Litquake 2016

[image error]Next week is the High Holy Holidays for writers in the Bay Area: San Francisco’s big annual literary festival Litquake, which culminates in the highbrow-bar-crawl-through-low-places known as Lit Crawl.

It’s a groaning board of literary programming which gets progressively easier to compare each year thanks to technology upgrades, if not one iota easier to choose. Check out the schedule and see if there’s anything to float your boat between the opening party on Friday, October 7 and the closing party after Lit Crawl on Saturday, October 15.

I’m especially pumped for “I Thought It Sucked: One Star Reviews of Best Loved Books” on October 8, in which an all-star cast of Bay Area writers, readers, and performers present dramatic readings of one-star reviews that trash the world’s most treasured literary masterpieces. There’s also Thomas Dolby reading from his new memoir The Speed of Sound on October 14.

But Wednesday, October 12 is when I really need the Hermione Granger Time Turner.

via GIPHY

There’s “Who’s Laughing Now: A Night of Funny Females,” a (non-Litquake event but still) reading by Luvvie Ajayi at the Commonwealth Club for her new book I’m Judging You, oh, and a mandatory yes MANDATORY meeting for a board I’m on. All starting at the same time, in three different parts of the Bay. I’m currently negotiating with the board president on what the definition of “mandatory” is.

And then comes the big night on Saturday – Lit Crawl, through the Mission. During each of three Phases, starting at 6:00, you pick a reading to go to – in a bakery, a record store, a bar – and listen to an hour of glorious original literature. Then you have 15 minutes to sprint to the next spot for Phase 2, and you do it again at Phase 3. There are 36 choices for Phase 1 alone. That I have narrowed it down to five places I need to be for each Phase is, I think, a testament to my decision-making capabilities.

Of course there is one single Lit Crawl event that has no competition – and it’s the one where I’ll be reading: the BART to Bar Lit Crawl Caravan. Once again, we’re taking over the first car of a Richmond/Daly City BART train headed from Downtown Berkeley to 24th Street in the Mission and staging an impromptu reading all the way, emerging just in time for Phase 1. (Here’s a recap of last year’s journey.) If you’re up for a guerilla literary experience, this is definitely it. I’m still deciding on what to read and will take any suggestions you have – including “write something new, Nancy” – but I do hope to see some familiar faces as we sound our barbaric yawps into the ears of unsuspecting commuters. More details here.

Have fun and get lit!

Where I’m gonna search for that Time Turner. (Really just a weak excuse to include the video for this song I can’t stop playing, from Band of Horses and Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis.)

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