Litquake 2026: Full Schedule

7:00pm PDT

Changing Gender: Susan Stryker (SOLD OUT)

Thursday September 10, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT

$15 adv / $20 door

Co-presented with the Bay Area Lesbian Archives

What might our lives look like without the limiting assumptions that gender, as a concept, imposes across the political spectrum? In Changing Gender, the leading trans scholar Susan Stryker invites readers to ride along on her lifelong quest to uncover what gender means and does, tracing the gender concept's roots in grammar and how it transformed into a battleground of the culture wars. From the origins of “Yankee Doodle” to acid trips in Joshua Tree National Park, from nineteenth-century phrenology to present-day anti-trans conspiracy theorists, Stryker finds surprising places to tune in to the origins, idiosyncrasies, and generative possibilities of the gender concept. Along the way, she weaves stories drawn from her lifetime as a pathbreaking historian, filmmaker, activist, and founding figure of transgender studies. In conversation with award-winning filmmaker Cheryl Dunye. Doors at 6:30pm

Moderators

Cheryl Dunye

Cheryl Dunye is a Liberian-American filmmaker, director, and producer based in Oakland whose work explores Black queer identity, history, and cultural memory. Her narratives are peppered with deconstructive elements such as characters addressing the camera and making ironic references to the... Read More →

Speakers

Susan Stryker

Susan Stryker’s historical research, theoretical writings, media-making, activism, and academic field-building activities have helped shape the conversation on trans issues since the early 1990s. Stryker retired from the University of Arizona in 2020 and currently holds a distinguished visiting... Read More →

Thursday September 10, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT
Oakstop California Ballroom 1536 Franklin Street, Oakland

Nonfiction

City Oakland

7:00pm PDT

Claudia Rankine: Triage

Saturday October 10, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT

First Presbyterian Church of Oakland Fellowship Hall

Buy Tickets/RSVP

Pay-what-you-can for guaranteed seating; FREE to walk-ups (space depending)

Sponsored by Alta Journal
Co-presented with First Presbyterian Church of Oakland

Poet Claudia Rankine’s work is unfailingly expansive—broadening readers’ understanding of race, social conscience, and the limits of genre. Triage, Rankine’s first book since the groundbreaking “American” trilogy (whose centerpiece, Citizen, was a 2023 Alta California Book Club selection), again defies boundaries. Here Rankine traces a decades-long friendship between two women—the narrator and the theorist—following their evolving relationship against a backdrop of ever-more-turbulent times. Here Rankine creates a politically urgent, uncategorizable mix of essay, criticism, memoir, and photography that Booklist calls “Startlingly original ... A remarkable, soul-stirring work.” In conversation with Cathy Park Hong, whose award-winning nonfiction book Minor Feelings engages intimately with Rankine’s ideas. The Alta Journal team will be on hand to introduce you to upcoming California Book Club selections, and we’ll kick things off with performances by 2026 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Isaiah Kahn and Vice OYPL Isabel Shen. Doors at 6:30pm.

Moderators

Cathy Park Hong

Cathy Park Hong’s New York Times bestselling book of creative nonfiction, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, was published in Spring 2020 Minor Feelings was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography, and earned her recogni... Read More →

Speakers

Claudia Rankine

Claudia Rankine is the author of nine books, including Just Us: An American Conversation, Citizen: An American Lyric and Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric; three plays including HELP, which premiered in March 2020 (The Shed, NYC), and The White Card, which premiered in... Read More →

Lina Norris-Raman

Thirteen-year-old Lina Norris-Raman is an 8th grader at Edna Brewer Middle School. Lina has been writing since she was 7 years old. Poetry is her refuge from the universe. At times, she feels like poetry isn't just something she does, but something she’s made of. It shapes how she thinks, how she feels, how she ex... Read More →

Isaiah Kahn

Isaiah Kahn, the 2026 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate, is a sixteen-year-old writer at Oakland School for the Arts. Poetry is his main focus, and what gives him the most confidence. It allows him to not get stuck on small things, at least not by accident—if he ever does, maybe it’s poetic... Read More →

Isabel Shen

Seventeen-year-old Isabel Shen, 2026 Oakland Vice Youth Poet Laureate, is a junior at Head Royce. She is an Oakland poet, oral history advocate, and the daughter of a Hong Kong immigrant. Through her poetry, she aims to amplify the voices of Oakland’s rich and diverse immigrant community and to change the way thei... Read More →

Saturday October 10, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT
First Presbyterian Church of Oakland Fellowship Hall 2619 Broadway, Oakland

Nonfiction, Pay What You Can

City Oakland

1:00pm PDT

The Savage Mind: An American Legacy with David Treuer

Sunday October 11, 2026 1:00pm - 2:30pm PDT

Grace Cathedral

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FREE, $10-$15 suggested donation

Co-presented with Grace Cathedral’s The Forum

“Unlike anything I have read…this book will make a mark.” —Percival Everett, Pulitzer Prize– and National Book Award–winning author. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the January 6 insurrection, as America seemed to be falling apart, New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist David Treuer decided to hold himself and his family together the only way he knew how: he sat down to write a letter. Ranging from Treuer’s upbringing on the Leech Lake reservation in Minnesota to the experiences of his parents, a Jewish Holocaust refugee and the first American Indigenous woman judge, The Savage Mind reveals the terrifying essence of our nation: frontier violence, which has defined our country, our culture, and our very selves. In conversation with Grace Cathedral’s The Very Rev. Malcolm Clemens Young. The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. Doors at 12:30pm.

