FREE—this event is at capacity, but you can join the wait list at the link above
Celebrate the opening of Warfield Commons—a reimagined multi-story hub for arts, media, culture, and civic engagement designed to activate community and amplify the stories of the Bay Area and beyond. Enjoy cultural performances, a showcase of local food vendors, exclusive tours led by Warfield Commons tenants (including yours truly!), and family-friendly activities.
Sunday September 27, 2026 12:00pm - 5:00pm PDT Warfield Commons988 Market St, San Francisco
$50 / $75 to sponsor a bookseller or librarian All sales help support the rest of Litquake's (75% free!) festival programming!
Co-presented with Book Passage, Black Bird Books, Bookshop West Portal, City Lights, Dog Eared Books, Et al., Fabulosa Books, Green Apple Books, Noe Valley Books, Pegasus Books, Sistah Scifi, Telegraph Hill Books, The Booksmith, The Love Potion Library, Medicine for Nightmares, and Womb House Books
Beverages sponsored by Griffo Distillery & Saintsbury Winery
Kick off the 2026 festival at the Booksellers Ball, our big opening night bash! Here, the Litquake community will come together to fête San Francisco’s independent bookstores at the former home of the legendary Paper Doll, an underground LGBTQ supper club active 1941-1969. Join us for catered event with abundant libations and a special literature-themed drag performance from Carlota Di Carlo. With festive grooves from BFF.FM DJ Lead Teddy and an open bar from beverage sponsors Griffo Distillery and Saintsbury Winery, we invite you to kick up your heels with local literati and celebrate another year of Litquake!
Thursday October 8, 2026 7:00pm - 10:00pm PDT 524 Union524 Union St, San Francisco
Books Not Bans together with City Lights and Litquake present a party for everyone who loves reading. Join us for an afternoon filled with connection, revelry, music, games and stories. Featuring performances, readings, and all kinds of stuff from Syr Hayati Beker, Shoshana von Blanckensee, Kevin Dublin, W.S. Gong, Hyazinth, Sean Owens, and Sumiko Saulson. Hosted by Books Not Bans founder Becka Robbins.Proceeds from this event support Books Not Bans.
Dubbed "SF's Best Comic Playwright" by the now-defunct SF Weekly, Sean Owens has written (and performed) over 50 short and full-length plays in the Bay Area and abroad. Their solo musical, "GIRLESQUE" has delighted audiences in the Bay Area, New York and Canada. Sean created the... Read More →
Kevin Dublin is an educator, advocate, and writer of poetry, prose, scripts, and code from Smithfield, NC. Currently Director of the Elder Writing Project, a community-based outreach program of the Litquake Foundation that brings creative writing and storytelling workshops to retirement communities... Read More →
Shoshana von Blanckensee lives in Berkeley, California, with her partner and kids. She is an Oncology Nurse by day, and a writer by any available moment. Girls Girls Girls is her debut novel.
W.S. Gong is a writer and editor based in San Francisco. An alumnus of Bread Loaf, Tin House, Kenyon, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, his work appears in Fourteen Hills. He is at work on a novel.
Sumiko Saulson is the BayCon/Westercon 2026 Poet Laureate, a Two-Time Bram Stoker Award® for Poetry for The Rat King (2022, Dooky Zines) and Melancholia (2024, Bludgeoned Girls Press). Four-Time Elgin Speculative Poetry Award nominee for these and Doodooality: Shots fired from U... Read More →
Syr Hayati Beker (they/them) is a writer and experience creator in search of the queer love language of climate change. Their first book, What A Fish Looks Like, was a 2025 Otherwise Honoree. Syr is the co-founder of Queer Cat Productions immersive theater company and is part of the experimental performance group GH{}ST. Find their work at syrbeker.com and in theaters, pirate ships, galleries, and queer bars near you... Read More →
Hyazinth Baumann is a trans multi-discplinary artist living in Oakland, CA. They currently work for Books Not Bans as an outreach coordinator. You can find their work on their website at Hyazinths.com
Saturday October 17, 2026 12:00pm - 4:00pm PDT Kerouac Alley275 Columbus Ave, San Francisco
FREE, $10–15 suggested donation Sponsored by Publishers Group West From a shoestring investment of $500 in 1976, Berkeley-based Publishers Group West grew, by the turn of the century, into the US’s largest distributor of independent presses. Since then, it’s maintained its focus on resilience, innovation, and a passion for independent publishing—not to mention the value of throwing a really great party. We’ll toast to a half-century of PGW, which continues to distribute books for 150 publisher clients, including some beloved local presses. How does PGW’s history reflect the larger story of Bay Area publishing? And how can lessons learned over the past fifty years inform its future? Join PGW founder Charlie Winton, executive VP Sean Shoemaker, VP of field sales Elise Cannon, and Litquake co-founder Jack Boulware for a walk down memory lane—and stick around to buy a beverage or two from Clio’s on-site bar. Doors at 6:30pm.
