Lit Crawl San Francisco 2026: Full Schedule

One of the most anticipated literary nights of the year, Lit Crawl San Francisco is a massive, one-night literary pub crawl through San Francisco’s Mission District on Saturday, October 25th from 5:00-9:00pm. Join us to cap off another great festival, and don’t miss out on the afterparty at Drawing Room Annex!

ATTENTION: We’ve turned off the My Schedule tool as Sched has changed its pay structure recently and it’s no longer feasible for us to use. No RSVPs are necessary, just show up! Seating + space are first come, first serve. Sorry for the confusion!

3:00pm PDT

Want to Read at Lit Crawl? A Pre-Crawl Tailgate

Saturday October 24, 2026 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT

Page Street (297 Page St, San Francisco, CA 94102)

We'll open the doors at 2:45 pm to give you time to get a drink (wine, Prosecco, energy drinks) and get settled at a writing space.

At 3 pm, Page Street founder, Janis Cooke Newman, will announce the theme for our Phase One Lit Crawl event, Without a Net. (We're keeping the theme under wraps until then.)

Everyone will have 40 minutes to write 250 words (no more!) on our theme.

If you like what you've written, and want to read it at the Crawl, just drop your name into our sorting hat (bookish Happy Potter reference).

When the 40 minutes are up, we will randomly draw up to 20 names out of the hat to be our readers!

The event is free, but space is limited to 40 writers, so you do need to pre-register.

Please note, if you are chosen, you'll have to go directly from our location to the Drawing Room on Valencia Street so you'll be ready to read in Phase One of the Crawl at 5 pm.

Saturday October 24, 2026 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Page Street (297 Page St, San Francisco, CA 94102)

TAILGATE

Genre erotica, fiction, memoir, poetry, women of a certain age, workshop, tailgate sponsor, open mic opportunity

5:00pm PDT

826 Quarterly Release Party

Saturday October 24, 2026 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT

826 Valencia (826 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

We are partnering with Litquake for the release of The 826 Quarterly, an anthology of the most dynamic writing from across our programs.

Join us in celebrating this new publication with a special reading from the authors themselves!

Saturday October 24, 2026 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
826 Valencia (826 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110) 826 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

PHASE 1

Audience All Ages
Genre Youth Readings, Youth Voices, poetry, fiction

5:00pm PDT

Body Language

Saturday October 24, 2026 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT

Teeth Bar SF (2323 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

Every body has a story to tell. Physically and figuratively, it holds our emotional truths, identity, fears, triumphs and losses. Through spoken word, poetry, fiction and essay, five writers show how a body can change to please others, how it feels to be severed by ancestral trauma, what it means to be lucky after an amputation, and how the body is a site of memory and inheritance. In holding it all together, the body becomes stronger, more resilient and a champion of change.

Saturday October 24, 2026 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
Teeth Bar SF (2323 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110) 2323 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

PHASE 1

Genre poetry, fiction, memoir

5:00pm PDT

Dr. Strangebro: How I Learned to Stop Taking and Start Giving a Sh*t

Saturday October 24, 2026 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT

Martuni's

Our theme is inspired by the meme “She has lost her shine,” based on the photos of earth taken by the Artemis II spacecraft. Through stories, satire, and speculative fiction, we'll take aim at the war mongers, greedy corporations, and megalomaniac tech bros who want to turn the Earth into one giant startup exit

Authors & Performers

S. S. Mausoof

S. S Mausoof is a writer, actor, and filmmaker whose work moves between cinema, literature, and live performance. His films include award-winning noir thrillers and the doc In Search of Meluhha. His debut novel, The Warehouse/Nuit sans lune au Waziristan, was shortlisted for the Karachi... Read More →

Dylan Freitas-D'Louhy

Dylan is an always evolving multi-dimensional artist, author, and activist. He continues through creative endeavors intersections of ingenuity, possibility, and persistence. Fusing the organic vibes with a synthetic world. Discovering the harmony together between the divine dance... Read More →

Dragonfly De La Luz

Dragonfly de la Luz is a book editor and memoir ghostwriter who believes the Universe makes much better plans than we do. Her writing explores surrender, transcendence, and the lustier parts of wanderlust. When not immersed in words, she’s traveling the world guided by synchronicity... Read More →

Saturday October 24, 2026 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
Martuni's 4 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA

PHASE 1

Audience 21+
Genre speculative fiction, satire, cultural commentary

5:00pm PDT

Quaking in Our Books: Mysteries Set in the San Francisco Bay Area

Saturday October 24, 2026 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT

Curio Bar SF @ The Chapel (775 Valencia St, San Francisco 94110)

Members of NorCal Sisters in Crime will read excerpts from their mysteries that involve the San Francisco Bay Area.

