New news! New website edits! New details! Public call for Event Proposals!

If you have been following along, our website is now reflecting the current status of the quickly formulating Beast Crawl 2023. First, we are nothing without you. So now our Event Proposal Form is live! We want you in the Festival! YOU want you in the Festival! Here's how to sign up: Fill out our Beast Crawl 2023 Event Proposal form. As much as you can. Tell us about your organization, what you do, what inspires you, how the reading will go. We have a lot of places for a lot of people and we're excited to offer this opportunity.

*Note* In order to adequately represent the vastness and brilliance of the Oakland Literary Communities, Beast Crawl Literary Festival matches Venues with Curators, not individuals. A Curator is the representative of a Literary Organization, be it a workshop, publisher, magazine, zine, journal, press, school, union, federation, etc. If you are an individual and you want to be involved with the Festival (yes we want you involved for sure) and not currently linked with an Organization, either contact one and propose a Beast Crawl Event or ask to participate with their existing event or... show up for one of our THREE community open mics! We will host one open mic in each Leg of the Beast. <3

At the moment we are planning to welcome Curator Event Proposals. Here is the URL for our entry form. Give us your details, as much as you've got. Determining whether or not your group can participate in the Crawl is based on how much information we have about you and what your group represents in regards to Oakland and the curation/ dissemination of East Bay Literature, meaning: Inclusion, Belonging, Intersectionality, and of course dynamite writing. We're very excited to hear what you've got planned and we have room for lots, but get yourself signed up and on the radar quick. Come back to the form with your Group Name and Contact Email to add detail or make corrections, or email us directly. We want you there. It's going to be a huge festival and a lot of fun.

If you are in communication with Beast Crawl already on this topic, great! If you are an Oakland Curator, want to be, or know someone who should be, show them this page or take note of our email addy: info@beastcrawl.org

If you represent a venue, business, or collective and organize events in Old Oakland or on the 14th St Corridor and would like to propose an Event, please contact us through the Event Proposal form on our website or send us an email.

San Francisco's INTERSECTION is a historic non profit organization that offers support and education to Bay Area arts and community organizations, We recently were granted entry into their Artist In Residence program which includes advice, building access, and educational workshops. As a part of our involvement in that program, we will host a series of events at the 1446 Market St address.

Our first event is the official launch of The Sincere, a graphic chapbook by Paul Corman-Roberts. Paul and several other writers will donate their book to Beast Crawl and we will sell them for $20 each, to benefit operations costs.

The Sincere Book Launch Benefit

Paul Corman-Roberts breaks the champagne on "The Sincere," a graphic chapbook collaboration with Michigan illustrator Ray Swaney as a benefit where 100% of ALL book proceeds and donations will go to benefit the Beast Crawl Literary Festival in Oakland on July 22nd.
Featured readers are Tureeda Mikell, Youssef Alaoui, Richard Loranger, Missy Church, Andrew J. Thomas, K.R. Morrison and SF Poet Laureate Emerita Kim Shuck. With live open mic to follow!
Admission is free!

From March 20, 2023 to April 20, 2023, Beast Crawl Literary Festival will accept Event Proposals from Curators of literary organizations. Get your voice heard! Bring your ideas to the fore. Put the spotlight on what you do and your finest artists. Are you a part of a workshop, store, magazine, press, coalition, or other group that wants to present an event at our Summer Festival on July 22. 2023? Now is the time to get an idea together. We'll have a web form up and running on March 20th. We're really excited to hear from you about this. If you have extra questions, drop us a line.

Hi all, we are currently planning the 2023 festival! A few new things in the works and we think you'll like them very much. First we are looking at a festival date of perhaps the 3rd weekend in August. That's what it looks like from here. Also we are looking at opening the festival up to Curator Submissions which would happen through an online form that will be built and perfected in the weeks to come. Submissions will be open in the next few weeks.

More is going on and a few things have happened. We said goodbye to Victoria Sepulveda and said hi to Kai Sugioka-Stone in the online socials dept. We're looking to fill a few more staff positions soon as we move forward. Contact us if you'd like to pitch in!

XOXO, your beastly darlings at Beast Crawl Literary Festival

Read the Beast Crawl Literary Festival Equity Statement here.

Due to the continued threat of Covid-19, The Beast Crawl Lit Festival respectfully requests that all participants wear masks at all indoor events and to otherwise comply with individual venues and businesses’ posted policies regarding health and safety protocols including, but not limited to proof of vaccination and social distancing. Thank you for observing safety first and keeping Beast Crawl safe for everyone!

Beast Crawl Literary Festival is proudly partnering with Chapter 510 and the Department of Make Believe. We will hold an Event there for each Leg and the Information Table will be located out front on the sidewalk on the corner of 9th and Clay. We will be setting up at around 3:00PM. Stop by at 3:30 to say hi and pick up a paper map. Leg 1 begins at 4:00!

​A community of Black writers and scholars who write in and about the speculative fiction of the African Diaspora. Our membership includes poets, novelists, essayists and memoirists; published authors, students and award winners; and writers from around California and beyond. Since 2015, we have met regularly to support each other's growth and to share through public readings with the larger community.

A reading by members of the Workshop of original works in the Afrosurreal tradition

Ellen McBarnette is a life-long storyteller whose earliest tales were transcribed by her mother on scrap paper. Ellen’s career has taken her from the halls of the US Congress to boozey poetry slams. Born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens, a second generation Caribbean, she has traveled widely in the US, with a long career in public policy in Washington DC. She lives in Hayward, Ca with her partner and fellow writer, Ben and their cat Java. Ellen is celebrating the publication of her novella "Negrita" this February in Vol 2 of the Midnight and Indigo Speculative Fiction edition, 2022. Available in bookstores, at Barnes and Noble and, if you must, Amazon

Thaddeus Howze is an award winning writer, essayist, author and professional storyteller. Originally from New York, he hails from Hayward. His published works include "Hayward's Reach" and Broken Glass," both are available on Amazon.

​LaMar Mitchel is a cyberpunk/absurdist/slipstream author. Born and raised in Oakland. Currently exploring ways to become a Kardashian-level poet celebrity.”

A.J. Harper, the Oakland based author, educator and artist. A.j. Harper has crafted more than ten YA novels. He specializes in themes addressing the Black experience in novel circumstances. https://urbanhorror.wordpress.com/about/

Born in Brooklyn in '89, a lifelong lover of books, in the written word Gabriel found a window into the often baffling actions and motivations of others, as well as a way to make himself understood. He began writing stories and journal entries early. A Forum-Based Role Playing Games built on the childhood series, Animorphs was pivotal in his development as an author. Empowered by academics, he writes speculative fiction but also nonfiction in the areas of History, Social Theory, Politics, and Race.

Venue: Graffiti Pizza Leg: Two 5:30PM