LIVE! From City Lights

(From March 2019, during our Ferlinghetti at 100 celebrations) Ronald K.L. Collins and David M. Skover discuss the subject of their book, "The People v. Ferlinghetti : The Fight to Publish Allen Ginsberg's HOWL," published by Rowman & Littlefield. Opening statement by Malcolm Margolin. Lawrence Ferlinghetti's name does not appear in any First Amendment treatise or casebook. And yet when the best-s...

Maxim Osipov reading excerpts in Russian of his new book, "Rock, Paper, Scissors and Other Stories," published by New York Review Books in translation. The new edition from NYRB was translated by Boris Dralyuk, Alex Fleming, and Anne Marie Jackson; edited by Boris Dralyuk. Joining Maxim to read passages from the book in English is Sabrina Jaszi. Maxim Osipov (b. 1963) is a Russian writer and cardi...

Gibby Haynes reading from his new novel, Me & Mr. Cigar, published by Soho Press. From the wild and wonderful mind of Gibby Haynes––world famous Butthole Surfers front man/lyricist and self-proclaimed eternal Texan adolescent––comes the surreal tale of seventeen-year-old Oscar Lester and his trusted dog, Mr. Cigar. Gibby Haynes is a musician, visual artist, writer, and filmmaker best known as a fo...

(From June 2019) Elliott Sharp in conversation with David Rothenberg to celebrate the release of two new books: "Nightingales in Berlin: Searching for the Perfect Sound" by David Rothenberg, published by University of Chicago Press and "IrRational Music" by Elliott Sharp published by Terra Nova Books. David Rothenberg is the Series Editor of Terra Nova Books and is distinguished professor of philo...

A very special musical episode! Benedicte Maurseth discussing her book, "To Be Nothing: Conversations with Knut Hamre, Hardanger Fiddle Master," published by Terra Nova Press. Benedicte Maurseth is a Norwegian folk musician, composer, and writer. She began her study of the Hardanger fiddle with Knut Hamre at the age of eight. She has toured in Norway and internationally, and has made several recor...

ZYZZYVA celebrates their 117th issue, the Bay Area Issue with an all-star lineup (in order of appearance): Paul Wilner, Meg Hurtado Bloom, Rita Bullwinkel, Kevin Simmonds, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, and Chia-Chia Lin. Hosted by ZYZZYVA managing editor Oscar Villalon. Paul Wilner is a poet, critic, freelance journalist, and member of the National Book Critics Circle, and a frequent contributor to ZYZZ...

(From November 2018) Kevin Killian reads from his book, Fascination, published by Semiotext(e) and edited by Andrew Durbin. A memoir of gay life in 1970s Long Island by one of the leading proponents of the New Narrative movement. Fascination brings together an early memoir, Bedrooms Have Windows (1989) and a previously unpublished prose work, Bachelors Get Lonely, by the poet and novelist Kevin Ki...

Carmen Maria Machado with Esmé Weijun Wang in conversation and celebrating the release of Carmen Maria Machado's In The Dream House: A Memoir, published by Graywolf Press. Event co-sponsored by Asian Women's Shelter, Communities United Against Violence, and The California chapter of Survived and Punished. Carmen Maria Machado is the author of Her Body and Other Parties, a finalist for the National...

Celebrating the new issue of Freeman's: "The Best New Writing on California," published by Grove. Hosted by John Freeman with readings by Tommy Orange, Rabih Alameddine, Lauren Markham, H.R. Smith, Shobha Rao, Oscar Villalon, and Jaime Cortez. The sixth Freeman's brilliantly showcases some of the world's best writers grappling with the myths and reality of California today. John Freeman was the ed...

(From April 2019) Heather Dundas in conversation with David Wade celebrating the release of Foucault in California : A True Story—Wherein the Great French Philosopher Drops Acid in the Valley of Death by Simeon Wade, Foreword by Heather Dundas, and published by Heyday Books. In The Lives of Michel Foucault, David Macey quotes the iconic French philosopher as speaking "nostalgically…of 'an unforget...

