Calendar Northern California

Updated October 28, 2008

October 1-31, 2008 S M T W Th F S 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 0

1 OCTOBER---wednesday:
CENTRAL:
• The Hella Pretty Army, A Benefit for Fran Varian features performers composer/singer Mark Growden, recovering slam poet Lauren Wheller, musical duo Vagabondage, writer/performer Meliza Bañales, short story writer/actor Katrina James, writer Heathen Machinery, Steven Schwartz, rumors of an onsite kissing booth, plus silent auction with one-of-a-kind art, fashion, handmade chapbooks, proceeds to benefit poet, activist, and organizer Fran Varian who is fighting late-stage Lyme disease, Center for Sex and Culture, 1519 Mission Street, SF, $10-$20, no one turned away for lack of funds, doors open 7:00, show 7:30
• Creative Writing Series presents a poetry reading by Ashley Capps, Mistaking the Sea for Green Fields, winner of the 2005 Akron Poetry Prize, Soda Activity Center, Saint Mary's College of California, 1928 Saint Mary's Road, Moraga, free, 7:30 (925/631-4457, www.stmarys-ca.edu/mfa)
NORTH:
• Sunset Poetry by the Bay presents a reading by Jacques Korn, open mic follows, Northpoint Coffee House, 1250 Bridgeway, Sausalito, no cover, 7:00-9:00 (415/331-0777, www.northpointcoffee.com)

2 OCTOBER---thursday:
CENTRAL:
• Peace for Keeps presents its Third Annual Gandhi Statue Birthday Reading, seeking and presenting a reading of poems for and about Gandhi by Gandhian poets, featured poets and open mic, at the Gandhi Statue, San Francisco Embarcadero behind the Ferry Building, foot of Market Street, SF, free, noon-2:00 (510/845-5481, pazmopa@yahoo.com)
• Poetry Center fiction reading presents Nona Caspers, Heavier than Air, short stories, and Cooley Windsor, Visit Me in California, short stories, The Poetry Center, Humanities 512, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, SF, free, 4:30 (www.sfsu.edu/~poetry)
• Lunch Poems series presents a poetry reading by Ilya Kaminsky, Dancing in Odessa, Morrison Library, 101 Doe Library,
University of California, Berkeley, free and open to the public, 12:10-12:50 (http://lunchpoems.berkeley.edu)
• A prose reading and discussion on the current election and times by poet/nonfiction author Susan Griffin, Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy: On Being an American Citizen, with author George Lakoff, The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain, light refreshments, Albany Library, 1247 Marin Avenue, Albany, free, early time is due to the televised vice-presidential debate this evening, which will be followed at this event by the discussion and reading, 6:00-9:00 (510/526-3720, www.aclibrary.org)
• Featured and open reading, hosted by Selene Steese and Paula Farkas, Day of the Dead Café, 3208 Grand Avenue, next to the Grand Lake Theater, Oakland, 7:30 (510/868-8705)

3 OCTOBER---friday:
CENTRAL:
• Litquake festival runs from October 3-11, featuring 450 authors, today's events include the opening ceremony, a special Porchlight storytelling series presentation with Jonathan Ames, Robert Mailer Anderson, Will Durst, Neal Pollack, Amber Tamblyn, April Sinclair, and Cintra Wilson responding to the theme "Suckered: Writers Confess a Profound Lack of Judgment," Herbst Theatre, SF, 8:00 (schedule and details: www.litquake.org)
• Small Press Traffic Reading Series presents a reading by poets and writers Zack Linmark, Jaime Cortez, Kate Schatz, Leni Zumas, and Sesshu Foster, Timken Lecture Hall, California College of the Arts, 1111 8th Street, SF, $5-$10 sliding scale, free to current SPT members and the CCA community, 7:30 (415/551-9278, www.sptraffic.org)
• Poetry & Pizza presents a reading by poet-blogger Glenn Ingersoll, experimental poet/philosopher H.D. Moe, Wingéd Wows, and Mel C. Thompson, free pizza, $5 admission donation benefits San Francisco Free Clinic, Escape from New York Pizza, 333 Bush, at Montgomery, near Montgomery BART or Sutter/Stockton Parking Garage, SF, 7:30 (http://popizza.white.prohosting.com, www.hdmoe.com)
SOUTH:
• Waverley Writers presents a poetry reading by Peter Neil Carroll, Riverborne: A Mississipi Requiem, open reading follows, Friends Meeting House, 957 Colorado, near Greer, Palo Alto, 7:30-10:00

