Readings at the Bookstore

City Lights has an ongoing series of readings and events, usually at least one or two each week during the Winter, Spring, and Fall. Our online calendar is updated regularly, but if you want to be sure not to miss out on anything, be sure to sign up for our Newsletter to receive weekly updates on what's happening at the bookstore.

Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public and take place at City Lights Bookstore | 261 Columbus Avenue | San Francisco, CA 94133
For more information, call us at 415-362-8193 | Map & Directions

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher to our podcast series, LIVE! From City Lights–broadcasting events & archives from City Lights.

Robert Williams ----EVENT POSTPONED---- City Lights Booksellers, 261 Colombus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, April 8, 2020, 7:00 p.m. ----EVENT POSTPONED---- celebrating his new book Robert Williams: The Father of Exponential Imagination published by Fantagraphics		Melville House @ City Lights ----EVENT POSTPONED---- City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, April 9, 2020, 7:00 p.m. ----EVENT POSTPONED---- Malcolm Harris in conversation with Curtis White, moderated by Jenny Odell

John Gibler ----EVENT POSTPONED---- City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, April 14, 2020, 7:00 P.M. ----EVENT POSTPONED---- presents How a State Lies: Looking at Alternative Models of Impunity a talk about the ways governments create the illusion of justice while concealing the truth beh		Wendy Liu ----EVENT POSTPONED---- City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, April 15, 2020, 7:00 p.m. ----EVENT POSTPONED---- discussing the subject of her new book Abolish Silicon Valley: How to Liberate Technology from Capitalism from Repeater Books

Ilya Kaminsky and Tess Taylor ----EVENT POSTPONED---- City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, April 16, 2020, 7:00 p.m. ----EVENT POSTPONED---- celebrating the release of two new books from Tess Taylor Rift Zone:poems and Last West		Peniel E. Joseph ----EVENT POSTPONED---- City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Monday April 20, 2020, 7:00 p.m. ----EVENT POSTPONED---- discussing his new book The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. from Basic Books

Frank Wilderson III ----EVENT POSTPONED---- City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, April 21, 2020, 7:00 p.m. ----EVENT POSTPONED---- discussing the subject of his new book Afropessimism published by Liveright Books / W.W. Norton		Katherine Silver in conversation with Mauro Javier Cárdenas ----EVENT POSTPONED---- City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, April 23, 2020, 7:00 p.m. ----EVENT POSTPONED---- Carlos Onetti meets Julio Ramón Ribeyro in an evening of discussion between a master translator and an award winning novelist

Maurice Carlos Ruffin ----EVENT POSTPONED---- City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Sunday, April 26, 2020, 5:00 p.m. ----EVENT POSTPONED---- Maurice Carlos Ruffin reading from We Cast A Shadow published by One World		Daniel Denvir ----EVENT POSTPONED---- City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Monday, April 27, 2020, 7:00 p.m. ----EVENT POSTPONED---- discussing the subject of his new book All-American Nativism: How the Bipartisan War on Immigrants Explains Politics as We Know It published by Verso Books

Alli Warren with Cedar Sigo ----EVENT POSTPONED---- City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, April 28, 2020, 7:00 p.m. ----EVENT POSTPONED---- celebrating the release of Little Hill published by City Lights Books		Ainissa Ramirez City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Sunday, May 3, 2020, 5:00 p.m. discussing the subject of her new book The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another from The MIT Press

Alia Volz in conversation with Paul Yamazaki City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday May 5, 2020, 7:00 p.m. discussing the subject of Alia Volz's new book Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco		Emerson Whitney City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, May 6, 2020, 7:00 p.m. discussing their new work of prose Heaven published by McSweeney's

Karen Tei Yamashita (POSTPONED) City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, May 6, 2020, 7:00 p.m. -----EVENT POSTONED----- celebrating the release of her new short fiction collection Sansei and Sensibility published by Coffee House Press -----EVENT POSTPONED------		Margaret Randall in conversation with Garrett Caples City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, May 7, 2020, 7:00 p.m. discussing the subject of Margaret Randall's new book I Never Left Home: Poet, Feminist, Revolutionary from Duke University Press

Berkeley Noir with Jerry Thompson and Owen Hill City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, May 12, 2020, 7:00 p.m. celebrating the release of their new crime fiction anthology Berkeley Noir published by Akashic Books		Jeremy Packer and Joshua Reeves City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, May 14, 2020, 7:00 p.m. discussing the subject of their new book Killer Apps: War, Media, Machine published by Duke University Press

Cara Black in conversation with Jacqueline Winspear City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, May 19, 2020, 7:00 p.m. Two masters of crime fiction discussing the writing of fiction that takes place in World War Two Europe.		Fayette Hauser and Friends City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, May 20, 2020, 7:00 p.m. celebrating the release of THE COCKETTES published by Process Books/Feral House

Robert Mailer Anderson City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, May 21, 2020, 7:00 p.m. celebrating his new graphic novel Windows on the World published by Fantagraphics Books Co-authored with Zack Anderson and Jon Sack		Abdellah Taïa City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, June 3, 2020, 7:00 p.m. reading from his newly translated novel A Country for Dying translated by Emma Ramadan, published by Seven Stories Press

Jennifer Worley City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, June 9, 2020, 7:00 p.m. Book Release Party for Neon Girls: A Stripper's Education in Protest and Power from Harper Collins		Cynthia Kaufman City Lights Booksellers, 261 Colombus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, June 24, 2020, 7:00 p.m. discussing the subject of her new book Challenging Power: Democracy and Accountability in a Fractured World published by Bloomsbury Books

Uche Nduka City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, June 25, 2020, 7:00 p.m. celebrating the release of Facing You (City Lights Spotlight Series No. 19) published by City Lights Books