this new age to facilitate an introduction between writers and readers?

— What does publishing an eBook entail?

— DIY only gets you so far. True or false?

:: Part 5 ::

— Using your platforms and social reading.

— Advice for the traditional publishing route.

:: Part 6 ::

— Q&A: Digital Rights Management and giving your work away for free

— Raising money to publish your work

— You've got the book finished and a strong platform. What do you do now?

— How does the new world of publishing effect poetry?

:: Part 7 ::

— Visual art in eBooks

— The average print run and cost for each book and the guessing game of P&L

— Is it necessary to know someone to get an agent?




I was going to launch straight into my analysis and coverage of Tao Lin's reading at Booksmith, to which I frantically biked after these panels, but I have a coffee date right now and not enough time to do the event justice. Give me a few hours and we'll be talking again, just as though no time passed at all.




In the meantime, here's a guide to this evening's festivities:

The Booksmith Bookswap: Litquake Edition, 6:30-9:30 pm. The Booksmith, 1644 Haight St. Admission for this show was $25 and advance only. I'm not sure if they're still selling, but you can call 800-838-3006 to find out, or drop by The Booksmith. I went to one of these events and cannot recommend them too highly. Featured guests will be:





Poets 11 2010 Showcase, 7 pm. Readers Café, Fort Mason Center, Building C, SF. Free. This will be a great way to spend your evening and at no cost. Jack Hirschman organizes this annual submission-based best-of, selecting 3 poets from each of SF's 11 districts. This is what happened when (nearly) all 33 of them got together this year at the library. They are also selling a pretty compilation.



Litquake in the Bookstore: Thaddeus Russell at City Lights, 7 pm.City Lights, 261 Columbus Ave., San Francisco. Free.



Spiritual Journeys at Marin Osher JCC, 7:30 pm. Osher Marin JCC, 200 N. San Pedro Rd., San Rafael. Admission: $12 for members of Litquake and Osher Marin JCC, $15 general public; tickets (415) 444-8000 or online.





Feminine Wiles, 7 pm. Noe Valley Recreational Center, 295 Day St., San Francisco. Free. What's there to say about this one? Litquake knows how to put together great all-women events. This one is from last year (plus I caught one last night, which will be up in the next 2 or so days). By the way: this is an all-star lineup.






Stories on Stage, 7:30 pm. Berkeley Repertory Theater, Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. Admission: $22.50 in advance (at brownpapertickets.com or by phone 800-838-3006); $25 at the door. If you can afford this event, have nothing against the EBay, appreciate recent McArthur Genius Award recipients, brilliant funnymen, and people on top 20 under 40 lists, oh and theater … you should probably fork over the cash. I'll see you at the Rep.





Talk to you soon,

Evan

Preview of Night 6

Yesterday was the "tent-pole," which means that today we are on the waning half of this festival. Tonight is the busiest night, with 13 events to choose from!! The tough part is that you can't really lose. Click here for a full schedule, or read on for a few thoughts:

If you're interested in writing non-fiction, you do not want to miss this panel @ 6pm tonight. Tamim Ansary, Pulitzer-Prize winners T.J. Stiles and Richard Rhodes, and the fabulous do-everything Frances Dinkelspiel will discuss the artistry of real life on the page.

If you're in the South Bay, you should check out Lan Samantha Chang at the CLA.

If you're in the East Bay, or used to live there and feel like getting nostalgic, come with me to Lit on the Lake: readings by East Bay writers. That's at 6pm too, at Lake Chalet.

But you can't miss with Radar Productions. Tao Lin in the house. The lovely Beth Pickens. Chinaka Hodge! Did anyone else fall in love with her when she read Ferlinghetti's fireflies? Time? 6pm. Free @ the library.

In one of the more unique events of the festival, 14 Hills editor Hollie Hardy organizes Flight of Poets, which pairs a wine to each scribe. With Robin Ekiss in the house, this promises to be fun and potent. 7pm @ Hotel Rex . $15 includes your flight.

Another program sure to be fascinating is Civilization on Six Legs: The Complex Societies of Ants and Honeybees at the California Academy of the Sciences in the planetarium! 7pm.

Also at 7pm is the 100th episode of Literary Death Match. Founder Todd Zuniga is in town to join Alia Volz and M.G. Martin in this unconventional death duel. All-star cast. Metaphorical (and sometimes real) blood.

Bawdy Storytelling is your raunchy option for the evening. I caught this show once and, while it isn't normally my thing, if you like Porchlight but want more sex in your show (a lot more sex), why don't you go by The Blue Macaw tonight at 8? Stephen Elliott will probably not be reading from the Daily Rumpus (although he probably could). I'll be there, if that's any more incentive!

Oh wait! What about sex? Try The Funny Side at the Cobbs Comedy Club , also at 8pm. Daily Show correspondent Kristen Schaal celebrates the release of her first book: The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex and will be joined for some good - and funny - friends.



Stay tuned for some recap later this afternoon. Hope to see you all tonight!

— Evan

A post-rest meditation

When I opened my eyes it was Tuesday already and we were in the thick of this festival! Originally, I was extremely pleased to see the Barbary Coast Award was on the second day this year instead of in the middle like last year, and it did really launch us right in to the week's festivities. But because I covered the event for The Chronicle (which just ran today) I stayed up all night Saturday and, well, pretty much Sunday too, but now (don't worry) I've caught up on sleep and am ready to catch you up on everything that's happened.

The one strange thing about how this week has gone down so far is that programming really really started on Sunday, the third day, because although there were a number of readings as part of Litquake's Off the Richter Scale on Saturday at the Variety Preview Room Theatre they all took place between 12-4pm, and although a lot of them were of premium quality, the big event on Saturday evening kind of separated them from the rest of the week and I had to forego immediate coverage to immerse myself in analysis, speculation, and giant vats of caffeine.

Every year, the Off the Richter Scale series provides a forum for authors with recently published books to present their work in themed groups. This year's first day was broken into 4 categories, and I've included two links for each author: click on the authors names (on the left) to view their readings from Off the Richter, and to the right for each author's most recent book, if applicable, or website.

