FREE and Cheap Litquake Events All Week Long and All Over Town
A million monkeys at a million keyboards and such...
We may have missed last night’s FREE Night of the Living Read event that kicked off this year’s Litquake Literary Festival in San Francisco, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have plenty more opportunities to mingle with writers, novelists, poets and various other wordsmiths during the rest of the week. Unfortunately, the big-name marquee event: the Salute to Lawrence Ferlinghetti with Patti Smith (!), Tom Waits (!!!) and Winona Ryder (what?) sold out in like half an hour. The majority of the remaining events though are free, so it’ll be tough to pick a favorite but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try anyway.
Saturday, October 2nd: (That’s today, dummy) Dad Lit – When Chick Lit grew up, we got Mom Lit. On the other hand, some of our great contemporary male writers are growing up and starting families instead of spending their old age drinking themselves into oblivion on some remote island or mountain town. Thus, we have Dad Lit: “fiction and nonfiction about what it means to be a father, and how fathers feel about and deal with their offspring.”
Sunday, October 3rd: Lit Flicks – The Literary Film Festival – All day Sunday, the Embarcadero Center Theater will be showing literary films like the 2007 adaptation of Dante’s Inferno and the Graphic Novel-to-Film adaptation Ghost World, directed by local Terry Zwigoff and starring Scarlett Johansson, Thora Birch, and Steve Buscemi. Screenings are 10 bucks each. 1pm – 7pm
Alternative Sunday Activity: The Literary Tour Stops Here – after the Literary North Beach Walking tour wraps up, pop in to Focus Gallery on Grant Ave at 7pm to hear some “wisdom, humor, and a dose of reality” from notable folks like the Chronicle’s Editor at Large Phil Bronstein and political satirist Will Durst. Should be a fun chance to hear these guys talk in a casual setting. (PRO-TIP: Be sure to ask Bronstein for some Hunter Thompson stories.)
Monday, October 4th: New Writers Night: Authors Reveal All & How to Navigate the New World of Publishing – this one is especially relevant to those of us that have tried everything from blogging to self-publishing with a xerox machine to get our work noticed. The panel of writers (all but one with only a single published book under their belts) will chat about how got from manuscript to retail shelves. FREE, at the Foundation Center, 312 Sutter Street, but RSVP is required.
Tuesday, October 5th: McSweeney’s Fall Harvest – New authors who are soon to be published by McSweeney’s Books will be reading from their works at the Jewish Community Center at 7pm.
Wednesday, October 6th: Bawdy Storytelling – 8pm at The Blue Macaw in the Mission. Our own Stuart made an appearance at this event last month. This month’s lineup includes our friend Johnny Funcheap along with author Stephen Elliot, beatboxer/performer Tim Barsky and others. $10 at the door.
Thursday, October 7th: Litquake Bites: From noon – 1pm at Book Passage and Litquake will be teaming up to bring you FREE tastings of some of the great food in the Ferry Building. They make a note of including Cowgirl Creamery. Hope you like cheese!
Friday, October 8th: Life, Death, Love, Lies…and Cupcakes!: an all-memoir Women’s night at 6:30 at Hotel Monaco. There’s a bar and there will be ladies. $5-10 donations, 21+
Saturday, October 9th: The Infamous Lit Crawl! – Over 300 authors will be appearing in three hours throughout the Mission. And it’s all FREE. It happens in three phases so check the schedule.
For the full lineup of events, check out the full schedule on Litquake.org