Catherine Flynn celebrating the release of "James Joyce and the Matter of Paris," published by Cambridge University Press, in conversation with fellow UC Berkeley professor Kent Puckett. In James Joyce and the Matter of Paris, Catherine Flynn recovers the paradigmatic city of European urban modernity as the foundational context of Joyce's imaginative consciousness. Beginning with Joyce's underexam...

Isabella Tree discussing the subject of her new book, Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm, from New York Review Books with an introduction by Eric Schlosser. For many years Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell struggled to make a go as farmers, doing everything they could to make the heavy clay soils of their farm at Knepp in West Sussex as productive as possible, while rarely succeeding in making...

RE/Search celebrates the release of Issue 19: UNDERGROUND LIVING with V. Vale and special guest Rudy Rucker. V. Vale has traversed the major global underground movements of the past century (including Beatniks, Hippies, Punk, Industrial, kitsch, retro-styles, surrealism, situationism, queer, incredibly strange films and music, performance art, feminism, zines—and more). Along the way, he documente...

(From May 2017)China Miéville reads from October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, published by Verso Books. On the centenary of the Russian Revolution, China Miéville tells the extraordinary story of this pivotal moment in history. China Miéville is the multi-award-winning author of many works of fiction and non-fiction. His fiction includes The City and the City, Embassytown and This Census-...

Anna Merlan discussing the subject of her new book, Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power, published by Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Co. A riveting tour through the landscape and meaning of modern conspiracy theories, exploring the causes and tenacity of this American malady, from Birthers to Pizzagate and beyond. Anna Merlan is a journalist speciali...

(From January 2018) Jenn Pelly and Greil Marcus celebrating a new edition in the 33 & 1/3 series, The Raincoats, by Jenn Pelly and published by Bloomsbury Academic. Co-presented by the Rock and Roll Book Club of San Francisco. In this short book – the first on the Raincoats – author Jenn Pelly tells the story of the group's audacious debut album, which Kurt Cobain once called "wonderfully classic...

Ramesh Srinivasan and Shahid Buttar discussing Ramesh's new book, Beyond the Valley: How Innovators around the World are Overcoming Inequality and Creating the Technologies of Tomorrow, published by The MIT Press. How to repair the disconnect between designers and users, producers and consumers, and tech elites and the rest of us: toward a more democratic internet. Ramesh Srinivasan is Professor o...

(From February 2014) Jeff VanderMeer reads from his novel Annihilation, part one of the Southern Reach Trilogy, published in 2014 by FSG. (Includes a very interesting snapshot of City Lights c. 2014 with Peter Maravelis's intro of upcoming readings at the time..!).

Savannah Shange in conversation with Patrick Camangian discussing the subject of Savannah Shange's new book, Progressive Dystopia: Abolition, Antiblackness, and Schooling in San Francisco, published by Duke University Press. In Progressive Dystopia, Savannah Shange explores the potential for reconciling the school's marginalization of Black students with its sincere pursuit of multiracial uplift a...

(From May 2015) Peaches in conversation with Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens discussing the book, What Else Is in the Teaches of Peaches, a photograph book chronicling her life and performances with text from Peaches, Yoko Ono, Ellen Page, and Michael Stipe, published by Akashic Books.

Jairus Victor Grove in conversation with David Goldberg discussing the subject of Jairus's book, Savage Ecology: War and Geopolitics at the End of the World, published by Duke University Press. Jairus Victor Grove is Director of the University of Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies and an Associate Professor of International Relations. Dr. Grove received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins Uni...

Susan Steinberg reading from her new novel, Machine, published by Graywolf. Machine is a dazzling and innovative leap forward for a writer whose most recent book, Spectacle, gained her a rapturous following. Machine revolves around a group of teenagers—both locals and wealthy out-of-towners—during a single summer at the shore. Susan Steinberg is the author of Spectacle, Hydroplane, and The End of...

Daniel Handler in conversation with John McMurtrie celebrating Daniel Handler's new novel, "Bottle Grove," published by Bloomsbury Books. A razor-sharp tale of two couples, two marriages, a bar, and a San Francisco start-up from the best-selling, award-winning novelist.

Mark Arax in conversation with Kit Rachils discussing the subject of his new book THE DREAMT LAND: Chasing Water and Dust Across California published by Alfred Knopf. A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil–the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought. Mark Arax is an author and journalist whose writings on California and...