Moderators

Malcolm Clemens Young

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau, The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and The Savage Mind, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffin... Read More →

Speakers

David Treuer

David Treuer is Ojibwe from Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. His work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly, and Harper's. He divides his time between his home on the Leech Lake Reservation and Los Angeles, where... Read More →

Sunday October 11, 2026 1:00pm - 2:30pm PDT
Grace Cathedral 1100 California St, San Francisco

Nonfiction, FREE

City San Francisco

2:00pm PDT

Lesbians Are Elsewhere: Writing the For All Gaze Archive

Sunday October 11, 2026 2:00pm - 4:00pm PDT

Clio’s

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FREE, $10-$15 suggested donation

This summer, lesbian and queer writers of the Bay wrote in response to the Oakland-based F.A.G. Archive (For All Gaze Archive), a personal collection of queer publications and flyers from 1970–2000s created and run by Sasha Fuentes. Hear our writers perform their responses and hang around to peruse select publications from the archive pulled for this special viewing. Featuring Elena Gross, Sloane Holzer, and curator Jaelynn Walls. Doors at 1:30pm.

Speakers

Jaelynn Walls

Jaelynn Walls is an Oakland-based curator, administrator and author. Their novel The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay (Levine Querido, 2023) was named a Publishers Weekly Best of the Year YA novel. They have written for Teen Vogue, Artsy, Google Arts and Culture, and was a 2022 Lambda... Read More →

Sloane Holzer

Sloane Holzer is a writer and artist living in Oakland, California. Her written and creative work has been published in BOMB, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and them. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Visual & Critical Studies from the California College of the... Read More →

Elena Gross

Elena Gross (she/they) is an independent writer and curator living in Oakland, CA. She specializes in representations of identity in fine art, photography, and popular media. Her research has been centered around conceptual and material abstractions of the body in the work of Black... Read More →

Sunday October 11, 2026 2:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Clio’s 353 Grand Ave, Oakland

Nonfiction, FREE

City Oakland

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

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

City San Francisco

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

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

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

City Berkeley

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

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

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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

City San Francisco

6:30pm PDT

Writing The Body: Sports and Identity

Wednesday October 14, 2026 6:30pm - 8:00pm PDT

The Treeline, Sports Basement Bryant

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FREE, $10-15 suggested donation

Former track star and pro-MMA fighter Jenny Liou and outdoor adventure sports veteran Yi Shun Lai–both writers as well as athletes– dig deep into the process of writing about identities and bodies shaped by their dedication to sport. Who are you, when you can no longer compete, or when competing is no longer enough? Are some extremes irrecoverable once they’ve been reached? How might one heal, or insist on being more than just a winner? What does it mean to compete in white and male-dominated sports as Asian American athletes, and how do issues of race and gender play into dominant cultural narratives around individual athletic achievement? In conversation with author and former pro-wrestler Michael Copperman. Doors at 6:00pm.

Moderators

Michael Copperman

Michael Copperman is an assistant professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Cultures at Michigan State University. His work has appeared in The Oxford-American, Guernica, The Sun, Creative Nonfiction, Boston Review, Salon, Gulf Coast, Triquarterly, Kenyon Review and Co... Read More →

Speakers

Jenny Liou

Jenny Liou is a jiu jitsu black belt, retired MMA fighter, an English professor, the dean of Business and Social Science at Pierce College, and the author of the poetry collection Muscle Memory (Kaya Press 2022).

Yi Shun Lai

Yi Shun Lai is the author of A Suffragist’s Guide to the Antarctic, a young adult historical adventure. Her writing has appeared in Brevity, Shondaland, and more; and she teaches in the MFA program at Bay Path University and at Claremont McKenna College. She is also the author... Read More →

Wednesday October 14, 2026 6:30pm - 8:00pm PDT
The Treeline, Sports Basement Bryant 1590 Bryant St, San Francisco

Nonfiction, FREE

City San Francisco

7:00pm PDT

West Coast Beat: The SF Roots of Rolling Stone

Wednesday October 14, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT

Buy Tickets/RSVP

$15 (includes museum admission)

Sponsored by Reed Schmidt
Co-presented with Counterculture Museum

Today’s shiny exteriors and inscrutable billboards can’t entirely obliterate San Francisco’s defining role in literature, activism, visual arts, and, yes, music. That storied history includes the 1967 founding of Rolling Stone. As both Peter Richardson and Charles Ponce de Leon relate in recent books, for a decade (before decamping for NYC), the magazine was at the vanguard of West Coast counterculture, launching dozens of journalists’ careers and setting new standards for writing about music and culture. Where better, then, to reunite folks with first-hand knowledge of those SF roots, including Ben Fong-Torres and Marianne Partridge, than at the new Counterculture Museum? Music journalist James Sullivan will take us back in time, as together we compile a scrapbook of the music, writing, and memories that defined the magazine—and the moment. Doors at 6:30pm.

