Sleeping Beauty's Dreams at Quiet Lightning, Monday November 2nd!

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I’m happy to be reading my poem series, “The Beauty of Sleeping,” at Quiet Lightning‘s next literary mixtape on Monday, November 2nd. Aurora had a 100 years to sleep, so let the dreaming begin. . .
The estimable Evan Karp and Jennifer Lewis curated the evening, which always features an eclectic and electric group of writers.
I’m honored to be among:
Chris Ames
Kacy Cunningham
MK Chavez
Cassandra Dallett
Diane Glazman
Chad Koch
Jenny Qi
Bel Poblador, C.E. Shue, Ben Finateri, Ken Grobe, Margaret Spilman, and Eila Carrico!
@ Arc Studios & Gallery
Monday, Nov 2 2015
7:30 pm show | 6:30 pm doors
1246 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA
all ages
$7-10, no one turned away for lack of funds
sPARKLE & bLINK 69 ft. covers by Doug Sandelin
free for first 100
cheap draft beer courtesy Lagunitas

Under the Influence: Italo Calvino

Who could not love the premise of Evan Karp‘s reading series, Under the Influence? Each writer chooses an author that (s)he loves, introduces the audience to that author, then reads a short piece inspired by the work of that writer. I stumbled upon Italo Calvino’s novel, If On A Winter’s Night, A Traveller, when I was working at my first bookstore job in San Francisco. I fell into it completely, with its 2nd person narration and its unconventional, twisty storytelling. I went on to read Invisible Cities, Cosmicomics, Under the Jaguar Sun, Marcovaldo, Mr. Palomar, and many other Calvino titles. He had a prolific imagination that made the world seem possible.
My story, “Invisible City,” was inspired by Calvino’s stories told by Marco Polo to Kublai Khan. To me that book is several books rolled into one: fairytales, travelogue, architectural guidebook, and bromance. Still one of my favorite books to read on an airplane.

“Invisible City” at The Emerald Tablet, August 2, 2014

Quiet Lightning + 826 Valencia = Pirate Lightning!

A rousing time was had by all at the February 4th celebration of young readers, put together by Evan Karp, Chris Cole and the good folks at 826 Valencia. The authors were at the top of their game and the Pirate Store was absolutely SRO. Allie read Gillian’s poem, “How To Be a Circuit” in the second half of the evening. Then they skedaddled home to hit the books since it was a school night!

How To Be A Circuit
First you have to choose whether you are
a parallel circuit or a
series circuit choose if you have a switch
or a lightbulb or a
buzzer or if your inside inside
Rudolf the red-nosed Reindeer
but even if you choose a bee that flaps its wings
you have to have a flowing connection of electricity
maybe from a batterie or an outlet
the connection has to be clear
If not,
the light or buzzer goes out
for a series circuit you’re in a loop, you’re more
simple
but to be a parallel circuit is more complicated
but if one goes out the others stay on
hopefully your batteries will never go
out
out
And you can read the entire sparkle + blink 36 here!

Quiet Lightning at Viracocha on November 5th

 
I have the good fortune to read at Quiet Lightning:
Monday, November 5th
Viracocha • 998 Valencia @ 21st
7pm doors, show at 7:30
$5
Please come and join the fun!
The show was curated by Chris Cole and Evan Karp and this month’s artist is Kirsten Harkonen.