Litquake

Litquake is San Francisco's annual literary festival. Originally starting out as "Litstock" in 1999, it ran for two years before going dark in 2001 after 9/11. It re-emerged in 2002 with a new name, determined to make the most of the fact that according to "USA Today", San Francisco has the highest per capita consumption of both alcohol and books. It consists of readings, discussions, and themed events held at different Bay Area venues. The annual festival features predominantly Bay Area authors but opens a limited number of slots for those from the outside, and kicks off during the first weekend of October. The Litquake Literary Project produces the event, while Intersection for the Arts and others provide fiscal sponsorship. [cite news |first=Passmore |last=Liam |title=Litquake to Feature More Authors Per Square Foot Than Ever in '07 |url=http://www.litquake.org/wp-content/uploads/LQ%20Schedule%20Press%20Release%20082207.pdf |format=html |publisher=litquake.org |accessdate=2007-10-10]

The first year, 2002, included over 60 authors and four venues. At the 2003 festival, 100 authors participated over four days. By 2004, the event had grown to 175 authors and nine days. The nine day 2005 festival included 250 Bay Area participating authors and 6,975 attendees. The 2006 festival hit the 7833 attendee mark and included over 300 authors as well as Litquake's first ever movie, the cartoon "Best Book Ever". [cite web |url=http://www.litquake.org/links/litquakes-first-movie/ |title=Litquake's First Movie! |accessdate=2007-10-10 |format=html |work=litquake.org]

The 2007 festival

In 2007, the venues were expanded for the first time to include locations outside of San Francisco. Opening night honored Armistead Maupin with the introduction of the Barbary Coast Award, [ cite news |first=Sue |last=Gilmore |title=Maupin Up for Another Award |url=http://www.mercurynews.com/books/ci_6550321 |publisher=San Jose Mercury News |date=2007-08-05 |accessdate=2007-10-10] The evening starred Amy Tan, who surprised the audience by first appearing in kitschy Chinese peasant garb, only to re-emerge in an ensemble of black leather and a whip, Andrew Sean Greer's eloquent memory/narrative of his first introduction to "Tales of the City", Father Guido Sarducci's mysteriously hilarious treatise on the effects of an over abundance of lemons in an Italian village, K.M. Soehnlein's rediscovery of a fantasia on Jackie Kennedy written by Maupin in 1980, Susie Bright, cast members of Beach Blanket Babylon, Jon Ginoli, actress Laura Linney, Pamela Ling and Judd Winick, Michelle Tea, as well as the late Ethel Merman singing "When the Lights Go Down in the City", by Journey. Other notable participating Bay Area writers over the course of the 8 day festival included Kim Addonizio, Kate Braverman, Colby Buzzell, Vikram Chandra, Dave Eggers, Daniel Handler, Wesley Stace, Derek Kirk Kim, Noah Levine, Mark Morford, Peggy Orenstein, Ann Patchett, Ishmael Reed, Lolly Winston, Jane Smiley, George Smoot, Gary Amdahl, Tamim Ansary, Tom Barbash, Frank Portman, and approximately 330 others. 2007 saw the first inclusion of the Literary Death Match. It was also the first time for the festival to break the 10,000 attendee threshold, a 30% increase over the year before.

A hallmark of Litquake is the broad range of authors, categories and readers represented. In 2007 that included Kidquake, Science and Religion, Jane Smiley in conversation with Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), an evening of original shorts written specifically on the theme of "The Lesser Evil," story telling at Porch Light - where authors are required to tell a story as opposed to reading one, panels on getting published, poetry, memoir, women authors, journalists, politics, science fiction, mystery, food and more

Notes

ee also

List of San Francisco Bay Area writers

External links

* [http://www.litquake.org/about/ Litquake website]
* [http://www.thebayareaintellect.com/on-litquake-and-lit-crawl/ Article on 2007 Litquake and Lit Crawl]
* [http://litminds.org/blog/2007/10/post_5.html LitMinds interviews the Litquake Organizers]