Moderators

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

Ben Fong-Torres

Ben Fong-Torres was an editor and writer at Rolling Stone (and a real-life character in Almost Famous). While at the magazine, from 1969 into the '80s, he was a Sunday DJ on KSAN-FM. An Oakland native, he has published ten books, including his memoirs, The Rice Room: Growing Up C... Read More →

Marinanne Partridge

Marianne Partridge is the Editor in Chief and cofounder of the Santa Barbara Independent, which published its first issue on Thanksgiving Day in 1986. The Independent publishes 30,000 print issues weekly, and our online publication is daily, with 300,000 monthly readers. Before m... Read More →

Charles L. Ponce de Leon

Charles L. Ponce de Leon is a cultural historian based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has taught at Princeton University, Purchase College, and Cal State Long Beach. A specialist in the history of mass media and the commercial culture industries, he has written books on the history of celebrity, television... Read More →

Peter Richardson

Peter Richardson has written critically acclaimed books about Rolling Stone magazine, Hunter S. Thompson, the Grateful Dead, Ramparts magazine, and radical author and editor Carey McWilliams. His essays have appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, Los Angeles Times, San Francis... Read More →

Wednesday October 14, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT

Nonfiction

City San Francisco

7:30pm PDT

Jon Ronson: Adventures in a World of Unraveling Men

Wednesday October 14, 2026 7:30pm - 9:00pm PDT

JCCSF Kanbar Hall

Buy Tickets/RSVP

$20 gen admission / $42 with book

Media sponsorship by 48 Hills
Co-presented with JCCSF

From the bestselling author of The Psychopath Test and So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed comes The Castle, a darkly comic trip to the furthest reaches of the masculinity crisis. His only child is lured to a mysterious castle in the forests of New England late one night, sending Jon Ronson on an extraordinary adventure into a dark world of unmoored men desperately searching for purpose and control. What exactly is “Princessing”? Why did a lawn care influencer dress as a baby in front of billions of online viewers? And, more pressingly, why are two recently released murderers on their way to pay Jon a visit? Find out at Jon’s one-man show drawing on his trademark brand of humor, psychological insight, and unrivaled prescience. Doors at 7:00pm.

Speakers

Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson is an internationally-bestselling author, journalist, and filmmaker whose books have been translated into over thirty languages. His titles include THE CASTLE: Adventures in a World of Unraveling Men, So You've Been Publicly Shamed, The Psychopath Test, and Them: Adv... Read More →

Wednesday October 14, 2026 7:30pm - 9:00pm PDT
JCCSF Kanbar Hall 3200 California St, San Francisco

Nonfiction

City San Francisco

6:30pm PDT

Freedom: Essays with Zinzi Clemmons

Thursday October 15, 2026 6:30pm - 8:00pm PDT

Mechanics’ Institute

Buy Tickets/RSVP

$5 MI members / $15 gen public

Co-presented with Museum of the African Diaspora & Mechanics’ Institute

Join Zinzi Clemmons in conversation with Faith Adiele on Clemmons's latest essay collection, Freedom, a deft mix of memoir, family history, criticism, and reportage, drawing on a vast range of material from Joan Didion to James Baldwin, political analysis and history to Clemmons’s own experiences across the globe. In elegiac prose, Clemmons trains her discerning eye on American institutions and mythologies, probing the bounds of liberation and autonomy to interrogate our most enduring quest—the relentless pursuit of freedom for all. Doors at 6:00pm.

Moderators

Faith Adiele

I'm the author of Meeting Faith, an award-winning account of ordaining as Thailand’s first Black Buddhist nun that is widely taught, is the subject of multiple studies, and regularly appears on essential travel listicles. I am also author of four hybrid chapbooks/memoirs about my Nigerian/Nordic/American heritage... Read More →

Speakers

Zinzi Clemmons

Zinzi Clemmons' novel What We Lose was a finalist for the NBCC John Leonard First Book Prize and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. A National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree, she was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. A cofounder of the literary journal Apogee, she lives... Read More →

Thursday October 15, 2026 6:30pm - 8:00pm PDT
Mechanics’ Institute 57 Post St, San Francisco

Nonfiction

City San Francisco

7:00pm PDT

A 22nd-Century Conservation Ethos for California

Thursday October 15, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT

KALW

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FREE, $10-$15 suggested donation

Sponsored by Heyday Books
Co-presented with KALW

California’s landscapes have long been shaped by deep relationships between people and place. But that relationship has changed dramatically over time, especially with the rise of European American settlement and the erasure of Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Panelists Obi Kaufmann, creator of the California Field Atlas series; Laura Cunningham, award-winning author of A State of Change; and earth scientist and professional mountain biker Dillon Osleger examine how modern society has grown increasingly estranged from the natural world. Together, they imagine a new conservation ethos—one rooted in restoration, resilience, and reciprocity—and ask what it would take for Californians to leave the state healthier, more biodiverse, and more ecologically whole at the end of the 21st century than at its beginning. Moderated by Leslie Carol Roberts. Doors at 6:30pm.

