Litquake 2024

Co-presented with Left Margin LIT

Left Margin LIT is a creative writing workspace offering classes, camaraderie, and mentorship to East Bay writers of all backgrounds and experience levels. They see storytelling and poetry as vital elements of a healthy city: enriching dialogue, building community, and supporting a culture of creativity. They also have some of the best writing instructors in the biz, three of whom have new books that we’ll celebrate at this event: poet Brynn Saito’s Under A Future Sky, novelist Tomas Moniz’s All Friends Are Necessary, and poet Maw Shein Win’s Percussing the Thinking Jar. Doors at 6:00PM. FREE, $10-15 suggested donation
Book sales for this event coordinated by Pegasus Books.

Read for Filth: Queer Erotica is a celebration of - yes - queer erotica. The event will feature the reading of queer erotic passages and drag performances to queer sexy songs. There will be cocktails! There will be snacks! There will be a DJ to help get your mood on! And don't forget all your fellow cute bookish queers (and people who love cute queers). Featuring the talents of Baruch Porras-Hernandez, DJ Lead Teddy, Polly Amber Ross and other drag superstars. FREE, $20-40 suggested donation 
Book sales for this event coordinated by Fabulosa Books.

Co-presented with Gilman Brewing Company and East Bay Booksellers

Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Hernan Diaz partners with East Bay Booksellers, Gilman Brewing Company, and Litquake for the rerelease of his Pulitzer-nominated debut novel In The Distance. Doors at 6:30PM. Bar closes at 9:00PM. $34 with book
Book sales for this event coordinated by East Bay Booksellers.

Part of Litquake's Words Around the World
Sponsored by NORLA, Norway House, and Center for the Art of Translation/Two Lines Press

Internationally bestselling crime-writing duo Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst have been called “two of the most distinguished writers of Nordic Noir” (Financial Times). Stigma, their fourth collaboration, finds deeply scarred homicide detective Alexander Blix and his collaborator, journalist Emma Ramm, trying to catch an escaped German prisoner—while Blix himself is behind bars. Whether you’re new to Enger’s work or you’re already a fan of the series critics have called “an international sensation” (Vogue), you’ll want to catch this thrilling conversation with Enger and Randal Brandt, curator of the California Detective Fiction Collection at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library. FREE, $10-15 suggested donation
Book sales for this event coordinated by Telegraph Hill Books.

Co-presented with Radium Presents and SF Sketchfest

Four storytellers of Moth Storyslam and Grandslam fame curated by JP Frary plus four Litquake authors take this beautiful outdoor stage for Runway Stories as we hear tales centered around the theme, "First Love.” Featuring storytellers Don Reed, Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, Beau Ryder Davis, and Kimberli Joy, and authors Sarah Thornton (Tits Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, and Witches Tell Us about Breasts), Tina Horn (Why Are People Into That? A Cultural Investigation of Kink), Dominic Lim (Karaoke Queen), and Mas Masumoto (Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm). Doors at 6:00PM. $20 adv / $25 door / $49 VIP (includes premium seating and 2 drink tickets)

Book sales for this event coordinated by Pegasus Books.

From Rachel Kushner, a Booker Prize finalist, two-time National Book Award finalist, and “one of the most gifted authors of her generation” (The New York Times Book Review), comes a new novel about a seductive and cunning American spy of ruthless tactics, bold opinions, and clean beauty who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France—Kushner’s finest achievement yet as a novelist, a work of high art, high comedy, and unforgettable pleasure. Written in short, vaulting sections, Kushner’s rendition of “noir” is taut and dazzling. Moderated by editor and critic John Freeman. Doors at 7:00PM. $17 adv (book bundle avail.) / $20 door
Book sales for this event coordinated by Books Inc.