News & Reviews

WORD: Litquake underway, weeklong festival hits neighborhoods throughout San Francisco
Edited press Release

The 11th edition of the annual Litquake festival kicked off on Friday, Oct. 1 with Night of the Living Read, an opening cocktail schmoozer at SOMA club 111 Minna. Over the next week the festival features daily events throughout San Francisco. In addition to well-known roving parties like the notorious Litcrawl, events include author talks, discussions and even a film festival.

Following are highlight events during the weeklong Litquake festival. For more details and the full schedule checkout the Litquake website.

Sunday, Oct. 3

The weekend literary action continues with another afternoon of Off the Richter Scale, with events devoted to California history, visionary women writers from the Hedgebrook writers' colony, translated literature from around the world, and a special panel discussion on the future of publishing.  

Also on Sunday, the first-ever Lit Flicks film festival at the Embarcadero Cinema Center presents four unique films related to the written word, from an animated satirical take on Dante's Inferno, to a documentary (and in-person reading) of local poetry icon Jack Hirschman, the critically acclaimed Terry Zwigoff film Ghost World, and a special presentation of the Gary Snyder documentary The Practice of the Wild. Discussions to follow. Admission is $10 per film, click here to purchase in advance.

Sunday afternoon also brings the reprise of our popular Literary North Beach Walking Tour, which winds through the neighborhood and culminates at the Focus Gallery on Grant Street, for a lively 7 pm reading called The Literary Tour Stops Here. Featured authors include Chronicle executive editor Phil Bronstein, political comic Will Durst, music writer Ben Fong-Torres, poet Alan Kaufman, and fiction writer Ellen Sussman, with emcee Jody Weiner. Admission is free for both events.

Monday, Oct. 4

Authors Hang Ten at the Beach

On Monday Litquake brings you another first - Words and Waves: An Evening of Surf Lit, at the Beach Chalet on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. If you think that the surfing scene only includes dunderheaded slackers who can't put two sentences together, check out this gnarly - we mean stellar lineup of wave-riding authors: Krista Comer and Elizabeth Pepin, Doug Dorst, Daniel Duane, Thomas Farber, Steven Kotler, Michael Scott Moore, Matt Warshaw, and Jaimal Yogis, emceed by surfing environmental lawyer Mark Massara. With music, videos, and specialty Blue Angel Vodka cocktails! Admission is $5-$10 donation, which includes Happy Hour food all night long. Details.

Tuesday, Oct. 5

Tales of Hollywood Hell

Tuesday has a Litquake and Porchlight Storytelling collaboration Tales of Hollywood Hell, a special one-night show of true stories from inside the world's entertainment machine. Book options, screenplays, adaptations, celebrity, and just plain Hollywood weirdness, explained without notes or memorization! Featuring Exene Cervenka (from the band X), Michael Tolkin (The Player), Martin Cruz Smith (Gorky Park), Kristen Tracy (A Field Guide for Heartbreakers), Jack Boulware (Gimme Something Better), Joyce Maynard (To Die For), and Jill Soloway (The United States of Tara). Hosted by Porchlight's Arline Klatte and Beth Lisick, with book sales and signing to follow. Show begins at 8 pm at the Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave. Admission is $12 in advance, and $15 at the door.

Tickets available at cityboxoffice.com or by calling (415) 392-4400.

About Litquake

Litquake, San Francisco's annual literary festival, was founded by Bay Area writers in order to put on a week-long literary spectacle for book lovers, complete with cutting-edge panels, unique cross-media events, and hundreds of readings. Since its founding in 1999, the festival has presented more than 2,300 author appearances for an audience of over 53,000 in its lively and inclusive celebration of San Francisco's thriving contemporary literary scene. 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. The Litquake festival is a project of the Litquake Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit registered in the state of California. Dates: October 1-9, 2010.

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