Poetry

Cheryl Dumesnil » In Praise of Falling

Aja Couchois Duncan » Nomenclature, Miigaadiwin, a Forked Tongue

Miriam Bird Greenberg » reading as part of Portuguese Artists Colony

Melissa Stein » Rough Honey

Lyzette Wanzer » reading as part of Poets 11




Illustrated Works

Lisa Brown » Picture the Dead

Eric Drooker » Howl

The Stanford Graphic Novel Project » Pika-Don

Belle Yang » Forget Sorrow




Mystery

Rhys Brown » Royal Blood

Barry Eisler » Inside Out

Reece Hirsch » The Insider

Sophie Littlefield » A Bad Day for Sorry




Dad Lit

Terry Bisson » Bears Discover Fire

Tanya Egan Gibson » How to Buy a Love of Reading

Jeff Gillenkirk » Home, Away

Jeremy Adam Smith » The Daddy Shift

Ransom Stephens » The God Patent



I'm a big fan of the Richter Scale series. It gives you a chance to be introduced not only to authors you might not know yet but even genres you wouldn't normally pay your attention. See, one of the things I really love about Litquake is that I am so committed to it that I just show up; when you just show up with an open mind, good things usually happen. Right?

But I had forgotten much about Litquake proper and how it makes me feel until Sunday evening, when I caught Ransom Stephens' annual Barely Published Authors event (also follow that previous link to catch reflections on the North Beach Literary Walking Tour, which I caught last year). I missed the Sunday Richter series, lamentably, because of the whole not-sleeping/Chronicle deadline thing.

Much to my delight, this event garnered a lot of press this year. SF Weekly called it their "favorite" event of the whole festival and Alan Black said for The Chronicle that it's "one of the best" events every year. I couldn't agree more, which is why I finally - though I struggled over this conflict for days - decided to skip the Center for Literary Arts' 25th anniversary celebration blowout featuring Kim Addonizio, Andrew Sean Greer, Maxine Hong-Kingston, Andrew Altschul, Daniel Alarcon and Mary Roach! I would repeat those names for emphasis but it will make me sad again that I missed them.

I would just like to say really quickly that if you don't know about the CLA you should really check it out; their programming is consistently astounding and they are really fostering a lively community in San Jose. Last year marked the first time Litquake partnered with the South Bay, and I'm really happy to see they have 2 events together this week; in addition to Sunday's readings, the CLA will present Lan Samantha Chang in San Jose on Thursday (alternately, you can see her tonight at the Ferry Building Book Passage).



Why did I skip that lineup? Why did our major newspapers call Barely Published one of the best events? Here's a metaphor:

The room is a limp balloon. The first reader fills the room with a distinctive breath that has never (or rarely ever) given life to a room. The breath, the voice commands our attention as we become swollen with it. Just when we think the balloon will pop the reader finishes and we clap, letting out the hot air that has filled us. But another new writer picks us up immediately with another fresh breath, commanding our attention, silencing us as we hush in our own expansion. It could take us over. It could make us pop!

OK, the metaphor needs a little work. But the point remains: during Barely Published, each author overtakes the Makeout Room in a way that you only hear - and I can't tell you how many hours I've spent in the Makeout since last year's Litquake - you only hear when writers like Molly Gloss and Jerry Stahl take the stage. What you hear is the twinkling of a new star born, over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. New stars piercing the atmosphere with their idiosyncratic glitterings like a baby's first righteous wailings rebelling against the involuntary influx of oxygen into their lungs, only this breath has been practiced and leaves their lips with a calm measured pride. This is like the bar and bat mitzvah of Bay Area authors. Welcome, authors! For you have been inducted into the realm of adulthood.

So I'm sad I missed the CLA celebration; I also missed the Enviro-Lit Panel at Lake Chalet and songs by Literary Lions (one of which you can see here). But I couldn't pass on this event.

I'm including links to Ransom's introductions to each author for several reasons. The first is to show hosts everywhere how it's done. Because his intros are so good - giving a precise understanding of each author's scope of work and at the same time being down-to-earth and funny - I asked some of the authors if they had to submit their works to be read to Ransom ahead of time. "No," they said. "He sent us a questionnaire to get to know us better." Wow.

But the other thing I want to say is that Ransom reminded me that Litquake is an umbrella. It is the successful and diverse festival we know it to be because of the committee members' dedication and utter belief in what it can be. There are not a lot of people on the committee, and what I remembered was the feeling you get when you keep showing up for these programs: one of the committee members or volunteers starts each program off, whether it's a reading in a bookstore or a panel @ The World Affairs Council or a film festival @ The Embarcadero Cinema Center. They bring it all together with each event. I just love this. I love how organized it is, that something this special and dependent on volunteers can so powerfully present such a wide-ranging scope of events.

No doubt the committee will laugh when I call Litquake organized; they scramble all year for this and they do it with little money and with little thanks. But … well. It seems weird to be gushing about them on their own website, but I would be doing this wherever I could. So. Check out the videos now. They're really worth gushing about, too. These are some of our brightest:

Ransom introduces » Mimi Lok

Ransom intros » Olga Zilberbourg

Ransom » Jeremy Hatch

Ransom » Ian Tuttle

Ransom (sorry, I missed it!) » Caitlin Myer

Ransom » Andre Perry

Ransom » Alia Volz

Mr. Spinrad asked not to be filmed




So right now I'm loading the videos I caught from yesterday's New Writer's Toolkit: Authors Reveal All & How to Navigate the New World of Publishing - two panels you might find extremely useful. The first included 5 first-time novelists and 1 with two books and their respective stories from work ethic to publication, and the second panel featured industry specialists' advice on the fast-growing tendencies of the new publishing world. Stay tuned for those and for Tao Lin's reading @ Booksmith!

