Wednesday 9/14: Alex Dolan (The Euthanist) reads at the launch of his newly released novel, The Empress of Tempera. Mr. Dolan contributes significantly to the SF writing community as a member of the Executive Committee for Litquake. This event will be the only San Francisco promotion for this new work. Free, 7 p.m., Bookshop West Portal.
St. Mary’s MFA program presents readings by its core faculty, including Marilyn Abildskov, Brenda Hillman, Wesley Gibson, Rosemary Graham, Christopher Sindt, Lysley Tenorio, and Matthew Zapruder. This is an opportunity to hear from some distinguished Bay area writers whose busy schedules do not allow them to read often. Free, 7:30 p.m., Hagerty Lounge, St. Mary’s College Campus.
Thursday 9/15: Popular and prolific novelist and poet Mary Mackey reads from her new novel, The Village of Bones. Free, 7 p.m., Modern Times Bookstore Collective.
Colin Whitehead reads from his new novel, The Underground Railroad. Free, 7:30 p.m, Green Apple Books on the Park.
Friday 9/16: Gayle Forman reads from Leave Me. Free, 12:30 p.m., Book Passages San Francisco.
Saturday 9/17: Retired Mill Valley landscape architect and now award-winning writer George Omi reads from his memoir about his Japanese-American family’s World War II forced relocation from San Francisco to an Arkansas internment camp, and their return to the Bay area. Free, 4 p.m., Book Passage Marin.
Sunday 9/18: Travel day! Why not visit the San Jose Poetry Festival, presented by Poetry Center San Jose? Featured readers include the poet laureates from three Bay area counties, plus workshops presented by distinguished artists, a small press fair, regional poets, and more. The Theme is “Breaking Borders.” The roster of readings, events, and workshops is impressive. Check out the links! $20 (only $5 for students), 9 a.m.–6 p.m., History Park, San Jose.
Monday 9/19: Cave Canem fellow James Cagney reads at Poetry Express. Free (attendees are encouraged to purchase Indian food), 7 p.m., Himilayan Flavors.
Tuesday 9/20: Poets Micah Ballard (Afterlives) and Garrett Caples (Power Ballads) read new work. Free, 7 p.m., City Lights Bookstore.
Queer Words presents its quarterly book reading, Short Fiction: Essays by Julia Serrano, Aaron Shurin, and Yuska Lutfi Tuanakotta. Free, 7 p.m., Folio Books.
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This week’s theatre recommendation is Assassins at Los Altos Stage Company. This rarely produced Sondheim musical about those who would assassinate presidents gets a highly watchable community theatre production at the Bus Barn Theatre on the peninsula. Assassins is the antithesis of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. If you go, you should probably leave the American flags at home. For further information, click here. Read a review here.
For extensive coverage of the Bay Area theatre scene, visit TheatreStorm.
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Evan Karp presents video of this week’s featured local author, M. J. Arcangellini. Read an interview here.
And here’s some video of one of last week’s SF notables, J. Ryan Stradal.
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