Saturday October 24, 2026 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
Curio Bar SF @ The Chapel (775 Valencia St, San Francisco 94110) 775 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

PHASE 1

Audience 21+
Genre fiction, mystery, san francisco stories

5:00pm PDT

Text Change: Trans Writers on Anything Except Transition

Saturday October 24, 2026 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT

Dog Eared Books (900 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

So often, opportunities for trans writers are focused around work about transition, but no more! The amazing breadth and depth of insight trans people possess will be on display as five of the best trans writers in San Francisco share fiction, non-fiction, and poetry on any topic except one.

Authors & Performers

Michal "MJ" Jones

Michal ‘MJ’ Jones (they/he) is a poet, parent, and editor in Oakland, CA. Their debut collection, HOOD VACATIONS, won the 2024 Lambda Literary Award. They are also the author of a chapbook, SOFT ARMOR (2023), from Nomadic Press.

Charlie Jane Anders

writer, buttondown.com/charliejane

Charlie Jane Anders is the author of the forthcoming novel Good Things Are Coming Your Way, about vampires and time travel. Until recently she was the science fiction book reviewer for the Washington Post. She is writing a comic book called Star Trek: Zero Point and a weekly newsletter... Read More →

Chino Lee Chung

Chino Lee Chung is a queer and trans Chinese Mexican personal essay writer and is a recipient of the San Jose State Steinbeck Fellowship. His work appears in Gender Queer: voices from beyond the sexual binary, Invitation to Joy – Writer’s Creating in Community and is a featured... Read More →

Sloane Holzer

Sloane Holzer is a writer and artist living in Oakland, California. Her written and creative work has been published in BOMB, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and them. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Visual & Critical Studies from the California College of the... Read More →

Saturday October 24, 2026 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
Dog Eared Books (900 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

PHASE 1

Audience All Ages
Genre LGBTQIA+, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, mixed genre

5:00pm PDT

Without a Net: 20 Super-short, Uncurated, Uncensored, Unrehearsed Pieces, Freshly Written in the Last Hour

Saturday October 24, 2026 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT

The Drawing Room: ANNEX (599 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

Always wanted to read at Lit Crawl? Here's your chance. Step one...attend the pre-Crawl Tailgate at Page Street SF where you will be given a prompt and 30 minutes to write a no-more-than-2-minute piece on that prompt. (We might also give you a glass of wine if you like.) If you like what you wrote, drop your name into our sorting hat (literary reference there). If you're chosen to be one of our readers (and there will be 20 of you), you'll need to head to the Phase One venue for our Lit Crawl event, Without a Net: 20 Supershort, Uncurated, Uncensored, Unrehearsed Pieces Written in the Last Hour. Don't forget to text your family and friends to let them know you're reading at Lit Crawl!

Saturday October 24, 2026 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
The Drawing Room: ANNEX (599 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

PHASE 1

Audience 18+
Genre tailgate sponsor, mixed genre, memoir, fiction, nonfiction

6:30pm PDT

Borrowed Time—with the Lisa Brown & Daniel Handler Residents

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT

Blondie's Bar (540 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

An evening of original work from the Lisa Brown & Daniel Handler Residents at the San Francisco Public Library, exploring what is borrowed, what is returned, and what is transformed.

Across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid forms, these writers engage with memory, archives, identity, and the fragile timelines that shape our lives. Rooted in a yearlong residency in support of the public library, this work reflects both personal histories and the collective record.

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT
Blondie's Bar (540 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110) 540 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

PHASE 2

Audience 21+
Genre fiction, nonfiction, poetry, hybrid, mixed genre

6:30pm PDT

Circle and Fist: Holding Tenderness while Fighting for the World We Need and Deserve

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT

Red Poppy Art House (2698 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

In restorative justice, our hearts expand to hold grief and rage. As artists we also feed fires of hope. This event is a window and the wind through that window, fresh air, breathing together toward freedom for us all, pulling from Afro-Caribbean, South Asian, and Indigenous American cultural traditions.

