Intersection for the Arts Literary Series

Last updated

The Intersection for the Arts Literary Series is the longest running literary series outside of an academic institution in the state of California. Organized and maintained by Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, the literary series presents regular readings by emerging local writers and prominent authors.

Contents

Independent Press Spotlight

In recent years, Intersection for the Arts has included an Independent Press Spotlight as part of their literary series, allowing editors from San Francisco literary magazines and independent publishers to talk about their work alongside readings from local authors. Publishers featured in the Independent Press Spotlight include AK Press The Believer City Lights Publishers, ColorLines Magazine, Fourteen Hills, Heyday Books, LiP Magazine, Manic D Press, McSweeney's, Mercury House, New American Writing, Switchback, Tachyon Publications, University of California Press, Zoetrope: All-Story, and ZYZZYVA.

Authors

Hundreds of authors have read at Intersection since the series began. In the last ten years, some of the more recognizable names include:

Related Research Articles

City Lights Bookstore Bookstore and publisher in San Francisco

City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected titles related to San Francisco culture. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin. Both the store and the publishers became widely known following the obscenity trial of Ferlinghetti for publishing Allen Ginsberg's influential collection Howl and Other Poems. Nancy Peters started working there in 1971 and retired as executive director in 2007. In 2001, City Lights was made an official historic landmark. City Lights is located at 261 Columbus Avenue. While formally located in Chinatown, it self-identifies as part of immediately adjacent North Beach.

Dave Eggers American writer, editor, and publisher

Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He wrote the best-selling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Eggers is also the founder of McSweeney's, a literary journal, a co-founder of the literacy project 826 Valencia and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness, and the founder of ScholarMatch, a program that matches donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in several magazines.

Heyday is an independent nonprofit publisher based in Berkeley, California.

Barrett Watten is an American poet, editor, and educator often associated with the Language poets.

Charlie Jane Anders American science fiction author and commentator

Charlie Jane Anders is an American writer and commentator. She has written several novels, published magazines and websites, and hosted podcasts. In 2005, she received the Lambda Literary Award for work in the transgender category, and in 2009, the Emperor Norton Award. Her 2011 novelette Six Months, Three Days won the 2012 Hugo and was a finalist for the Nebula and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. Her 2016 novel All the Birds in the Sky was listed No. 5 on Time magazine's "Top 10 Novels" of 2016, won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2017 Crawford Award, and the 2017 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel; it was also a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Intersection for the Arts

Intersection for the Arts, established in 1965, is the oldest alternative non-profit art space in San Francisco, California. Intersection's reading series is the longest continuous reading series outside of an academic institution in the state of California.

Jewelle Gomez

Jewelle Gomez is an American author, poet, critic and playwright. She lived in New York City for 22 years, working in public television, theater, as well as philanthropy, before relocating to the West Coast. Her writing—fiction, poetry, essays and cultural criticism—has appeared in a wide variety of outlets, both feminist and mainstream. Her work centers on women's experiences, particularly those of LGBTQ women of color. She has been interviewed for several documentaries focused on LGBT rights and culture.

Booksmith

The Booksmith is an independent bookstore located in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. When first opened in October 1976, the store was located at 1746 Haight Street, below the former I-Beam nightclub. In 1985, the store moved to its current location at 1644 Haight Street at Belvedere, about a block and a half from the intersection of Haight and Ashbury. Other neighborhood businesses include the Persian Aub Zam-Zam, Recycled Records, Amoeba Music, and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. Also located nearby is the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic.

Litquake

Litquake is San Francisco's annual literary festival. Originally starting out as Litstock for a single day in Golden Gate Park in the spring of 1999, it now has a ten-day run in mid-October, as well as year-round programs and workshops.

<i>Slaves of Sleep</i>

Slaves of Sleep is a science fantasy novel by American writer L. Ron Hubbard. It was first published in book form in 1948 by Shasta Publishers; the novel originally appeared in 1939 in an issue of the magazine Unknown. The novel presents a story in which a man travels to a parallel universe ruled by Ifrits. The protagonist takes on the identity of a human in this dimension, and becomes involved in the politics of Ifrits in this fictional "Arabian Nights" world.