4 OCTOBER---saturday:
CENTRAL:
• Litquake festival runs from October 3-11, featuring 450 authors all over SF (schedule and details: www.litquake.org)
• 3+3 Poetry presents a poetry reading by Gillian Conoley, Standard Schaefer, and Norma Cole reading their work with three emerging LA poets, Polly Geller, Lizzy Epstein, and Sarah Suzor, light snacks and wine, Canessa Gallery, 708 Montgomery Street, SF, free, 7:00
NORTH:
• Point Reyes Books presents a farmers' market cooking demonstration with Jesse Ziff Cool, Simply Organic: A Cookbook for Sustainable, Seasonal, and Local Ingredients, Toby's Feed Barn, 11250 Highway One, Point Reyes Station, 10:00 a.m. (415/663-1542, www.ptreyesbooks.com)
• Point Reyes Books presents Is Ennybody Home? Unlocking The Enneagram, a hilarious one-woman Enneagram theatre presentation of the nine traditional Sufi personality types performed by Sheilah Glover, benefit for the Gallery Route One Artists in the School program, The Dance Palace, 503B Street, Point Reyes Station, $15-$35 sliding scale, 7:30 (415/663-1542, www.ptreyesbooks.com)

5 OCTOBER---sunday:
CENTRAL:
• Litquake festival runs from October 3-11, featuring 450 authors, today's events include Hugo Award-winning science fiction author/filmmaker Neil Gaiman, Sundance Kabuki, SF, 3:00 (schedule and details: www.litquake.org)
• Sarah Kramer presents Vegan a Go-Go! Moe,s Books, 2476 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, 7:30 (510/849-2087, www.moesbooks.com)
• Poetry Flash presents a poetry reading by Ellen Bass, The Human Line, and and Jane Hirshfield, After, Diesel, A Bookstore, 5433 College Avenue, Oakland, near Rockridge BART, 3:00 (510/653-9965, http://diesel.booksense.com)
NORTH:
• Readings from West Marin Review literary and arts journal, featuring contributing writers Jody Farrell, Nancy Kelly, Doris Ober, and poets John Korty, Barbara Brauer, Devi Weisenberg, Point Reyes Books, 11315 Highway One, Point Reyes Station, 7:00 (415/663-1542, www.ptreyesbooks.com)

6 OCTOBER---monday:
CENTRAL:
• Litquake festival runs from October 3-11, featuring 450 authors, today's events include the Literary Death Match featuring Tom Perrotta, Election and Little Children, SF (schedule and details: www.litquake.org)
• City Arts & Lectures 28th Annual Literary Event series benefits the 826 Valencia College Scholarship Program with a reading by MacArthur fellow and short story writer George Saunders from his essay collection, The Braindead Megaphone, in conversation with Charles Bock, Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue at McAllister, SF, individual tickets $20/each, series ticket for all nine events $153, 8:00 (tickets: 415/392-4400, www.cityboxoffice.com, www.cityarts.net)
EAST:
• Sacramento Poetry Center presents a poetry reading by Susan Kelly-DeWitt, The Fortunate Islands, open mic and refreshments, hosted by Tim Kahl, HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th Street at R Street, Sacramento, 7:30 (www.sacramentopoetrycenter.org)