Meanwhile, what are you doing tonight? You have plenty of options:


Litquake in the Bookstore: Lan Samantha Chang at Book Passage, 6 pm. Book Passage, 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco. Free.
Virtual Reality: The Effect of Fiction on Your Mind, 6:30-7:30 pm.Mechanics Institute Library, 57 Post St., San Francisco. Admission: $12 general public, Free to members of Mechanics Institute; reservations at (415) 393-0100 or rsvp@milibrary.org.
McSweeney’s Fall Harvest, 7 pm: Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California Street, San Francisco. Free.
Feast of Words: A Storytelling Potluck,  7 pm (Open mic signup begins at 6:30 pm). Presented by SOMArts Cultural Center. SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan St., San Francisco. Admission: $10 suggested donation, Free with potluck dish; advance tickets and information online.
Litquake in the Bookstore: Nick Bilton at The Booksmith, 7:30 pm. The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco. Free; Preferred seating voucher with Booksmith purchase of I Live in the Future, beginning September 14 and while supplies last.
Litquake and Porchlight: Tales of Hollywood Hell, 8 pm. Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. Admission: $12 in advance, $15 at the door; tickets available at cityboxoffice.com


Wow. This is the type of night that almost makes you hate the committee I just praised. I mean, what am I supposed to do? I can't miss the panel at Mechanics - last year's was one of my favorite events. So if anyone goes to McSweeney's Fall Harvest, feel free to send a little write-up, pictures, or videos my way; I'd be happy to include them. Same goes with the Feast of Words and Nick Bilton, because I"ll be flying down Market after the Mechanics panel for Porchlight. It's gonna be soo good!

Tomorrow, I'm happy and afraid to say, you'll be facing a similar predicament, with quality programming all over the Bay Area. I think Elise said it yesterday: this is like a week-long Halloween. Trick and treat!!

Check out (and get tix for) tomorrow's events here.

The Booksmith Bookswap: Litquake Edition

The Bookswap is a truly special event: participants have the chance to reflect on their most treasured reads and learn about dozens of new, fantastic books. The evening culminates in a rowdy and always entertaining swap. Think cocktail party, with a bookish twist. For the Litquake edition, bibliovores from across the city will convene at The Booksmith. Bring a book you passionately love but can part with, and we’ll provide the rest. Ticket price includes two drinks, appetizers, and a 20% discount card to purchase books after the event. Bookswap tickets sell out fast!

Admission: $25 advance only. brownpapertickets.com, 800-838-3006, or in-person at The Booksmith

Holly Payne, K.M. Soehnlein, and Oscar Villalon

The Barbary Coast Award: Holy!

Last night was one of the great nights, when you can actually sense not only time but your own significance in the history of something important.

The best fireworks show you’ve ever seen, with explosions so vast and colorful and loud and resounding that people actually cheer with each pop though they gape from the spiderstar silent, still melting into the darkness.

Although Lawrence Ferlinghetti was too frail to be in attendance to receive the 4th annual Barbary Coast Award, the overwhelming support he received from every arena of the artistic world was so resounding (see above: kaboom!), the retrospective of his life and the span of his City Lights Bookstore and their collective effects on the city of San Francisco and on the minds of generations of readers and thinkers was so poignant and heartfelt that the evening truly felt like a celebration of the whole city and its spirit and the very community the man made it his mission to establish. The feeling of the night was triumph

That there be such a man who would risk everything for what he believes in, not once but persistently, throughout the course of a lifetime … and to watch the many people said man has directly influenced and created a space for testify as a community … is perhaps the most triumphant of all human experiences. As each person spoke I could not help but stare at the pictures of Ferlinghetti screened behind the stage; I stared at his face with each testimony and measured the boundaries of my own self.

I sat up all night and thought about what to write today. I haven’t even put together my report for The Chronicle yet—I wanted to get the gush out. But as I listened to the whole show, which I snagged clandestinely on my audio recorder, I could not overcome the feeling that I had recorded a piece of history that should be remembered and passed down—and not just as hearsay. So what follows is more of a script than anything else:

The Marcus Shelby Quartet played their signature jazz as, one after another, some of our favorite writers took the stage to read excerpts of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poetry (in this order): devorah major, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Daphne Gottlieb, Robert Mailer Anderson, Beth Lisick, Michelle Tea, Justin Chin, Juan Felipe Herrera, James Kass and Chinaka Hodge. Each artist injected the verse with a personal verve, then shone as they walked or even skipped off stage.

When they finished, these ten, the lights came on and they returned from the side stage to the center, and I expected them to bow and leave again. The crowd gave a loud applause, apparently thinking the same thing, but then—as a chorus—the artists launched into the footnote to “Howl,” for which each recited a passage:

Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! 
Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!

The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy! 
The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand 
and asshole holy! 

Everything is holy! everybody's holy! everywhere is 
holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an 
angel! 

The bum's as holy as the seraphim! the madman is 
holy as you my soul are holy! 

The typewriter is holy the poem is holy the voice is 
holy the hearers are holy the ecstasy is holy! 

…

Holy the groaning saxophone! Holy the bop 
apocalypse! Holy the jazzbands marijuana 
hipsters peace & junk & drums! 

Holy the solitudes of skyscrapers and pavements! Holy 
the cafeterias filled with the millions! Holy the 
mysterious rivers of tears under the streets! 
…

Holy time in eternity holy eternity in time holy the 
clocks in space holy the fourth dimension holy 
the fifth International holy the Angel in Moloch! 

Holy the sea holy the desert holy the railroad holy the 
locomotive holy the visions holy the hallucina- 
tions holy the miracles holy the eyeball holy the 
abyss! 

Holy forgiveness! mercy! charity! faith! Holy! Ours! 
bodies! suffering! magnanimity! 

Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent 
kindness of the soul!" 

The crowd went wild. And then Bamuthi Joseph, MC, said “Holy Shit! Here we are,” and then “give it up for Lawrence Ferlinghetti!” We all cheered, thunderously, but we were still too decorous. “We are honoring Lawrene Ferlinghetti tonight,” Bamuthi Joseph said, “which means any impulse you have to be quiet or coy is fucked up and should be thrown out the window … We are an uncensored, untethered body of literary worshippers tonight.”

This was the beginning of the show!!!

