Litquake's 19th annual festival runs from October 11 through 20 at venues all over the Bay Area. Along with readings galore, parties, celebrations and the last-night Lit Crawl sprawl over Valencia Corridor promise plenty of fun for wordsmith fans. Of course, neither a fan or author need be gay to attract our attention. But here are a few especially homocentric favorites in the busy schedule.
Oct 11: The opening night party takes place at the scenic University Club in Nob Hill. Enjoy the view, smart conversation and cocktails. $20-$25. 8pm-10:30pm, 800 Powell St. https://sched.co/FQMP
Oct 13: Virgie Tovar (You Have the Right to Remain Fat) and best-selling author Daniel Handler (the Lemony Snicket series) chat about Bodies and What to Do with Them at Strut, 7pm, 470 Castro St. https://sched.co/FQMX
Oct 13: At Up All Night: The Page-Turner, hear compelling tales from Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Julia Dixon Evans, Bonnie C Monte, and Kate Jessica Raphael. Moderated by Barbara Lane. $5-$10., 7pm at SF Center for the Book. 375 Rhode Island St. https://sched.co/Fq6F
Oct 14: Metaphors in the Mission brings poets Jason Bayani, MK Chavez, Heather Gibbons, Brian Laidlaw, Susie Meserve, Kathleen Winter and Aaron Shurin together, 6pm, at the wonderful Alley Cat Bookstore, 3036 24th St. https://sched.co/FQPM
Oct 16: Scott James, whose sex-filled novel SoMa won critical raves, discusses Future Presence: Decoding Virtual Reality with Wired columnist Peter Rubin, 7pm at the Mechanics' Institute Library, 57 Post St. https://sched.co/FQPY
Oct 17: Award-winning gay author K.M. Soehnlein (The World of Normal Boys) will be part of the raucously entertaining Literary Death Match, along with special guest, gay activist Cleve Jones (We Were There), queer poet Maisha Z. Johnson, lesbian comic Karinda Dobbins, and more talented readers and judges. $15-$20. 6:30pm at Elbo Room, 647 Valencia St. https://sched.co/FQRR
Oct 17: In possibly the wackiest and leathery-est event, Beefcake: 50 Years of Tom of Finland celebrates the gay creator of super-muscular hunk erotica, oo-presented by San Francisco Public Library's James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, Dog Eared Books Castro, GLBT Historical Society, 48 Hills, Bay Area Reporter, and Lambda Literary. Honey Mahogany hosts, with our own Leather columnist Race Bannon judging the Tom of Finland lookalike contest, plus Terry Beswick, Dian Hanson, DJ Bus Station John and Pansy Division's Jon Ginoli. $20-$25. 7pm-10pm. SF Eagle, 398 12th St. at Harrison. https://sched.co/FQQe
Oct 19: SF Legends Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club) and Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City) share a talk at The Swedish American Hall. $15-$20. 7pm, 2174 Market St. https://sched.co/FeDu
Oct. 19: Author, choreographer, filmmaker and queer zine hero Brontez Purnell will be a panelist on Lit by the Lake at the Library, along with Holly Brown, Jasmine Guillory, Laleh Khadivi, Cornelia Nixon, and Dashka Slater. $5. 6:30pm. 125 14th St., Oakland. https://sched.co/FQRq
Oct 19: Lambda Literary Award winner Annalee Newitz (Autonomous) will be part of Queer As Us: A Night with Lambda Literary, along with queer authors Lisa Galloway (A Life of Cleavage), Juliana Delgado Lopera (�Cu�ntamelo!), with moderator Lisa Galloway. 8pm at Strut, 470 Castro St. https://sched.co/FQUu
Oct 20: Lit Crawl
The ever-expanding Lit crawl finale includes dozens of events in three one-hour time slots, at bars, bookstore, barbershops and stores along and near Valencia Street. Get a drink, buy a book, or share a cookie and venues up and down the Mission district.
5pm
We'd be remiss not to toot our own horn. In celebration of our tenth Lit Crawl event, BARtab, the nightlife section of the Bay Area Reporter, returns with Musical Muses, where notable local authors — Bud Gundy, Trebor Healey, Kathy Knowles, Gar McVey-Russell, K.R. Morrison — read excerpts that include a mention of music; Queen, jazz, folk and the blues; hosted by Lambda Literary Award-winning author and BARtab Editor Jim Provenzano, with piano accompaniment by Suzanne Beignet Ramsey, aka Kitten on the Keys. Martuni's, 4 Valencia St. at Market. https://sched.co/G2r7
Foglifter Press and Lambda Literary co-present Queer, Sweet Home with LGBT authors Indira Allegra, Vianney Casas, Vernon Keeve III, Stacy Nathaniel Jackson and Daniel Lau. At Public Works' loft, 161 Erie St. https://sched.co/G2uR
Also at Public Works (downstairs), KQED's Survivor of the Queerest gathers writers and comcis Luna Malbroux, Anand Vedawala, Luna Merbruja, Marcus Williams, and everyone's fave literary host, Baruch Porras-Hernandez for a round of QPOC readings sharing words of resistance. 161 Erie St. https://sched.co/G2rF
Get a load (ahem) of sexual awakenings at Prudes at the Armory, with writers Matthew DeCoster, Courtenay Hameister, Shannon Hughes, Janine Kovac, Justin McCarthy and Tarja Parssinen. The Armory Club (basement, not W.A.), 1799 Mission St. https://sched.co/G35b
6:30pm
Literary Speakeasy, James J. Siegel's monthly diverse reading series at the intimate martini bar, welcomes to their Lit Crawl slot writers Matt Carney, Jase Peeples, Joyce Young, Emily Zisman and music duo Postcapitalism. 4 Valencia St.
Death Dharma and Drag intrigues with "two Sikhs, three Jews and two queers" authors Dawn Gross, Japa Kaur, Awtar Kaur Khalsa, Julia Query sharing the mic at Serendipity, 803 Valencia St.
The Perfectly Queer reading series founders Richard May and Wayne Goodman host LGBTQ author events throughout the year, and for this Lit Crawl, writers Michael Alenyikov, Nona Caspers and Margo Perin read from their acclaimed works at The Green Arcade, one of our favorite local independent bookstores with a California and social justice focus. The Green Arcade, 1680 Market St. https://sched.co/G3fJ
8pm
Perspectives from Coeditoria features a variety of writers (Eric Fain, Sam Gong, Harriet Rohmer Kate Rossikhina and Anna sears) discussing diverse themes, but we've got our eye on Teck Sway-Bien, an East Bay writer who's soon to publish a novel, Memoirs of a Gaysian. Beer Nerds, 3331 24th St. https://sched.co/G57G
The Legendary Stud Bar gets memoir and anecdotal reveries with Drag and Words. Host VivvyAnne ForeverMORE! Welcomes Celeste Chan, James Fleming, Julian Delgado Lopera, Brittany St. John Newell and Silk Worm. Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission St. https://sched.co/G575
Check out many more events at https://www.litquake.org/