A slow steady rumble beneath our feet. Is it another San Francisco earthquake? No, it’s Litquake, and it begins on Friday, Oct. 5. The annual festival continues through Saturday, Oct. 13 and this year promises “163 events, more than 850 authors — and most of it free!” Check it out here.
Here’s one event that caught the Book Haven’s eye right off the bat, because we’ve written about some of the players. Joshua Landy (we’ve written about him here and here and here and here) will join Ken Taylor and John Perry for a broadcast of the duo’s popular radio program “Philosophy Talk.” The live talk is titled, “How Fiction Shapes Us” – no surprise there, it’s his sujet du jour, but Josh is always great fun, on any topic, anytime. It’s at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 10. Read more about it here.
Here’s another one that promises to fascinate, and could be suddenly newsworthy. You see, next week is Nobel week, and the rumor is that the lit prize, traditionally given on a Thursday, will be awarded on Oct. 11 this year Could it be that Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o will bag the prize this year? He’s been a serious contender in recent years – we’ve written about it here and here. If so, what better place to be than Litquake on Oct. 7 at 3.30 p.m., when he will be “in conversation with his son,” author Mukoma Wa Ngugi?
Here’s another interesting event, with someone else who has been in my interview notebook recently: author Rebecca Solnit “in conversation on disaster and democracy” with San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White. Sound wiggy? Don’t forget that she’s a devoted San Franciscan, and the author of the acclaimed Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, a project that coordinated 30 cartographers, artists, writers and researchers to “reinvent” the atlas. It’s on Oct. 11 at 6 p.m.
Lots more at Litquake here.