… And then came the tributes. Here are some notable quotables:

Paul Yamagatzi, who has worked at City Lights for 40 years now, talked about the whole sense of community, how City Lights was always to be a meeting place, an intersection of minds and texts. He celebrated Ferlinghetti’s abilities not only as a poet, activist, and painter, but as an organizer and collaborator with the peculiar ability to pass a vision on—how central he was to the community that we are today.

Elaine Katzenberger, executive director of City Lights, started by saying she would be brief because she knew we were waiting for more important people, but then was carried away by an impassioned speech that ended with a justified pitch for us all to “come to the bookstore.” Huzzah!“People love City Lights. It has something to do with how it’s infused with who Lawrence Ferlinghetti is. … It’s been a center for culture. … He is the sparkle of irrepressible human curiosity.”

She captured the intersection of spirit and utility that is the bookstore’s hallmark: “There’s something different when you walk in that door … it’s driven by something other than money. It is not profit that moves us to go to work every day—it’s passion. And it’s curiosity. And it’s wanting to share it. And that’s what books do when books inspire you. And you walk in there and suddenly you realize wow, there are all these people who are thinking other things than that noise that I have to hear all the time. Not only that! Look around: … Decisions are being made about what should we share and how can we do that.”

Michael McClure then took the stage with a slow gait and impressive air. He talked about reading in the Six Gallery with Ginsberg et al. and how City Lights evolved. “If we couldn’t afford to buy ,” he said, “we could stand in the aisles and read. … It was Coney Island of the Mind which did more than any other book to turn young people the world over to poetry as an instrument to thinking and feeling. … This was the beginning of a metamorphosis of consciousness. Scholars have a fulltime occupation to try to make sense of what Lawrence has done since then … to make freedom available in the United States and wherever his energies reached.”  Then he read a poem called “Cups,” which ended with the line: “What will we say to all the singing realms that try to rise inside of us? Grawr!”

Michael Horowitz, co-founder of the Ludlow Library, which he described as “a library/museum of beating hand culture books” and which collected first editions and paraphernalia from neighboring artists, praised Ferlinghetti for supporting him and so many others, for “the protection of all things. Thank you for protecting me and helping me protect others.” An image of City Lights as a true sanctuary began to form in my mind, and members of the Quartet peered over their instruments with smiles on, holding the standup bass, sax at the ready.

Already we were sensing an overload, and when Horowitz finished the band played a little interlude to let us process things.

Then, a short video was projected onto a screen above the stage. We saw Sylvia Whitman of Paris’ Shakespeare and Company give us a tour through their bookstore, which, she lovingly explained, they consider the sister bookstore of City Lights (and even called it “the best bookstore in the world”). A marquee with that name is painted above the doorway and as she walked up to the third floor to find her father, the famous 90+ year-old George, she passed several employees who all looked into the camera and said “Hi Lawrence!” or else were reading one of his books. It was so personal and … appropriate. George seemed a little confused by his daughter’s questions, and the following dialogue made everyone laugh:


Never stayed in City Lights.
But there are photos of you in City Lights.
There are?
Yes … Why don’t you say something to City Lights?
… Talking to City Lights is like talking to myself—it doesn’t make any sense.


George then extended a most gracious offer to Mr. Ferlinghetti to stay at Shakespeare and Co. for as long as he’d like.


You said that to Lawrence?
I’m saying it to him now.


Wow. Then Jack Hirschman took the stage in what was definitely one of my favorite parts of the night. He started by saying he’s known Lawrence for over half a century. I’m going to give a long excerpt of what he called “Ferlinghetti Arcane:”

“… Jack and Alan drumming on a new American poetry … but you’d already been international … You the constant consonant and vowel uttered, and I the same vowel uttered at the end of the next syllable but only an unsounded echo barely heard still being in the university. … You never did go back to bourgieville, but stayed on as independent as you could, creating the first paperback bookstore in the land, opening a bunch of doors so that worlds and people could realize San Francisco is one of the most priceless cities on the planet, still a city small town, like a kid at a window somewhere dreamed of way back when. … With your lilting whine of a drawl, distinctive in its way, memorable and therefore imitable.

… You should have been at … for Neely Cherkovski’s at his almost perfect, always slightly envious but ever-affectionate impersonation of you, because you already were a legend by the 70s, encircled by a transparent but ever-unbreakable wall of image with a capital I, which only Jack and Alan otherwise possessed. … You critique my work for being too arcane and esoteric while you stole from all the poets you loved, giving their phrases new context, a master husker of American corn. Ironic deconstructivist of the reveries of patriotic cliché, you had a dream and would not go gentle into that warzone.

… This millennium decade when we become closer out of brotherly need in a time of great anti-semitism against salaam alakem as well, and with Alan gone who was a light and also I imagine a heavy cargo for you, we know there’s no god to judge or forgive us, there’s only this singing to life what comes form the human immensity of death … and that’s why putting it to the computer file of the revolutionary poets brigade and policy, “At Sea,” the finest poem you’ve ever written, and you wrote it this very year at the age of 91, I have a sense of the greatness of the victory over time and despair an authentically true poetry embodies.

So write on young timer, you who opposed the war in Vietnam, the gulf, the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, write on, first baseman in your ninth decade, with legs still able to give my latka leaden ones a run for the bases. Well sure, ‘cause I ride my bicycle every chance I get! … Though the antibiotics make you tired, your complexion’s still rosy, and I know all you want to do is get up and go downstairs and drive to your studio where alone you never are. So chorus, sure. We’ll give you one more standing O big guy. Chorus, sure. …

Needless to say, this brought the house down. MC Marc Bamuthi Joseph then remarked: “This is off the chain. … A fluid reminder of how blessed we all are. I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience where you walk into a bookstore and kind of get emotional, choked up by all the words committed to paper. But to bear witness to all these personalities kind of jumping out from their spines and being present with us here. It’s moving me, but … I’m from New York though, I’m hard I’m hard!”

He did such an outstanding job as MC. After each testimony he would say something like that above and it would feel so tenuous … like ‘wait, what could you possibly say …” but he would put himself out there and it worked every time.

