The dust has settled and we at Litquake are almost fully recovered from an incredible nine days of literary celebration. Here are a few highlight’s from this year’s 10th anniversary festival:
Andrew Sean Greer in sequined tank top at Amy Tan's tribute, singing his original rock song, "Amy Tan Made Me a Gay Man"
Terry McMillan doing her first-ever reading from Getting to Happy, her just-completed novel that catches up with the four characters in Waiting to Exhale
Soaring opera, birthday cake, author masks and strong martinis at Litquake's first-ever Book Ball
Tears in the eyes of burly audience members at our first "Gay Menace" event at Joe's Barbershop in the Castro, as Aaron Shurin read his poignant, lyrical essay comparing the migration of gays to the migration of butterflies
Daniel Handler and Lisa Brown's hilarious slideshow at the Contemporary Jewish Museum's homage to Maurice Sendak
Hollywood starlet-turned-poet-turned-film producer Amber Tamblyn singing a racy song after her film's screening, while her Oscar-winning father Russ Tamblyn smiled in the audience
Our first-ever (and wildly successful) Teenquake night at the Main Library for bookish young people
Capacity crowds of rapt schoolchildren at our ever-expanding Kidquake
And of course the Lit Crawl, which continues to draw huge audiences. This year we featured venues for, among others, farmers, hookers, bloggers, beekeepers, carnivores, queer activists, and zombies! The Crawl also featured a rare appearance by award-winning poet Rae Armantrout, the same week she was nominated for a National Book Award; the legendary Daughters of Yam (Opal Palmer Adisa and devorah major) doing jazz and poetry for San Jose CLA; Blag Dahlia, founder of the punk band The Dwarves, reading with an ordained minister from Modesto; authors from around the country and the world, including Asian, South Asian, Filipino, Latino, and Arab voices; and the world's shortest poetry reading (haiku!) at San Francisco’s smallest cookie store (Anthony’s).
We do believe we've outdone ourselves! And we're not done yet. We plan to expand in 2010 and have events year-around, as described in the San Francisco Chronicle article, Burgeoning Litquake looks to grow even more.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making our tenth anniversary such a successful year, and for helping us get this far. We know we can count on you as we forge into the future. And have a great holiday season!
Jane Ganahl and Jack Boulware
On behalf of Litquake's Board of Directors and army of volunteers
