Wednesday 10/10: Join Rebecca Traister, author of Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger, in conversation with Lauren Schiller of KALW’s Inflection Point. Traister’s book examines the political and personal ramifications of female anger. Berkeley City Club in Berkeley at 7 p.m. ($10–20, tickets required).
Heather Havrilesky, the advice columnist behind “Ask Polly,” will be reading from her new essay collection, What if This Were Enough?. Green Apple Books on the Park in San Francisco at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday 10/11: The annual Litquake festival will begin on October 11 and will culminate with the Lit Crawl on October 20. Notable SF will only feature one Litquake event per day, but the full schedule can be found here.
Join Why There Are Words for a launch of two WTAW Press books! Angela Mitchell will be reading from her debut collection Unnatural Habitats & Other Stories and Sarah Stone will be reading from her novel Hungry Ghost Theater. Mitchell and Stone will be joined by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (Fruit of the Drunken Tree), Lisa Locascio (Open Me), Louise Marburg (The Truth About Me: Stories), Natalie Singer (California Calling), and Terese Svoboda (Anything That Burns You). Studio 333 in Sausalito at 7 p.m. ($10, tickets required).
Litquake: Kick off 19 years of Litquake with a good old fashioned literary hobnob. Mingle, grab a glass of wine, and pick up a copy of the festival guide! The University Club of San Francisco in San Francisco at 8 p.m. ($20–25, tickets required)
Friday 10/12: Join Icelandic philosopher and San Francisco State University professor Ásta for a launch of Categories We Live By, a meditation on theories of social construction, categories, identity, and meaning. Alley Cat Books in San Francisco at 7 p.m.
Litquake: What has become of America’s melting pot? Join Elaine Castillo (America Is Not The Heart) and Shanthi Sekaran (Lucky Boy) as they read from their novels set in the Philippines, Mexico, Berkeley, and Milpitas. Their conversation will be moderated by Angie Chau (Quiet As They Come). Swedish American Hall in San Francisco at 8 p.m. ($15–$20, tickets required).
Saturday 10/13: Litquake: Curious about how to write a short story? Join authors Bradley Jay Owens, Glori Simmons, Michael Andreasen, and Rita Bullwinkel as they talk about the art of the short story. This conversation will be moderated by Aimee Phan. California College of the Arts in San Francisco at 2:30 p.m. ($12–$15, tickets required).
Writer and Alta Magazine contributor Katya Cengel will be reading from Exiled: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to California and Back. Cengel’s book follows four Cambodian-American families as they grapple with criminal deportation forty years after their refugee resettlement. Cengel will be in conversation with Ny Nourn and Anoop Prasad of the Immigrant Rights Program at Asian Law Caucus. Book Passage in Corte Madera at 4 p.m.
Sunday 10/14: Lia Huber will be reading from her memoir, Nourished. Copperfield’s Books in Healdsburg at 3 p.m.
Litquake: Join Akwaeke Emezi as they read from Freshwater. Freshwater has recently been longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize. Emezi will be in conversation with Whiting Award-winning author Esmé Weijun Wang. Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco at 6 p.m. ($5–$10, tickets required).
Monday 10/15: Head over to Stanford for a performance of “No Belles: Legends of Women in Science!” No Belles features the stories of women scientists who have and have not received the Nobel Prize. Stanford University (Sapp Center Auditorium) in Stanford at 4:30 p.m. (free, tickets required).
Litquake: What does the landscape of Native literature look like today? This Litquake event will look at the diversity of contemporary Native writing. The event will feature Julian Talamantez Brolaski (Of Mongrelitude), Heid E. Erdrich (New Poets of Native Nations), Jennifer Foerster (Bright Raft in the Afterweather), and Greg Sarris (How a Mountain Was Made), and Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. McEvoy Foundation for the Arts in San Francisco at 6 p.m.
Tuesday 10/16: Writers Lisa Rizzo, Mindela Ruby, and Cathleen Calbert will be reading from their essays featured in Unmasked: Women Write about Sex and Intimacy After Fifty. They will be joined by Unmasked’s editor, Marcia Meier. The Octopus Literary Salon in Oakland at 7 p.m.
Litquake: Come celebrate POWER, the latest issue of Freeman’s Literary Journal. Freeman’s editor John Freeman will be in conversation with Rebecca Solnit and Jaime Cortez! City Lights Booksellers in San Francisco at 7 p.m.
Don’t miss this week’s Local Book Pick event! Lara Bazelon, journalist, USF Law School Professor, and former director of the Innocence Project, will be launching Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction. Rectify features the story of the wrongful conviction of Thomas Haynesworth and the growing movement for restorative justice. Bazelon will be in conversation with San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi. The Bindery in San Francisco at 7 p.m.
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LOCAL BOOK PICK: This week’s Local Book Pick is Lara Bazelon’s Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction (Beacon Press, October 16). Don’t miss Bazelon’s launch at The Bindery on October 16!
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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.
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Logo art by Max Winter.
