Litquake, the Bay Area's earth shaking celebration of literature, turns 15 years old. Since 1999 Litquake's nine-day celebration of local writers includes live readings, performances, panels, and parties. The closing night Lit Crawl event includes dozens of festive events up and down the Valencia Street corridor.
"The festival was conceived fifteen years ago and started out with an attendance of about thirty folks shivering out in the fog of Golden Gate Park," said Litquake's Liam Passmore. "This year we'll be close to 20,000."
Litquake is definitely a gay-friendly event. Each year the event gives out its Barbary Coast Award to a Bay Area writer who had a significant impact on local arts and letters. The first recipient, many years ago, was Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin.
"For writers, I think it's a sense of community outside of being a 'gay writer,' and rather of being among the community of writers at large, which is real important I think," Passmore said.
Litquake's nightlife events for this year promise to be a blast.
"Many of the nightlife events are centered on the closing night Lit Crawl, which is always literary mayhem at its finest," said Passmore. "This year I think you can make the argument that between Martuni's, The Beauty Bar and The Lexington Club during the crawl, and the other events, Litquake is representing and engaging the gay and Queer community in ways as eccentric and varied as the community itself. What other literary event would engage Heklina and D'arcy Drollinger along with names like Marc Maron, Nicholson Baker, and the million-selling Italian author Paolo Giordano, who is a babe and a half, but I have no idea of his sexual orientation!"
Here are some of the Litquake nightlife events where you can join literary figures in a little imbibing:
Litquake in the Castro
October 11, 1pm
Magnet, 4122 18 Street
OK, it's not exactly at night, but Magnet has been known to offer up some wine and cheese at their events. A variety of LGBT writers will read from their work.
Barely Published
October 12, 7pm, $5
The Make Out Room, 3325 22nd Street
Readings by the best up and coming masters of prose and poetry in the Bay Area, including handsome and gay Patrick Letellier.
From Austen to Room to Frog Music: Emma Donoghue's Literary Life
October 13, 6pm $25
Z Space, 450 Florida
Jewelle Gomez interviews bestselling lesbian author Emma Donoghue about her new murder mystery Frog Music, set in 19th-century San Francisco: attendees get a copy of the book.
Smart Smut
October 16, 8pm, $7.
The Make Out Room, 3325 22nd Street
Sexual provocateurs such as bisexual porn queen Nina Hartley and gay author Scott James spin naughty if thought provoking tales of perversion by the Bay.
Emerging Voices in Queer Literature
October 18 8:30-9:30pm
Asterisk San Francisco Magazine and Gallery
3156 24th Street
Rising talents such as Celeste Chan, Dawn Robinson and author/columnist Belo Cipriani will read from their works.
Radar Presents Sister Spit, Co-sponsored by Aunt Lute Books
October 18, 7:15-8:15pm
Lexington Club, 3464 19th Street
A literary reading atop the pool table at a legendary Queer bar.
Celebrity Twitterature
October 18, 7:15-8:15pm at Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission
An evening of social media reenactments with drag icons Heklina, D'arcy Drollinger, among others. Listen to their hilarious readings of some of Twitters more embarrassing tweets!
A Fifth of Fiction: hosted by BARtab
October 18, 6-7pm at Martuni's, 4 Valencia
BARtab 's editor Jim Provenzano, a five-time novelist, hosts a variety of writers, including local DJ Jim Piechota and author Mark Abramson, who share booze-influenced fictional and confessional accounts, with a gay twist of course.