Jack Boulware co-founded the Bay Area’s Litquake literary festival and was director for 24 years. He is author/co-author of "San Francisco Bizarro" (St. Martin’s, 2000) and the punk oral history "Gimme Something Better" (Penguin, 2009). He currently works on book projects and... Read More →
Sean Shoemaker is a vice president at Ingram Publisher Services and oversees Publishers Group West, where he has worked for 31 years. Sean started at PGW in customer service and worked his way up to VP of Operations before his promotion to President in 2015. Prior to his time at PGW, Sean worked... Read More →
Elise Cannon, VP of Field Sales for Ingram Publisher Services and Publishers Group West, has been working with independent booksellers and publishers for nearly 35 years, first at PGW, and then for Perseus Books Group and Ingram Content Group. She’s been fortunate to work alongside the best i... Read More →
In 1976, Charlie Winton founded Publishers Group West (PGW), and served as Chairman & CEO for 25 years. In 1992, a sister corporation, Avalon Publishing Group was created to encompass what would eventually become the organization’s seven publishing imprints. Winton also served as Avalon’s Chairman & CE... Read More →
Tuesday October 20, 2026 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT Clio’s353 Grand Ave, Oakland
Foglifter—created by and for LGBTQ+ writers and readers—continues the San Francisco Bay Area’s tradition of groundbreaking queer and trans writing, with an emphasis on publishing those multi-marginalized (BIPOC, youth, elders, and people with disabilities). Queerly Beloved is a celebration of the latest queer writing coming out in Foglifter's newest journals, online zone, and Start a Riot! Chapbook series. Limited print copies of the newest issue will be available for purchase—get them before anyone else! Featuring: Brent Armendinger, Juda Ātman, KB Brookins, Reggie Edmonds-Vásquez, Alix Perry, and Allegra Wilson! Doors at 6:00pm.
Reggie Edmonds-Vásquez (they/them) is a poet, educator, and cultural curator from Richmond, CA. Their work explores Black, queer, and gender-diverse identities and has earned recognition from Nomadic Press, Afro Urban Society, and the Museum of the African Diaspora. A two-time Berkeley... Read More →
KB Brookins is a writer, educator, and cultural worker from Texas. KB’s poetry collection Freedom House (2023) won the American Library Association Barbara Gittings Literature Award and the Texas Institute of Letters Award for Best First Book of Poetry. KB’s memoir Pretty (20... Read More →
Brent Armendinger (he/him) is the author of Street Gloss (The Operating System, 2019) and The Ghost in Us Was Multiplying (Noemi Press, 2015), both of which were finalists for the California Book Award in Poetry. As a poet, he is interested in queer embodiment, site-specific prac... Read More →
Allegra Wilson (she/her) is a writer living in Northern California. Her chapbook, song & ruins, received the 2025 Lefty Blondie Press First Chapbook Award, selected by Stacey Waite. She is the author of a micro-chapbook, sex party at the opera house (Whittle Micro-Press), and her... Read More →
Judas Ātman tells trans stories for trans people. They are a trans butch, multidisciplinary artist based in Oakland. An alum of NYU Tisch's BFA in Drama program, he is now in the process of receiving his MFA in Creative Writing at SFSU. Outside of his studies, he serves as the Assistant Managing... Read More →
Alix Perry is a trans writer of fiction and poetry based in Portland, Oregon. They are the author of the poetry chapbook Tomatoes Beverly (Querencia Press, 2025) and have been nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology. Their work can be found in Flash Fiction Magazine, The Shor... Read More →
Friday October 23, 2026 7:00pm - 9:00pm PDT The Stud1123 Folsom St, San Francisco
We did it!! Join the Litquake team in celebrating another great festival, alongside Lit Crawl readers and programmers. Featuring libations from beverage sponsors Griffo Distillery and Saintsbury Winery!
Saturday October 24, 2026 9:00pm - 11:00pm PDT The Drawing Room: Annex599 Valencia St, San Francisco