Tiny a.k.a. Lisa Gray-Garcia, a poverty scholar and revolutionary journalist, took the stage in a somewhat frightening mask and all-white suit and declared: I’m here for all who aren’t here …” She thanked Ferlinghetti for “ripping a tear into the cloth of access so this poverty scholar can jump in and resist, by publishing Criminal Poverty, and for truly understanding the equity of publishing and his connection to race, class and resistance, which has enabled me and … … to continue the fight against poverty and homelessness.” Then she sang an old jazz excerpt, ending with: “The champagne is Larry, and Larry is mine.”

Robert Scheer, editor-in-chief of Truthdig and a long-ago employee of City Lights, followed with one of the evening’s more poignant testimonies, saying of Ferlinghetti that he was “One of the great human beings that I’ve ever encountered. He was the bridge between the Beats and what happened with the radicals of the 60s. He was aware of both worlds. … I thought he was sort of a saint, frankly, and that’s coming from someone who got paid a buck and a quarter an hour for 3 years. … The bookstore was like a lending library … I never heard him say we’re supposed to sell books—we’re supposed to turn people on to interesting books.” He said Ferlinghetti was so pure that it made him feel evil, and in that vein he confessed, just last night, to stealing quarters from the register to buy food when he was poor (although he did gift LF his uncle’s wristwatch, he was sure to add). And, of course, he apologized!

Oh, there was the fact that he introduced Bob Dylan to Ferlinghetti. That was a nice anecdote. But that was just the adlib portion of Scheer’s praise. He had written and then read the following about Ferlinghetti as a Profound Thinker:

“An aspect of this deeply modest man that he tries to conceal in his public persona. Over the past half century we have seen the  super-achievers, the smartass careerists, the best and the brightest lead us from one disaster to another. From the carnage of Vietnam to the lies of Iraq to the banking meltdown. During that time Ferlinghetti and his City Lights stood as a center … consistently of reason and sanity and the honoring of basic human rights along with the joys of freedom. … He became the embodiment of the pacifist anarchist. …”

He painted Ferlinghetti as “an indelibly shy man who forced himself to be a public person reluctantly but faithfully whenever the times required it. This is the stuttering poet of truth loath to take the stage but rising every time when the outrages of the moment demanded that the powerful be held accountable. And he did hold them accountable.”

Then Litquake co-founders/directors Jane Ganahl and Jack Boulware took the stage. Jack recalled how after 9/11 he was walking through North Beach thinking “what everybody in America was thinking: what’s going on? Who attacked us? Why did they attack us? Why are we invading Iraq? Why is the media not covering this? And I remember looking up and seeing in the windows of City Lights Bookstore the words “Dissent is Not Un-American.” And I remember thinking ‘I’m so glad I live in this city with this literary legacy.’”

And Jane told the story of Litquake 2002, when the festival consisted of only one day of readings and the committee (was there a committee?) presented each reader with a little “corny” trophy that said “First Place.” And they had asked Ferlinghetti to kick off the proceedings but he was three hours late, so they started without him. When he did show up, he walked right onto the stage and read an original poem called “Lit.quake” (below). Then he walked off the stage and left!

Jack and Jane chased him, tugging on his coat to present their dorky trophy. “Lawrence! Lawrence! You forgot your trophy.” He looked at it and smiled. “Was I really the best?”

So we’re having a quake

We’re going to have a literary quaking

It’s announced in the smallest papers

Free for the taking

It’s flying on flyers all over town

It’s happening here today

In downtown San Francisco

In the town that’s famous for earthquakes

And ready for them every way

It’s a quake that’s been promised

And all the best writers will be quaking or shaking

So get ready to tremble get ready to shake

The hour has come

The atomic clock is down to one




And I am wondering

Who will really be shook up

Who will be quaking in their boots

Will it shake the country to its roots

Will it crack the marble skies

And will it have a ripple effect

With Lit.revolutions and Lit.orgasms

All around the world

Will it shred the fabric of society

And cause inebriation or sobriety

Will it get you high or low




Will you go with the flow

Will it make lovers run for cover

Will it shake up marriages in fancy carriages

Will it let loose the dogs of war

Or liberate the doves of peace

Will it leaved a scorched earth

Or business-as-usual on the home hearth

Will it open up a huge hole

Into which will tumble

And the cars and trucks and freeways of the land




And where will be the epicenter of this quake

And what will be the reading on the Richter scale

Will there be lots of real estate for scale

What towers and powers will come tumbling down

Will it shake down the banks

Will it hit the ranks

Of both the good and the bad

The glad and the sad

Will it derail tanks and war

Or derail peace and more

Or bring down the war machine

Or other things obcene

Will it burn up the Bush

And will the White House fall

Will it change anything at all

Will it open up a great chasm in which we’ll see

The huge spiritual void in America




Or will it move your heart and soul;

Will it shake your mind

Willit wake up the humanity

Of all mankind?




This poem was a tremendous thing to read during intermission while considering the immanence of Patti Smith, Tom Waits and Winona Ryder! I thought: my, how this festval has grown. How this city, even, has grown as a result of this festival. How this festival would not exist without Ferlinghetti. And so on and so on.

Everyone was shocked through the doors, in the stairways, on the balcony, on the stage! It wasn’t loud; there was a muted murmur in the halls and I couldn’t help but bumble about like a stuttering fool. What? This is only intermission? …



After the break, Eric Drooker, illustrator and animator of the graphic sequences in the new motion picture Howl, gave a presentation of the slides (which you can see here, as part of a presentation earlier the same day) and read some passages from “Howl.” One of the slides was a cover he did for Nation Magazine that inspired a striking Ferlinghetti poem. “Not bad, Lawrence,” he said, and then: “I’ll let the images do the talking for me.” Applause!

Then devorah major drew from Ferlinghetti’s namesake, St. Lawrence, making sure to stress that while LF is certainly not a saint , he has grown into his name. He “always provides a sharp zinger for those who need sharpening.” And of course the former Poet Laureate was not the first one to use the S word.

Ishmael Reed stressed Ferlinghetti’s courage in standing up for the right thing, even when seemingly no one else in the world would do the same. He spoke of President Eisenhower, and how  “One writer was not awed by the first imperial presidency. … Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s document ends with Eisenhower’s resignation.”

