Yiyun Li of Oakland has won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award for her debut collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. She gets 50,000 big ones–that’s pounds, not dollars–and lots of love, which began with a gala dinner and award ceremonyin Cork, Ireland. Li is originally from Beijing, but, not surprisingly, is a [...]
Yesterday, I received a note from Ericka Lutz at Literary Mama, suggesting a small edit on a story of mine they’re running in October. It was a very good edit, so precise and insightful, and, in a way, so obvious, that I was surprised I hadn’t thought of it myself. I told Ericka to go [...]
PJ’s Oyster Bed & Pamela Alma Bass invite you to: Jazz City Still Swings! Writers, Actors, Singers & Musicians raise a stir for New Orleans! Featuring: Catherine Brady, Jeff Greenwald, Michelle Richmond, Andrew Altschul, Amy Thigpen, Juju Thigpen, Kai Mactane, Stephen Bass, Laurel Carangelo, Adam Venker & special guests, plus: live Zydeco music!
When: October 1rst, [...]
If you missed the Katrina Benefit Reading put on by Stephen Elliott, Matthew Iribarne, and the Progressive Reading Series at the Makeout Room last week, don’t despair, you can still pretend you were there. For auction here at Sans Serif is an event poster signed by all fourteen of the participating authors: Daniel Handler (aka [...]
If you missed Kevin (no not my Kevin, the other Kevin) and the Bookmark Now posse this summer, well, all I can say is, where were you, dude? Because Kevin was pretty much everywhere. Lucky for you, it’s not too late to hear the enthusiastic editor of this snappy literary volume talk abut the [...]
Teresa Walsh’s powerful one-woman show, Body Revolution, is playing through October 15 at El Teatro de la Esperanza at 2940 16th Street in San Francisco. About the show, from Speak Out:
Poet, playwright and actress Teresa Walsh, in her powerful one-woman show, Body Revolution: From Harlem to Havana, tells the story of her ascent into a [...]
Guest blogger Lauren Baratz-Logsted drops by again with a big passel of reviews:
Something must be severely rotten in the city of Danbury, or life must be going too good, because I go on liking nearly everything I’m reading. Someone please stop me before I turn into a sap.
The Days of Awe, by Hugh Nissenson. This [...]
Think you’re ready for the big one that’s supposed to blow the state apart at the seams sometime between now and 2035? Mark Morford asks you to think again. If this doesn’t persuade you to get off your custom-built redwood dining chair and put your earthquake kit together (if you’re reading this, you’re probably among [...]
Imagine the Heathers on meth…and coke, and vodka, and Xanax. Add some razors, some seriously messed-up parents, a blood pact, an affair with a high school teacher, and about fifteen years to see how all of this stuff informs their adult lives. There you have Martha O’Connor’s raw-edged and wildly readable debut novel, The Bitch [...]
Matthew Cheney of The Mumpsimus admires Jonathan Lethem’s work, but laments the fact that the MacArthur Awards generally go to authors who have already enjoyed considerable success. One of the three criteria for the award, Cheney notes, is that “fellowships must be able to relieve constraints that prevent the recipients from freely working on their [...]