7 OCTOBER---tuesday:
CENTRAL:
• Center for the Art of Translation presents Lit & Lunch: Latin America in Translation featuring Katherine Silver reading from and discussing her National Endowment for the Arts award-winning translation of Senselessness, a novel by Salvadoran writer Horacio Castellanos Moya, 111 Minna Gallery, 2nd Street and Minna Street, SF, 12:30-1:30 (415/512-8812, www.catranslation.org)
• Litquake festival runs from October 3-11, featuring 450 authors, today's events include a tribute to fiction writer and Stanford writing professor Tobias Wolff, Old School, with Dave Eggers, Ann Packer, George Saunders, and master of ceremonies, author and KQED Forum radio host Michael Krasny; Tobias Wolff will be presented with Litquake's Barbary Coast Award for his contribution to the literary life of San Francisco, Contemporary Jewish Museum, SF (schedule and details: www.litquake.org)
• Litquake and Poetry Flash present A Sacred and Profane Poetry Reading at Grace Cathedral with California Poet Laureate Al Young, brand new U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan, Dan Bellm, Jane Mead, and D.A. Powell, co-sponsored by Poetry Flash and emceed by Richard Silberg and Robin Ekiss, Chapel, Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street, SF, 6:00-7:30 (schedule and details: www.litquake.org)
• Poets Gloria Frym and Beverly Dahlen read from their work, Books & Bookshelves, 99 Sanchez Street, SF, free, B.Y.O.B., 7:30 (415/621-3761, www.99sanchez.com)
• Michael Palmer, Company of Moths; Barbara Jane Reyes, Poeta en San Francisco, winner of the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets; Joe Wenderoth, The Holy Spirit of Life: Essays Written for John Ashcroft's Secret Self; Brenda Hillman, poet and peace wager with CodePink, a social justice group that fought for a resolution in the California State Assembly to bring home the National Guard from Iraq; Meg Hamill, Death Notices, a book of obituaries for soldiers killed in Iraq; Garrett Caples, The Philistine's Guide to Hip Hop; and Joseph Lease, Broken World, read their poetry in a contributors reading from State of the Union: 50 Political Poems, a new anthology from Wave Books, royalities from the book donated to Swords to Plowshares, a nonprofit organization devoted to reducing homelessness and poverty among veterans through advocacy, public education and partnerships, Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, free, 7:30 (510/649-1320)

8 OCTOBER---wednesday:
CENTRAL:
• Litquake festival runs from October 3-11, featuring 450 authors, SF (schedule and details: www.litquake.org)
• Litquake event, co-sponsored by the Queer Cultural Center presents Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore reads from So Many Ways to Sleep Badly, her gender-bending novel is about struggling to find hope in the ruins of everyday San Francisco, City Lights Books, 261 Columbus Avenue, SF, 7:30 (415/362-8193, www.citylights.com)
• Creative Writing Series presents a reading by novelist Peter Orner, The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, Soda Activity Center, Saint Mary's College of California, 1928 Saint Mary's Road, Moraga, free, 7:30 (925/631-4457, www.stmarys-ca.edu/mfa)

9 OCTOBER---thursday:
CENTRAL:
• Poetry Center presents a 40th anniversary event for the SFSU Student Strikes, student-led actions that resulted in the first Ethnic Studies classes at any American university, Genny Lim in performance and collaboration with jazz musician Francis Wong, with award-winning Philippine American poet and fiction writer Oscar Peñaranda, The Poetry Center, Humanities 512, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, SF, free, 3:30 (www.sfsu.edu/~poetry)
• Litquake festival runs from October 3-11, featuring 450 authors, today's events include original dance and theater pieces produced in collaboration with ODC Theater in "Off Book: Stories That Move,"
Project Artaud Theater, SF schedule and details: www.litquake.org )
• Story Hour in the Library series presents writers Bharati Mukherjee, Days and Nights in Calcutta, and Clark Blaise, If I Were Me, hosted by Melanie Abrams and Vikram Chandra, reception and book sale follows, Morrison Library, 101 Doe Library, University of California, Berkeley campus, free, 5:00-6:00 (storyhour.berkeley.edu)

