Seen from the porch of Poesia Cafe, San Francisco is at its most vibrant and beautiful. Located in the middle of the Castro neighborhood, the cafe does brisk business and also manages to sustain a lovely, languid vibe, as though nobody there ever needs to rush to get anywhere and can while away entire afternoons reading and people watching. I am so happy to be a part of the reading here on October 4th!

There will be stories and pastries and wine. Don’t miss!

October 4th, 7 pm, Poesia cafe, 4072 18th Street.

Michael Alenyikov is the author of IVAN AND MISHA, winner of the Northern CA Book Award and a Finalist for the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction. His novella collection, SORROW’S DRIVE, appeared in 2022. He’s led the 18^th St Writing Group for many years. Alenyikov is a NYC native and a longtime resident of San Francisco.

Anna Mantzaris is a San Francisco-based writer. Her work has appeared in Ambit, The Cortland Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Necessary Fiction, New World Writing, Sonora Review, and elsewhere. Her fiction chapbook OCCUPATIONS is forthcoming from Galileo Press. 

Richard May has published four short story collections: Because of Roses, Gay All Year, Inhuman Beings, and Ginger Snaps: Photos & Stories (with photographer David Sweet). His short fiction has been published in numerous anthologies and magazines. He organizes the monthly reading series Odd Mondays in San Francisco and is a member of the 18th Street Writers and the Bay Area Queer Writers Association. Find Rick on Instagram at richard.may1313 and Facebook at richardmaywriter, where he publishes a daily story photo or visual that inspires him to write, with the first few lines of the story included.

Sasha Vasilyuk is a journalist and author of a debut novel YOUR PRESENCE IS MANDATORY (Bloomsbury, April 2024) to be published in the U.S., Canada, Italy, Germany, France, Finland and Brazil. She has written for The New York Times, TIME, Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Bazaar, NBC, USA Today, Narrative, and others.

Olga Zilberbourg is the author of LIKE WATER AND OTHER STORIES (WTAW Press) and four Russian-language story collections. She has published fiction and essays in Electric Literature, Lit Hub, Narrative, Alaska Quarterly Review, Confrontation, Scoundrel Time, and elsewhere. She co-edits Punctured Lines, a feminist blog on post-Soviet and diaspora literatures, and co-hosts the San Francisco Writers Workshop.

I gave an interview (conducted on Instagram!!) for a cool newsletter, The Isthmus, “dedicated to world literature and gaining a broader perspective on the literary arts.”

The word “Isthmus” attracted my attention first. I grew up on one, and I feel a strong pull of curiosity when I see the word used out there. It’s an archipelagic word, of a kind that allow us to remap the globe through its waterways. I was very happy to see this newsletter emerge, “dedicated to world literature and gaining a broader perspective on the literary arts.”

Thanks to Christian Smith for asking great questions and allowing me space to gush a bit about some of my favorite translators… Read the full conversation here (and subscribe for more!): https://theisthmus.substack.com/p/interview-olga-zilberbourg

As Russia’s war on Ukraine is continuing, so are the efforts to spread the word about Ukraine’s past, future, and present. We’re also continuing to build community behind helping the people of Ukraine. I’m very grateful to author Sasha Vasiluk for organizing this upcoming literary reading with the amazing, stellar writers from our community: Polina Barskova, Katya Cengel, Eveniya Dame, Andrey Kurkov, Maggie Levantovskaya, Masha Rumer, and Vlada Teper.

This reading is a part of the Bay Area Book Festival and will be hosted at Ukrainian-owned DecoDance bar here in San Francisco. They donate a portion of their proceeds to the people of Ukraine! Can’t wait to try their drinks.

May 4th, 6 pm
DecoDance Bar 1160 Polk Street

Please reserve your tickets!

There will be books there for the authors to sign, thanks to the amazing efforts by Masha Rumer. Some of these books are starting to sell out so make sure to get your own copies and buy gifts for friends!

This event is now happening at Stage Werx Theatre, 446 Valencia Street — by there on October 22nd at 5 pm!

Punctured Lines is co-hosting a Lit Crawl reading by six Bay Area writers born in Ukraine, Russia, and Moldova. Shaken by the horrific tragedy of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we will read pieces exploring our connections, direct and indirect, to the part of the world we associate with home and exile, and where many of our friends and relatives are suffering as a result of the war. We work in the genres of nonfiction, literary and historical fiction, YA, flash, and other literary forms to tell our stories, and will read excerpts from our published and new work.

Maggie Levantovskaya is a writer and lecturer in the English department at Santa Clara University. She was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and grew up in San Francisco. She has a PhD in comparative literature from UC San Diego. Her creative nonfiction and journalism have appeared in The Rumpus, Michigan Quarterly Review, Catapult, The LA Times, Current Affairs, and Lithub. Twitter: @MLevantovskaya

Masha Rumer‘s nonfiction book about immigrant families, Parenting with an Accent, was published by Beacon Press in 2021, with a paperback coming out in October 2022. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Parents, and more, winning awards from the New York Press Association. Twitter: @MashaDC

Originally from Kishinev, Moldova, Tatyana Sundeyeva is a Russian-American writer living in San Francisco. She writes short fiction, travel writing, and Young Adult novels and has been published in Oyster River Pages, Cleaver, and Hadassah Magazine. Twitter: @TeaOnSundey

Vlada Teper is a writer and educator from Moldova. Her essays have been featured in Newsweek and on NPR. A former Fulbright Scholar in Russia, Teper is the founder of Inspiring Multicultural Understanding (IMU) Peace Club. With MAs in English and Education from Stanford University, Vlada is the recipient of the 826 Valencia Teacher of the Month Award. Twitter: @VladaTeper

Sasha Vasilyuk is a journalist and author of forthcoming novel YOUR PRESENCE IS MANDATORY set between Ukraine and Nazi Germany (Bloomsbury, 2024). She has written about Eastern Europe for The New York Times, TIME, BBC, Harper’s Bazaar, NBC, USA Today, Narrative, and others. Twitter: @SashaVasilyuk

Olga Zilberbourg is the author of LIKE WATER AND OTHER STORIES (WTAW Press) and four Russian-language story collections. She has published fiction and essays in Electric Literature, Lit Hub, Narrative, Alaska Quarterly Review, Confrontation, Scoundrel Time, and elsewhere. She co-edits Punctured Lines, a feminist blog on post-Soviet and diaspora literatures, and co-hosts the San Francisco Writers Workshop. Twitter: @bowlga