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT
Red Poppy Art House (2698 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA 94110) 2698 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

PHASE 2

Audience 18+
Genre erotica, fiction, memoir, poetry, women of a certain age, BIPOC, Black culture, diasporic stories, elder wisdom, south asian, indigenous american, healing

6:30pm PDT

Dirty Old Women

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT

Monkeybrains

Older women: Wise enough to tell the truth about sex--what they want, what they've done, what makes them hot. Tonight, we tell you. Our erotica takes many forms--fiction, poetry, memoir--from sweet to kinky to weird. If you missed the legendary series at the Octopus Literary Salon, this is your chance!

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT
Monkeybrains 933 Treat Ave, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

PHASE 2

Audience 18+
Genre erotica, women of a certain age, fiction, memoir, poetry

6:30pm PDT

Museum of Forgotten Fun: Immersive Storytelling from the San Francisco Underground

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT

Martuni's

Immersive storytelling—where a performer embodies a character, crafts a backstory, and speaks from a script as well as improvising in dialogue with audience members who are also roleplaying—is an ascendant form of literature in San Francisco's underground art scene. The Museum of Forgotten Fun—a museum located 1,000 years in the future, and featuring re-enactments of ritual fun of the 2020s—explores this medium with a group of five writers.

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT
Martuni's 4 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA

PHASE 2

Audience 21+
Genre audience participation, speculative fiction, san francisco stories, immersive storytelling

6:30pm PDT

Palabras del Pueblo: Cultura pa' la Raza

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT

Grand Coffee Too (2544 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

Palabras del Pueblo brings its Raza-centered writing workshop to the Mission for a reading by instructors and participants working in fiction, poetry, comics, and radical writing. Palabras is about the community speaking to itself, arming creators with knowledge and cultura, and encouraging writers. The work reflects memory, struggle, and imagination shaped in community.

Authors & Performers

Ronnie Dukes

Ronnie Dukes is an international award-winning illustrator and CCO of DUKEScomics, an independent publisher and IBPA Innovative Voices fellow. Dukes has exhibited at international comic conventions, including Tokyo Comic Con, Leipzig Book Fair and Guadalajara FIL. He’s a featured... Read More →

Dr. Elvira Carrizal-Dukes

Dr. Elvira Carrizal-Dukes is a Xicana narrative designer from the U.S.–Mexico borderlands and C.E.O. of DUKEScomics, an IBPA Innovative Voices publisher. She’s an International Latino Book Awards author of graphic novel Daizee & the Dukes of Chuco: Chuco–Juárez World Rally... Read More →

Juan G. Berumen

Juan G. Berumen is an East Oakland-based writer, director, educator, and actor who sees storytelling as a vehicle for self-expression, community empowerment, and social transformation. Shaped by his experience growing up undocumented in the Bay Area, Juan is committed to telling stories... Read More →

Blanca Torres

Blanca Torres grew up on the dry, eastern side of Washington state. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and earned a Masters of Fine Arts in fiction from Mills College. She has worked as a reporter for several major newspapers and is now an award-winning producer and reporter... Read More →

Osmani R. Ochoa

Casa Colibri

Osmani R. Ochoa is a queer Mexican-Xicano poet and longtime local and national organizer for immigrant and worker rights. They've recently released their debut chapbook ‘How to Survive an Asthma Attack in a Climate Apocalypse’ with Abode Press.

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT
Grand Coffee Too (2544 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110) 2544 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

PHASE 2

Genre latine readings, fiction, poetry, illustrated storytelling

6:30pm PDT

Poly AF

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT

Teeth Bar SF (2323 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

Open marriages, polycules, orgies, reconceiving the shape of family, falling in love with two people at the same time, a Google Calendar so crammed it brings the main character to her knees. Come hear the newest polyamory stories from the beating heart of America’s homeland for relationship rebels, misfits, and pioneers.

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT
Teeth Bar SF (2323 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110) 2323 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

PHASE 2

Genre erotica, family drama, fiction, humor, memoir

6:30pm PDT

The Creative Youth Collective Presents: Building Worlds and Shaping Futures

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT

Dog Eared Books (900 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

The Creative Youth Collective is a mentorship program that guides young writers in developing their authorial voice. CYC authors (ages 12–16) will share excerpts from original fiction and poetry, alongside reflections on authorship as a practice of authority—one that authorizes them to participate in shaping their world. Through readings and an interactive discussion, they explore writing as a practice that engages questions of meaning, identity, ecology, and culture.

