San Francisco Metblogs » readings

Tobias Wolff to appear at Elliott’s ‘Adderall’ book launch

Mark Pritchard — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:16:10 +0000

Fiction deity Tobias Wolff (1996 interview on Salon; 2008 profile at the Guardian [UK]) will join author, activist and blogger Stephen Elliott to celebrate the release of Elliott’s new “true crime memoir” The Adderall Diaries.

Admission to the party, which is at the Amnesia bar [map] on Thursday, Aug. 27 at 7:00 pm, is $20 and includes a hardcover of the book. Frequently-seen writer and presenter Bucky Sinister MC’s. Buy advance tix.

Picture: Wolff at left, Elliott at right. Elliott photo by Katherine Emery from LA Times

Rumpus launches live performance evenings

Mark Pritchard — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:59:31 +0000

Thao Nguyen. Flickr photo by Switchburn

Musical guest Thao Nguyen, pictured at right at an Austin gig in 2008, heads the lineup Monday at the first monthly live event sponsored by The Rumpus, writer and editor Stephen Elliott’s website.

The evening also features readings from authors Peter Orner, Andrew Greer, Damion Searls, and poet Barbara Jane Reyes, performance by Word for Word Performing Arts Company, films by Wholphin, and music by The Yellow Dress.

The show starts at 8:00 pm Monday at the Makeout Room (map). Get information and advance tickets.

Writers to see and hear

Mark Pritchard — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:18:11 +0000

Sarah Waters

Tipping the Velvet author Sarah Waters will appear at Books Inc., 601 Van Ness, Wednesday at 7:00 pm to promote her new novel The Little Stranger.

The same night at 6:00 pm, Michelle Tea’s RADAR series at the SF Public Library Main Branch [map] features authors Orson Wagon (A Hole in the Rubber), Ricky Lee, and Sarah Fran Wisby appear, along with performance artist Krylon Superstar. That’s free, and there’s always cookies.

And on Thursday, Robert Arellano appears at City Lights [map] reading from his new novel Havana Lunar. Also appearing are Maggie Estep (Alice Fantastic) and Achy Obejas (Ruins). No cookies, but you’re in North Beach, there’s plenty to eat.

Writers with Drinks, Pamela Z, Easter vigils

Mark Pritchard — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:56:13 +0000

Tonight Writers with Drinks features Pam Houston (Cowboys Are My Weakness), Stacie Boschma (Happy Rainbow Poems from the Unicorn Petting Zoo), Laurie R. King (Touchstone, The Art Of Detection), Sean Stewart (Cathy’s Key, Yoda: Dark Rendezvous), Regina Lynn (SexRev 2.0, Sexier Sex), and Minal Hajratwala (Leaving India: My Family’s Journey From Five Villages To Five Continents). As usual, it’s at the Makeout Room, 3225 22nd. St. near Mission in San Francisco, starts at 7:30 pm, and benefits the Center for Sex and Culture. I’d go just to hear Pam Houston read — she’s always terrific.

If you’d rather see something artsier, experimental music maven Pamela Z (pictured at left) is presenting the second in her ROOM series of performances, tonight at 8:00 pm at the Royce Gallery, 2901 Mariposa St. at Harrison.

And if you’re up for something mystical, dark and theatrical, attend one of the many Easter Vigil services held at Christian churches tonight. Classically, a congregation would meet in the “undercroft” of the church, the sub-basement where the skeletons are buried, to remind them of the tomb from which Jesus rises. Nowadays you’re more likely to find yourself in a candle-lit church basement, but the service is still great theater, with scripture readings that move from the creation to the exodus from Egypt to the passion and resurrection. Good bets are Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in North Beach, 8:00 pm; St. Gregory Nyssa Episcopal Church on Potrero Hill, 8:00 pm; Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill, 8:00 pm; or St. Francis Lutheran Church in the Castro, 7:00 pm.

S.G. Browne’s "Breathers" sold to Hollywood; Diablo Cody to produce

Mark Pritchard — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:59:48 +0000

Santa Cruz writer S.G. Browne‘s book Breathers, a comic zombie romance which he describes as “a classic story of suffering and redemption, like The Color Purple or the New Testament, only with cannibalism” has been sold to Fox Searchlight, with Diablo Cody set to produce. (Cody is last year’s slumdog millionaire, as it were — her Academy Award for the “Juno” screenplay vaulted her to fame and Hollywood power.) Browne, a former Disney screenwriter, will be appearing at next month’s Writers with Drinks as well as other venues after the March 3 release of his book.

