Sarah Henry
Siamak Vossoughi
Elizabeth Gonzalez James
Kristen Staby Rembold
Kate Folk
Bianca Barela
Emma Webster

Sarah Arantza Amador
Melody Nixon
Christopher Bernard
Ruth Crossman
Jeffrey Kingman
Gark Mavigan
Tony Press
Rachael Maier

Monday May 6 @ Arion Press, 1802 Hays Street, The Presidio, San Francisco

Doors at 6:30. Readings begin at 7pm sharp!

Parking / Entrance information

There is plenty of parking at the venue! Please avoid parking in spaces that are marked “Reserved” for residents. There are several parking lots nearby, which are well-signed with any restrictions. Permit payment hours differ for the various lots—be sure to check that.

You can find public transit info and a map here.

The front door of Arion Press is at the base of the tall smokestack, which is visible from most anywhere.

We received 82 submissions and accepted 15 (18%). Of those:

• 6 (40%) are performing at Quiet Lightning for the first time
• 9 are returning:
  • Sarah Henry 3x
  • Siamak Vossoughi 22x
  • Kate Folk 3x
  • Emma Webster 1x
  • Sarah Arantza Amador 1x
  • Ruth Crossman 1x
  • Jeffrey Kingman 1x
  • Gark Mavigan 1x
  • Tony Press 3x

This will be our 126 show and 99th issue of sPARKLE & bLINK. The curators of this show, Meghan Thornton and Rohan DaCosta, have given us a gift. Come and get it!

drinks will be available

Register / Donate / Take a tour of the press

Jan 7, 2019 at Manny’s

Side A

Jennifer Lewis » Meredith Heller » Katie Seifert » Charles Kruger » Calder G. Lorenz » Siamak Vossoughi » Caroline Kessler 

Side B

Chloe Wieland » Heather Bourbeau » Dion O’Reilly » Abe Becker » Hadas Goshen » Fernando Meisenhalter » Alex Simand » Connie Zheng » Brian Waksmunski

Monday, January 7
Manny’s, 3092 16th St.
Readings begin at 7pm
[RSVP]

This is an all ages show, free to attend. There’s a suggested $5-20 donation to help publish and pay all of the selected authors, and to help support the venue — all donations are 100% tax deductible. The first 100 people to attend (regardless of donation) will receive a copy of sPARKLE & bLINK 97, featuring all the selected writing and art by Madeline Gobbo!

Thanks to everyone who sent in writing!

We received 65 submissions and accepted 16 (25%). Of those, 6 are reading at Quiet Lightning for the first time (37%); 10 are returning (63%):

•  Jennifer Lewis (3x)
• Katie Seifert (1x)
• Charles Kruger (9x)
• Calder G. Lorenz (1x)
• Siamak Vossoughi (21x)
• Caroline Kessler (2x)
• Heather Bourbeau (3x)
• Abe Becker (3x)
• Hadas Goshen (3x)
• Fernando Meisenhalter (3x)

This is our 124th show and 97th issue of s+b, featuring some 1,300 readings by nearly 1,000 Bay Area authors. It sometimes feels like we’ve been everywhere, and yet somehow — defying all — there’s a great new place like Manny’s. Thus begins our 10th year!

This show was curated by Evan Karp + Lisa Church.

What? Oh holiday bells yes: submissions are now open for our next mixtape, to be held on 3/4/19 at The Bar at Hotel Kabiki.

From 2016-17, beginning with Quiet Lightning’s 100th show, Turk & Divis (QL’s founding director Evan Karp and his brother Miles) created a track of original music featuring excerpts of the previous month’s Quiet Lightning, posting them online and starting the next show by playing a rough cut—kind of a last time on QL kind of thing. Due out on vinyl, cassette, and digital formats Summer 2018, the album Quiet Lightning features 50 authors performing live at QL—in order of track/show/appearance below.

Pre-orders for vinyl will be available and a release date + party are to be announced soon. The album was recently mixed by Jay Rodgers @ Full Moon Studio and mastered by Joel Hatstat Audio, both based in Athens, GA.

Enjoy! You can stream rough mixes of the album above or, by track, below.

Tara Dorabji • Heather June Gibbons • Bj Dubin • Jack Foley + Rosetta Egan • Yxta Maya Murray • Rohan DaCosta • Prartho Sereno • Dean Rader • Tongo Eisen-Martin • Jane Hirshfield

from quiet lightning 100 / october 9, 2016
@ Cushing Memorial-Mountain Amphitheater