Moderators

Leslie Carol Roberts

Leslie Carol Roberts is a writer, full professor, and interdisciplinary educator passionate about storytelling, community design, and the power of creativity to address urgent global challenges. She is President of the Northern California Fulbright Association board and has designed and taught graduate... Read More →

Speakers

Dillon Osleger

Dillon Osleger is a geoscientist, professional trail builder, public lands policy analyst, and author of Trail Work (Heyday Books, 2026). Dillon's work focuses on the invisible infrastructure of the American West, from snow science to trail restoration to reforestation. A leading voice in public lands advocacy, his projects have highlighted the intersectional nature of trails, climate, history... Read More →

Laura Cunningham

Laura Cunningham is a life-long artist-naturalist raised in the East Bay, author of A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California (Heyday: 2010), an in-depth exploration of the historical ecology of California. Using field sketches, oil paintings, and explorations around the state, she imagines a past of abundant wildlife shaped by fire, floods, and tribal agency... Read More →

Obi Kaufmann

Obi Kaufmann is an award-winning author of six best-selling books. Most famously, his 2017 book The California Field Atlas, recontextualized popular ideas about ecology, biodiversity, and geography. His subsequent books—The State of Water: Understanding California’s Most Prec... Read More →

Thursday October 15, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT
KALW 220 Montgomery St, Suite 100, San Francisco, CA 94104

Nonfiction, FREE

City San Francisco

4:30pm PDT

Peter King: The Game

Friday October 16, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm PDT

The Community Room, Sports Basement Berkeley

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Pay-what-you-can for guaranteed seat; $45 for guaranteed seat with discounted book; FREE to walk-ups (space depending)

Are you ready for some football? Kick off a weekend of big games—including Cal’s home matchup with Wake Forest and culminating with the 49ers on Monday Night Football—by joining fellow fans and scholars of the game for an afternoon with award-winning sports columnist Peter King. For 40+ years, King unpacked the NFL for countless readers and mentored dozens of sportswriters along the way. Now, in The Game, King combines an in-depth history of the league with his signature vivid storytelling, thorough reporting, and keen understanding of the sport. Troy Aikman points out, “Peter King has stories no one else can tell.” King will share many of them with us, in conversation with Carmen Policy, one of the architects of the Niners' glory days. Doors at 4:00pm.

Moderators

Carmen Policy

Carmen Policy’s first career was that of a trial lawyer providing an opportunity to help defend and promote the interests of his clients in a competitive and dramatic setting. He expanded his efforts into the NFL in 1979 while still maintaining a successful career in law. Carmen then joined... Read More →

Speakers

Peter King

Peter King wrote for Sports Illustrated from 1989 to 2018, including the weekly multiple-page column Monday Morning Quarterback. He is the author of five books, including Inside the Helmet and The Game. He has been named National Sportswriter of the Year three times. He lives in Brooklyn, New York... Read More →

Friday October 16, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm PDT
The Community Room, Sports Basement Berkeley 2727 Milvia St, Berkeley, CA 94703

Nonfiction, Pay What You Can

City Berkeley

7:30pm PDT

Irregular Feedback: Writers on Music

Friday October 16, 2026 7:30pm - 9:00pm PDT

Make-Out Room

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$12 adv / $15 door

"Music makes the people come together... yeah." That's right, Madonna. You said it. So astute. Join cultural critic, essayist, and curator Micheal Foulk (Queer Film Theory 101) for an evening of writers writing about music! Inspired by the perpetual beat inside us all and the iconic music criticism and archival work of writer Hanif Abdurraqib, Michael-Vincent D'Anella-Mercanti, Kai Gault, Joan Granite, Brittany Newell, and Kochina Rude read work written exclusively for tonight, a literary deep dive into our favorite albums, genres, and musical artists of the past 60 years. Doors at 6:30pm.

Speakers

Michael-Vincent D'Anella-Mercanti

Michael-Vincent is a writer from South Philly living in San Francisco. His work explores queerness, labor, and cities. He's a big library guy.

