Wednesday 9/9: Lucia Berlin, who died in 2004, was celebrated as a master of the short story. Tonight, City Lights Bookstore and the Book Club of California celebrate the release of A Manual for Cleaning Woman: Selected Stories, edited by Stephen Emerson. Emerson will provide an opening statement, and Gloria Frym, Barry Gifford, Alastair Johnston, August Kleinzahler, Jim Nisbet, and Michael Wolfe will read selections. Free, 6:30 p.m., Book Club of California.
Word Performances, curated by Todd Siegel and Cybele Zufolo Siegel, features an outstanding line up including Joshua Mohr, Brynn Saito, Silvie Simmons, Vernon Keeve III, and psychedelic slam rock band The Wyatt Act. $15 in advance, $20 at the door, 7:30 p.m., The Lost Church.
Thursday 9/10: Ready for an adventure? City Lights Bookstore will be hosting Vu Tran, author of Dragon Fish, which City Lights describes as a “noir page turner,” set among Vietnamese immigrants in Las Vegas. The event will take place at an undisclosed location at an undisclosed time. To attend, you must visit City Lights Bookstore and ask for “the Black envelope” which will contain an invitation for two with all necessary information. First come, first served. 21+ only. Free, undisclosed time, undisclosed location.
Why There Are Words, Peg Purcell‘s long-running reading series in Sausalito, presents Val Brelinski, Jennifer Clover, David Corbett, Rebecca Foust, Janice Cooke Newman, Juan Alvarado Valdivia, and Fran Wilde. $10, 7 p.m., Studio 333.
Friday 9/11: Have you noticed? The Beat Museum in North Beach has been offering a whole lot of live events—something much appreciated in San Francisco these days! Tonight, they invite you to “an evening of poetry, music, scintillating conversation, and general revelry” to celebrate the release of Aspects a new musical album from COPUS. Things’ll bounce. Free, 7:30 p.m., The Beat Museum.
Saturday 9/12: It’s Writers With Drinks, hosted by Charlie Anders! Featuring Eli Horowitz (The Pickle Index, The New World), Fran Wilde (Updraft), Ruth Galm (Into The Valley), Bucky Sinister (Black Hole), Maisha Z. Johnson (Queer As In), and Debbie Yee (Handmade Rabbit Society). $5-$20, no one turned away. Proceeds benefit the Center for Sex and Culture. 7:30 p.m., The Make Out Room
Monday 9/14: Poetry Express Berkeley is an open mic with features that meets at a very tasty Indian restaurant. Good food, good words, good company. Tonight’s feature is Marissa Rosado. Free (meal purchase appreciated), 7 p.m., Himalayan Flavors.
Tuesday 9/15: Radar goes to the Castro. Radar reports that, ” Queering the Castro will use literature and performance to wake up and reinvigorate the area, reminding us of the Castro’s joyfully radical roots, inspiring a commitment to exploring the wild, weird potential of queer culture.” This year long project will begin with a three part series, “Hella Close: Stories of Queer Intimacy.” Tonight’s debut features Nikki Darling, Ben McCoy, Jezebel Delilah X, and Roberto F. Santiago. Free, 7 p.m., Magnet.
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This week, Barry David Horwitz, of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, highly recommends Ubuntu Theatre Project’s revival of the 1930’s Clifford Odets classic, Waiting for Lefty. This very famous play, set in a union hall, stunned and excited depression-era audiences with its authentic calls of “Strike! Strike!” that put the audience right into the middle of a labor dispute. It is still exciting today. For further information, click here.
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Evan Karp presents video of this week’s featured local author Virginia Barrett. Click here to read an interview.
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If you have a Bay Area event listing you’d like us to consider, please contact [email protected] as far in advance as possible, and include the date of the event in the subject line.