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.

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		A Celebration of Silvina Ocampo City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Sunday, December 8th, 2019, 5:00 p.m. 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		Aaron Cohen City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday January 7, 2020, 7:00 p.m. discusses the subject of his new book Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power published by the University of Chicago Press

D.S. Marriott City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Monday, January 13, 2020, 7:00 p.m. reading from selected poetry		Zyzzyva celebrates their BAY AREA Issue ! City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, January 14, 2020, 7:00 p.m. Moderated by Oscar Villalon with Meg Hurtado Bloom, Rita Bullwinkel, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Chia-Chia Lin, Kevin Simmonds, and Paul Wilner

Mapping the Bay: with Kim Shuck and friends City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, January 15, 2020, 7:00 p.m. poetry and discussion exploring the pathways language takes through land, water, and air		Gibby Haynes City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, January 21, 2020, 7:00 p.m. reading from his new novel Me and Mr. Cigar published by Soho Press

David Talbot City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, January 22, 2020, 7:00 p.m. discussing his new book Between Heaven and Hell: The Story of My Stroke from Chronicle/Prizm		Andre Perry City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, January 28, 2020, 7:00 p.m. reading from his new book Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now: a collection of essays published by 2 Dollar Radio

Samuel C. Woolley City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, January 29, 2020, 7:00 p.m. discussing his new book The Reality Game: How the Next Wave of Technology Will Break the Truth published by Public Affairs		Carmen Maria Machado with Esmé Weijun Wang City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, January 30, 2020, 7:00 p.m. in conversation and celebrating the release of Carmen Maria Machado's In The Dream House published by Graywolf Press

Cutting Up The Century: A Burroughs Birthday Miscellany City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, February 5, 2020, 7:00 p.m. with Joan Hawkins, Alex Wermer-Colan, Peter Hale, and Jon Longhi		Elaine Kahn City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, February 6, 2020, 7:00 p.m. reading from Romance or The End: poems published by Soft Skull Press

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Monday, February 10, 2020, 7:00 p.m. reading from his new book Children of the Land published by Harper Collins		Arthur Kleinman UCSF Parnassus Campus, Lange Room, 530 Parnassus Avenue, 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94143 Wednesday, February 12, 2020, 4:00 p.m. (Free to the Public) discussing the subject of his new book The Soul of Care: The Moral Education of a Husband and a Doctor Viking Books

Howard Eiland City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, February 13, 2020, 7:00 p.m. celebrating two new books Origin of the German Trauerspiel, by Walter Benjamin, (Tr. Howard Eiland) and Notes on Literature, Film, and Jazz, by Howard Eiland, published by Sputen Duyvil		Dennis Baron City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, February 18, 2020, 7:00 p.m. discussing the subject of his new book What's Your Pronoun? Beyond He and She Published by Liveright

John Sayles City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Monday, February 24, 2020, 7:00 p.m. reading from his new novel Yellow Earth from Haymarket Books		Megan Fernandes with Sam Sax City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, February 25, 2019, 7:00 p.m. reading from new poetry

Dodie Bellamy and Anthony Huberman in conversation City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, February 27, 2020, 7:00 p.m. celebrating the release of Dodie Bellamy Is On Our Mind Edited by Jeane Gerrity and Anthoby Huberman published by Semiotex(e) Books, distributed by The MIT Press		Javad Djavahery City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 7:00 p.m. reading from his new novel *My Part of Her* translated by Emma Ramadan, published by Restless Books

Lloyd Kahn City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbua Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, March 5, 2020, 7:00 p.m. Slideshow/Talk celebrating the release of The Half Acre Homestead:46 Years of Building and Gardening from Shelter Publications		Shana Redmond City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday March 11, 2020, 7:00 p.m. discussing the subject of her new book Everything Man: The Form and Function of Paul Robeson from Duke University Press

Lisa Robertson City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 7:00 p.m. reading from *The Baudelaire Fractal* published by Coach House Books		Hilary Moore & James Tracy City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, March 24, 2020, 7:00 p.m. celebrating the release of No Fascist USA! The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and Lessons for Today's Movements published by City Lights Books

Alexandra Mattraw with Tiff Dressen and Mah Shein Win City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, March 25, 2020, 7:00 p.m. celebrating the release of Alexandra Mattraw's new poetry collection We fell into Weather from Cultural Society		Robert Glück City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, March 26, 2020, 7:00 p.m. celebrating the new edition of Margery Kempe by Robert Glück, introduction by Colm Toibin published by New York Review Books

Archive 48 Release Party: The Earthly Days of Jose Revueltas City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, March 31, 2020, 7:00 p.m. Binational publisher Archive 48, dedicated to Mexican and U.S. literature, launches its U.S. wing with the first-ever English translation of an important work by Jose Revueltas. Join us to celebrate its release.		Beth Lisick City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Wednesday, April 1, 2020, 7:00 p.m. celebrating the release of Edie On The Green Screen: A Novel published by 7.13 Books

Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, April 2, 2020, 7:00 p.m. celebrating the release of The Mountains Sing from Workman Publishing Company		Ilya Kaminski and Tess Taylor City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Thursday, April 16, 2020, 7:00 p.m. celebrating the release of two new books from Tess Taylor Rift Zone:poems and Last West

Frank Wilderson III City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Tuesday, April 21, 2020, 7:00 p.m. discussing the subject of his new book Afropessimism published by Liveright Books / W.W. Norton		Ainissa Ramirez City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco Sunday, May 3, 2020, 7:00 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		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

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