Then a man rushed onto stage and we were all confused for a minute until we realized it was a sound guy. As he set up the audience was audibly trembling with anticipation, and when Bamuthi Jospeh announced Lenny Kay and Patti Smith I thought ‘Oh lord, here goes the Herbst Theatre, and all of us in it!’ Announced as the godmother of punk and a poet, one of the first things Smith said (with much aplomb) was: “Lawrence Ferlinghetti is not a man that anyone would say is ALSO a poet. He IS a poet.” Her voice lowered to an intimate hush: “Lawrence, we send this little song to you and may it give you energy and sweet dreams tonight.”

They then proceeded to play a riff of Lou Reed’s Coney Island Baby: “You’re my Coney Island Baby / You mean so much to me. / We love you tenderly. / You’re my luck star / That’s what you are / You’re my Coney Island Baby / We love you / We love you / We do.”  They then played “Wing” with so much passion and just heartfelt sincerity it was palpable that Smith was singing for Ferlinghetti and to the audience at the same time. She then ended with a completely humble “Thank you Lawrence” and exited the stage. It’s a crime that I don’t have video.

Bamuthi Joseph followed: “Even if you’d never met me, you would have a pretty good idea of who I am if you met my friends. The company that you keep. The folks that vouch for you. The folks that speak your name. Just standing there watching this performance thinking ‘Wow there are some incredible folks that would vouch for this man, Lawrence Ferlinghetti.’ … I seek to acknowledge that … his impact is made manifest by those who would speak for him.

Without pausing, he went into an introduction of Tom Waits and people started stomping and whooting.

Waits came out and, accompanied by Marcus Shelby on standup, played an original rendition of the final section of Ferlinghetti’s “A Coney Island of the Mind.” It was simply astounding—you could sense the impact this poem had on the artist.

Steve Earl followed by saying he didn’t prepare anything new to play or to read but could not say no when asked to pay tribute. He thanked Mr. Ferlinghetti for saving him from what would probably have been a well-paying job, to much laughter, and then made one of the most profound statements of the entire night: I was born in 1955 so that means that I never had to live in a world where Allen Ginsberg had not written “Howl” and Lawrence Ferlinghetti hadn’t taken the heat. Thank you very much.”



Talking with Mr. Kruger over a post-show coffee, he remarked how—considering this—the world is a completely different place and that, as a consequence, we are all living in Ferlinghetti’s world. This is the kind of thing we all know innately, but I beg you to think about it long and hard, my friends. Cry some everything tears! (Go on.)

Then Winona Ryder took the stage, and in front of a giant picture of the actress as a little girl on Ferlinghetti’s shoulders, she read from Americus I. Her reading was personal and raw—she smiled intermittently and at times stumbled over the beautiful prickly language. Here is an excerpt (just imagine):

"… No end to the sea-bells tolling beyond the dykes of the calling of bells and empty churches and towers of time. No end to the calamitous annunciation of harry holy man / Endless the ever-unwinding wash-spring part of the world shimmering in time through space / No end to the birthing of babies for love and lust has lain / No end to the sweet bird of consciousness, to the bitter deaths in vain. / No end, no end to the withering fur and fruit and flesh so passing fair and neon mermaids singing each to each somewhere the fires of youth and the embers of the rage of the poet born again / No end to the muted dance of molecules / All is transmuted / All is muted and all cries out again again! / Endless the wars of good and evil flips the fate / The trips of hate / Nukes and faults and all failings safe and chain reactions of the final flash where white bicycles of protest still circle around / For there will be an end to the dog-faced gods in wing-tipped shoes and Gucci slippers and Texas boots in tin-can hats in bunkers pressing buttons / For there are hopeful choices still to be chosen in the dark minds in stonewall bars and green giants of chance / The fish-hooks of hope and the sloughs of despond / The hills in the distance and the birds in the bush / The hidden streams of light  and unheard melodies / The sessions of sweet silent thought stately pleasures droned decreed in the happy deaths of the heart every day / The cocks of clay / The feet in running shoes upon the quay. / And there is no end, no end to the doors of perception still to be opened and the jetstreams of life and the upper air / The spirit of man in the outer space inside us, shining, transcendent into the crystal night of time / In the endless silence of the soul / In the long loud tale of man in his endless sound and fury / signifying everything / the dancing continues / there is a sound of revelry by night."

Ryder then added that she always thought of City Lights as

“A beacon, an oasis—the light in City Lights like a lighthouse flashing and gathering all those great minds in search of hope and creative shelter. It is a living monument to the ideals that inspire and protect those writers. It’s hard to imagine a world without the profound courage and the deep, deep conviction of a man who went all the way to court to defend Ginsberg’s “Howl,” and his own right to publish it, for all of us and for all future generations to enjoy and to be inspired by it. Every writer, poet, and artist to this day is indebted to Lawrence and his deep commitment to freedom of press, and because he helped insure that all our work would have a chance to find its own audience, and in the end, in the end that’s all any writer artist can ask—to have the chance to be seen and to be read and to be heard. So I thank you Lawrence, I’ve been so privileged to know you my entire life, and I salute you and I love you very much.”

Lawrence babysat Winona in City Lights and she was audibly shaken. What could top that, you ask?

On the screen, a video played in which Lawrence addressed us directly.

“San Francisco, the late last frontier. What’s left of the last frontier includes City Lights, and I’m happy to accept the Litquake award ON BEHALF OF CITY LIGHTS, and now I’m gonna read a poem that Jack Hirschman has claimed is the greatest poem I ever wrote.”

