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.