Brittany Newell

Brittany Newell is a writer and performer living in San Francisco. Her debut novel “Oola” was published by Henry Holt in 2017 at the age of 21. Her second novel “Soft Core” was published in 2025 by FSG in the US, UK and France. Her third novel “Blue Movie” will be published... Read More →

Kochina Rude

Cary Escovedo is an internationally recognized harm reduction advocate, drag entertainer, communicable disease specialist, and performance artist living in Oakland, California. Doing business as drag queen “Kochina Rude,” he uses this persona as a vehicle for artistic expression... Read More →

Micheal Foulk

Micheal Foulk is a non-binary queer comedian, writer, and construct thriving in Oakland, California. They are the curator and host of the film screening series Queer Film Theory 101 produced in collaboration with Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas with screenings across the country. Michea... Read More →

Joan Granite

Joan Granite (she/her) is a DJ, producer, and is a devoted presence in the Bay Area underground. Her sets balance euphoria with introspection, held together by emotional intentionality and unshakeable optimism. Every set is a communion, connecting the senses between sweat, spirit, and sound... Read More →

Friday October 16, 2026 7:30pm - 9:00pm PDT
Make-Out Room 3225 22nd St, San Francisco

Nonfiction

Age Limit 21+
City San Francisco

2:00pm PDT

Dorothy Lazard: Behind the Desk at the Main

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:00pm - Sunday October 18, 2026 4:00pm PDT

Museum of the African Diaspora

Buy Tickets/RSVP

FREE, $10-$15 suggested donation

Co-presented with Museum of the African Diaspora

Dorothy Lazard’s celebrated 2023 memoir What You Don’t Know Will Make a Whole New World traced the beloved Oakland librarian’s coming of age through books. Now she’s back to tell more of her story, relating her experiences over two decades at the Oakland Public Library. Along the way, she makes a powerful case for the essential role of the public library as a pillar of democratic ideals, and she crafts a tribute to the library workers who have devoted their careers to supporting intellectual freedom as well as to the countless Oaklanders whom she had the privilege of serving. Lazard will be joined in conversation by Pendarvis Harshaw, community engagement reporter at KQED. Doors at 1:30pm.

Moderators

Pendarvis Harshaw

Pendarvis Harshaw is a journalist from Oakland, covering arts and culture in the Bay Area for KQED.

Speakers

Dorothy Lazard

Dorothy Lazard worked as a librarian for nearly forty years. In 2000 she joined the staff at the Oakland Main Library where she provided reference services and programming for Oakland's diverse community. From 2009 until her retirement in 2021, she was the head librarian of OPL's Oakland History... Read More →

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:00pm - Sunday October 18, 2026 4:00pm PDT
Museum of the African Diaspora 685 Mission St, San Francisco

Nonfiction, FREE

City San Francisco

3:00pm PDT

Menopause Extravaganza: The Science and Culture of a Subject No One Used to Want to Talk About

Sunday October 18, 2026 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT

Gray Area Theater

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$10 advance / $15 door

Co-presented with Gray Area Theater

Menopause, a natural consequence of aging, has for centuries been alternately ignored and belittled, seen mostly through a male lens of bafflement, repugnance, and boilerplate misogyny. Now, however, a growing body of women and their doctors are rejecting this traditional view, developing new therapies and strategies as well as ways to appreciate the new freedoms it can offer. This energizing (and overdue) afternoon features Dr. Louann Brizendine, author of The Female Brain, reading from her forthcoming Your Brain on Menopause and joining other panelists in a conversation led by Keli Dailey: Dr. Sarah Isquick (a colleague of Dr. Sally Greenwald, featured in the recent New Yorker article “The Billionaires’ Vagina Club”), psychiatrist Dr. Alecia Greenlee, and menopause doula Lasara Firefox Allen, author of Genderqueer Menopause. Select performers from The Menopause Monologues® will kick off the event.Bring your friends for a conversation-sparking afternoon. Doors at 2:30pm.

Moderators

Keli Dailey

Keli Dailey is a journalist, comedian, and teacher whose work explores democracy, midlife, and the absurdities of modern life. She created the comedy-news series News Hangover and founded MenoPower, a storytelling project that uses humor to tackle menopause and aging. A former John S. Knight Jou... Read More →

Speakers

Lasara Firefox Allen

Lasara Firefox Allen, MSW (they/them/Mx.) is a trans, genderqueer author, educator, and certified menopause doula and coach. They are the founder and CEO of Genderqueer Futures, a global education and coaching practice specializing in gender-affirming menopause care for providers and gender-expansive... Read More →

Louann Brizendine

Dr Louann Brizendine is a UCSF clinical professor, Yale, Harvard, and UCSF trained in medicine and neuropsychiatry; founder of the UCSF Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic; author of the NYT bestselling The Female Brain and upcoming Your Brain on Menopause.... Read More →

Sarah Isquick

Dr. Sarah Isquick is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and Menopause Society Certified Practitioner who founded her San Francisco concierge practice on a simple belief: women deserve unhurried, deeply personal care from a physician who truly knows them. She specializes in hormonal healt... Read More →

Alecia Greenlee

Alecia Greenlee, MD, MPH, is a reproductive psychiatrist, speaker, and founder of Bloom & Build Integrative Psychiatry in Campbell, California. Board-certified in adult and consultation-liaison psychiatry, she trained at UCSF, Harvard's Cambridge Health Alliance, and the University of Chicago... Read More →

