Upcoming Public Events

Virtual:

The Norwich Bookstore, Wednesday March 18, 4 pm PT (7 pm ET.), “Sarah Stone, Daniel Tobin, Daniel Barban Levin, Aiden Heung - A Virtual Evening With Four Way Books.” More information and registration here.

San Francisco (West Coast book launch):

The Backstory Above, mezzanine, Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave., San Francisco, Thursday March 19 from 6:30 to 8 pm, Marriage to the Sea reading and conversation with David Haynes, hosted by Paige Patterson Duff and Susannah Emerson. Please note that this is a live event, not recorded (and there is a flight of stairs). The evening event is free for everyone, but it’s helpful for our hosts if you can RSVP here.

The Backstory Above, mezzanine, Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave., San Francisco, Class with David Haynes, “Writing the Family Constellation,” Friday March 20 from 2:30 to 5 pm. Families are full of constantly shifting dynamics and allegiances: feuds and friendships; competing interests, needs, and desires; disputed histories and circumstances. All of these become part of our projects, whether we’re writing a family saga that covers generations, a work that focuses on one relationship, or a piece that takes place over the course of an afternoon. This session is for writers at all levels and working in any genre, including fiction, essay, memoir, poetry, and plays. We’ll read short selections together, discuss the craft and process of writing families, and do a couple of writing exercises to explore family constellations from different angles. Along the way we’ll think about who gets included and how (are they central or peripheral?) and whether the piece stays with one speaker/central character or shifts among different consciousnesses and perspectives. We’ll also touch on the dynamics around writing family that happen off the page and the critical importance of dramatic irony when traversing the family multiverse. Please bring a pen and notebook or a laptop. Also please note that this is a live-only event, and there is a flight of stairs.Register here for the class (and note they’re offering a sliding scale for registration. Write to hi@thebackstoryabove.com for details.)

New York City (East Coast book launch):

“Sarah Stone presents Marriage to the Sea, with Ann Packer & Joan Silber,“ East Coast book launch: in-person reading and conversation, P&T Knitwear Books & Podcasts, Wednesday, Apr 1. from 6:30 pm to 8 pm. More info and tickets here.

In-person reading, Bay Area (details coming soon), May 8.

Check this site for updates.

Selected Recorded Events

The Booksmith/The Bindery, San Francisco, CA, virtual, November 16, 2020. Launch for Ron Nyren’s The Book of Lost Light, conversation hosted by Evan Karp, with Ann Packer, Angela Pneuman, Ann Cummins, Lisa Michaels, Cornelia Nixon, Rafael Yglesias, and Vendela Vida.

Image Journal’s Summer Stage, Covington, WA, virtual, July 14, 2020. (Now available in archives, by subscription.) Reading and discussion with Melissa Pritchard: the intersection of art, politics, and theater.

Jewish Learning Works, StoryForward, "Exile at Home" series, co-presented by JCC of the East Bay, Jewish Community Library, and jewishLIVE Connect, San Francisco, CA, April 12, 2020. A conversation on creativity and humor with Dan Schifrin, Marika Brussel, and Caroline Kessler.

Selected Past Events

AWP Baltimore 2026: Across Time & Space: A Polyphonal Salon, Thursday March 5, 3 to 5 pm, Offsite Reading at Vinyl & Pages. Marriage to the Sea book signing, Friday March 6, 11 am, Four Way Books Booth, Bookfair. Haints, Haunts, & Other Shape Shifters, Friday March 6, 3:20 PM - 4:35 PM, Room 321-322, Baltimore Convention Center, panel with Lillian Howan, Judy Juanita, Mary Slechta, and Marianne Villanueva. Description: What calls us to tell tales of spirits made restless by loneliness, passion, and personal or historical grievances and injustices? How, in today’s endangered world, do we find new ways to write speculative fiction about ghosts, the uncanny, haints and haunts, shapeshifters, and the dead who refuse to stay dead? Five fiction writers from varied backgrounds and storytelling traditions share work, literary models, and craft strategies for the fierce and sometimes playful art of writing the uncanny. Four Way Books and Friends, Friday March 6, 6 to-8 pm, with authors from Four Way Books, Autumn House Press, Carnegie Mellon University Press, and Barrow Street Books, Offsite Reading at V-NO Wine Bar & Shop.

Off Campus Writers’ Workshop, February 19, 2026, virtual (live and recorded). The Art of the Secret: Puzzle Boxes and Narrative Engines.

JCC East Bay, East Bay Jewish Writing Circle, Dec. 1, 2025, using the Jewish Studio Process to play with what it means to tell stories in dark times.

Off Campus Writers’ Workshop, Chicago, IL, virtual, Thursday, Feb 6, 2025. Class on unreliability in fiction.

AWP 2023, Seattle, WA, Saturday March 11, 2023. “The Other World in This: An Image Journal Reading (Scott Cairns, Joyelle McSweeney, Sarah Stone, Fady Joudah, Shane A. McCrae)” Poets, novelists, and essayists from Image journal upending our assumptions about religion.