But before he “reads” this poem, I would just like to point out the humility, the humanity of this poet who so proudly accepted the award on behalf of his shining project, City Lights, and how he tipped his hat to Mr. Hirschman. He said no more, but read:

“AT SEA”

The sea through the trees 
distant
shining
The dark foreground 
a stone wall
with lichen
And the bone-white beach stretching away

An old salt 
sits staring out
at the sea
A wind sways the palms
infrequently
Another day prepares 
for heat and silence
A small plane
buzzing like a fly
disturbs the sky
The air eats it

Far out on the slumbering sea
a trawler creeps along
The wind from the south
blows the bait in the fish’s mouth
The yawning sea 
swallows the trawler
The lichen lives on
in its volcanic stone
taciturn
eternal
awaiting its turn
in the turn of the sun
Never will I return here
never again
breathe this wind
on this far run
in the reaches of morning
where the sea whispers
patience and salt
The sun 
scorches the sky
and drops like a burnt-out match
into night
And I am an animal still
perhaps once a bird
a halcyon
who makes its nest at sea
on my little flight across
the little chart
of my existence
Life goes on
full of silence and clamor
in the grey cities
in the far bourgs
in the white cities by the sea
where I go on
writing my life
in neither blood nor wine
I still await an epiphany
by the petri-dish of the sea
where all life began
by swimming
But it’s time now
to give an accounting of everything
an explanation of everything
such as
why there is darkness at night
Everywhere the sea is rising
(Flood tide and the heron’s haunted cry!) 
Am I to be drowned
with the rest of them
all the animals of earth
washed away in ocean
motherer and moitherer
in this tremendous moment
of wondrous sea-change
as our little world disappears
in a tremor of ocean and fear
to the murmur
of the middle mind of America
as imbeciles in neckties
drop from the trees?
No matter then
if I end up
in a house of insurgents
on the Avenida de los Insurgentes
or shoeless on Boston Common
or cast-up clueless
in my great Uncle Désir’s
beach hut
in St. Thomas
Pardon my conduct then
if I can’t give you
any final word—
a final unified theory of existence—
all thought subsumed
in one great thought 
(utopian vision!) 
Humans with all their voices
as myriad as 
the syllables of the sea 
have never been able to fathom
man’s fate
nor tell us why we are here
Still will we be 
free as the sea
to be nothing but
our own shadow selves
beach bums all after all
in future time when
nations no longer exist
and the earth is swept
by ethnic hordes
in search of food and shelter?
Neither patient nor placid
in the face of all this
in the sea of every day
with its two tides
I drift about 
immune to hidden reefs or harbors
Someone throws me
crystal fruits
in the shape of life-preservers
Others wave
from distant strands
Goodbye! Goodbye!
Beached at last
bleached out
I would to the woods again
with its ancient trees
that sing like sitars
in the wind
Wordless ragas!
Shipwrecked ashore
at the mercy of avaricious gulls—
And yet and yet
we are still not born for despair
Spring comes anyway
And a gay excursion train appears
The ancient conductor
with stove-pipe hat
and gold pocketwatch
greets us like long-lost passengers
gracing us with
wreathes around our necks
as arms of lovers
insanely embrace us
Is there anything more to be said
before they carry us off 
as dead
while we’re still dreaming
still in search
of the bread of the word
cast upon the waters
the dough that rises
in the yeast of speech
in the written word
in poetry
Tracks upon the sand!
left by corraled bands of animals
cornered by mistakes and habitudes
and trains taken 
to mistaken destinations
or trips taken or not taken
with angels of love
to lower latitudes
Between two waves
the ocean is still—
a silence of ages
lasting but a moment
between two waves
of emotion
as lovers
turn to each other
or away
Love ebbs and flows
comes and goes
between two emotions
yet surges again
with each new wave
as some sea-creature from the deep
breaks the surface with a leap 
The sea roars but says no more
O the yarns it could spin
if it would
between its rages
under the eye of the sun
under the ear of the sky—
Cities asunder! 
Plunderers and pieces of eight!
Petrified hulls!
Crystal skulls!
Sailors’ masturbations!
or yesterday’s sperm
lost in the wake
of a pleasure boat
O endless the inchoate 
incoherent narrative—Voyager, pass on!
We are not our fathers
yet we carry on
breathing like them
loving and killing like them
Away then away
in our custom-built catamarans
over the hills of ocean
to where Atlantis
still rides the tides
or where that magic mountain
not on any map
wreathed in radiance
still hides

A radiant Nancy Peters accepted the Barbary Coast Award for Mr. Ferlinghetti, and that concludes our transcript.

Oh, the afterparty? Nevermind that … Did you already read all of this? If you still want more, email me. I recorded videos of the Off the Richter Scale series and nearly have them all rendered, but I think this is more than enough for the day! Plus, the festival continues, and I wouldn’t want to miss more than I have to. I have to condense this report into 1000 words now, after all.

— Evan Karp



Ps. WE HAVE ALL JUST WITNESSED MOSES PRESENTING THE TABLETS FRESH FROM SINAI. ATTEND ANY EVENTS YOU CAN. FIND US. FOR WE GLOW WITH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF UBER-DIVINE PRESENCE. UM YES I’M CARRIED AWAY. Have you read this? FIND US!

Go!

I became a monkey, swinging from open arms to open arms, in a congregation where a trip to the bathroom means a slew of conversations. The room is a series of rivers. The current changes. Maybe I was driftwood, picked up and passed around by the buoyant expectations of a thousand useful hands. Or it's possible we were all waves converging, the slow trickle of a tide turning, a whirlpool spinning on the rise.

It was opening night of Litquake XI and 111 Minna was humming with sea monkeys! I thought it was a great idea to kick the festival off with a free reception, and a lot of people did too. Mostly the room was abuzz about tonight's big Barbary Coast Award - it's the hottest ticket in town and the seats are so spoken for there are people begging to stand. Famous people. There was a sense of entitlement last night, that Litquake is a club completely open to the public and that anyone present is privy to its excellence. There are no membership fees. (Although it is possible to donate. Just last year Litquake became a nonprofit, eh, so your contributions are tax-deductible.)

There was talk about how the San Francisco literary world has changed since the early 90s, that despite the steady evolution of our culture from a few small puddles of involvement to a unified network of waterways there is not really a movement now ('although it'd be nice if there were'). I disagreed. There is this and this to consider. Since I started Quiet Lightning in December of last year (with Rajshree Chauhan, whom I met during Lit Crawl), more than a dozen new reading series have emerged (and some will be in this year's Crawl). So there's that to consider, too. We are cross-pollinating with a fury.