10 OCTOBER---friday:
CENTRAL:
• Litquake festival runs from October 3-11, featuring 450 authors, SF (schedule and details: www.litquake.org)
• Small Press Traffic Reading Series presents a reading by poet and translator Matvei Yankelevich, Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings of Daniil Kharms, and poet Kate Colby, Unbecoming Behavior, Nahl Hall, California College of the Arts, 5212 Broadway, Oakland, $5-$10 sliding scale, free to current SPT members and the CCA community, 7:30 (415/551-9278, www.sptraffic.org, www.cca.edu/about/directions.php)
• Other Words International Poetry Festival runs October 10-12, tonight's event presents Chinese-Swedish poet and translator Li Li, Sight in water, and Oslo-born poet and fiction writer Ingvild Burkey, who holds a degree in political science from Yale University and worked as a human rights monitor in Africa, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, she lives in Oslo and Croatia; Genny Lim performs with composer-musician Francis Wong, and another visiting poet to be announced, The Unitarian Center, 1187 Franklin, at Geary, SF, free, 7:30 (www.sfsu.edu/~poetry, http://otherwords08.wordpress.com)
• Last Word presents a poetry reading by Gail Ford and Judy Wells, Call Home, open mic follows, co-hosted by Dale Jensen, Diana Q., good food, Nefeli Caffe, 1854 Euclid Avenue, near Hearst, Berkeley, free, 7:00 (510/841-6374)

11 OCTOBER---saturday:
CENTRAL:
• Litquake festival runs from October 3-11, featuring 450 authors, SF (schedule and details: www.litquake.org)
• UpSurge! Jazz poetry group performs, Raymond Nat Turner and Zigi Lowenberg, jazzpoetry vocals; Richard Howell, saxophones and vocals; Angela Wellman, trombone and vocals; Tammy Hall, piano; Erich Hunt, bass; Jaz Sawyer, drums, Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way, between Shattuck and Oxford, downtown Berkeley, $14 at the door, sets start at 8:00 (reservations recommended, call after 5:00: 510/841-5299, www.upsurgejazz.com, www.AnnasJazzIsland.com)
• Second Saturday Poetry and Prose Reading features poets Elaine Starkman and Florence Miller, open reading follows, Jeanne Lupton hosts, Frank Bette Center for the Arts, 1601 Paru Street, at Lincoln, Alameda, 7:00 (510/523-6957; to sign up for open: jeany98@aol.com)
NORTH:
• Paul Ekman reads from Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion, co-authored by and taken from dialogues with the Dalai Lama, Point Reyes Books, 11315 Highway One, Point Reyes Station, 7:30 (415/663-1542, www.ptreyesbooks.com)

12 OCTOBER---sunday:
CENTRAL:
• The second and fourth Sunday series Music of the Word/La Palabra Musical presents The Word-Music Continuum with Kirk Lumpkin, poet/percussionist, Paul Mills, guitar, Mark Wider, bass and soulful Boricua poet chanteuse Sandra Garcia Rivera, plus open reading, Rebecca's Books, 3268 Adeline Street, Berkeley, free, 3:30-5:30 (510/852-4768)

13 OCTOBER---monday:
CENTRAL:
• Book launch reading for AVANTI POPOLO: Italian-American Writers Sail Beyond Columbus, edited by the Italian American Political Solidarity Club, a groundbreaking collection of poetry and prose by Italian American writers, event features contributors, Diane di Prima, Kim Nicolini, Cameron McHenry, Giovanna Capone, Ed Coletti, Thomas Centolella, emcees Tommi Avicolli Mecca and James Tracy, City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, SF, free, 7:00
• Word Dancing features poets Charlie Getter and Ana Elsner, open reading follows, hosted by Jeanne Powell, It's A Grind Coffee House, 1800 Polk Street, at Washington, SF, free, 7:00-9:00 (415/441-1272; host: 415/928-8904)
• A reading by novelist and poet David Mura, Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, 7:30 (510/849-2087, www.moesbooks.com)
EAST:
• Sacramento Poetry Center presents a featured poetry reading, open mic and refreshments, hosted by Emmanuel Sigauke, HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th Street at R Street, Sacramento, 7:30 (www.sacramentopoetrycenter.org)

