Wednesday 8/6: Pandemonium Press has organized a Hiroshima/Nagasaki Remembrance, with readings by Sharon Coleman, Rafael Jesús González, Kirk Lumpkin, and Joyce E. Young. Free, 7 p.m., Spice Monkey.
All week long, no matter what time it is, if you’ve got an urge for poetry there’s something going on. The New Sh!t Show is running a side event as part of the 25th Annual National Poetry Slam: an open mic with all new poems only. There will be brunch — BYO coffee. Free, 10 a.m., Oakland Marriott City Center.
Closing out the day’s official NPS programming is The Lit Slam: a slam-based open mic with features, TBA. The top three poets, decided by a judge picked from random out of the audience, will be included in Tandem—The Lit Slam’s annual journal—along with work by the features. Free, 11 p.m., Vinyl Oakland.
Thursday 8/7: Quiet Lightning’s Neighborhood Heroes returns with what will surely be another triumphant evening celebrating the sublime richness of SF Bay Area writing. Featuring Yiyun Li, Peter Orner, Katie Crouch, Matthew Zapruder, Norma Cole, Sarah Griffin, Lauren Traetto, Peter Bullen, and Moneta Goldsmith, with original art by Tanya Hollis. A free copy of Sparkle + Blink for the first 150 attendees. Arrive early for drinks and schmooze. – Jeff Von Ward
One Lone Pear Tree reading series is a fun gathering in a garden with drinks and food and pie and words and even a bonfire. Readers include Vernon Keeve III, Nancy Au, Jordan Karnes, and Hollie Hardy, who recently released How to Take a Bullet, And Other Survival Poems with Punk Hostage Press. Free, 7:15 p.m. (doors at 6 p.m.), 1953 McAllister Street. – Alexandra Naughton
For Shipwreck Presents: The Giver, July’s winner, Gabriel Cubbage, joins Na’amen Tilahun, Deborah Kenmore, Tara Marsden, Lauren Kennedy, June winner Maggie Tokuda-Hall, and Mara Wilson in eroticizing Lois Lowry’s classic. $10 (includes drinks), 7 p.m., The Booksmith.
Amy Bloom will read from her new novel, Lucky Us. Free, 7:30 p.m., Kepler’s.
Friday 8/8: Crows in the Stork’s Nest this month features readings by Gina Gold, Alexandra Naughton, Alexandra Kostoulas, and Karen Hultquist, with music by Karlyn De Steno. Free, 6 p.m., Stork Club.
Saturday 8/9: Quiet Lightning has organized an early side show as part of the National Poetry Slam, with readings by Moneta Goldsmith, Christian Phiffer, Karla Cordero, Siamak Vossoughi, Michael Cooper, Charlie Getter, Ashley Warren, Anitra Appa, Jon Sindell, and Paul Corman-Roberts. First 100 people get a copy of sPARKLE & BLINK. Free, 12:30 p.m., Oakland Marriott City Center.
Writers With Drinks is the most entertaining event in the history of literature—Charlie Jane Anders’s intros to the readers are often as riveting as the readers themselves. This month, special guest M.C. Josh Kornbluth, with readings by Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Myriam Gurba, Madison Young, and Anne Leonard. Proceeds benefit the Center for Sex and Culture. $5-$10 (no one turned away), 7:30 p.m., The Make Out Room. – Lauren Traetto
Sunday 8/10: speCt Books! celebrates two summer releases, with a garden reading by Rusty Morrison and Colby Gillette. Free, 3 p.m., 4401 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
Scene Missing, which features six writers and comedians reading new work inspired by movie trailers, tackles the theme Science Friction: Films of Dystopia. $10, 8 p.m., Cynic Cave.
The Ceremony, a new full moon-inspired late night anything-goes open mic without a mic, returns for a second outing. Free, 10 p.m., The Pergola at Lake Merritt.
Monday 8/11: Green Apple Books celebrates the opening of their second store in conjunction with the midnight release of Haruki Murakami’s Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki. Free refreshments, Murakami trivia contest written by Murakami scholar Matthew Strecher, costume party, and more. Free, 10 p.m., Green Apple Books on the Park.
Tuesday 8/12: RADAR‘s monthly series features a quad force of visual artist/writers: Ariel Schrag, Kari Orvik, Jaime Niedereier, and Cate White. Free, 6 p.m., San Francisco Public Library.
Brent Sverdloff and Sarah Goodwin will lead an evening of interactive memory exercises to celebrate How Could I Forget You! A Creative Way to Remember Names and Faces. Free, 7:30 p.m., The Booksmith.
Journalist Erin Marie Daly reads from Generation Rx: A Story of Dope, Death, and America’s Opiate Crisis. Free, 7 p.m., Green Apple Books.
Ellen Sussman reads from her novel A Wedding in Provence. Free, 7:30 p.m., Mrs. Dalloway’s.
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This week’s featured local author is Hollie Hardy (click to read an interview):