Sexerati gather for monthly reading

Mark Pritchard — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:23:34 +0000

New in town? Made a New Year’s resolution to uncover the San Francisco sex underground but don’t know where the hellmouth is? Then get over to the Perverts Put Out reading on Friday, where you can hear and meet several leading lights of the scene, and their acolytes. MCs are Carol Queen and Simon Sheppard, and reading are Charlie Anders, Greta Christina, Stephen Elliot, Shar Rednour, Kirk Reed, Thomas Roche — and it wouldn’t be San Francisco without somebody with a made-up name — one “horehound stillpoint,” all lower case please.

The event’s at 7:30pm at CounterPulse, 1310 Mission Street, and costs $10-15.

Readings Thursday: Dorothy Allison; Inside Story Time

Mark Pritchard — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:00:33 +0000

Dorothy Allison

Novelist Dorothy Allison will appear at the Distinguished Writers Series at Cal State East Bay in Hayward at 7:00 pm. Click for more info and the exact location.

If you’ve never heard Allison read, she’s a knockout every time. I heard Allison read a few years ago at the Squaw Valley Writers Conference, where she is a regular workshop leader. She held the audience of 400 absolutely spellbound with her reading, and her other remarks were just as riveting, creating an intense, almost spiritual atmosphere.

The monthly Inside Story Time series hosted by James Warner also happens Thursday with Ayelet Waldman (Love and Other Impossible Pursuits), Kirk Read (How I Learned to Snap), Thaisa Frank (A Brief History of Camouflage), Jimmy Chen, and Jeff Kirschner. That’s at 6:30 pm at at Cafe Royale, 800 Post St. [map]. The monthly theme is “Subtle versus obvious.”

Ali Liebgott, Sara Bynum, others read Tuesday at RADAR

Mark Pritchard — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:30:12 +0000

Michelle Tea‘s monthly RADAR series of readings by writers looks especially good this month. Ali Liebgott, winner of the 2008 Lambda Literary Award for women’s fiction; Sara Shun-Lien Bynum, a National Book Award finalist 2004; San Francisco queer activist and writer Gina DeVries, and fiction and non-fiction writer Frances Lefkowitz appear. Liebgott and Bynum, both connected with UC San Diego, bring a Southern California flair to the event.

Michelle Tea’s monthly RADAR reading series is at the SF Public Library main branch [location] Wednesday, Sep. 10 at 6:00 pm.

Mohr and more writing

Mark Pritchard — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:02:59 +0000

Congratulations to San Francisco’s Joshua Mohr, whose debut novel “Some Things That Meant the World To Me” has been sold as part of a two-book deal, according to Publisher’s Marketplace. Mohr teaches a writing course at the local The Writing Salon and has had several short stories in litmags. But as far as I can tell from Google, he has neither a website nor a blog. So he actually might write a second book some day!

In Marin, the literary scene in remote but picturesque Point Reyes Station [map] was the subject of a long article in the Marin Independent Journal on Sunday. The piece draws attention to the visits by nationally known authors and political figures, as well as a recent three-day Stegner conference.

And the folks at Stephen Elliott‘s Progressive Reading Series are excited about the upcoming August 16 show to be headlined by Jonathan Franzen.

Totally awesome weekend

Mark Pritchard — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:25:23 +0000

The number of things to do this weekend is mind-blowing. What shall it be?

Awesome local rockers 20 Minute Loop, whose new album Famous People Marry Famous People is filled with power-pop goodness reminiscent of Letters to Cleo, performs tonight at Bottom of the Hill.

The Porchlight reading series celebrates its 6th anniversary with a show on the Seven Deadly Sins, 8:00 pm at the Swedish American Hall. And tomorrow Ishmael Reed and Mistress Morgana headline Writers with Drinks at 7:30 pm at the Makeout Room.

CineKink, a program of alternative erotic films written up this week by the unsinkable Violet Blue, plays tonight at 7:00 pm at YBCA. And for the less carnally minded, Artists Television Access has The Monastery, about an old guy who buys a castle with the idea that it will some day become a spiritual retreat, and the nuns who take him up on it.

Or just hit the beach. It’s nice and cool out there today.