S.F.’s annual book-lover’s bonanza is back for year 20, bigger than ever.
S.F.’s annual book-lover’s bonanza is back for its 20th year, bigger than ever
Readers, start your engines: Let’s get ready to rumble.
Litquake, that annual groundswell of author sightings, signings, readings and events that has long since solidified the Bay Area’s secure place on the literary landscape, is about to roll out its 20th incarnation.
And an appropriately momentous 10 days — today through Oct. 19 — it’s shaping up to be, winding up, as it has since 2004, with the wildly popular, booze-and-books-fueled Lit Crawl through dozens of pubs, drinking halls and various oddball venues on the final night.
The Richter readings have intensified for this festival since its 1999 inception as the brainchild of writers Jack Boulware and Jane Ganahl, turning it into a veritable bonanza for bibliophiles. From its fog-shrouded beginnings in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, it has expanded to 165 locations in its 20th year, stretching from Marin down through the South Bay. Copycat versions of Lit Crawl’s roving revelry have sprung up in 13 cities, some as far-flung as Belfast, Helsinki and Wellington, New Zealand.
Authors who have graced the festival have also mutliplied from the first modest contingent and now number in the thousands from all over the world, including names even casual readers would recognize — Joyce Carol Oates, Dave Eggers, Patti Smith, Chelsea Handler, James Ellroy and Emma Donoghue among them.
Some recognized literary lights are definitely in this year’s 860-author lineup, including many with Bay Area connections. Gathering at the Swedish American Hall on San Francisco’s Market Street from 8 to 11 p.m. Friday, authors Tobias Wolff, Chang-Rae Lee, Daniel Handler, Ingrid Contreras Rojas, Elaine Castillo, Adam Johnson, Ishmael Reed, Natalie Baszile, Charlie Jane Anders and — ahem — Karl the Fog will be reading excerpts from their favorite authors in recognition of Litquake’s 20th anniversary.
That ticketed event ($25 in advance/$30 at the door) is sure to be a festival highlight. But what about the other standouts? If you need help winnowing out intriguing events from the very long schedule Litquake has posted on its website, we are offering five choices here that piqued our interest. NANOWRIMO >> Sure, it sounds like something you’d hear on “Mork & Mindy,” but it stands for National Novel Writing Month, an internet-based challenge to prompt blocked-but-aspiring writers to get off their duffs and produce a 50,000word manuscript within the 30 days of November. And since it launched here in the Bay Area exactly 20 years ago, it is sharing a wee bit of the limelight with Litquake, which is sponsoring a pre-event for the K-12 crowd called “Young Writers Brave the Page.” NaNoWriMo executive director Grant Faulkner, author of the just-published teen guide “Brave the Page,” and development director Rebecca Stern introduce the book and the “deadlineplus-goal” concept of the writing challenge. Details: 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday at The Bindery, 1727 Haight St., San Francisco; free admission; nanowrimo.org and ywp. nanorimo.org.
TOPE FOLARIN >> The Museum of the African Diaspora is the co-sponsor of a session with Washington, D.C.-based Nigerian American writer Tope Folarin, winner of the Caine Prize, widely considered the “African Booker,” in 2013 and short-listed for it again in 2016. With moderator Sarah Ladipo Manyika, he will discuss his new novel, “A Particular Kind of Black Man” (Simon and Schuster), which follows young Tunde Akinola, a child of Nigerian immigrants struggling with identity issues in smalltown Utah. Folarin, named to the Africa39 list of most promising writers under the age of 39, is also a Rhodes scholar who earned two degrees at Oxford University. Details: 6:30-8 p.m. Wednesday at Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission St., San Francisco; free, with a suggested donation of $5$10.
MALLORY O’MEARA >> Los Angeles screenwriter and literary podcaster O’Meara is the author of “The Lady From the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Millicent Patrick,” which reestablished the fact that Patrick, who designed the titular “Creature From the Black Lagoon” in the 1954 horror flick, never got credit for her creation. O’Meara will be on hand Wednesday to sign books at 6 p.m, engage in an onstage conversation at 7 p.m. and introduce a postdiscussion screening of the film. Details: 6 to 9:30 p.m., Alamo Drafthouse at The New Mission, 2550 Mission St., San Francisco; $25.
LIT BY THE LAKE, A LITERARY MELANGE >> Six Bay Area authors of recent works come together on the shores of Lake Merritt to talk about them while wine is poured and treats from Semifreddi’s are passed out. The writers are Vanessa Hua (“A River of Stars”), Jenny Odell (“How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy”), Lucy Jane Bledsoe (“Lava Falls”), Alison Hart (“Mostly White”), S.A. Lelchuk (“Save Me From Dangerous Men”) and Margaret Wilkerson Sexton (“A Kind of Freedom: A Novel,” with “The Revisioners: A Novel” to be published on Nov. 5). Details: 6:30 p.m. Oct. 18; Oakland Public Library, 125 14th St.; free.
LIT CRAWL >> Tattoo parlors, barbershops and laundromats, along with the more conventional bookstores, pubs and nightclubs are the venues for this massive, nightlong crawl through the San Francisco Mission District, as hundreds of authors encounter as many as 10,000 lit-and-liquor-loving patrons to explore a dizzying array of topics. Needless to say, this is an event for the 21-plus crowd. Some of the subject matter is deadly cerebral earnest, and some is laugh-out-loud goofy. We are kind of curious about the “Make It Look Like an Accident” session featuring seven authors from 8 to 9 p.m. Oct. 19 at 50 Balmy St. Lit Crawl is a free event, but you bring cash for the liquid part of your entertainment, and there is a free after-party at The Chapel wth music from DJ Bus Station John. Details: 5 to 9 p.m. Oct. 19 in the Mission District; download a map at www.litquake.org.