to fairfax! in chicken’s bus we go…

We’re celebrating four years of Quiet Lightning on December 4th by taking Chicken John’s bus into Fairfax to team up with Pints & Prose for the thirteenth and final show in this year’s Tour Through Town.

Honeycomb Hideaway by Jovi Schnell

The curators for this momentous occasion were Meghan Thornton and Ian Tuttle, and they have selected:

Keenan Norris

Jennifer Williams

Sarah Carpenter

Sara Berkeley

Cassandra Dallett

Moneta Goldsmith

Adam Moskowitz

Carson Beker

Peter Bullen

out of 60 submissions (15%) and combined their work with that of Tuesday Night Writers:

Optimist Club by Jovi SchnellAmanda Conran

Tom Joyce

Tanya Egan Gibson

and Cyn Cady

to make a masterful literary mixtape:

sparkle + blink 47.

  •  Three of the thirteen (23%) have read at QL before:
    • Cassandra Dallett (2x)
    • Moneta Goldsmith (3x)
    • Peter Bullen (3x)

The show is at Peri’s Bar (29 Broadway, Fairfax) and begins at 7:00/7:30pm. If you want to ride from San Francisco in the bus you have to RSVP by sending an email to evan [AT] quietlightning [DOT] org. The first 35 people to RSVP get a guaranteed seat and a complimentary dinner on the way there! Important: to be sure we get to the show on time we need to leave SF at 5:30pm. We will meet on the north side of the Main Library (100 Larkin St.), in the parking lot across from United Nations Plaza; please don’t RSVP if you can’t be there before 5:30pm. We have been raising money to pay Chicken the little he’s asked for his troubles and the cost of dinner; if you can help, that would be amazing.

The show will be FREE. The first 100 people there will get a copy of sparkle + blink featuring this fabulous art by Jovi Schnell! There’s a feast at her website.

This is the end of our Tour Through Town. It’s been a magical year—just look at who we’ve collaborated with, where we’ve done shows, who’s read for us—and soon we will open submissions to be a part of our January show, which will be a release party for the winner of our first book contest! Selected by Sarah Ciston and Evan Karp and printed with Tiny Splendor, Quiet Lightning Books is about to have a hot start.

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Thanks to Orie Alpern for the photos, and to everyone who entered our Instagram contest (winners TBA soon); to The Center for the Art of Translation and The Lab for working with us to put together our last show (videos will be up soon); to our many volunteers. As always, thanks to the Zellerbach Family Foundation for their generous support and to Lagunitas Brewing Co. for their lubrication.

No doubt things will be just like they are in this video. All you have to do is get on the bus.

December 4th, 2013
Peri’s Bar • 29 Broaday, Fairfax
7:00/7:30pm
FREE

wednesday at the lab!

Our incredible lineup for November 13th with The Center for the Art of Translation:

from Tumbleweed by Cera Hensley for web
art by Cera Hensley!

Melissa Chandler
Steven Westdahl
Kristina Ten
Emily Weinstein
Caroline Kessler
Gaston Yagmourian
Amy K. Bell
Julie Morse

Curated by Katie Wheeler-Dubin, Lauren Traetto + Evan Karp, the first 100 people to The Lab receive a free copy of sparkle + blink.

7:30pm, 6:45 door $10 • 2948 16th St. • $3 ice cold drafts courtesy of Lagunitas

  • We received 37 submissions to this show and accepted 8 (22%). Not one of them has ever read for QL before!
  • Stay tuned for the other half of the show, curated by The Center for the Art of Translation!

December 4th w/Pints & Prose (4-yr anniversary show)

as the tour comes to a close

today’s the last chance to submit to our november 13 show with the center for the art of translation. but you have through the 28th to enter the center’s portion of the show. then we come to the end of our yearlong tour through town: for our four year anniversary we’re going to rent chicken john’s bus and serve you all dinner as we cross the golden gate bridge into fairfax; that’s december 4th with pints and prose.

The Product is Nature Hersekf by Tiny Splendor
The Product is Nature Hersekf by Tiny Splendor

help us rent the bus and pay for dinner, please!

hey! check out these incredible photos from our last show, the great number 50, taken by ian tuttle at the san francisco conservatory of flowers. we’d like to thank litquake and lagunitas, our volunteers, our lucky stars. we’ve got our first book coming out in january; we’re partnering with tiny splendor! you have 7 days to enter! must be postmarked by halloween.

watch videos from our excellent last show here.

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50th show with litquake at the conservatory of flowers

FrontImage_FriendorFoeQL for web50 shows, 45 books, 614 readings, 345 authors … join us as we join parades with Litquake at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers! with a special performance by Stella Peach, and beer from Lagunitas Brewing Co.

