Jeffrey Eugenides, Susan Orlean, James Ellroy, Mary Roach, Ishmael Reed, Adam Mansbach, Jane Smiley, Chris Adrian, Thomas McGuane, Christopher Moore, Daniel Woodrell, Deepak Chopra, Cyra McFadden, and Guillermo Gomez-Peña are just a few of the authors scheduled to read at this year's Litquake Festival. "Er, like, what's Litquake," you derp? Well, Litquake is the city's annual festival of literature devoted to the printed word. Lots of words. Dangerous words. more ›

Esteemed writer and bartender Alan Black will host a bevy of local baseball writers at Home Run! Baseball at the Library. Jason Turbow reads from his book The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing and Bench Clearing Brawls - the Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime; Missy Roback reads her short story, The Warning Track; Dan Fost goes back in time with Giants Past & Present; Al Saracevic will chat American's favorite pastime; and aforementioned host Alan Black reads a "knuckles up a short history of the Baseball World cup, first completed in 1938 when England beat the USA." more ›

SFist seeks aurally-inclined, open-minded, and talented souls to steer our music voice. We are looking for writers with a strong interest in the local, national and worldwide (but mostly local) music/club scene. You should understand the difference between an actual story and PR-driven yarns and, of course, write a damn fine sentence. In addition, please be familiar with the local blogging scene. All the better if you have your own site. more ›

You've got to love local author Danielle Steel. Her daughters look nothing short of delightful, she successfully extracted herself out of the inner SF society sect, and her house looks like this. Which is why we were saddened to hear that Steel's bookkeeper, Tiburon resident Kristy S. Watts (also known as Kristy Siegrist), was pinched for skimming cream off of the Steel empire, embezzling over $768,000. Watts pleaded guilty back to the crimes back in September of 2009. more ›

Yes, it's that time of year again when aspiring and/or hobbyist writers -- as well as those creative souls who feel their lives slipping away year by year with nothing to show for it but debt and some nice pics on Flickr -- join together with others across the world for National Novel Writing Month. November is but a 30-day month, and if you haven't started on your new novel draft, then, well, you have a little catching up to do. The idea isn't to come up with something polished and perfect, but just to write every day, about whatever, and hopefully link some stuff together into something resembling a 50,000-word cohesive story. (Watch the video above for some tips for getting started.) more ›

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Just moments ago, in a letter to its members, the WGA announced that writers have voted by a 92.5% margin to lift the “restraining order” and officially end the strike. The move comes on Day 100 of the labor dispute. more ›

A sad week for LAist as they lose their trusted and amazing editor Tony Pierce to the LA Times, but what a blast his last week was. He shared his 25 Favorite CDs of 2007 and wrote a great review of just a good movie, No Country For Old Men. At UCLA, thousands of students celebrated the end of their quarter by running around campus in their undies (lots of photos in a two-part photo essay, one, two). That wasn't the only photo essay either: Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy friends and Star Trek actors all joined in at the Writers Strike and KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas brought two nights of amazing bands that included Avenged Sevenfold, Linkin Park (Part I), Modest Mouse, Muse, Spoon and The Killers (Part II). Not only is L.A. a great music town, it has just been named the best city for bookish types. For those who are looking for something a little more active, American Gladiators are back (yes!) and if that's not enough, how about a Christmas gift of action and adventure? more ›

It's not fair that our sister, LAist, gets all of the great writers strike coverage. Alas. But the Bay Area's own Sean Penn has joined the noble striking effort. He helped to create the above Writers Guild of America-conceived video for "Project Speechless," videos that feature A-list thespionic talent. What's more, they found a way of making Mr. Penn funny. (We kid, Sean. Please don't hit us. Not that you'll have the chance.) Anyway,... more ›

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and veggies in South Central. On the entertainment front, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are suing Showtime over the show titled Californication and Rami Kashou of Project Runway chatted with LAist about his Palestinian heritage and, of course, designing beauty. more ›

Phillyist prepared to party by doing the hustle, lighting the lights, shopping up a storm, and... visiting Khrushchev?
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-- Bonds' final, fatal backlash continues. (I wonder how he spent his day today? Ugh.) [SFGate, SF Examiner, FCJ , SFBG, The Snitch] more ›

-- Evil Dead 2 (1987): Sam Raimi's exquisite sequel to the equally-exquisite Evil Dead, minus any tree-rape. Screens at 7:15p.m., 9:15 at The Red Vic, 1727 Haight (at Cole). more ›

-- KrOB'S Film Farm -- Faust (1994): Jan Švankmajer's version of Faust, using Goethe's and Christopher Marlowe's tales as well as heaps of surrealism, screens tonight at 8 p.m. at Chez Poulet, Cesar Chavez (Army) and Mission Streets; free. more ›

-- Writers With Drinks: Tonight Robert Mailer Anderson, writer and game designer Austin Grossman, Sheng Wang, Darieck Scott, and Dom Brassey read. 7 p.m. at the Make-Out Room, 3225 - 22nd; $3-$5. more ›

-- Writers With Drinks not only boasts an awesome substance-abuse party, but overlaps it with readings from some of your favorite local and national (that is to say, usually New York City- or LA-based) scribes and novelists. Who knew writers like to drink? more ›