Lucy Jane Bledsoe is a novelist who has received many awards for her fiction, including two National Science Foundation Artists & Writers Fellowships, a California Arts Council Fellowship, a Yaddo Fellowship, the Arts & Letters Fiction Prize, the Saturday Evening Post Fiction Award, the Sherwood Anderson Prize for Fiction, and a Pushcart nomination. She is a six-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

Two Dollar Radio is an independent family-run publisher based in Columbus, Ohio. The company was founded in 2005 by husband-and-wife team Eric Obenauf and Eliza Jane Wood-Obenauf, with Brian Obenauf. The press specializes in literary fiction. In 2013 they launched their micro-budget film division, Two Dollar Radio "Moving Pictures." In 2017 they co-founded the annual Columbus, Ohio, arts festival The Flyover Fest. Also in 2017 (September) the press opened a brick-and-mortar named Two Dollar Radio Headquarters on the south side of Columbus, Ohio, which is a bookstore, full bar, performance space, and vegan coffeehouse and cafe, carrying Two Dollar Radio titles as well as a selection of almost exclusively independently published books.

Kevin Killian American poet, author, and playwright

Kevin Killian was an American poet, author, editor, and playwright primarily of LGBT literature. My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer, which he co-edited with Peter Gizzi, won the American Book Award for poetry in 2009.

Steven P. Schneider is an American poet, critic, and professor of English at the University of Texas-Pan American, where he serves as director of new programs and special projects in the College of Arts and Humanities. He is the author of three books of poetry, Borderlines: Drawing Border Lives (Wings Press), a collaborative effort with his wife, Reefka Schneider, Unexpected Guests, and Prairie Air Show (Hurakan Publications and Sandhills Press). He is the author and editor of several scholarly books, including The Contemporary Narrative Poem: Critical Crosscurrents (University of Iowa Press), a collection of ten essays from poet-critics on the contemporary American narrative poem.

Letras Latinas is the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame's Institute for Latino Studies (ILS), with an office on campus in South Bend, Indiana, as well as Washington, D.C. It strives to enhance the visibility, appreciation and study of Latino literature both on and off the campus of the University of Notre Dame, with an emphasis on programs that support newer voices, foster a sense of community among writers, and place Latino writers in community spaces.

San Francisco Foundation is a San Francisco Bay Area philanthropy organization. It is one of the largest community foundations in the country. The foundation gives out millions of dollars a year through awards and fellowship programs. Projects the Foundation has helped found include Huckleberry House.

Jack Shoemaker is an American editor and publisher, and current editorial director and vice-president at Counterpoint Press in Berkeley, California. Shoemaker has edited and published books under several imprints, including North Point, Pantheon Books, Shoemaker & Hoard, and Counterpoint. Shoemaker has published books by Guy Davenport, Romulus Linney, Gary Snyder, Wendell Berry, Evan S. Connell, MFK Fisher, James Salter, Gina Berriault, Reynolds Price, W.S. Merwin, Michael Palmer, Donald Hall, Anne Lamott, Kay Boyle, Gary Nabhan, Jane Vandenburgh, Carole Maso, and Robert Aitken. Shoemaker supports author-driven literary publishing ventures and mindfulness and political awareness in publishing. Shoemaker was one of the first American publisher of Thich Nhat Hanh, and a major publisher of Wendell Berry.

Thomas W. Christensen is an American author, translator, and publisher. He is known for his publications on literature, history, and art; his literary translations from French and Spanish; and his work as an editor and publisher.

Felicia Rice

Felicia Rice is an American book artist, typographer, letterpress printer, fine art publisher, and educator. She lectures and exhibits internationally, and her books can be found in collections from Special Collections, Cecil H. Green Library to the Whitney Museum of American Art to the Bodleian Library. Work from the Press is included in exhibitions and collections both nationally and internationally, and has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants.

Trinidad Escobar

Trinidad Escobar is an author, poet, and cartoonist active in the San Francisco Bay Area, and an educator at the California College of the Arts.

References

Hamlin, Jesse (June 13, 2005), "Life Met Art Here", San Francisco Chronicle, pp. D–1

Benson, Heidi (June 14, 2005), "Art in a Time for Peace", San Francisco Chronicle, pp. D–7

Winn, Steve (June 15, 2005), "The Art of Relocating", San Francisco Chronicle, pp. E–1

Ganahl, Jane (June 16, 2005), "Staying Alive", San Francisco Chronicle, pp. E–1

Wiegand, David (June 17, 2005), "The Future", San Francisco Chronicle, pp. E–3