The Intersection for the Arts Literary Series is the longest running literary series outside of an academic institution in the state of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Organized and maintained by

Intersection for the Arts Intersection for the Arts, established in 1965, is the oldest alternative non-profit art space in San Francisco, California. Intersection's reading series is the longest continuous reading series outside of an academic institution in the state of ...

in San Francisco, the literary series presents regular readings by emerging local writers and prominent authors.

Independent Press Spotlight

In recent years, Intersection for the Arts has included an Independent Press Spotlight as part of their literary series, allowing editors from San Francisco literary magazines and independent publishers to talk about their work alongside readings from local authors. Publishers featured in the Independent Press Spotlight include

AK Press AK Press is a worker-managed, independent publisher and book distributor that specialises in radical left and anarchist literature. Operated out of Chico, California, the company is collectively owned. History AK was founded in Stirling, Sc ...

The Believer

City Lights Publishers City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected ti ...

, ColorLines Magazine, Fourteen Hills,

Heyday Books Heyday is an independent nonprofit publisher based in Berkeley, California. Heyday was founded by Malcolm Margolin in 1974 when he wrote, typeset, designed, and distributed ''The East Bay Out'', a guide to the natural history of the hills and b ...

, LiP Magazine,

Manic D Press Manic D Press is an American literary press based in San Francisco, California publishing fiction (novels and short stories), poetry, cultural studies, art, narrative-oriented comix, children's books, and alternative travel trade paperbacks. It wa ...

McSweeney's McSweeney's Publishing is an American non-profit publishing house founded by Dave Eggers in 1998 and headquartered in San Francisco. Initially publishing the literary journal'' Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', the company has moved to n ...

, Mercury House,

New American Writing ''New American Writing'' is an annual American literary magazine emphasizing contemporary American poetry, including a range of innovative contemporary writing. ''New American Writing'' is published by OINK! Press, a nonprofit organization. The ...

, Switchback,

Tachyon Publications Tachyon Publications is an independent press specializing in science fiction and fantasy books. Founded in San Francisco in 1995 by Jacob Weisman, Tachyon books have tended toward high-end literary works, short story collections, and anthologies ...

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

, Zoetrope: All-Story, and

ZYZZYVA ''Zyzzyva'' is a triannual magazine of writers and artists. It places an emphasis on showcasing emerging voices and never before published writers in addition to the already established. Based in San Francisco, it began publishing in 1985. ''ZYZ ...

Authors

Hundreds of authors have read at Intersection since the series began. In the last ten years, some of the more recognizable names include: *

Chris Adrian Chris Adrian (born November 7, 1970) is an American author. Adrian's writing styles in short stories vary greatly; from modernist realism to pronounced lyrical allegory. His novels both tend toward surrealism, having mostly realistic characters ...

Samina Ali Samina Ali is an American author and activist born in India. Her debut novel, '' Madras on Rainy Days'', won the Prix du Premier Roman Etranger award from France and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award in Fiction. Career She has served ...

Dorothy Allison Dorothy Allison (born April 11, 1949) is an American writer from South Carolina whose writing focuses on class struggle, sexual abuse, child abuse, feminism and lesbianism. She is a self-identified lesbian femme. Allison has won a number of a ...

* Jimmy Santiago Baca *

Noel Black Noel Black (June 30, 1937 – July 5, 2014) was an American film and television director, screenwriter, and producer. Black was born in Chicago, Illinois. He won awards at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival for an 18-minute short subject filmed in ...

Kate Braverman Kate Braverman (February 5, 1949 – October 12, 2019) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. Los Angeles is the focus for much of her writing. Biography Kate Braverman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 5, 1949 ...

Norma Cole Norma Cole (born May 12, 1945) is a Canadian poet, visual artist, translator, and curator. An Anglophone Canadian by birth, Cole learned French at an early age, and went on to translate the works of French poets Emmanuel Hocquard, Danielle Collo ...

Bernard Cooper Bernard Cooper is an American novelist and short story writer. He was born on October 3, 1951, in Hollywood, California. His writing is in part autobiographical and influenced by his own experiences as a gay man. Bernard Cooper's fiction and essays ...

Peter Coyote Peter Coyote (born Robert Peter Cohon; October 10, 1941) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author and narrator of films, theatre, television, and audiobooks. He worked on films such as ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), '' Cro ...

