Wednesday 8/29: Come join UC Berkeley professors Cecil Giscombe, Lyn Hejinian, Robert Hass, Geoffrey G. O’Brien, and John Shoptaw, as well as Sara Nicholson, this year’s Holloway Lecturer in Poetry and Poetics, for the Holloway Series in Poetry’s Annual Faculty Reading. 315 Wheeler Hall at UC Berkeley at 6:30 p.m.
Award-winning writer and former Rumpus columnist Thomas Page McBee discusses Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man. In his new book, McCabe, a trans man, explores the relationship between masculinity and violence as he trains for a charity fight at Madison Square Garden. The Booksmith in San Francisco at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday 8/30: Terrified by the prospect of publishing your book? You don’t have to be! The Ruby, an inclusive arts-and-letters gathering space for Bay Area women, will be hosting a roundtable discussion on the Roads to and through Publication. The discussion will feature Vanessa Hua, Lydia Kiesling, R.O. Kwon, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Crystal Hana Kim, and Lillian Li. The Ruby in San Francisco at 6:30 p.m.
Join Poetry Flash for a reading from three poets. Joseph Lease will be reading from The Body Ghost, Donna de la Perrière will be reading from Saint Erasure and her chapbook Night Calendar, and Natasha Sajé will be reading from Vivarium. Moe’s Books in Berkeley at 7:30 p.m.
Friday 8/31: Don’t miss the final screening of Britta Erickson’s The Enduring Passion for Ink. Erickson’s films feature the artists Xu Bing, Zheng Chongbin, Liu Dan, Wang Dongling, and Yang Jiechang. The event will also feature an introduction and Q+A with Erickson. The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University at 1 p.m.
Poet and Washington Square poetry editor Paco Márquez will be reading from his new collection of poetry, Portraits in G Minor. Green Apple Books (Clement St. Location) in San Francisco at 7 p.m.
Hungry for mooncake, Chinese poetry, and riddles? Head over to the Clarion Music Center for Flower Moon Latern Riddle. The night will feature poetry from ancient times to the present, guqin music, and solving riddles. Clarion Music Center in San Francisco at 7 p.m. ($20–25, tickets required).
Saturday 9/1: Join the East Bay Book Sellers for their first anniversary. The party will feature donuts, dancing, and (probably) dogs. East Bay Booksellers in Oakland at 10 a.m.
Did you know that disco fever was an international epidemic? Manila Disco Fever at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival celebrates the Manila Sound. Dance to the classic disco hits from the Philippines. Yerba Buena Gardens Festival at Yerba Buena Park in San Francisco at 1 p.m.
Sunday 9/2: It’s the third Sonido Clash Music Festival! Sonido Clash Music Fest features multiple stages of Latinx alternative music, live poetry readings, art installations, workshops, panel discussions, food, artist vendors, and more! School of Arts & Culture @ MHP in East Side San José at 2 p.m ($30–50, tickets required).
Head over to Berkeley for a screening of The Atomic Cafe, a 1982 found-footage documentary of nuclear life in America during the cold war. This screening will feature a conversation with Jayne Loader and Rick Prelinger, two of the documentary’s directors. BAMPFA in Berkeley at 5 p.m. ($9–13, tickets required).
Monday 9/3: It’s Labor Day! Curious about San Francisco Bay Area Labor History? Check out this collection of oral histories from UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library.
Free Shakespeare in the Park comes to the Presidio! Come for an open-air performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Main Post Parade Ground Lawn at the Presidio at 2 p.m.
Tuesday 9/4: Gabriela Alemán celebrates the release of Poso Wells, a noir feminist eco-thriller published by City Lights Books. City Lights Booksellers & Publishers in San Francisco at 7 p.m.
Threepenny Review contributors D. Wystan Owen and Jamel Brinkley will be reading from their debut short story collections, Other People’s Love Affairs and A Lucky Man. Books Inc. in Berkeley at 7 p.m.
It’s pub-day for this week’s Local Book Pick! Join writer, novelist, and The Millions editor Lydia Kiesling as she celebrates the release of The Golden State. Kiesling will be in conversation with writer and critic Ismail Muhammad. Green Apple Books (9th Ave. location) in San Francisco at 7:30 p.m.
Arjun Singh Sethi, a civil-rights lawyer and community activist, discusses American Hate: Survivors Speak Out. The book chronicles the stories of individuals affected by hate in Trump’s America. The Booksmith in San Francisco at 7:30 p.m.
*
LOCAL BOOK PICK: This week’s pick is Lydia Kiesling’s The Golden State (MCD/FSG, September 4, 2018)! The Golden State was recently longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.
***
If you have a Bay Area event listing you’d like us to consider for Notable SF, please contact [email protected] as far in advance as possible, and include the date of the event in the subject line.
***
Logo art by Max Winter.