José Vadi • Sarah Heady • Abe Becker • Lorraine Lupo

from quiet lightning 101 on november 7, 2016
@ The American Bookbinders Museum

Tupelo Hassman • Rohan Da Costa

from quiet lightning 102 on december 5, 2016
@ The Tenderloin Museum

Paul Corman-Roberts • Charles Kruger • Cassandra Dallett • Tony Press

from quiet lightning 103 on january 2, 2017
@ Montgomery Street BART Station

Mk Chavez • AshleyRose Sanchez • Miah Jeffra • Katie Seifert • Siamak Vossoughi • Peter Bullen • Paul Corman-Roberts

from quiet lightning 104 on february 6, 2017
@ The Stud Bar

Sandra Wassilie • Jenny Xie • Matt Leibel • Hadas Goshen

from quiet lightning 105 on march 6, 2017
@ Edinburgh Castle

Hugh Behm-Steinberg • Kazumi Chin • Linette Escobar

from quiet lightning 106 on april 3, 2017
@ Elbo Room

Natasha Dennerstein • Baruch Porras-Hernandez • Danielle Bero • Claire Calderón

from quiet lightning 107 on may 1, 2017
@ Galeria de la Raza

Adam Moskowitz • Emily Luan • Rayan Mustafa 

from quiet lightning 108 on june 5, 2017
@ Clarion Music Center

Kristina Ten • Zephir O’Meara • Maraget McCarthy •
foreignfire • John Panzer

from quiet lightning 111 on july 3, 2017
@ Adobe Books

Matt Carney • Roberto F. Santiago • Riss Rosado • Kristina Ten • Eric Kurhi • Akinyele Sadiq

from quiet lightning 113 on november 6, 2017
@ Peacock Lounge

All proceeds will go directly to paying Bay Area artists. Quiet Lightning pays all participating artists and all shows are free. More info soon! Thanks for your support.

Monday, March 6 @ 7:30pm | Edinburgh Castle, 950 Geary 

FREE show, 21+

Peggy Schimmelman » Jenny Xie » Logan Ellis » Sandra Wassilie » Laurie Posner » Hadas Goshen » Sherril Jaffe | Sara Marinelli » Lisa Piazza » Siamak Vossoughi » Anthony Veasna So » Fernando Meisenhalter » Matt Leibel

curated by Meghan Thornton + Olga Zilberbourg

sPARKLE & bLINK cover art by Rohan DaCosta

RSVP

Now accepting writing of all kinds!

[submittable]

• If you’d like to submit your artwork to be featured in sparkle + blink, check out our art page.
• If you’d like to submit an (informal) application to co-curate one of our shows, follow this link and let us know.

Joe Wadlington
Heather Bourbeau
Peter Bullen
Stephen Guai-Wu
MK Chavez
Rae Liberto
AshleyRose Sanchez
Miah Jeffra
Siamak Vossoughi
Adam Moskowitz
Peter Max Lawrence
Paul Corman-Roberts

Kyrsten Bean
Ingrid Keir
Kate Folk
Sage Curtis
Laura Zink
Kate Seifert
Kathryn Reeve
Cassandra Dallett
Isabella Borgeson

!

Monday, February 6 @ The Stud Bar

7:30 – 9pm // doors 9am 😉

curated by Josey Rose + Christine No

art by Irene Nelson, featured artist for February’s sPARKLE & bLINK

free show! free copies of s&b for the first 100 people

we’ll have a raffle with some great swag—all proceeds to benefit the stud and transgender law center — if you have anything, large or small, you’d like to donate, please let us know: submit AT quietlightning DOT org.

hope to see u

xxx

this is our 104th show and 82nd issue of s&b

• accepted 21 of 74 (28%)
• 11/21 (52%) first time reading for QL
• 10/21 (48%) returning
  • Heather Bourbeau (1x)
  • Peter Bullen (12x)
  • MK Chavez (4x)
  • Miah Jeffra (1x)
  • Siamak Vossoughi (18x)
  • Adam Moskowitz (2x)
  • Paul Corman-Roberts (16x)
  • Ingrid Keir (1x)
  • Kate Folk (2x)
  • Cassandra Dallett (12x)

[submittable]

• If you’d like to submit your artwork to be featured in sparkle + blink, check out our art page.
• If you’d like to submit an (informal) application to co-curate one of our shows, follow this link and let us know.

Help us launch!

A literary mixtape curated by Chris Cole, Kelsey Schimmelman, Christine No & Evan Karp, starring:

Iris Bloomfield
Robert Dubrow
Kelly Egan
Siamak Vossoughi
Minna Dubin
Jared Roehrig
Lindsey Adams
Norma Smith
E.C. Messer

held at PianoFight on September 12, 2016, a party to launch our first crowdfunding campaign—an effort to establish a full-time staff position (wait—we have one of those! to establish our first PAID full-time staff position, for which we will soon be hiring).