14 OCTOBER---tuesday:
CENTRAL:
• City Arts & Lectures 28th Annual Literary Event series benefits the 826 Valencia College Scholarship Program with a reading by novelist Andre Dubus III from his novel, The Garden of Last Days, in conversation with Mark Hertsgaard, Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue at McAllister, SF, individual tickets $20/each, series ticket for all nine events $153, 8:00 (tickets: 415/392-4400, www.cityboxoffice.com, www.cityarts.net)
• Poets Jaqueline Motzer and Richard Froude read from their work, with paintings by Lena Lenberg, hosted by Justin Davis, Books & Bookshelves, 99 Sanchez Street, SF, free, B.Y.O.B., 7:30 (415/621-3761, www.99sanchez.com)
• Holloway Poetry Readings present Michael McClure with graduate student Elizabeth Marie Young, Maude Fife Room, Third Floor, Wheeler Hall, Room 315, University of California, Berkeley, 6:30 (http://holloway.english.berkeley.edu)
• Antonia Juhasz presents The Tyranny of Oil, Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, 7:30 (510/849-2087, www.moesbooks.com)
• The Combat Paper Project: Contemporary Writers Series, a collaborative project initiated by Drew Matott and Drew Cameron in conjunction with members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, the project transforms uniforms of returning veterans into paper used to create prints and handmade books under the Warrior Writers imprint, enabling veterans to reclaim their uniforms as art while they reconcile their experiences as soldiers; at this reading and performance by Warrior Writers, a writing workshop for Iraqi vets, the audience will cut a uniform from a soldier’s body as he discusses social responsibility in time of war; The Combat Paper Portfolio has been exhibited at various venues as part of the Iraq poetry broadside series, Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, and is part of several permanent collections, including the Library of Congress; Mills College, Lisser Theater, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, free, 5:30-7:00 (510/430-3130)
SOUTH:
• Poetry Santa Cruz presents a poetry reading by April Ossmann and Ed Pavlic, Winners Have Yet to Be Announced: A Song for Donny Hathaway, Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, $3 donation, 7:30 (831/464-8983, www.poetrysantacruz.org)

15 OCTOBER---wednesday:
CENTRAL:
• Book launch party for Zack Rogow’s new book of poems, The Number Before Infinity, Axis Café, 1201 Eighth Street, SF, across the street from California College of the Arts, San Francisco campus, 5:00-6:45 (415/437-2947; directions: http://axis-cafe.com)
NORTH:
• Sunset Poetry by the Bay presents a reading by Mark Schwartz, And Now Then, open mic follows, Northpoint Coffee House, 1250 Bridgeway, Sausalito, no cover, 7:00-9:00 (www.northpointcoffee.com)
EAST:
• Poetry Night at Bistro 33 presents a poetry reading by Julia B. Levine, Ditch-Tender, open mic follows, co-hosted by UC Davis faculty Brad Henderson and Andy Jones, Bistro 33, 226 F Street, Davis, free, featured reading 9:00, open mic 10:00 (530/756-4556)

16 OCTOBER---thursday:
CENTRAL:
• Poetry Flash at Moe's presents a poetry reading reading by Ed Pavlic, Winners Have Yet to Be Announced: A Song for Donny Hathaway, and Sean Hill, Blood Ties & Brown Liquor, Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, 7:30 (510/849-2087, www.moesbooks.com)
• The Berkeley Poets Coop Workshop, founded in 1969, has restarted its workshop, meeting on each third Thursday of the month, tonight at the home of Mark Taksa, 609 Curtis Street, at Thousand Oaks, Albany, free, drop in okay, 7:30 (directions: 510/526-7559)
• Featured and open reading, hosted by Selene Steese and Paula Farkas, Day of the Dead Café, 3208 Grand Avenue, next to the Grand Lake Theater, Oakland, 7:30 (510/868-8705)
NORTH:
• Marin Poetry Center presents a poetry reading by Charles Harper Webb, Amplified Dog, Falkirk Cultural Center, 1408 Mission, San Rafael, $5/$3 members, 7:30 (www.marinpoetrycenter.org)
• Writers Forum presents a workshop and talk with Rob Loughran, "Five Things I Wish I Did Not Know About Writing," how to manage your writing time for any project, Petaluma Community Center, 320 North McDowell Blvd., Petaluma, $15 at the door, 7:00-9:00 (www.thewritespot.us)
• Third Thursday Poetry Reading presents a featured reader, open mic follows, CityArt Building, 284 Main Street, Point Arena, free, 7:30 (707/882-3616)