Rebecca Foust

Rebecca Foust’s books include You Are Leaving the American Sector: Love Poems (Blue Light Press 2026) and Only (Four Way Books 2022). Her poems appear widely in venues including The Slowdown, Iowa Review, Ploughshares, Poem-a-Day, POETRY, and Southern Review, winning the James Dickey, New Ohio Review, Pablo Neruda, James Hearst, and Poetry International prizes in recent years... Read More →

The Menopause Monologues®

The Menopause Monologues® is an acclaimed theatrical production that combines powerful storytelling, education, and community engagement to elevate conversations around menopause and women’s health. Following sold-out runs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City, and with a Seattle production p... Read More →

Sunday October 18, 2026 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Gray Area Theater 2665 Mission St, San Francisco 94110

Nonfiction

City San Francisco

7:00pm PDT

Woof: A Celebration of Our Canine Companions

Monday October 19, 2026 7:00pm - 9:00pm PDT

Page Street Co-Writing

Buy Tickets/RSVP

FREE, $10-$15 suggested donation

Co-presented with LitCamp and Page Street

San Francisco is famously home to more dogs than kids, so let's celebrate our love for all things canine with a reading of fifteen super-short pieces about our furry, tail-wagging friends. There will be dog treats from local suppliers, plus complimentary Prosecco, wine, and fancy nonalcoholic drinks. Note: Much as we would love to see your canine companion, due to the (very) crowded nature of these events, we have to regretfully request they remain at home. The event will be emceed by LitCamp founder Janis Cooke Newman. Doors at 6:30pm.

Moderators

Janis Cooke Newman

Janis Cooke Newman is the author of a memoir and two award-winning novels. She is also the founder of LitCamp, as well as Page Street Co-working for Writers.

Monday October 19, 2026 7:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
Page Street Co-Writing 297 Page St, San Francisco

Nonfiction, FREE

City San Francisco

6:00pm PDT

Living in the Shadow of Silicon Valley

Tuesday October 20, 2026 6:00pm - 7:30pm PDT

SFPL Main Branch, Koret Auditorium

Buy Tickets/RSVP

FREE, $10–$15 suggested donation

Sponsored by Mission Local
Co-presented with Bay Area Book Festival and San Francisco Public Library

Sure, Silicon Valley’s wealth, power, and technological innovation loom large over the entire Bay Area—but what about the rest of us? Tonight we’ll hear from three authors who can share deep knowledge of Silicon Valley’s effects on Bay Area housing, economic inequality, urban planning, and public policy. Investigative journalist Brian Barth (Front Street: Resistance and Rebirth in the Tent Cities of Techlandia), anthropologist Manissa Maharawal (Anti-Eviction: The Fight Against Tech-Led Gentrification in San Francisco), and journalist Jonathan Weber (City on the Edge: Technology, Politics, and the Fight for the Soul of San Francisco) will be joined by architect and urban planner Vinita Goyal. Doors at 5:30pm.

Moderators

Vinita Goyal

Vinita Goyal is trained as an architect and urban planner and advances regenerative and restorative models that center the leadership of low income communities of color. She serves as Community Investment Director of Full Spectrum Labs, a US-based think tank, incubator, and accelerator, and as... Read More →

Speakers

Brian Barth

Brian Barth is an award-winning independent journalist with bylines in the New Yorker, National Geographic, Washington Post, The New Republic and Mother Jones, among other publications. He lives between the Bay Area and California's remote Lost Coast region, where he is developin... Read More →

Manissa Maharawal

Manissa Maharawal is an assistant professor of Anthropology at American University in Washington D.C. and a member of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project. Her first book Anti-Eviction: The Fight Against Tech-Led Gentrification in San Francisco received the Setha M Low award for Engaged Anthropology... Read More →

Jonathan Weber

Jonathan Weber was named the Los Angeles Times’s first-ever Silicon Valley reporter in 1990. He was later editor in chief of The Industry Standard, which chronicled—and lived—the first dot-com boom. He served as editor in chief of The Bay Citizen, a local news nonprofit, an... Read More →

Tuesday October 20, 2026 6:00pm - 7:30pm PDT
SFPL Main Branch, Koret Auditorium 100 Larkin St, San Francisco

Nonfiction, FREE

City San Francisco

7:00pm PDT

Pitchapalooza

Tuesday October 20, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT

Gilman Brewing

Buy Tickets/RSVP

Pay what you can ($15 suggested) for guaranteed seat; FREE to walk-ups (space depending)

Pitchapalooza is American Idol for books (only kinder and gentler). Twenty writers, selected at random, will pitch their book for one minute only! Judges (including The Book Doctors, Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry) will help you improve your pitch, not tell you how bad it is. Judges critique everything from idea to style to marketplace potential, and authors gain concrete advice as well as a greater understanding of the publishing industry. Whether potential authors pitch themselves, or simply listen to the critiques, Pitchapalooza is educational and entertaining for one and all. At evening’s end, the judges will pick a winner. Like the dozens of Pitchapalooza winners who have gone from talented amateurs to professionally published authors, this lucky participant will receive an introduction to an agent or publisher. Doors at 6:30pm.