[ Read the show here ]

This FREE show includes sPARKLE & bLINK w/all selected work + art by Kat Geng for the first 100 people. Plus, prizes and surprises! 21+ only. More TBA soon…

Quiet Lightning 99 – Kickstarter Party
Monday, September 12
PianoFight, 144 Taylor St.
6 – 10 pm
RSVP to guarantee a spot | RSVP to tell your friends

for QL99 // s&b 76

We received 86 submissions for this show and accepted 9 (10%). Of those:

• 6 (67%) have never read for QL
• 3 (33%) are returning
  • Kelly Egan (3x)
  • Siamak Vossoughi (Neighborhood Hero, 17x*)
  • E.C. Messer (2x)

* most all-time appearances @ QL

Quiet Lightning, California State Parks, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy present: Poetry in Parks 2016
Sunday, October 9
Cushing Memorial-Mountain Theater, Mt. Tamalpais State Park
11a – 5pm
RSVP for free shuttle service to and fro | RSVP to tell your friends

Cushing Memorial-Mountain Theater, site of Quiet Lightning 100

This 3rd installation of Poetry in Parks takes place in the historic Cushing Memorial-Mountain Theater in Mount Tamalpais State Park, on the occasion of Quiet Lightning’s 100th show and as part of the Art in the Parks initiative celebrating the centennial of the National Parks and the connection between the wilderness experience and the inspiration parks provide to everyone, poets, writers, dancers, and artists of all genres.

The day begins with youth poetry readings curated by Marin County Poet LaureatePrartho Sereno, in collaboration with the Marin County Free Library, California Poets in the Schools, The Marin Poetry Out Loud Project, and the Marin Poetry Center High School Poetry Project. Musical and dance interludes punctuate the poetry readings, with a new choreographed dance by postmodern dance pioneer Anna Halprin and a special performance by Classical Revolution.

The program includes Quiet Lightning’s flagship submission-based literary mixtape, selected through a blind process and published in a book handed out to the first 200 people in attendance, to be followed by an outstanding group of poets that includes Barbara Jane Reyes, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Brynn Saito, Arisa White, Charlie Getter, and Andrew Paul Nelson, and culminates in this year’s Neighborhood Heroes, featuring readings by CA Poet Laureate Dana Gioia, Pulitzer Prize-winning US Poet Laureate Emeritus Kay Ryan, Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets Jane Hirshfield, San Francisco Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguía, sci-fi fount and Environmental Fellow Kim Stanley Robinson, and Editor of the New York Times Magazine poetry column, Matthew Zapruder.

This free event, which is part of the Litquake festival, is all-ages, with children’s activities provided by Bread & Roses, an interactive art station by ArtSpan, local food by D’Maize Catering and SUP Street Food, beer by Lagunitas Brewing Co., and House Kombucha on tap.

Poetry in Parks 2016 is made possible in part by the California Arts Council, Tamalpais Lands Collaborative, Friends of Mt. Tam, and SOMArts Cultural Center. Parking is available; a shuttle service is free but requires an RSVP.

More to be announced soon, but save the date:

Sunday, Oct 9 2016!

RSVP now

SIDE A

Siamak Vossoughi
Peter Bullen
Norma Smith
Kristina Ten
Zephir O’Meara
Sally Love Saunders
Allison Landa
Karthik Sethuraman
Jon Sindell

SIDE B

Jaida Samudra
Margaret McCarthy
John Panzer
Caroline Kessler
Townsend Walker
foreignfire
A.D. Winans

literary mixtape * July 3, 7:30pm * Adobe Books * free + all ages

sPARKLE & bLINK 87 featuring art by Maricruz Mendoza free for the first 100 people!

+ cheap ice cold draft beer courtesy of Lagunitas

RSVP

Stats for July 3, 2017:

• Accepted 16/66 submissions (24%)
• 6/16 authors reading @ QL for the first time (37%)
• 10/16 authors returning (63%)
  • Siamak Vossoughi (20x)
  • Peter Bullen (14x)
  • Norma Smith (1x)
  • Kristina Ten (4x)
  • Allison Landa (2x)
  • Jon Sindell (2x)
  • John Panzer (4x)
  • Caroline Kessler (1x)
  • Townsend Walker (2x)
  • A.D. Winans (3x)

previously at Adobe Books (4/16):

photos by Ian Tuttle

A literary mixtape curated by Meghan Thornton & Ian Tuttle, starring:

Peter Bullen » Madeleine Mori » Ryan Johnson » Cassandra Dallett » Claire Margine » Lisa Locascio » Brigid Hughes » Kirin Khan » Hanna Pesha | Kristin Acredolo » Christine No » Rei Jackler » Miriam Bird Greenberg » Danny Scuderi » Sarah Henry » Emily Kiernan » Dorian Maffei » Jason Buchholz » Robert Pesich

held at Adobe Books on April 4, 2016

w/cheap draft beer courtesy of Lagunitas +

sPARKLE & bLINK w/all selected work + art by Sarah Irvin for the first 100 people :::

sPARKLE & bLINK 73 by Quiet Lightning

We received 105 submissions for this show and accepted 19 (18%)

4/19 have read before (21%)

• Peter Bullen (11x)
• Cassandra Dallett (6x)
• Christine No (1x)
• Emily Kiernan (1x)

14/19 first-time reading at QL (79%)

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