Writers With Drinks w Cecil Castellucci and Samhita Mukhopadhyay November 12, 2011

San Francisco's longest running reading series is back -- with strange science fiction and brilliant literature. Plus werewolves!

When: Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011, 7:30 to 9:30 PM, doors open at 6:30 PM
Who: Cecil Castellucci, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Alvin Orloff, Allison Moon, and Samhita Mukhopadhyay!
Where: The Make Out Room, 3225 22nd. St. between Mission and Valencia, San Francisco
How much: $5 to $10 sliding scale, all proceeds benefit the Center for Sex & Culture

About the readers/performers:

Cecil Castellucci's latest novel is The Last Day on Earth. Her other books include Boy Proof , The Queen of Cool and Beige all on Candlewick Press and Rose Sees Red on Scholastic Press. Her first Graphic Novel The Plain Janes launched the DC Comics Minx imprint and she was awarded the 2007 Shuster Award for best Canadian Comic Book Writer. It was followed up by the sequel Janes in Love. Her first Picture Book, Grandma’s Gloves won the California Book Award Gold Medal for juvenile literature. She also co-edited the book Geektastic, with Holly Black. 2012 brings a new hybrid YA novel The Year of the Beasts illustrated by Nate Powell. Forthcoming in 2013 book for young readers, Odd Duck, illustrated by Sara Varon, and The Tin Star, book one in a new Sci Fi series.

Alvin Orloff's latest book is Why Aren't You Smiling? He's also written the novels I Married An Earthling and Gutter Boys, and he's the co-author of transsexual showbiz memoir, The Unsinkable Bambi Lake. His writing can be found in numerous zines and anthologies, including Beyond Definition (Manic D Press, 1994), Tricks and Treats (Harrington Park Press 2000), and Pills, Chills, Thrills and Heartache (Alyson Press 2004). He began writing in 1977 as a teenage lyricist for The Blowdryers, perhaps the campiest of all the early San Francisco punk bands. After studying sociology at U.C. Berkeley he dabbled in underground theater with The Sick & Twisted Players, performance art with the Popstitutes, and deejaying at Baby Judy's Discotheque À Go-Go, before wholly succumbing to his literary pretensions.

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a queer disabled Sri Lankan writer, teacher and cultural worker. The author of Consensual Genocide and co-editor of The Revolution Starts At Home: Confronting Intimate Violence in Activist Communities (South End, 2011), her work has appeared in the anthologies Persistence: Still Butch and Femme, Yes Means Yes, Visible: A Femmethology, Homelands, Colonize This, We Don’t Need Another Wave, Bitchfest, Without a Net, Dangerous Families, Brazen Femme, Femme and A Girl’s Guide to Taking Over The World. Her second book of poetry, Love Cake, is forthcoming in fall 2011.

Samhita Mukhopadhyay is a writer, speaker and technologist residing in Brooklyn, NY. She is the Executive Editor of Feministing.com and is the author of Outdated: Why Dating is Ruining Your Love Life. She has written for multiple news outlets including The Nation, The American Prospect, Alternet and the Guardian UK. She has been profiled in India Currents Magazine, Nirali Magazine, Brown Girl Magazine, Rabble.ca and on Alternet.

Allison Moon is the author of Lunatic Fringe, a queer feminist werewolf novel. Her writing has been published in Not For Tourists, Nerve.com, McSweeney’s, and Psychopedia.com. In 2011, she was named runner-up for the Victoria Hudson Emerging Writer’s Award. She was recently named a fellow for the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Emerging LGBT Writer’s Program.

About Writers With Drinks:

Writers With Drinks has won "Best Literary Night" from the SF Bay Guardian readers' poll six years in a row and was named "Best Literary Drinking" by the SF Weekly. The spoken word "variety show" mixes genres to raise money for local worthy causes. The award-winning show includes poetry, stand-up comedy, science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery, literary fiction, erotica, memoir, zines and blogs in a freewheeling format.

Official Website: http://www.writerswithdrinks.com