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT
Dog Eared Books (900 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

PHASE 2

Audience All Ages
Genre Youth Readings, Youth Voices, fiction

6:30pm PDT

USF Presents: Emerging Writers Take the Stage

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT

The Sycamore (2140 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

We're an all-ages group of grad student writers at the University of San Francisco. We’re putting our non-writing lives on hold for two years while we dig deep into the art world and see what could happen. We experiment and write normal stuff and weird stuff. We have incredible dogs and cats that inspire and terrorize us.

Saturday October 24, 2026 6:30pm - 7:30pm PDT
The Sycamore (2140 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110) 2140 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

PHASE 2

Audience 18+
Genre erotica, fiction, memoir, poetry, women of a certain age, emerging voices, mixed genre, sponsor

8:00pm PDT

CCA Presents: The Last Word is Never the Last

Saturday October 24, 2026 8:00pm - 9:00pm PDT

Et al. etc. (2831a Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

The final graduating class of California College of the Arts' MFA in Writing takes the Litquake stage for the program's last appearance after decades of nurturing distinctive literary voices. Every generation of writers inherits the world as it is and imagines the world as it might become. In a cultural moment that often rewards speed over reflection and certainty over complexity, these emerging writers remind us that literature remains one of our most powerful ways of paying attention to one another, to history, and to ourselves. Through fiction, memoir, poetry, and hybrid forms, these writers move across borders, histories, families, and imagined futures with wit, ambition, and emotional precision. This is more than a farewell to a beloved program. It is an introduction to the writers who will carry its legacy forward and a reminder literature is always unfinished and always becoming. The last word is never the last.

Authors & Performers

Leela Smelser

Leela Smelser’s truest devotion is Sci-Fi/Fantasy, but he dabbles in poetry and has been known to microdose screenwriting on the side. With a BA in Creative Writing and Classics from Bryn Mawr College, he is now in his second and final year in the CCA MFA Writing program.

Saturday October 24, 2026 8:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
Et al. etc. (2831a Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110) 2831a Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

PHASE 3

Genre memoir, mixed genre, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, sponsor

8:00pm PDT

Sacramento Noir: Mayhem in the Capital

Saturday October 24, 2026 8:00pm - 9:00pm PDT

Red Poppy Art House (2698 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

That city you all drive past on 80 and rarely think twice about? It's both lovelier and creepier than you know. Join 7 authors from 2025's award-winning SACRAMENTO NOIR anthology for an hour of unsettling tales of capital crimes and misdemeanors. Readings by Luis Avalos, Shelley Blanton-Stroud, Maureen O'Leary, Janet Rodriguez, Nora Rodriguez Camagna, and Jen Soong. Moderated by Naomi Williams. Come for the spine-tingling stories; stay for some fun audience giveaways!

Saturday October 24, 2026 8:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
Red Poppy Art House (2698 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA 94110) 2698 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

PHASE 3

Genre noir, fiction, california stories, fabulous prizes

8:00pm PDT

Stanford Continuing Studies Presents: The Date From Hell

Saturday October 24, 2026 8:00pm - 9:00pm PDT

Curio Bar SF @ The Chapel (775 Valencia St, San Francisco 94110)

Stories in which something goes badly awry, excerpted from novels created in Stanford Continuing Studies' Online Writer's Certificate Program, read by students who've just completed their 2 years of coursework.

Saturday October 24, 2026 8:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
Curio Bar SF @ The Chapel (775 Valencia St, San Francisco 94110) 775 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

PHASE 3

Audience 21+
Genre fiction, sponsor

8:00pm PDT

ZYZZYVA Fall All-Stars

Saturday October 24, 2026 8:00pm - 9:00pm PDT

Dog Eared Books (900 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

Short readings from a trio of illustrious past and current contributors to ZYZZYVA, showcasing the breadth and the excitement of the writing that the acclaimed San Francisco literary journal has been publishing for more than four decades. We invite you and your friends to hang out with our featured authors and the ZYZZYVA staff before and after the readings.

Saturday October 24, 2026 8:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
Dog Eared Books (900 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110)

PHASE 3

Audience All Ages
Genre fiction, nonfiction, poetry

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