Speakers

Arielle Eckstut

Arielle Eckstut started her career as an agent at Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency where she represented dozens of authors for over thirty years. She then co-founded LittleMissMatched, an innovative, mission-driven company that sold socks that don’t match in packs of threes, opening stores... Read More →

David Henry Sterry

David Henry Sterry is a performer, producer, and bestselling author of 18 books, translated into a dozen languages. His one-man show Chicken (based on his international bestseller) was named the #1 show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He invented Pitchapalooza, and toured it ev... Read More →

Tuesday October 20, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT
Gilman Brewing 912 Gilman St, Berkeley

Nonfiction, Pay What You Can

Age Limit 21+
City Berkeley

6:30pm PDT

Artificial Intimacy: Sherry Turkle and A.I.

Wednesday October 21, 2026 6:30pm - 8:00pm PDT

YBCA Screening Room

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Co-presented with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Sherry Turkle has spent decades studying how digital technologies isolate us from one another. Now, in her latest book, Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk To Machines, the psychologist who pioneered our understanding of human-computer relationships explores the seductive and beguiling nature of chatbots presented as “perfect” companions. How does their popularity point to existing wells of deep loneliness in our current culture, and how does increasing reliance on a one-sided digital ear affect users’ ability to maintain offscreen relationships with other humans? In conversation with New Yorker cartoonist Amy Kurzweil, whose graphic novel Artificial: A Love Story suggests an alternate path in which AI isn’t used as a human connection substitute, but rather a tool to support and deepen the real-world relationships we already have. The conversation is part of Free Wednesdays at YBCA, which offers extended gallery hours, hands-on afternoon art-making, and special evening programs—all for free. Doors at 6:00pm.

Moderators

Amy Kurzweil

Amy Kurzweil is a New Yorker cartoonist and the author of two award-winning graphic memoirs: Flying Couch and Artificial: A Love Story, which was named a Best Book of 2023 by NPR, The New Yorker, and Kirkus. She is the 2024 winner of the Overseas Press Club’s “Best Cartoon Award... Read More →

Speakers

Sherry Turkle

Sherry Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and
Technology at MIT and the founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. A
leading expert in humans’ relationship with digital objects, she continues to revolutionize
ou... Read More →

Wednesday October 21, 2026 6:30pm - 8:00pm PDT
YBCA Screening Room 701 Mission St, San Francisco

Nonfiction, FREE

City San Francisco

7:00pm PDT

California Journeys

Wednesday October 21, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT

KALW

Buy Tickets/RSVP

FREE, $10–15 suggested donation

Co-presented with KALW

Taking the driver’s seat on tonight’s narrative journey through California is Grant Faulkner, whose recent “flash novel” something out there in the distance pairs short, perfectly crystallized prose vignettes with Gail Butensky’s photographs of the American West. Riding shotgun is Irena Smith, whose memoir Troika is a modern-day Odyssey set in California’s Central Coast, as three generations of women share profound family stories and create new ones. As for Angelica Glass, she’ll opt out of driving altogether—her memoir Scavenging Beauty relates her quest to find healing while traversing all the streets in Santa Cruz County by foot. In true travelogue style, their conversation will be accompanied by photos illustrating each author’s journey. Doors at 6:30pm.

Moderators

Grant Faulkner

Grant Faulkner is the co-founder of Memoir Nation (and also the co-host of the Memoir Nation podcast), the co-founder of the Flash Fiction Institute, the co-founder of 100 Word Story, and an executive producer on America’s Next Great Author. He has published All the Comfort Si... Read More →

Speakers

Irena Smith

Irena Smith is the author of the award-winning memoir The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays and Troika: Three Generations, Three Days, and a Very American Road Trip. Her obsession with how words work began early (as a child growing up in Soviet Russia, she was known to occasionally stand on furniture and recite Pushkin poems), and her writing focuses on migration, memory, motherhood, generational expectations, the petty indignities of middle... Read More →

Angelica Glass

Angelica Glass had a decades-long career in social work in California, cluminating in directing and helping to design a program that provides support and services to children and families affected by methermphetamine abuse. The mother of two grown sons, she lives with her wife in Santa Cruz... Read More →

Wednesday October 21, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT
KALW 220 Montgomery St, Suite 100, San Francisco, CA 94104

Nonfiction, FREE

City San Francisco

6:00pm PDT

California's Diverse Food and Farming Movements

Thursday October 22, 2026 6:00pm - 7:00pm PDT

Book Club of California

Buy Tickets/RSVP

FREE

Co-presented with Book Club of California

Californians tend to think and talk a lot about food—not just who has the best farmers’ markets or where to find the latest Instagram-famous pastry, but also about how the ways we grow, harvest, distribute, and consume food can best serve goals related to climate, social justice, and collective well-being. In his new book, North Stars of Emancipation: California’s Diverse Food and Farming Movements, researcher and activist Antonio Roman-Alcalá finds guidance on all these questions in our state’s grassroots food movements, and in the vision of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other people who are leading the way. Joining Roman-Alcalá in conversation is one of those leaders, Sara Calvosa Olson, author of Chími Nu’am: Native Californian Foodways for the Contemporary Kitchen. Member/guest reception at 5:30pm.

