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Tuesday, October 13
 

6:00pm PDT

Invitation | Abandonment: A Collective Poem in Assembly
Tuesday October 13, 2026 6:00pm - 7:30pm PDT
Et al.
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FREE, $10–15 suggested donation

Rooted in practices of care, vulnerability, and experimentation, this event asks: how do we dwell in the spaces between spaces? And what must we invite or abandon there to return more connected, understanding, and whole? Featuring readings from poets aracelis girmay, Ladan Khoddam-Khorasani, Gabriel Cortez, and Dora Prieto. Come listen, come help write a collaborative closing poem drawn from the room. Doors at 6:30pm.
Speakers
avatar for Ladan Khoddam-Khorasani لادن خدام خراسانی

Ladan Khoddam-Khorasani لادن خدام خراسانی

Ladan Khoddam-Khorasani (she/they) is a poet, educator and public health practitioner. She is interested in how we will use poetry and language to take care of one another.

لادن خدام خراسانی
avatar for Gabriel Cortez

Gabriel Cortez

Gabriel Cortez is a poet, educator, and organizer based in the Bay. His work has appeared in Poem-A-Day by The Academy of American Poets, The New York Times, The Rumpus, The Breakbeat Poets Anthology Volume 4, and elsewhere. A VONA, Poetry Incubator, and #BARS workshop alum, he has received awards from the Rainin Foundation, the Gerbode Foundation, National Performance Network, the University of California, Palette Poetry, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Gabriel is pursuing his MFA... Read More →
avatar for Dora Prieto

Dora Prieto

Dora Prieto is a Colombian-Canadian poet. She is currently a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from University of British Columbia, where she served as Poetry Editor of PRISM international. Her work explores migration, embodiment... Read More →
avatar for aracelis girmay

aracelis girmay

aracelis girmay is a poet, editor, and teacher. Her poems and essays have been published widely and can be found in e-flux, The Paris Review online, and The Poetry Review. Collaborations include an experiment in performance with musicians Ashleigh Gordon and Brittany J. Green as well... Read More →
Tuesday October 13, 2026 6:00pm - 7:30pm PDT
Et al. 2831a Mission St, San Francisco
  Poetry, FREE

6:30pm PDT

Tilar J. Mazzeo: The Sea Captain’s Wife
Tuesday October 13, 2026 6:30pm - 8:00pm PDT
Mechanics’ Institute
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$5 MI members / $15 gen public

Co-presented with Mechanics' Institute

New York Times bestseller Tilar J. Mazzeo brings us The Sea Captain's Wife, the true story of the first female captain of a merchant ship and her treacherous navigation of Antarctica's deadly waters. In 1856, at just nineteen years old, Mary Ann Patten led her crew through Drake's Passage as her husband, the former captain, lay deathly ill and the first mate agitated for mutiny. Set against the backdrop of the California Gold Rush and taking us to the brink of Antarctica, The Sea Captain's Wife draws on new archival research from nineteenth-century women’s maritime journals and on Mazzeo’s own expedition to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica in search of Mary Ann’s route. Doors at 6:00pm.
Speakers
avatar for Dr. Tilar J. Mazzeo

Dr. Tilar J. Mazzeo

Dr. Tilar J. Mazzeo is the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle bestselling author of numerous award-winning works of narrative nonfiction, including history and biography titles. Formerly the Clara C. Piper Associate Professor of English at Colby College and Professeur Associée in the Department of World Literatures at the University of Montreal... Read More →
Tuesday October 13, 2026 6:30pm - 8:00pm PDT
Mechanics’ Institute 57 Post St, San Francisco
  Nonfiction

7:00pm PDT

Asale Angel-Ajani: Fugitive Archives Launch
Tuesday October 13, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT
Pegasus Books
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FREE, $10–15 suggested donation

Co-presented with Pegasus Books

Asale Angel-Ajani will discuss Fugitive Archives: An American Family and the Myth of Belonging—an incisive, lyrical exploration of one family's history that radically overturns American myths about race, violence, and belonging. In conversation with Carvell Wallace, who has called Fugitive Archives “courageous, impressive, and deeply powerful.”
Moderators
avatar for Carvell Wallace