Monday, October 14th • 7:30pm, 6:45 doors • $10 • free sparkle + blink for first 100
100 John F Kennedy Dr. • Golden Gate Park • directions • RSVP

what else is going on? our book contest ends on the 14th. submissions are open for our november 13th show with the center for the art of translation. our four year anniversary includes a ride across the golden gate bridge in chicken john’s bus — we’re going to fairfax to do a show with pints & prose. what do you want to do in 2014?

ps. did you see our show with city lights?

center for the art of translation on november 13th

We are very pleased to announce the first piece of our show with the Center for the Art of Translation, Wednesday, November 13th at The Lab:

Considering They Lived, by Melissa Chandler, was selected by Katie Wheeler-Dubin, Lauren Traetto, and Evan Karp. Click on the title to read the piece in full, and click here to submit a response to be considered for the November 13th show. Below are more details:

  • You can respond to this piece in any way you’d like. Examples: translate it into another language; answer the questions in the piece; take the form and apply it to a new set of questions; imagine the lives of the people in the piece; etc. You can do this in poem form, in fiction, creative nonfiction, etc. You can tell us a story using a series of lists. Anything you can imagine, basically, you can do.
  • We’re accepting submissions through the end of Wednesday, October 23rd.
  • This thread of selections will be half of the show. The Center for the Art of Translation is accepting submissions separately — translations of the “pun-ridden, experimental story from Guillermo Cabrera Infante’s famously difficult-to-translate book Exorcismos de esti(l)o (Exorcisms of Style/Summer)”. Submissions to that half of the show are open here — deadline for that batch is Oct. 28.
  • Anyone who submits to the show and attends, regardless of whether their work is accepted, will receive a copy of the excellent Two Lines Press book Passageways.
  • The first 100 people to the show will also receive a free copy of sparkle + blink.
  • Oh, statistics: We received 27 submissions to this round, and accepted 1 (4%). This will be her first time reading at QL.

What are you waiting for? Go!

Trap that lightning!

announcing our lineup with city lights

Sunday, Sept 22 • 2pm • between City Lights and Vesuvio • FREE

QL Kerouac Alley announcement

We received 109 submissions to this show and selected 12 (11%). Of those accepted:

  • Seven are first-timers (58%)
  • Three have read once before (Sandra, Sean and Tomas)
  • Two have read more than once (Jarett, 4x and Matthew, 3x)

Who’s entering our book contest? You can pick up notebooks at the show! The deadline is October 14th, our Litquake show, which also happens to be our 50th. A lot going on! Come hang out with us in the alley!

RSVP ««««««««

labor day details + QL books

QL notebooks

The notebooks to the left represent the first incarnation of Quiet Lightning merch, with design by j. brandon loberg. We have 150 of these and they will each cost $5. To enter our contest is simple:

  1. Pick up one of these notebooks at the show on Monday
  2. Fill it up with your own writing and/or sketching
  3. Hand it in on October 14th at our 50th show, Litquake

More details announced Monday, but here’s a few:

  • You can write anything into the book — maybe you wrote a chapbook last year and haven’t published it yet. Write it in!
  • You can’t in any way affix things to the book — no stapled or glued pages, etc.
  • Your writing must be legible!
  • The books each have 60 3×5 pages.
  • Author of selected entry will have a chance to make edits.
  • Author of selected entry will receive a basic publishing contract, including royalties.
  • Our January show will be a release party for our first non-sparkle + blink book.
  • If you can’t make it on Monday you can pick up one of the books on September 22nd at City Lights (we won’t be holding any, though, so first come first served).
  • If you want the book back you can have it back when the contest is over if you pick it up at one of the shows.

That’s our first book contest. Enter at your own risk.

Monday, September 2nd

100 John F. Kennedy Drive (directions)
Doors at 6:45, show at 7:30pm sharp ***
All ages! $5-10 sliding

RSVP here

polaroid (los angeles, cropped) by Inés Laresgoiti
by Inés Laresgoiti

*** Potluck picnic with games and live music starts at 4:30/5 at The Dahlia Garden Picnic Table, just east of the Conservatory of Flowers (follow that link and scroll down for exact map location). Please bring something to share, but please come even if you can’t! We’ll have games like bocce, cornhole, and giant dominoes, but feel free to bring your own games, musical instruments, notebooks, cameras, survival kits. Remember that the park will be closed to automobiles, so plan on bussing, biking, or walking (here are general directions).

Also don’t forget the bay bridge is closed! Make plans. Sleep in the park if you have to.