Moderators

Sara Calvosa Olson

Sara Calvosa Olson (Karuk) is the author of Chími Nu’am: Native California Foodways for the Contemporary Kitchen (Heyday, 2023). Her work explores narratives that nourish Indigenous food sovereignty through renewed relationships with California’s oldest foods... Read More →

Speakers

Antonio Roman-Alcalá

Antonio Roman-Alcalá is an educator, researcher, writer, musician, and organizer based in Berkeley, California who has worked on sustainable food systems and radical political change for over 20 years. Antonio is currently an Assistant Professor at California State University East Bay teaching Geography... Read More →

Thursday October 22, 2026 6:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Book Club of California 47 Kearny St, San Francisco, CA 94108

Nonfiction, FREE

City San Francisco

3:00pm PST

How They Did It: Getting Unstuck

Sunday November 8, 2026 3:00pm - 5:00pm PST

Page Street Co-Writing

Buy Tickets/RSVP

$25

Co-presented with LitCamp

You know the feeling. You're moving along, racking up the word count on your novel (or memoir, or creative nonfiction project) when suddenly you hit a wall, a dead end, a what-the-heck-am-I-supposed-to-write-next fork in the road. Call it writer’s block, or a crisis of confidence, or just the universe conspiring against you. But whatever you call it, it's happened to every writer. Join us as four authors, Samina Ali (Pieces You'll Never Get Back), Diana Kapp (The Last Free Women), Jason Roberts (Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life), and Parini Shroff (Some People) share their strategies for pushing past the roadblocks and getting the words flowing again. Moderated by Page Street founder Janis Cooke Newman (A Master Plan for Rescue). Plus, we'll serve complimentary Prosecco, wine, and NA drinks. Tickets support both Litquake and LitCamp. Doors at 3:00pm.

Moderators

Janis Cooke Newman

Janis Cooke Newman is the author of a memoir and two award-winning novels. She is also the founder of LitCamp, as well as Page Street Co-working for Writers.

Speakers

Samina Ali

Samina Ali is an award-winning author, curator, and popular speaker. Her debut novel, Madras on Rainy Days, won France’s prestigious Prix Premier Roman Etranger and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award in fiction. Her Tedx talk, ’“What the Quran Really Says About the... Read More →

Diana Kapp

Diana Kapp is a journalist who writes frequently about the intersection of women and modern culture, and has traveled in Afghanistan to report on the education of girls in the country’s rural northern provinces. Her work has has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Po... Read More →

Jason Roberts

Jason Roberts is a writer of nonfiction and fiction. His most recent book, Every Living Thing, was awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for biography, as well as the PEN America/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing award. His previous book, A Sense of the World, was a national bestseller, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and longlisted for the international Guardian First Book Award. He lives in Oakland and Montreal... Read More →

Parini Shroff

Parini Shroff is the bestselling author of The Bandit Queens, which was a Good Morning America Buzz Pick and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal and the Women's Prize for Fiction, as well as her new novel, Some People. She received her MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a practicing attorney and currently lives in the Bay Area... Read More →

Sunday November 8, 2026 3:00pm - 5:00pm PST
Page Street Co-Writing 297 Page St, San Francisco

Nonfiction

City San Francisco

7:00pm PST

Saira Mohamed: What a Country Owes Its Soldiers

Wednesday November 18, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PST

KALW

Buy Tickets/RSVP

FREE, $10–15 suggested donation

Co-presented with KALW

Legal scholar Saira Mohamed has focused her career on the ethics of armed conflict and mass atrocity, in particular on the legal obligations of governments around the world to protect and care for their military personnel. At a time when our own leaders publicly extol the contributions of soldiers and veterans but strategically dismantle their support systems, not to mention their sense of safety, these questions—at the intersections of law and ethics—are more essential than ever. Join Mohamed as she discusses her new book What a Country Owes Its Soldiers, deeply informed by her research and arguing compassionately for policies that convey genuine respect for soldiers’ humanity. In conversation with author and long-time New York Review of Books contributor Mark Danner. Doors at 6:30pm.

Moderators

Mark Danner

Speakers

Saira Mohamed

Saira Mohamed is Agnes Roddy Robb Chair in Jurisprudence, Ethics, and Social Responsibility and Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

Wednesday November 18, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PST
KALW 220 Montgomery St, Suite 100, San Francisco, CA 94104

Nonfiction, FREE