Carvell Wallace

Carvell Wallace is the best-selling author of the memoir Another Word For Love — a Kirkus Prize finalist, and Whiting Award winner. As a podcaster he has been nominated for a Peabody and won a Kaleidoscope Award in Journalism. His essays have appeared in the New York Times Maga... Read More →
Speakers
avatar for Asale Angel-Ajani

Asale Angel-Ajani

Asale Angel-Ajani is the author of Fugitive Archives: An American Family and the Myth of Belonging, a compelling examination of racial terror and American innocence through her multiracial, working-class family. She also wrote the novel A County You Can Leave and the nonfiction b... Read More →
Tuesday October 13, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT
Pegasus Books 2349 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA 97404
  Nonfiction, FREE

7:00pm PDT

NBCC Presents: The Author/Critic Dilemma
Tuesday October 13, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT
Page Street Co-Writing
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FREE, $10–15 suggested donation

Media sponsorship by Publishers Weekly
Co-presented with National Book Critics Circle & Cita Press

Writers who wear multiple hats, as Virginia Woolf did, will share what they’ve learned from the writer and literary critic extraordinaire as authors/poets/critics today. Their wide-ranging conversation will touch on everything from ethical considerations to the vulnerabilities of being deep in the creative writing process when your strong critical voice rears its ugly head. With May-lee Chai, Jane Ciabattari, Jonathan Leal, Greg Sarris, and moderator Iris Jamahl Dunkle, as well as special guest Jessi Haley, editor of Cita Press, publisher of Luminous Halo: Selected Writings by Virginia Woolf. Doors at 6:30pm.
Moderators
avatar for Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Iris Jamahl Dunkle is a poet, biographer, and scholar whose work challenges the male-centric narratives of the American West amplifying the often-overlooked voices of women. Her books include USA Today bestselling Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb (University of Calif... Read More →
Speakers
avatar for Jane Ciabattari

Jane Ciabattari

Jane Ciabattari is a critic, journalist, and author of Stealing the Fire, an Iowa Short Fiction finalist selected for the Dzanc rEprint series. Her short stories have been awarded three Pushcart Prize special mentions, an East Hampton Shorts award for originality, widely published and anthologized. A former president of the National Book Critics Circle... Read More →
avatar for Jonathan Leal

Jonathan Leal

Jonathan Leal is Associate Professor of English and Affiliated Faculty in the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. Born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, Leal’s transdisciplinary work spans books, editorial projects, albums, and interdisciplinary... Read More →
avatar for May-lee Chai

May-lee Chai

May-lee Chai is an educator, critic, and author of twelve books of fiction, nonfiction, and translation, including her new book of essays, My Hungry Ghosts: Essays and Incantations, and the short story collections, Useful Phrases for Immigrants, recipient of an American Book Awar... Read More →
avatar for Greg Sarris

Greg Sarris

Greg Sarris is the author of Grand Avenue, an award-winning collection of short stories, which he adapted for an HBO miniseries of the same name and co-executive produced with Robert Redford. His second novel, Watermelon Nights, was adapted for a play by the Santa Rosa Community... Read More →
avatar for Jessi Haley

Jessi Haley

Jessi Haley is the editorial director for feminist open access publishing project Cita Press. She has edited several new editions of work by essential women writers of the past, including writers who have been long neglected. She is the author of the monthly newsletter Cita Press Bulletin, which... Read More →
Tuesday October 13, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT
Page Street Co-Writing 297 Page St, San Francisco
  Nonfiction, FREE

7:00pm PDT

Which Side? A Protest Music Teach-Out
Tuesday October 13, 2026 7:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
KQED Commons
Buy Tickets/RSVP
$30 advance/$35 at door

Co-presented with KQED Live

Every movement has a soundtrack. Hear how protest songs become anthems that inspire resistance, build solidarity, and propel social change with a special San Francisco edition of Which Side?: A Protest Music Teach-Out. Acclaimed artists Diana Gameros, The Sam Chase, and Marcus Shelby join host James Sullivan to perform and unpack classic and original protest songs and celebrate the Bay Area's rich tradition of resistance, activism, and galvanizing music. Doors at 6:00pm.


