LIVE! From City Lights

City Lights hosts Jack Hirschman and Mahnaz Badihian for a bilingual reading of the love poems of Rumi, in Farsi and in English. Jack Hirschman is the former poet Laureate of San Francisco, a translator, and editor. His powerfully eloquent Read More ...

Greg Jackson was at City Lights to celebrating the release of Prodigals: Stories, published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, with a reading and a discussion. “People are bullets, fired,” the narrator declares in one of the desperate, eerie stories that Read More ...

Leonard Pitt comes to City Lights to celebrate the release of his latest book, My Brain on Fire: Paris and Other Obsessions, published by Soft Skull Press. This is Leonard Pitt’s story of growing up the misfit in Detroit in Read More ...

National Book Award-winning and bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates was at City Lights discussng her latest novel, the critically acclaimed The Man Without a Shadow. In this recording, Joyce Carol Oates also conducts an interview with herself as both questioner Read More ...

Award-winning author Jewelle Gomez returns to City Lights in honor of the Expanded 25th Anniversary Edition of her novel The Gilda Stories, recently published by City Lights. She read from the book in the main room. This remarkable novel begins Read More ...

City Lights hosted an evening of discussion and readings with author Michael McGregor, John Beer, and S.T. Georgiou to celebrate the release of Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax, published by Fordham University Press. A companion piece to Read More ...

Reverend Billy Talen makes a visit to City Lights once again to speak about his new book titled The Earth Wants You. With the perfect blend of conviction and humor, the radical reverend offers an insightful critique of commercialism and Read More ...

In conversation with Yiyun Li, authors Sara Majka & Naomi Williams make an appearance at City Lights to discuss their new books Cities I’ve Never Lived In (Sara Majka) and Landfalls (Naomi Williams). About Cities I’ve Never Lived in: Fearlessly Read More ...

Author Rob Roberge appeared for a City Lights event to celebrate the release of Liar, a darkly funny, intense memoir about mental illness, memory and storytelling, published by Crown Books. Joshua Mohr, who was scheduled to appear as well, was unable Read More ...

Douglas Rushkoff appeared again at City Lights to speak about his new book Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus and to answer questions on all things pertaining to the effect of technology on culture. When protesters shattered the windows of Read More ...

City Lights welcomed Jarett Kobek, author of I Hate the Internet, for a discussion and Q&A, accompanied by guest speaker Kevin Killian. What if you told the truth and the whole world heard you? What if you lived in a country swamped Read More ...

City Lights celebrates the release of Incidents of Travel in Poetry: New and Selected Poems, a collection of Latino poet and visionary Frank Lima’s most celebrated work, along with previously unpublished material. The evening included readings of Lima’s poems from Read More ...

Accompanied by his translator (and daughter) Chloe Aridjis, Mexican poet and activist Homero Aridjis makes another appearance at City Lights, this time to read from and answer questions on his latest book The Child Poet. Homero Aridjis has always said Read More ...

Finn Brunton joined City Lights to celebrate the release of Obfuscation: A User’s Guide for Privacy and Protest, published by MIT Press. At the event, Brunton discussed the meaning of obfuscation, explained why it’s necessary to fight against data collection Read More ...

Featured several times in past City Lights line-ups, author Robert Jensen returns to celebrate the release of his new book, Plain Radical: Living, Loving and Learning to Leave the Planet Gracefully, published by Soft Skull Press. There was nothing out Read More ...