Litquake. Oh, Litquake! One of my favorite weeks of the whole entire year and becoming more favorite each time. Who cares what fun-haters like Ted Rall say about literary festivals? I for one, would pay good money to hang out with crowd-surfing letterpress compositors. I doubt that will actually happen at Litquake — the festival that has become the focus of a year’s planning and excitement for local litterati, but you never know. Considering the sort of behavior we’ve seen from local authors recently, nothing would surprise me.
From its very origins, Litquake has been anything but sedate or safe. Founded by a gang of outlaws including San Francisco Bizarro author Jack Boulware and Chron columnist Jane Ganahl, Litquake began over drinks at the Tenderloin’s Edinburgh Castle, and the Castle remains the event’s spiritual home. In its earliest incarnation “Litstock,” the event was a single day of marathon readings on a chilly outdoor stage. Renamed and expanded, the centerpiece of the festival is now TWO days of marathon readings (indoors this time) at the Koret Auditorium of the Main Library. But these days Litquake comprises a whole week of author luncheons, signings, and special installments of many of our fine city’s favorite ongoing reading series.
Capping the week is the infamous Lit Crawl, a night of utter insanity in the Mission District. Dozens of readings will take place in three one-hour “phases,” at a wide variety of bars, restaurants, and storefronts. Between phases, participants must run as fast as possible to the next venue, hoping to get there in time enough to beat the crowd and actually get inside and hear something. In years past, there were maybe 4 simultaneous events per “phase.” This year, there’s something close to 9,000, and no matter which reading you attend, you’ll be kicking yourself that you couldn’t go to all the rest. It just goes to show that we have an embarrassment of literary riches here in the Bay Area, and I, for one, hope that Litquake continues to grow and prosper.
Like the Fringefest, or any of our city’s great film festivals, the first hurdle is accepting that you WILL NOT be attending each and every event. You probably have a job to go to, and you probably can’t clone yourself. So here’s a smattering of my Litpicks for this year.
What I’d Go To If I Had The Money
For the first time, Litquake is going to be presenting its Barbary Coast Award for lifetime achievement to Armistead Maupin, the man who inspired untold Mary Ann Singletons to leave Cleveland and make their mood rings blue with his serialized and disco-drenched Tales of the City saga. Appearing with Maupin that night will be Andrew Sean Greer, Michelle Tea, Father Guido Sarducci, the cast of Beach Blanket Babylon, and actress Laura Linney, who played Mary Ann in the “Tales” miniseries, among others. This is such the ultimate San Francisco event, I wouldn’t be surprised if the heavenly sprirts of Harvey Milk, Herb Caen, and Emperor Norton all descended in a winged cable car to sprinkle the crowd with Rice-A-Roni. It might happen. If you can, drop that extra c-note for access to the afterparty. The fun happens at 8pm on Saturday, October 6, 2007 at the Herbst Theatre. Buy your tickets ahead of time here.