In fact, so much has changed since last year's Litquake I can only advise you hold onto your beautiful program (below) and take note of the many names you don't know yet. Because next year, at this rate, you'll have plenty to talk about.



Not to get all meta here, but my friend and assistant Charles Kruger has written an excellent recap of last night's opening party from the perspective of someone who has never attended a Litquake function. (Here's mine from last year.)

I'm so excited about tonight. People all over San Francisco are waking right now. Some I will see in the Variety Preview Room Theatre for poetry, graphic novels, mystery, and dad lit (dad lit, people!) - all free. Some will walk around the city drinking coffee and scribbling in their notebooks, enthused by tonight's impending superstar blowout. Some will - bless them - attend the Giants' game first. But however you spend the day, and whether or not you were quick enough to snag a ticket to tonight's event, this week is full of mostly free programming that includes something for everyone. Below is a daily guide to some of my favorite cost-free events. Enjoy! And say hello.

SUNDAY, October 3

Off the Richter Scale Readings, Day 2, noon-4 pm. Note new location: Variety Preview Room Theatre, 582 Market Street, First Floor, San Francisco. Free.


Women Authoring Change, noon-1 pm. Faith Adiele, Eugenie Chan,  Carolina De Robertis, Elana Dykewomon, Elaine Elinson, andAmy Wheeler (moderator)
AltPub, 1-2 pm. Marta Acosta, Kathleen Fitzgerald (moderator), Lian Gouw, Luke James, Hyla Molander, Peter Plate, and Matt Stewart
The Golden Gate and Beyond, 2-3 pm. Gabrielle Burton, David Chu, Scott James, Jonathan Kiefer, and Merla Zellerbach
Literature in Translation, 3-4 pm. Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Scott Esposito (Moderator), Chana Kronfeld, and Eric Selland


Literary North Beach Walking Tour, 5:30-6:30 pm. Starts at The Beat Museum, 540 Broadway, SF.

The Literary Tour Stops Here, 7 pm. Focus Gallery, 1534 Grant Avenue, San Francisco.

Phil Bronstein, Will Durst, Ben Fong-Torres, Alan Kaufman, Ellen Sussman, and Jody Weiner

Barely Published Authors, 7 pm. The Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd Street, SF. 21+.

Jeremy Hatch, Mimi Lok, Caitlin Myer, Andre Perry, Paul Spinrad, Ian Tuttle,Alia Volz, and Olga Zilberbourg

MONDAY, October 4

New Writers Night: Authors Reveal All & How to Navigate the New World of Publishing, 3-6:30 pm. Co-production with the Foundation Center. Foundation Center, 312 Sutter Street, 2nd floor World Affairs Council Auditorium, San Francisco. Free, but advance registration required. Please register for each panel separately.


Authors Reveal All! 3-4:30 pm. Register online. Elaine Beale,Jason Headley, Joanna Smith Rakoff, Vanitha Sankaran, Shanthi Sekaran, and Michael Sledge
How to Navigate the New World of Publishing, 5-6:30 pm.Register online. Eileen Gittins, Jay A. Hartman, Brenda Knight,  Ethan Nosowsky, and Amy Rennert


Original Shorts: Bottoms Up, 7 pm. Heart Wine Bar, 1270 Valencia Street, SF. 21+.

Dodie Bellamy, Elizabeth Bernstein, Joshua Braff, Anne Finger, Shanthi Sekaran, Namwali Serpell, and James Warner

Litquake in the Bookstore: Tao Lin at The Booksmith. 7:30 pm. The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, SF.

TUESDAY, October 5

McSweeney’s Fall Harvest, 7 pm: Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California Street, SF.

Hilton Als, Adam Levin, Peter Orner, and Darin Strauss

WEDNESDAY, October 6

he Art of Narrative Nonfiction, 6 pm. San Francisco Public Library’s Koret Auditorium. Main Branch, 100 Larkin St., SF.

Tamim Ansary, Frances Dinkelspiel, Richard Rhodes, and T.J. Stiles

The RADAR Reading Series: Litquake Edition! 6 pm. San Francisco Public Library’s Latino Reading Room, Main Branch, 100 Larkin Street, SF.

Chinaka Hodge, Tao Lin, Sara Marcus, and Beth Pickens

SF in SF presents The Maltese Omelette: A Radio Play, 7 pm. Variety Preview Room Theatre, 582 Market Street, First Floor, SF.

Peter S. Beagle, Cara Black, Lori Leigh Gieleghem, Michael Kurland, Pat and Richard Lupoff, Gregory Tiede

Litquake in the Bookstore: Lorin Stein with Oscar Villalon at City Lights, 7 pm. City Lights Books, 261 Columbus Ave., SF.

THURSDAY, October 7

Litquake Bites, noon-1 pm. Book Passage joins forces with Litquake for presentations and tastings (including Cowgirl Creamery). Book Passage, 1 Ferry Building, SF.

Sarah Billingsley, Gordon Edgar, Steve Sando, and Amy Treadwell

Poets 11 2010 Showcase, 7 pm. Readers Café, Fort Mason Center, Building C, SF.

Feminine Wiles, 7 pm. Noe Valley Recreational Center, 295 Day St., SF.

Elif Batuman, Marisa Crawford, Katie Crouch, Thaisa Frank, Joyce Maynard,Kaya Oakes, and Shawna Yang Ryan

SATURDAY, October 9

The Infamous, Indefatigable Lit Crawl!!!! 6-9:30 pm
Various venues along the Valencia Street Corridor in San Francisco’s sunny Mission District. Three phases:


Phase I: 6-7 pm
Phase II: 7:15-8:15 pm
Phase III: 8:30-9:30 pm




» Check back for more in-depth previews and coverage from today's - and tonight's - events. For those of you who don't have a ticket, get a jumpstart on making the tough decision about how to spend tomorrow. It's one of the best days!

» I'm going to roam Market now. If you're in the neighborhood, why don't you give me a call?

Yours, Evan

912 658 2333