17 OCTOBER---friday:
CENTRAL:
• The de Young Poetry Series presents a poetry reading by poet, translator, and essayist Forrest Gander, Eye Against Eye, and poet, translator from the French, Cole Swensen, Ours, de Young Museum of Fine Art, Koret Auditorium, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, SF, $12/$8 museum members, 7:00 (tickets: 866/512-6326, www.museumtix.com; information: 415/750-7634, rbaldocchi@famsf.org)
• Reading and reception to celebrate the release of Milvia Street 2008, Berkeley City College's art and literary journal showcasing the work of BCC students, recent alumni, and faculty with contributors Chris Planas, Anna Mae Stanley, Sara Newman, Carla Kandinsky, Margo Iserson, Cyrus Armajani, Willy Lizarraga, Birtukan Beyenssa, Vida Felsenfeld, Kimberly Satterfield, and Pam Mitchell, reception with refreshments and live music, Berkeley City College Auditorium and Atrium, 2050 Center Street, Berkeley, free, 7:00-9:30 (scoleman@peralta.edu

18 OCTOBER---saturday:
CENTRAL:
• Canessa Gallery Reading Series presents poets David Brazil, Rob Halpern, and Stephen Ratcliffe in a reading musing on "time," curated by Erica Lewis, Canessa Gallery, 708 Montgomery Street, SF, $3, 8:00
• Rhythm & Muse series presents a poetry reading by Leah Steinberg, spoken word with music open mic follows, piano and two microphones available, Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut Street, between Eunice and Rose Streets, Berkeley, free/donation, open sign up 6:30, reading 7:00 (510/527-9753, BAC: 510/644-6893, www.berkeleyartcenter.org)
• Eliezer Sobel reads from The 99th Monkey: A Spiritual Journalist’s Misadventures with Gurus, Messiahs, Sex, Psychedelics, and Other Consciousness-Raising Experiments, Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, free, 7:30 (510/649-1320)
SOUTH:
• Mari L'Esperance reads from The Darkened Temple, winner of the 2007 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry, Saratoga Library, 13650 Saratoga Avenue, Saratoga, 2:00 (408/867-6126)
EAST:
• Live at Carol’s Books presents poetry by Tamu, Carol’s Books, 1913 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento, 6:00-9:00

19 OCTOBER---sunday:
EAST:
• Pagan's Place presents a featured poetry reading by Monica Reller, with open mic hosted by Debralee Pagan, Walnut Creek Coffee Company, 1550 Newell Avenue, Walnut Creek, 2:00-4:00 (925/256-9319, walnutcreekcoffeecompany.net)

20 OCTOBER---monday:
CENTRAL:
• A poetry reading by Jack Marshall from his new collection of poetry, The Steel Veil, Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, 7:30 (510/849-2087, www.moesbooks.com)
EAST:
• Sacramento Poetry Center presents a reading by Sixteen Rivers Press poets: Gillian Wegener, The Opposite of Clairvoyance, Terry Ehret, Lucky Break, and Dan Bellm, Practice, open mic and refreshments, hosted by Rebecca Morrison, HQ for the Arts, 1719 25th Street at R Street, Sacramento, 7:30 (www.sacramentopoetrycenter.org)