Odd Mondays Reading Series, San Francisco, CA, virtual, Monday, January 11, 2021. In conversation with Ron Nyren: readings from The Book of Lost Light and Hungry Ghost Theater, with audience Q&A.

JCC East Bay and LABA, Berkeley, CA, virtual, Thursday, July 30, 2020. “Inappropriate Laughter” with Bruce Bierman and slide show by Sarah Wolfman-Robichaud.

JCC East Bay, Berkeley, CA, November 23, 2019. LABA East Bay Launch Party, “Drunk,” readings, performances, and multi-media work by Rachel Berger, Bruce Bierman, Marika Brussel, Sara Felder, Caroline Kessler, Kiki Lipsett, Jake Marmer, and Dan Schifrin.

Litcrawl, San Francisco, CA, October 19, 2019. “WTAW Press and Friends,” with Amber Butts, Olga Zilberbourg, Anita Felicelli, Meghan Flaherty, Ted Gioia, Louise Marburg, Ron Nyren, and Peg Alford Pursell.

The Story is the Thing, Kepler's Books, Menlo Park, CA, June 20, 2019. With Kate Folk, Julie Lythcott-Haims, Jaya Padmanabhan, Ari Rosenschein, and Michael Shewmaker.

Octopus Literary Salon, Inside StoryTime, Oakland, CA, May 16, 2019. “Quiddities,” James Warner, host, with Cheryl Ossola, Lynn Breedlove, Vincent Chu, and Linda Fiddler.

Bay Area Book Festival, Berkeley, CA, The Brower Center, May 4, 2019. “Quest: Journeys Through Generations,” panel: Joan Frank, moderator, with Michael Levitin, Katja Petrowskaja, stories of Jewish generations past and present.

AWP Portland, WTAW Press Offsite reading, Portland, OR, March 30, 2019. With Anita Felicelli, Jimin Han, Louise Marburg, Angela Mitchell, Barbara Roether, Naomi J. Williams, and Olga Zilberbourg.

AWP Portland, Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR, March 28, 2019. “Writing the Transcendent,” panel with Courtney Sender, moderator, Goldie Goldbloom, Rahul Kanakia, and Yehoshua November on writing the numinous or otherworldly and the relationship between the divine, the inspirational, the science fictional, and the fantastical.

Stories on Stage Sacramento, Sacramento, CA, March 22, 2019. Sue Staats, host, staged reading from Hungry Ghost Theater.

Word Week 2019, Umpqua Bank Noe Valley, San Francisco, CA, March 13, 2019. Rick May, organizer, Cara Black, host. Reading with Jon Longhi and James Cagney. Bookfair publishers: J.K. Fowler, Nomadic Press; Jennifer Joseph, Manic D Press; Emily Wolahan, Two Lines Press; Peg Alford Pursell, Why There Are Words Press.

Babylon Salon, San Francisco, CA, March 2, 2019. Laurie Ann Doyle, Ryan Sloan, and Maury Zeff, hosts, reading with Joe Loya, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, Maw Shein Win, and Irving Ruan.

The Racket Reading Series, Adobe Books, San Francisco, CA, February 28, 2019. “Shape,” Noah Sanders, host, reading with Brittany Ackerman, Hadas Goshen, James Cagney, Matt Carney, Kar Johnson, Laur A. Freymiller, and Michelle Schlachta.

WTAW LA, Los Angeles, CA, February 3, 2019., “This is Definitely Not the Superbowl,” Patrick O’Neil and Ashley Perez, hosts, reading with Dennis Cruz, Alex Espinoza, Anita Gill, Natalie Graham, and Lauren Marks.

Mrs. Dalloway’s, Berkeley, CA, January 27, 2019. Reading and signing.

Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, Blue Ridge Center, Asheville, NC, January 5, 2019. “Eruption/Incandescence,” craft lecture.

Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, Blue Ridge Center, Asheville, NC, January 3, 2019. Reading with Jane Hamilton, Reginald Gibbons, T. Geronimo Johnson, and Pablo Medina

Green Apple Books, Clement St., San Francisco, CA, November 29, 2018. Reading and signing.

Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA, November 7, 2018. Reading and signing

Litquake, Center for the Book, San Francisco, CA, October 19, 2018. “The Novel and the World,” panel (moderator) with Judy Juanita, Michael David Lukas, Nayomi Munaweera, and Ethel Rohan, discussing how novelists can work with political, social, and historical context in ways that feel true to the characters and story and also allow for iconoclastic reinventions of fiction.

WTAW Sausalito, Sausalito, CA, Oct 11, 2018. Book launch for Hungry Ghost Theater and Angela Mitchell’s Unnatural Habitats & Other Stories. Reading with Lisa Locascio, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Louise Marburg, Angela Mitchell, Natalie Singer, and Terese Svoboda.