* Mike Davis * Aya de Leon *

Nguyen Qui Duc Nguyen Qui Duc (Nguyễn Quí Đức in Vietnamese) is a Vietnamese American radio broadcaster, writer, editor and translator. Born in Da Lat, Vietnam, he came to the United States in 1975, returning in the fall of 2006 to live in Hanoi, Vietnam. ...

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (born September 10, 1938) is an American historian, writer, and activist, known for her 2014 book ''An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States''. Early life and education Born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1938 to ...

Erik Ehn Erik Ehn is an American playwright and director known for proposing the Regional Alternative Theatre movement. The former dean of theater at CalArts, the California Institute of Arts, he is the former head of playwriting and professor of theatre ...

Lynn Emanuel Lynn Collins Emanuel (born March 14, 1949) is an American poet. Some of her poetry collections are ''Then, Suddenly—'' and ''Noose and Hook'' (University of Pittsburgh Press). She has received two grants from the National Endowment for the A ...

* Barry Gifford * Molly Giles *

Jewelle Gomez Jewelle Gomez (born September 11, 1948) is an American author, poet, critic and playwright. She lived in New York City for 22 years, working in public television, theater, as well as philanthropy, before relocating to the West Coast. Her writing� ...

Guillermo Gómez-Peña Guillermo Gómez-Peña is a Mexican/Chicano performance artist, writer, activist, and educator. Gómez-Peña has created work in multiple media, including performance art, experimental radio, video, photography and installation art. His fifteen b ...

Joe Goode Joe Goode (born 1937) is an American artist who attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles from 1959–1961. Originally born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Goode made a name for himself in Los Angeles through his cloud imagery and milk bot ...

Noah Eli Gordon Noah Eli Gordon (1975 – July 10, 2022) was an American poet, editor, and publisher. Overview Gordon was the co-publisher of Letter Machine Editions, an editor for ''The Volta'', and an assistant professor in the MFA program in creative writing a ...

Philip Kan Gotanda Philip Kan Gotanda (born December 17, 1951) is an American playwright and filmmaker and a third generation Japanese American. Much of his work deals with Asian American issues and experiences. Biography Over the last three decades Gotanda h ...

Thom Gunn Thomson William "Thom" Gunn (29 August 1929 – 25 April 2004) was an English poet who was praised for his early verses in England, where he was associated with The Movement, and his later poetry in America, even after moving towards a looser, ...

Lyn Hejinian Lyn Hejinian (born May 17, 1941) is an American poet, essayist, translator and publisher. She is often associated with the Language poets and is known for her landmark work ''My Life'' (Sun & Moon, 1987, original version Burning Deck, 1980), a ...

Juan Felipe Herrera Juan Felipe Herrera (born in December 27, 1948) is an American poet, performer, writer, cartoonist, teacher, and activist. Herrera was the 21st United States Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017. Herrera's experiences as the child of migrant farmers ...

bell hooks Gloria Jean Watkins (September 25, 1952December 15, 2021), better known by her pen name bell hooks, was an American author and social activist who was Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College. She is best known for her writings on ...

Naomi Iizuka Naomi or Naomie may refer to: People and biblical figures * Naomi (given name), a female given name and a list of people with the name * Naomi (biblical figure), Ruth's mother-in-law in the Old Testament Book of Ruth * Naomi (Romanian singer) (bo ...

* Mark Johnson *

June Jordan June Millicent Jordan (July 9, 1936 – June 14, 2002) was an American poet, essayist, teacher, and activist. In her writing she explored issues of gender, race, immigration, and representation. Jordan was passionate about using Black English i ...

* Uchechi Kalu * Tom Kealey *

Randall Kenan Randall Kenan (March 12, 1963 – August 28, 2020) was an American author. Born in Brooklyn, New York, at six weeks old Kenan moved to Duplin County, North Carolina, a small rural community, where he lived with his grandparents in a town named ...

Myung Mi Kim Myung Mi Kim (born December 6, 1957) is a Korean American poet noted for her postmodern writings. Kim and her family immigrated to the United States when she was nine years old. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa and lec ...

Paul LaFarge Paul B. La Farge (November 17, 1970 – January 18, 2023) was a novelist and essayist. He authored five novels: ''The Artist of the Missing'' (1999), ''Haussmann, or the Distinction'' (2001), ''The Facts of Winter'' (2005), ''Luminous Airplanes'' ...

