Litquake Weekend Two—chock full! Tonight, Daniel Handler and Andrew Sean Greer buddy it up at American Bookbinders Museum (sold out, sorry!) while across town Porchlight talks story over at the Verdi Club. On Saturday and Sunday, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival plays host to two full days of local authors of color and music on their outdoor stage. Get it while you can!
TONIGHT'S EVENTS
Poison for Breakfast with Daniel Handler & Andrew Sean Greer Friday, Oct. 15 · 7:00-8:30pm American Bookbinders Museum
Sponsored by Yerba Buena Community Benefit District Co-presented by American Bookbinders Museum Lemony Snicket returns! Back with his first book in more than a decade—this one appealing to both children and adults—Snicket finds himself investigating a death: his own. As he describes it, “the clues in this investigation include a suspicious stranger, an upsetting supermarket, the strange way literature is made, painful embarrassment, long songs, improperly prepared eggs, and other things which I happen to think are important.” In conversation with Lemony/Daniel will be the charming and frequently hilarious Andrew Sean Greer, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Less. FREE, $5-10 donation (pre-registration required) REGISTRATION IS CLOSED—WE ENCOURAGE THOSE WHO HAVE TICKETS TO ARRIVE EARLY. WE WILL START LETTING IN WALK-UPS AT 7 PM.
Porchlight Storytelling: Out of the Fog? Friday, Oct. 15 · 8:00-10:00pm Verdi Club Co-presented by Fabulosa Books
As we all emerge from hibernation, the fog lifts and new stories must be told. Because what else can we do? The Bay Area’s long-running Porchlight storytelling series returns with uplifting-themed tales from West Coast authors. Featuring Charlie Jane Anders, Kelly Beardsley, Michelle Cernuto, Tracy Clark-Flory, Miah Jeffra, and Monique Jenkinson (aka Fauxnique). Co-hosted by Arline Klatte and Beth Lisick. Music by Marc Capelle. Doors at 7 pm, show at 8 pm. $25 adv / $30 door
Litquake Out Loud, our series curated by local BIPOC & LGBTQ+ writers, runs from 12:00-4:45pm and is accompanied by femme salsa band Agua Pura. All events are at Yerba Buena Gardens Esplanade.
Sponsored by Yerba Buena Gardens Festival & Yerba Buena Community Benefit District
Listen To Your Elders: Litquake’s Elder Project Showcase Saturday, Oct. 16 · 3–4:30pm Zoom Webinar
Join us for a featured reading by participants in Litquake's Elder Project. Now in its fourth year, the Elder Project brings creative writing and storytelling workshops to retirement communities across San Francisco and Oakland. Seniors participate in reading, storytelling, discussion, hands-on creative writing, and in-class sharing sessions to explore their own stories, the stories of their communities, and stories about the world from prompts and discussion, while using the techniques of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction that they've learned in classes. Share in the beauty of their words, hear their stories, listen to your elders. FREE, $5-10 suggested donation (pre-registration required)
Isabel Allende: The Soul of a Woman Saturday, Oct. 16 · 7:00–8:30pm Zoom Webinar
Co-presented by Cheltenham Festival of Literature
As a child, Isabel Allende watched her mother, abandoned by her husband, provide for her three small children without “resources or voice.” Isabel became a fierce and defiant little girl, determined to fight for the life her mother couldn’t have. “When I say that I was a feminist in kindergarten,” she recalls, “I am not exaggerating.” As a young woman coming of age in the late 1960s, she rode the second wave of feminism. Among a tribe of like-minded female journalists, Allende for the first time felt comfortable in her own skin, as they wrote “with a knife between our teeth” about women’s issues. She has seen what the movement has accomplished in the course of her lifetime. And over the course of three passionate marriages, she has learned how to grow as a woman while having a partner, when to step away, and the rewards of embracing one’s sexuality. Join bestselling author Isabel Allende, in conversation with Ingrid Rojas Contreras, as they discuss Isabel’s incredible life and career, and her newest release, The Soul of a Woman. FREE, $5-10 suggested donation (pre-registration required)
This is a pre-recorded event held on Zoom Webinar. There will be no author Q&A.
Danny Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood Sunday, Oct. 17 · 7:00–8:00pm Zoom Webinar Raised in an abusive home, actor Danny Trejo struggled with heroin addiction and stints in some of the country’s most notorious state prisons—including San Quentin and Folsom—from an early age, before starring in such modern classics as Heat, From Dusk till Dawn, and Machete. In his new memoir Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood (Atria Books), co-written with Donal Logue, Danny reveals how he managed the horrors of prison, rebuilt himself after finding sobriety and spirituality in solitary confinement, and draws inspiration from the adrenaline-fueled robbing heists of his past for the film roles that made him a household name. He also shares the painful contradictions in his personal life. Although he speaks everywhere from prison yards to NPR about his past to inspire countless others on their own road to recovery and redemption, he struggles to help his children with their personal battles with addiction, and to build relationships that last. In virtual conversation with Donal Logue and Joe Loya. FREE 5-$10 suggested donation (pre-registration required)
This is a pre-recorded event held on Zoom Webinar. There will be no author Q&A.
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. 2021 Dates: Oct. 7-23. www.litquake.org
Litquake is grateful for the support of the following funders who help make our programming possible. Institutional Giving: Alta Magazine, Amazon Literary Partnerships, California Arts Council, California College of the Arts, California Humanities, Center for the Art of Translation, City National Bank, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Grants for the Arts, HarperOne, Margaret and William R. Hearst III Foundation, Mary A Crocker Trust, Miner Anderson Family Foundation, Mystery Writers of America, Northern California Chapter, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, The Bernard Osher Foundation, Poetry Foundation, San Francisco Public Library, Swinerton Family Fund, University of San Francisco's MFA Program, Yerba Buena Community Benefit District, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Zellerbach Foundation. Individual Giving: Frances Dinkelspiel and Gary Wayne, Margaret and Will Hearst, Scott James and Gerald Cain, Nion McEvoy, Craig Newmark, and Nicole Miner and Robert Mailer Anderson. Media Sponsors: San Francisco Chronicle, 7x7, KQED, Bay Area Reporter, Johnny Funcheap.
