Hard to believe, but it's that time of year yet again: LITQUAKE IS NIGH! We're ONE WEEK AWAY from the kick-off of our 25th anniversary Litquake Festival!
Check out our Festival + Lit Crawl San Francisco (just dropped!) schedules below and peruse 140+ events featuring 500+ authors. PLUS ahighlight of our11 Words Around the World festival events featuring authors from abroad and works in translation.
Festival Headliners & Major Events
Adrian Tomine w Daniel Handler & Carson Ellis on the artist's life · Annalee Newitz w Kelly Clancy & Trevor Paglen on AI & PSYOPS · Atlas Obscura's Wild Life · Daniel Levitin w Alexis Madrigal on the healing power of music · Dragging Celebrity Autobios · Hernan Diaz · Jenny Slate · Jonathan Lethem · Kaveh Akbar · Maxine Hong Kingston · Michelle Tea's witch's sabbath · Mike Silver w 49ers legend Steve Young · Morgan Parker w Carvell Wallace & sam sax · Paola Ramos on right wing Latine voters · Paul Lynch · Poetry World Series w Daniel Handler & Andrew Sean Greer · Rachel Kushner w John Freeman · Roddy Doyle w Dave Eggers · Storytelling Events: Porchlight Storytelling, Radium Presents, & Generation Women w Jane Smiley
Sponsored by Center for the Art of Translation/Two Lines Press
San Francisco endures as one of America’s original international cities. Our citizens are curious about the world, and we continually strive for a larger cultural understanding. This year our global programming runs throughout the Festival. Enjoy this curated selection of authors and translated works from around the world.
An Evening with Booker Prize Winner Paul Lynch Friday Oct 11 · 7:00 - 8:30pm Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley Awarded the 2023 Booker Prize, Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song recounts in exacting, all-too-plausible detail the inexorable descent of Ireland’s liberal democracy into authoritarian rule. Join us for one of Lynch’s few North American events in honor of the paperback release. FREE, $10–15 suggested donation.
The Women Behind the Door: Roddy Doyle with Dave Eggers Wednesday Oct 16 · 7:00 - 8:30pm BATS Improv Theatre Join old friends Roddy Doyle and Dave Eggers as they discuss Doyle’s newest novel, a powerful, moving mother-daughter story filled with struggle and redemption by the Booker Prize winner. A follow up to 1997’s standout The Woman Who Walked into Doors, Doyle’s latest, The Women Behind the Door, finds Paula Spencer—mother, grandmother, widow, addict, survivor at sixty-six—finally starting to live her life. $17 adv (book bundle avail.) / $20 door
Love In All Its Forms: Hanne Ørstavik with Kristin Keane Wednesday Oct 23 · 7:00 - 8:30pm Telegraph Hill Books A single mother forgets her son’s birthday. A theology student excavates the past. A woman reminisces on her marriage, as her cancer-stricken husband enters his final months of life. Join National Book Award finalist and 2019 PEN Translation Prize winner Hanne Ørstavik as she's explore the recurrent theme of love throughout her 30-year literary career. FREE, $10-15 suggested donation
African Book Club: The Road to the Salt Sea with Samuel Kọláwọlé Thursday Oct 24 · 6:00 - 8:00pm The Museum of the African Diaspora Join MoAD and Litquake for a conversation with Nigerian author Samuel Kọláwọlé as he discusses his debut novel, The Road to the Salt Sea, a searing exploration of the global migration crisis that moves from Nigeria to Libya to Italy, from an exciting new literary voice. In conversation with co-founder of African Book Club, Faith Adiele. FREE, $10-15 suggested donation
About Litquake Litquake seeks to foster interest in literature, perpetuate a sense of literary community, and provide a vibrant forum for Bay Area writing as a complement to the city's music, film, and cultural festivals. 2024 Dates: Oct. 10-26. www.litquake.org
Litquake is grateful for the support of the following funders who help make our programming possible. Institutional Giving: Bernard Osher Foundation, California Arts Council, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Center for the Art of Translation, Fleishhacker Foundation, Grants for the Arts, Hawthornden Foundation, Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation, Margaret and William R. Hearst III Foundation, Miner Anderson Family Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Rock Foundation, Norway House, Sam Mazza Foundation, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, Zellerbach Family Foundation; Individual Giving: Jared Bhatti, Lisa Brown and Daniel Handler, Frances Dinkelspiel and Gary Wayne, Karyn DiGiorgio and Steve Sattler, Scott James and Gerald Cain, Nion McEvoy and Leslie Berriman, and Ellen Ullman Media Sponsors: San Francisco Chronicle, 7x7, KALW, KEXP, KQED, SF Arts Monthly, Bay Area Reporter, Johnny Funcheap.