* Anna Livia * David Meltzer * Trinh T. Minh-ha * Mary Anne Mohanraj *

José Montoya José Montoya (May 28, 1932 – September 25, 2013) was a poet and an artist from Sacramento, California. He was one of the most influential Chicano bilingual poets. He has published many well-known poems in anthologies and magazines, and serve ...

Cherríe Moraga Cherríe Moraga (born September 25, 1952) is a Chicana writer, feminist activist, poet, essayist, and playwright. She is part of the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Department of English. Moraga is also a founding m ...

Bharati Mukherjee Bharati Mukherjee (July 27, 1940 – January 28, 2017) was an Indian American-Canadian writer and professor emerita in the department of English at the University of California, Berkeley. She was the author of a number of novels and short story ...

Tillie Olsen Tillie may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places in the United States * Tillie, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Tillie, Pennsylvania, a former populated place * Tillie Creek, California People * Tillie (name), a given name and surname Animal * Tilli ...

Julie Orringer Julie Orringer (born June 12, 1973) is an American writer and lecturer. She attended Cornell University and the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She was born in Miami, Florida and now lives in Brooklyn with ...

Dale Pendell Dale Pendell (April 14, 1947 – 13 January 2018) was an American poet, ethnobotanist, and novelist. Writing in an evocative style all his own, he fused science, folklore, and poetry in describing the relationship between psychoactive plants and hu ...

* Jim Powell *

Kevin Powell Kevin Powell (born April 24, 1966) is an American writer, activist, and television personality. Powell is the author of 14 books, including ''The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy's Journey into Manhood'' and ''When We Free the World'' publis ...

* Barbara Jane Reyes * Joan Roughgarden *

Leslie Scalapino Leslie Scalapino (July 25, 1944 – May 28, 2010) was an American poet, experimental prose writer, playwright, essayist, and editor, sometimes grouped in with the Language poets, though she felt closely tied to the Beat poets. Writes Hejinian: ...

Aaron Shurin Aaron Shurin (born 1947) is an American poet, essayist, and educator. He is the former director of the Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program at the University of San Francisco, where he is now Professor Emeritus. Life and work Aaron Shurin receiv ...

Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate of ...

Rebecca Solnit Rebecca Solnit (born 1961) is an American writer. She has written on a variety of subjects, including feminism, the environment, politics, place, and art. Early life and education Solnit was born in 1961 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to a Jewish fa ...

Gary Soto Gary Anthony Soto (born April 12, 1952) is an American poet, novelist, and memoirist. Life and career Soto was born to Mexican-American parents Manuel (1910–1957) and Angie Soto (1924-). In his youth, he worked in the fields of the San Joaqui ...

* Darcey Steinke *

Michelle Tea Michelle Tea (born Michelle Tomasik, 1971) is an American author, poet, and literary arts organizer whose autobiographical works explore queer culture, feminism, race, class, sex work, and other topics. She is originally from Chelsea, Massachuset ...

Piri Thomas Piri Thomas (born Juan Pedro Tomas; September 30, 1928 – October 17, 2011) was a Puerto Rican- Cuban writer and poet whose memoir ''Down These Mean Streets'' became a best-seller. Early years Thomas was born to a Puerto Rican mother and Cuba ...

John Trudell John Trudell (February 15, 1946December 8, 2015) was a Native American author, poet, actor, musician, and political activist. He was the spokesperson for the Indians of All Tribes' takeover of Alcatraz beginning in 1969, broadcasting as ''Radi ...

Ellen Ullman Ellen Ullman is an American computer programmer and author. She has written books, articles, and essays that analyze the human side of the world of computer programming. She has owned a consulting firm and worked as technology commentator for ...

Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was aw ...

Erin Cressida Wilson Erin Cressida Wilson (born February 12, 1964) is an American playwright, screenwriter, professor, and author. Wilson is known for the 2002 film ''Secretary'', which she adapted from a Mary Gaitskill short story. It won her the Independent Spirit ...

Nellie Wong Nellie Wong (born 12 September 1934) is an American poet and activist for feminist and socialist causes. Wong is also an active member of the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women. Biography Wong was born in Oakland, California to Chinese ...

Al Young Albert James Young (May 31, 1939 – April 17, 2021) was an American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and professor. He was named Poet Laureate of California by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from 2005 to 2008. Young's many books includ ...

* Dean Young * Daisy Zamora

References

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External links

Intersection for the Arts
Literary collaborations