Moderators
avatar for James Sullivan

James Sullivan

James Sullivan is a longtime arts reporter for the Boston Globe, formerly with the San Francisco Chronicle. He is the author of several books, including Which Side Are You On?: 20th Century American History in 100 Protest Songs, and host of the monthly concert series Which Side: A Protest Music Teach-Out. He is the program director for the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival, teaches journalism at Emerson College, and co-founded Lit Crawl Boston... Read More →
Speakers
avatar for The Sam Chase

The Sam Chase

Both lively and energetic, soulful and thoughtful, The Sam Chase’s songs range from the gruff late-night punk rock drinking songs of his former life, to songs the probe the edges of our purpose on this planet and what may lie beyond. It is unapologetic while also inclusive in how Sam’s lyrics tap into the thoughts we all share yet sometimes... Read More →
avatar for Marcus Shelby

Marcus Shelby

Marcus Anthony Shelby is a composer, bassist, bandleader, and educator who currently lives in San Francisco,
California. His work focuses on the history, present, and future of African American lives, social movements, and music education. In 1990, Marcus Shelby received the Charles Mingus Scholarship to attend Cal Arts and study composition with James Newton and bass with Charlie Haden... Read More →
avatar for Diana Gameros

Diana Gameros

Diana Gameros is a singer, guitarist, pianist, and composer, a lead teaching artist with the Lullaby Project, and a core member of the Immigrant Orchestra. Born and raised in Juárez, México, she immigrated to the United States as a teenager, carrying with her a deep love for music... Read More →
Tuesday October 13, 2026 7:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
KQED Commons 2601 Mariposa ST, San Francisco, CA
  Music

7:30pm PDT

While you were novel-ing, I studied the blade: A Celebration of the Short Story
Tuesday October 13, 2026 7:30pm - 9:00pm PDT
American Bookbinders Museum
Buy Tickets/RSVP
Pay-what-you-can for guaranteed seat; FREE to walk-ups (space depending)

Co-presented with American Bookbinders Museum

A notoriously precise and difficult form, the short story occupies an odd place in arts & letters in 2026. Left mostly by the wayside by the publishing industry at large, the story still holds a prominent place in our biggest magazines and workshop culture. Local purveyors of the craft Rucy Cui, Cristina Fríes, and William Lohier read from their celebrated work and discuss the form's place in today's publishing/reading culture. Moderated by Litquake Artistic Director Graham Todd. Doors at 7:00pm. 

Moderators
avatar for Graham Todd

Graham Todd

Graham Todd is a fiction writer and the Artistic Director of Litquake, San Francisco's Literary Festival. He studied literature and religion at Stanford and received his MFA from Bowling Green. His writing has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Southampton Review, Notre Dame Review, Epiphany... Read More →
Speakers
avatar for Rucy Cui

Rucy Cui

Rucy Cui is a writer from San Jose, California, who has also called Texas, Wyoming, and the south of France home. Her stories appear in The Georgia Review and other publications, where they’ve been recognized with the Barry Hannah Prize and the Bennington Fiction Prize. Her nonfiction appears in Lonely Planet. A 2024–26 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, she has received support from Hedgebrook, Monson Arts, Ucross Fo... Read More →
avatar for Cristina Fríes

Cristina Fríes

Cristina Fríes is a Colombian-American fiction writer based in San Francisco, CA. Her work engages with the literary “unreal,” including magical realism, surrealism, fabulism, horror, and the gothic, often exploring women’s experiences and feminist themes. She has written a... Read More →
avatar for William Lohier

William Lohier

William Lohier is a PhD Student at Berkeley from Brooklyn, New York. His short story collection, Black Star Line, is forthcoming from Simon and Schuster in March 2027.
Tuesday October 13, 2026 7:30pm - 9:00pm PDT
American Bookbinders Museum 355 Clementina St, San Francisco
  Fiction, Pay What You Can
 

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