7 Can’t-Miss Events at Litquake 2025

The Bay Area’s love of literature is well-documented, as evident in our ecosystem of independent bookstores (have you canceled your Amazon account yet?), as well as our roster of homegrown literary stars. But perhaps nowhere is the romance more obvious than at Litquake, which started as a one-day event in Golden Gate Park in 1999, and now takes the form of a sprawling, two-week series of readings, talks, and parties around the Bay. 

The lineup is always stacked, and this year is no different; check out the full schedule here. But if you’re trying to make some tough calls, COYOTE staff have selected a few personalized picks below.    

‘I took the lake between my legs’: Women of a Certain Age Read Poems on Sex and Death

Pick up any book of poetry and you’ll likely come across a piece on sex, or death, or both. The five authors presenting their work at this reading, however, defy common expectations of who should cover such intense topics. Zeina Hashem Beck, Susan Browne, Danusha Laméris, Rebecca Foust, and Keetje Kuipers — who are all in their mid-40s to late 60s — share personal pieces on sensuality, aging, eroticism, and death. The event is emceed by Susie Bright, she of legends, who co-founded the first women-produced sex magazine, On Our Backs, and started The Best American Erotica series. Swing by for a titillating evening, topped off with a glass of wine from Terah Wine Company. — Nuala. 6–8pm Friday, Oct. 10, Vintage Berkeley, 2113 Vine St., Berkeley. Free, more info here.

Disaster, with a Side of Noodles

Featuring our very own Soleil Ho in conversation with iconic (in my opinion) Bay Area writer Annalee Newitz and amazing graphic novelist Lee Lai. Newitz’s recent Automatic Noodle manages to balance tech criticism with a kind of humor and joy that you rarely see in dystopian fiction. Lai’s Cannon captures a kind of simmering, endless chafing in sparse, beautiful lines better than anything I’ve read recently. What does it mean to recover from disaster? Who gets to have a disaster in the first place? And how do you find support when the world fucking sucks? — Reo. 6pm Sunday, Oct. 12, Mrs. Dalloway’s, 2904 College Ave., Berkeley. Free, $10–15 suggested donation, more info here. 

Bodies in the Ether: Fantasies of Flesh, City, and Magic

Have you ever seen a book in a bookstore window that gets your blood pumping? Maybe it makes you think “Oooh what is that?” Such is my experience every time I come across Brittany Newell’s novel Soft Core, with its cover featuring a pink-gloved exploration into abstract (yet familiar) folds. Newell; writer and performer Brontez Purnell; and poet and queer historian Eric Sneathen gather to present new! unpublished!! fantastical, magical, and speculative works on desire, identities, and a sense of place. Don’t snooze on this one. — Nuala. 7–8:30pm Thursday, Oct. 16, KQED, 2601 Mariposa St., SF. $25, more info here.

SongWriter Live featuring Viet Thanh Nguyen and Thao Nguyen

In this live taping of SongWriter — a podcast that challenges a musician to compose one original song based on stories told by special guests — local favorite musician Thao Nguyen will perform a brand new song based on stories from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen and San Francisco State University professor (and social activist) Russell Jeung. Nguyen will share a story from his recent book, To Save and To Destroy, and Jeung will speak about belonging and identity. The past five years have been a tumultuous time for Asian American political activism – who are we and what do we stand for? — so a musical brain meld of these heavyweight thought leaders? I’d definitely listen to that. — Cecilia. Friday, Oct. 17, Swedish American Hall, 2174 Market St., SF. $20 adv/ $25 door, more info here.

Turn It Up: Celebrating 5 Years of Litquake Out Loud

For the past five years, Litquake Out Loud has championed queer voices and writers of color from all over the region, inviting guest curators from those communities to take over stages and highlight the Bay’s colorful tapestry. Out Loud Program Manager Giovanna Lomanto — a poet and a longtime homie of mine — has brought together some of my favorite local writers and community advocates, including 2025 curators D’Mani Thomas, Diego Plascencia-Vega, and Sarah O’Neal (who is, by sheer cosmic fate, reporting a story for COYOTE), as well past Out Loud curators Josiah Luis Alderete and Jenny Qi. These are the folks actively shaping and nurturing the Bay’s contemporary poetry ecosystem, and doing it all with a fierce tenderness that will restore your faith in our broken world. Tap in. — Alan. 7:30pm, Sun. Oct 19, Make Out Room, 3225 22nd St., SF. Free/pay what you can, more info here.

Something Unpredictable: Relive the 1990s with Bay Area Cartoonists 

In case you didn’t get the memo in the form of JNCO jeans, Gen Z is allll about the ‘90s — but what was it actually like in the Bay Area back then? I could tell you what it was like for me (circa ‘98-2000, mostly a lot of aimless wandering around Telegraph). But this event, featuring local comics artists who have produced autobiographical work about their teenage years here, will undoubtedly be more compelling. Participants include friend of COYOTE Janelle Hessig (Tales of Blarg), Julia Wertz (Impossible People), Thien Pham (Family Style), and Briana Loewinsohn (Raised by Ghosts), in conversation with California College of Arts’ Justin Hall. — Emma. Friday, Oct. 24, Mrs. Dalloway’s, 2904 College Ave., Berkeley. Free, $10–15 suggested donation, more info here. 

48 Hills Presents: The Waymo That Ate San Francisco — Indie media takes on Big Tech

Lit Crawl is the delightful, surprisingly organized chaos that caps off the festival each year: Bars and cafés and bookstores all over the Mission District fill with 4000-plus people to see more than 250 authors in bite-size readings. And this year, COYOTE is proud to take part! Hosted by our friends at 48 Hills, this event sees writers from independent media outlets reading pieces about tech, the future, the present, and the strange, robo-taxi–filled place we call home. Catch a couple of COYOTEs (you’ll just have to be surprised which ones), alongside Mission Local’s Joe Eskenazi, KQED Arts’ Nastia Voynovskaya, 48 Hills’ Marke Bieschke and Tim Redmond, El Tecolote’s Erika Carlos, Broke-Ass Stuart’s Bunny McFadden, and more. — Emma. Saturday, Oct. 25, 5–6pm, Teeth Bar, 2323 Mission St., SF. Free, more info here.