--Audacia Ray, the editor of the sex worker zine $pread and a Fleshbot [nsfw] contributor, talks at Modern Times about the commodification of sex on the Internet. 7:30 p.m., 888 Valencia (x 20th) more ›

Friend of SFist Charlie Anders reminds us that her nifty and unusual spoken-word group, Writers With Drinks, will be experiencing yet another stupendous explosion of literary greatness this Saturday, the 9th, from 7:30 to 9:30 at The Make Out Room. Presenters include: more ›

In artist Paul Madonna's weekly comic series All Over Coffee, San Francisco architecture—and coffee—seem to be the main characters. Beautifully technical drawings of SF scenes, combined with disembodied voices that almost feel like the city's collective consciousness, give an ethereal quality to the pieces. You can catch All Over Coffee every Sunday in the Pink section of the Chronicle, and it's archived online as well. Paul also updates his web site every Monday with a new free cartoon. This month, there are several ways you can get to know Paul and his work a little better. • Tonight from 7 to 10 pm at 312 Valencia @ 14th street, there is a Book Release Party for Paul's collection of past to present work from All Over Coffee. You can also buy the book at a discounted price from City Lights Books. more ›

This, the first week after the holidays, is traditionally where Hollywood dumps all the crappy flicks that weren't good enough to release during the holidays. So any movie opening this week has to be viewed with suspicion. more ›

We remember the late 90's when every food magazine offered the definitive risotto technique. Writers trudged to Italian villages to learn how rural matrons made this popular dish. Even as newbie foodies, we rolled our eyes at these accounts. Why make it sound so treacherous? more ›

has been praised to the rooftops, and she's hosting a reading and panel with local authors Joshua Braff, Sylvia Brownrigg, and Carolyn Cooke at the Corte Maders Book Passage tomorrow at 7 p.m. more ›

Anything you can do, Wednesday can do better. Tonight: The APA group Kearny Street Workshop, in conjunction with Intersection for the Arts, presents the finale to its 2006 Intergenerational Writers Labwith a reading of the works that the lab participants have been preparing throughout the year. Sounds like experimental fiction, poetry, and maybe some lyrical prose might be making an appearance (though the group is careful to say that their work "transcends genre.") $5-15, 7-9 p.m., at Space180 (180 Capp Street, between 16th and 17th, and Mission and S. Van Ness.) more ›

This is little Gastronomique's first birthday! First column was on March, 3rd a year ago. This was 48 posts ago, which is one per week plus our Blog Writers Guild union-sanctified four weeks of rest and relaxation. We're looking forward to the second year, but we want to take a peek behind our shoulder, so we know what to say when we sit down for our year-end evaluation with our editors. more ›

So many moons ago, we wrote a post about Other Magazine. We were still young, unknown punks on this here locally scribbler scene. Nearly a year and a half later, we're still young punks at least (though we'll just be punks before long), mostly by virtue of being accepted by actual literary luminaries like Charlie Anders and Annalee Newitz. Granted, they're not hard to find, with Charlie MCing Writers With Drinks at the Makeout Room every month. more ›

Saturday: We're headed down to the San Francisco Concourse (8th and Brannan) for the Green Festival ’05, for "two energetic days of socially responsible shopping, options for thriving green living, foremost speakers and industry leaders, creating the largest party with a purpose." The festival runs 10a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and fro 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are 15 bucks, 7 if you're a student, senior, or if you ride your bike there. more ›

Since our last update, there have been no major breakthroughs in the negotiations between Chronicle management and the Media Workers Guild. Based on the latest reports from management and the Guild, it seems that the two sides are still quite far apart, even though the deadline on management's 'best' offer is due to expire at midnight on Monday. While the Guild is still at the table, the Pressman's Union has become much more active publicly in response to perceived intimidation on the part of Frank Vega and his chronies Vance International. more ›

When we heard that Geoff Callan and Mike Shaw's project, "Pursuit of Equality," a documentary about San Francisco's 'Winter of Love,' was premiering at the San Francisco International, we were happy, as we've been waiting for months since the film's trailer went online (under the working title "Rush to the Civil Altar"). When we got the press release about the red carpet treatment for the film's stars, we figured there would be the added bonus of a media circus! Yay! Pushy broadcast reporters! Writers from New York City! Mabel Teng! So SFist put on our best (read: only) tweed jacket, fired up 'Lil SFist and headed down to the Castro Theater. After the jump: gays, Gavin and guffaw inducing gaffes. more ›

We initially passed this press release from the Author's Guild along to Gothamist Jen so that she could get the scoop on Gawker and FishbowlNY. Why? Because it looks like the Author's Guild along with the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981, have come through with an $18 million dollar settlement for copyright infringement by companies like Time, Inc., The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal for republishing freelancer's content online without their permission. more ›

In the "Lengths Writers Will Go To Promote A Book" department, Tom Dolby, author of The Trouble Boy, submitted to an SFist grilling. And by grilling we mean a nice, spicy rub-down followed by a slow, low-temperature smoke. Because Tom is a native of The City, and successful in New York, so we can't really be all that hard on him. more ›