Every year writers flock from near and far to the Bay in October for Litquake. You may notice them in your favorite coffee shops, restaurants, and definitely in your bookstores. This year the festival is featuring 850 writers over the course of a week, so remember Litquake is really an exercise in endurance. Pace yourself, drink enough liquids, and remember that Litcrawl is just around the corner.

Death and Dying (Saturday, Oct 12, 11am, Hotel Rex, SF)
Okay, 11 am may be too early to think about death and dying, but when else are you going hear Lewis L. Lapham discuss gallows humor, the will to live, and the fear of dying with John Crowley (whose work Harold Bloom called “a neglected masterpiece”)? Lapham is just a pleasure to listen to. He is really one of the most erudite men alive today. Bring all your existential questions!Also on the panel: Jeff Sharlet and the editors of Lapham’s Quarterly.
And as long as you’re at the Hotel Rex, you might as well soothe your concerns about dying by staying for the Poetic License reading at 12:30pm, featuring Stegner fellows and Atsuro Riley, whose first book of poems won a Whiting Writer’s Award.

Yokohama Threeway: Beth Lisick (Sunday, Oct 13, 4pm, Edinburgh Castle, SF)
I have been a fan of every book in City Light’s new imprint series Sister Spit, edited by Michelle Tea. The newest in the series is a mordant, quick-witted book by Beth Lisick titled Yokohama Threeway and Other Small Shames. I can’t think of a better way to spend your Sunday than with a drink in hand while listening to Beth Lisick in conversation with Alan Black, whose Glasgow accent, I hear, is enchanting.