21 OCTOBER---tuesday:
CENTRAL:
• Summit VI poetry reading with Tenderloin Poets of Hospitality House, anthologies available for purchase, limited open mic, food and drink, San Francisco Main Library, Latino Hispanic Community Room, 100 Larkin, SF, free, 5:30-7:30 (www.sfpl.org)
• An Evening of Poetry with Bill Berkson and Neeli Cherkovski, North Beach Branch Library, 2000 Mason, at Columbus, SF, 7:00 (415/355-5626)
• The Radar Salon series presents Nicole J. Georges, author/illustrator of the zine Invincible Summer who toured with Sister Spit poetry performance group in 2007, and Marcus Ewert, 10,000 Dresses, a children’s book about a boy who dreams of wearing fantastic dresses, hosted by Michelle Tea, a program of the Eureka Valley-Harvey Milk Branch of the San Francisco Public Library, at Femina Potens, 2199 Market Street, at Sanchez, 7:00 (www.sfpl.org)
• Bill Luoma and Stephanie Young read from their poetry, Books & Bookshelves, 99 Sanchez Street, SF, free, B.Y.O.B., 7:30 (415/621-3761, booksandbookshelves.blogspot.com)
• A celebration and reading by Omnidawn Publishers' 2008 books and authors: Hank Lazer reads from Lyric & Spirit, Selected Essays, Tyrone Williams reads from On Spec, Lyn Hejinian reads from Saga/Circus, and Maxine Chernoff and Paul Hoover present their translation of the Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin, Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, 7:30 (510/849-2087, www.moesbooks.com)
• Poetry Center presents a 80th Birthday Celebration for poet, translator, and essayist Nathaniel Tarn, Ins and Outs of the Forest Rivers, new poems, and The Embattled Lyric: Essays & Conversations in Poetics & Anthropology, among more than twenty books, The Poetry Center, Humanities 512, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, SF, free, 4:30 (www.sfsu.edu/~poetry)

23 OCTOBER---thursday:
CENTRAL:
• Founding member of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Jewelle Gomez, double Lambda Award-winning writer of The Gilda Stories, writer and musician Kevin Simmonds, Wisteria: Twilight Songs of the Swamp Country, and Marvin White, poet and co-founder of B/GLAM, Black Gay Letters and Arts Movement, read from To Be Left with the Body, an anthology of poetry about black bi/gay men and HIV/AIDS published by the Los Angeles AIDS Project, Good Vibrations, 1620 Polk Street, at Sacramento Street, SF, 6:30 (415/345-0400; 974-8985x201)
• ZYZZYVA reading featuring writers from the fall issue of the famed West Coast literary journal, Book Bay, San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin, enter on Grove, SF, 6:30 (415/752-4393, www.zyzzyva.org)

24 OCTOBER---friday:
CENTRAL:
• Small Press Traffic Reading Series presents a reading by poet Edwin Torres, I Hear Things People, and Marin County Poet Laureate Albert Flynn DeSilver, Letters to Early Street, Timken Lecture Hall, California College of the Arts, 1111 8th Street, SF, $5-$10 sliding scale, free to current SPT members and the CCA community, 7:30 (415/551-9278, www.sptraffic.org)
• Danse Lumiere presents The Fifth Book of Peace, a fusion of dance, theater, and music adapted from the book by National Book Award-winner Maxine Hong Kingston, conceived and choreographed by Kathryn Roszak, Dance Mission Theater, 3316 24th Street at Mission, SF, tickets: $15 advance/$20 door, 8:00 (415/273-4633, 800/838-3006, www.brownpapertickets.com/event/44555, www.dlkdance.com)
NORTH:
• Mendocino Stories presents Four Women Reading featuring poetry by Devreaux Baker, Blake More, Toni Bernbaum, and Lydia Rand, with drumming and music, open reading follows, Mendocino Hotel, 45080 Main Street, Mendocino, sliding scale $5-$15, 7:30 (707/937-1732, www.mendocinostories.com)

25 OCTOBER---saturday:
CENTRAL:
• BOTH BOTH SERIES presents Dodie Bellamy reading from her brand new chapbook Barf Manifesto, and Cedar Sigo, Expensive Magic, with new artworks by David Petrelli, at John Sakkis’s place, 415 Pierce Street #3, between Oak and Fell, in the Lower Haight, SF, 7:00
• San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman reads from his new book, Look A Hear: Jazz Poems, accompanied by saxophonist Liam Furey, Bird & Beckett Books & Records, 653 Chenery Street, SF, in Glen Park, near Glen Park BART, free, 7:30 (415) 586-3733, www.birdbeckett.com)
•