The intimate selections of poetry read by Alice Notley and Simona Schneider at UC Berkeley’s Holloway Reading Series on Thursday made for a night of contradictions; the poets’ performances were lovely yet severe, and their content felt personal yet universal, both descriptive and emotive. Before the event’s slightly delayed start, Read More…
“Doctor Sleep” is Stephen King’s sequel to the work that brought us REDRUM by the bucketful. Little Danny Torrance is all grown up, but the monsters of his childhood have not gone away. Read More…
Poet and UC Berkeley alumna Alicia Zakon, even on the eve of publication, admits embarrassment is still the strongest emotion she has toward her own verse. It is very probable that readers will feel the same way. Read More…
Before “Breaking Bad,” back in the good old days of Berkeley, the drug everyone talked about was bubbled and cooked in glass beakers and was called LSD. The best LSD on the market was called Owsley, named for the man who made it refined and pure and popularized it through Read More…
Somewhere in a cloister, there is a nun who kissed Elvis Presley. There must be some people in the world who live a life without surprises. Most of us, however, find that life unfolds in ways we never expected, showing us that absolutely anything is possible. Mother Dolores Hart of Read More…
“It never occurred to me that I could be one of those perverted monsters!” So realized Chana Wilson, a blogger for The Huffington Post, during her story of self-discovery in a place where many young people first begin to notice their burgeoning sexuality — summer camp. After curiosity prompted her Read More…
It’s said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and this definitely seems to ring true in the case of Rachel Francis, author of 2012’s “Life on Fire.” An up-and-coming writer, particularly in the styles of paranormal and comic fantasy, Francis has modeled her sophomore effort, “Proper Secrets,” quite Read More…
As he is a key representative from digital press beside three panelists still dedicated to printed works, it came as no surprise that Jon Fine, the director of Author and Publishing Relations for Amazon, received the brunt of the snide comments dealt at digi.lit, Litquake’s first digital literary conference. The Read More…
In the technology boom that was the ’90s, the Bay Area was buzzing with innovative start-ups, emerging IT companies and Silicon Valley excitement. Hidden in this expansive push toward the future of the tech world was a small community of San Francisco bookworms hungry for a city that had once Read More…
Published in 1956, Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl and Other Poems” is City Lights Bookstore’s most famous title. With its frank and vivid descriptions of drug use, “pubic beards” and people “who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists,” “Howl” garnered national attention and notoriety for Ginsberg and City Read More…