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 iTunes to our podcast series, Live From City Lights–broadcasting events & interviews from City Lights.

The Velvet Underground Experience - Litquake 2019 City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, October 17, 2019, 7:00 p.m. Hat & Beard Press, the San Francisco Rock & Roll Book Club, and Litquake present an evening about The Velvet Underground		2nd Annual Lit Crawl Book Fair Gray Area Art + Technology, 2665 Mission St, San Francisco, California 94110 Saturday, October 19th, 2-6PM See us at the Lit Crawl Book Fair, the preamble to Litquake's annual set of readings in the Mission District At Gray Area Art + Technology

Gillian Conoley and Donna de la Perrière City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, October 22, 2019, 7:00 p.m. reading from new poetry		Benedicte Maurseth City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, October 24, 2019, 7:00 p.m. discussiing the subject of To Be Nothing: Conversations with Knut Hamre, Hardanger Fiddle Master published by Terra Nova Press/The MIT Press

Jarett Kobek City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, October 29, 2019, 7:00 p.m. celebrating the release of his new novel Only Americans Burn in Hell published by We've Heard You Like Books		Ramesh Srinivasan City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Sunday, November 3, 2019, 5:00 p.m. discussing his new book Beyond the Valley: How Innovators around the World are Overcoming Inequality and Creating the Technologies of Tomorrow Published by The MIT Press

Inside the Magnetic Fields:Surrealism @ 100 San Francisco and Berkeley, California Tuesday, November 5 through Sunday, November 24 A festival of events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the emergence of Surrealism		Savannah Shange in conversation with Patrick Camangian City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, November 19, 2019, 7:00 p.m. discussing the subject of her new book Progressive Dystopia: Abolition, Antiblackness, and Schooling in San Francisco from Duke University Press

Jerome Rothenberg City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, November 21, 2019, 7:00 p.m. celebrating two new books The President of Desolation & Other Poems from Black Widow Press The Mystery of False Attachments from Word Palace		Scarlett Sabet City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Sunday, December 1, 2019, 5:00 p.m. reading from her new collection of poetry *Camille*

Second Stutter Annual Release Party City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, December 3, 2019, 7:00 p.m. Hosted by Solomon Rino with readings by George Albon, Laura Moriarty, Joseph Lease, and Norma Cole		Charlton D. McIlwain in conversation with E. David Ellington City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, December 4, 2019, 7:00 p.m. discussing Charlton D. McIlwain's new book Black Software: The Internet, Racial Justice, from the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter published by Oxford University Press

John James with Henri Cole City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, December 5, 2019, 7:00 p.m. celebrating the release of John James' new collection of poetry The Milk Hours published by Milkweed Editions		Sunday, December 8th, 5pm San Francisco, CA: City Lights City Lights celebrates the publication of Forgotten Journey and The Promise by Silvina Ocampo, with translators Suzanne Jill Levine, Katie Lateef-Jan & Jessica Powell!

An evening with Kal Spelletich City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, December 10, 2019, 7:00 p.m. in conversation with Catharine Clark discussing his new project Significance Machines and Purposeful Robots		Roy Scranton City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, December 11, 2019, 7:00 p.m. reading from his new novel I Oklahoma !

Terry Tempest Williams City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, December 12, 2019, 7:00 p.m. reading from her new book Erosion: Essays of Undoing published by Sarah Critchton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux