Litquake is coming and the streets are trembling! (Or at least bibliophiles are.) This literary earthquake is celebrating 25 years of shaking the ground with free author events during its festival period plus an epic literary pub crawl called Litcrawl.
This year, events kick off October 10 with the 21-plus, sure-to-be-entertaining Booksellers Ball at Club Fugazi and—on the other end of the age spectrum—the first of many Kidquake events. Litquake is truly one of those festivals that illustrates what’s wonderful about San Francisco: From the city that brought you Beat poetry, Mark Twain, Danielle Steel, Jack London and Amy Tan, here comes a festival that expresses our love of the written (or spoken) word.
After the Booksellers Ball and continuing on through October 26, there’s a frankly dizzying amount of great literary offerings happening daily (except October 14). Each day, you can choose from a handful of events (two handfuls on the weekends), including a presentation on “Subterfuge and Secrets: Memoirists who go undercover to learn the truth” with Susan Ito, Grace Loh Prasad, Margaret Juhae Lee and Leslie Absher; “Portrait of the Artist: Midlife Edition” with Tom Barbash, Lemony Snicket’s Daniel Handler, Adrian Tomine and Carson Ellis; and “The Women Behind the Door” with Roddy Doyle and San Francisco’s beloved author and cofounder of 826 Valencia Street, Dave Eggers.
There are write-ins, movie showings, storytelling performances, panels and workshops on every genre from erotica to ghostwriting and Nordic noir, as well as important discussions on issues like race and book banning. There’s even a poetry picnic at Yerba Buena Gardens. You’re gonna be so well-read by the end of the festival!
What’s the Booksellers Ball?
A fun night to celebrate all things Litquake. Expect heavy appetizers, drinks (including hard seltzer and wine), dancing and drag. This is a ticketed event at $82, and admission includes a keepsake goodie bag. You can also “sponsor a bookseller” for an extra $29 which lets a bookstore employee attend for free.
The drag performances will be literature-themed and hosted by Joe Wadlington (“Jubilee”) of local show Happy Endings, with music from Bff.fm DJ Lead Teddy and a reading nook (People can just sit and read at this ball? We think we’re in love). A jaw-dropping 17 booksellers will be at the ball—isn’t San Francisco lucky to be a city of so many independent bookstores? The ball runs from 7 to 10pm on October 10; tickets are available here.
Is the festival free?
Some events are free while others charge admission. At the official schedule website, you can immediately learn an event’s fee by adding one general admission ticket and seeing what pops up.
What is Litcrawl?
We’ll do a separate article on Litcrawl—a pub crawl meets literature— when the time comes closer. It’s on October 26 and closes out Litquake with 250 authors presenting in venues all over the Mission (not just bars, but also tattoo parlors, laundromats, police stations, art galleries and, of course, bookstores). Close to 5,000 people will participate, moving from place to place, lifting a glass as they go.
What is Litquake Out Loud?
It’s programming that spotlights BIPOC and LGBTQ+ writers and thought leaders. Guest curators have produced this vibrant series of events for the weekend of October 19 and 20. These six Litquake Out Loud events include the Small Press Book Fair and the poetry picnic, “Out Loud: Nor Do I Wish to Speak: A Storytelling and Poetry Picnic” with Noor Khashe Brody, Tehmina Khan and Dina Omar.
What’s the full schedule for Litquake?
Visit here to see the festival’s full schedule. On the right hand side, you have a helpful set of filters so you can search by date, venue and by other helpful categories: free events, outdoor events, events with age limits, and even which literary genre you wish to be part of (All poetry, all the time? Yes.)