Join Litquake supporters at an intimate dinner with bestselling novelist Alka Joshi. Attendees will enjoy a delicious dinner accompanied by a variety of exclusive Saintsbury wines, and will receive a complimentary signed hardcover of Alka's latest novel, Six Days in Bombay. 

Alka Joshi is nothing short of a publishing sensation. When her first novel, The Henna Artist, was published near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it might easily have been overlooked amid the news of the day. Instead, thanks in no small part to Joshi's talent as a writer and her determination as a debut author, it immediately became a New York Times bestseller and a Reese Witherspoon Bookclub pick, and it was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Since then, The Henna Artist has been translated into 29 languages…

It might be the height of summer, but it's time to dust off the books for the return of Litquake's Literary Pub Trivia! This summer's blockbuster sequel features even more special effects, fantastic music, and a new celebrity host: writer, LGBTQ+ advocate, and 40-time Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider! Co-presented by Berkeleyside, this edition will feature all the challenging questions you love—on everything from Aesop's Fables to Zone One—plus special questions on Bay Area literary lore.

Form a team with up to six players (or we'll match you up with some other Dickensian Orphans if you're coming solo), and compete for prizes from Litquake and our partners!

Prize packages will be awarded to the three highest-scoring teams, as well as the team with the best team name. Ticket proceeds will support the Litquake Foundation. Food and beverages will be available for purchase from Gilman Brewing and Joyride Pizza.

Arrive starting at 6pm to settle in and order food and drinks; the game will start promptly at 6:30.

Join the Bay Area Book Festival and Litquake for an intimate (virtual) conversation with Iman Mersal and Kate Briggs, two writers who reshape our understanding of motherhood and the art of living.

Mersal, acclaimed Egyptian-Canadian poet and essayist who most recently authored Motherhood and Its Ghosts, excavates the invisible labor and haunting absences of motherhood, blending irony, empathy, and unsparing honesty as she searches for lost women and lost selves. Her work is a bridge between personal memory and cultural critique, always aware of what remains unsaid. Briggs, Rotterdam-based author of The Long Form, reinvents “mom-lit” with philosophical, fragmentary prose, capturing the daily improvisations of new parenthood and the shifting architectures of care. Together, they invite us to witness the fragile, ever-changing forms of family and friendship, and the radical potential of the everyday. Moderated by beloved Sri Lankan American author Nayomi Munaweera.

Join SFJFF for the West Coast premiere. As perhaps the world’s most eloquent witness to the Holocaust, writer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel’s legacy would seem to be firmly attached to the singular horror that he both experienced and spent his life memorializing—the murder of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis. But this poetic and powerful documentary reveals that Wiesel’s astounding moral clarity and his outspokenness against the indifference that humans can display to suffering are deeply resonant in our own time. Wiesel’s story is told largely in his own words and testimony, and is hauntingly illustrated by Joel Orloff’s hand-painted animations.

About Litquake
Litquake seeks to foster interest in literature, perpetuate a sense of literary community, and provide a vibrant forum for Bay Area writing as a complement to the city's music, film, and cultural festivals. 2025 Dates: Oct. 9-25. www.litquake.org

Litquake is grateful for the support of the following funders who help make our programming possible. Institutional Giving: Alta: Journal of Alta California, Amazon Literary Partnership, Bernard Osher Foundation, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Center for the Art of Translation, Government of Ireland Emigrant Support Programme, HarperOne, Hawthornden Foundation, Joseph and Vera Long Foundation, Margaret and William R. Hearst III Foundation, Mary A. Crocker Trust, Miner Anderson Family Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Rock Foundation, Norway House, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, Zellerbach Family Foundation; Individual Giving: Jared Bhatti, Lisa Brown and Daniel Handler, Frances Dinkelspiel and Gary Wayne, Karyn DiGiorgio and Steve Sattler, Scott James and Gerald Cain, Nion McEvoy and Leslie Berriman, Greg Sarris, and Ellen Ullman Media Sponsors: San Francisco Chronicle, Publishers Weekly, 7x7, KALW, KEXP, KQED, SF Arts Monthly, Bay Area Reporter, Johnny Funcheap.