Happy Endings - Bocanova


Elwin Cotman is a storyteller from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the author of five books: the poetry collection The Wizard’s Homecoming, and the short story collections The Jack Daniels Sessions EP, Hard Times Blues, Dance on Saturday, and Weird Black Girls. His debut novel The Age of Ignorance will be published by Scribner in 2025. He was a participant in the 2012 Low Lives Performance Festival. In 2009, Cotman was a core member of the Cyberpunk Apocalypse Writers Cooperative, a DIY writers space in Pittsburgh.


Three years ago, June Martin declared herself the world's greatest writer and, since then, no one has attempted to challenge her for the title. She lives in Oakland and her short fiction has appeared in X-R-AY, Bull, New Session, and other publications. Her debut novel, LOVE/AGGRESSION, came out this year with tRaum Books.


LeeAnn Pickrell is a poet, editor, and managing editor of Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche. Her work has been published in many journals, most recently in One Art, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Loud Coffee Press, and Atlanta Review. Punctuated, a chapbook of poems inspired by punctuation, has just been released by Bottlecap Press. Her book Gathering the Pieces of Days is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in 2025.


Roberto F. Santiago was awarded the Alfred C. Carey Prize and has received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, CantoMundo, Community of Writers, Sarah Lawrence College, and the Lambda Literary Foundation. His debut collection, Angel Park (2015), appeared on the LA Times list of 23 Essential New Books by Latino Poets and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Roberto lives in San Francisco, where he works as a social worker and Editor-in-Chief of Sancocho Press, a queer and trans AfroLatinx imprint with Kórima Press.

5:30pm Leg 2 - Bocanova

Colossus Press - Summer Lounge


Colossus began as a writing salon, as a creative way to express our fury at the current administration’s callous immigration policy. Since then, it has evolved into a performance project, chapbook, and fundraiser for Bay Area nonprofits. Our intention is to create a space where we can gather in the spirit of resistance to call out cruelty and support concrete change through fundraising.  Colossus Press


Oakland born poet James Cagney is the author of two books of poetry, including MARTIAN: The Saint of Loneliness, winner of 2021 James Laughlin Award from Academy of American Poets. His work has appeared in Alta and Zyzzyva. Please Visit JamesCagneyPoet.com


Susana Praver-Pérez is a Pushcart-nominated poet, editor, and visual artist. A former Associate Medical Director at La Clínica de la Raza in Oakland, she currently edits with Poets Reading the News. Her first full-length book of poetry Hurricanes, Love Affairs, and Other Disasters is a PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature (2022). Her second full-length collection Return Against the Flow, (Black Lawrence Press, 2024), was chosen by both Ms. Magazine and NYU’s Latinx Project as one of their top 30+ poetry picks for the year. website: susanapraverperez.com

Taneesh Kaur is a US-born Punjabi teaching artist based in San Francisco. Her debut full-length collection, Thawing: A Poetic Memoir, was released in 2024 from Collapse Press. More of her work in English and Spanish can be found at www.TaneeshCantos.com

Elaine Cynthia Brown aka Poet E Spoken Author of Cried Out Laughing and soon to be released  Phonemic Awareness  is. The 2nd Great Granddaughter of Joshua Halsey, History Teacher and Free Style Artist. “I did not come to Kumbayah with you.

5:30 Leg 2 - Summer Lounge

Collapse Press -    The Good Hop


Collapse Press is a small literary publisher based out of both Oakland CA and Easton PA specializing in poetry and prose by authors, established and new, whose work addresses the current social atmosphere of a society in turmoil and on the verge of transformation.


Elynn Alexander is a poet, artist, and zine/book maker. She cohosts The Friday Collapse and the Lehigh Valley Poetry Virtual Salon and Open Mic. Her first book, The Shouldspeak Disease was published by Naked Bulb Press, exploring themes of shame language.  Her second chap collection Find Me In the Iris is Collapse Press’ best selling book.


Han Raschka is the award winning author of the books Splinters (Collapse Press, 2022) and the chapbook Enamel (Bottlecap Press, 2023) and this will be their first live reading in California!


Bear Wolf is a Shawnee Gypsy Jew social justice humanist who lost count of his tattoos somewhere around 20.


Heather Flescher is a writer, poet, actor, spoken word performer and transgender activist. She grew up in Massachusetts and has lived on the central coast of California for the past 25 years. Her forthcoming book is due out this year from Bottlecap Press.


LaMar Mitchell recently published his first poetry chapbook by Queer Healing Arts Center, titled “Psychedelic Existentialism” which was just released in May 2024. Is a student of cinema and an avid geek

5:30pm Leg 2 - The Good Hop - ​2421 Telegraph Ave, Ste 102, Oakland, CA 94612

5:30 Leg 2 - Itani Ramen

California Writers Club - Block Community Hub

​Terry Tierney is the author of The Poet’s Garage and novels Lucky Ride and The Bridge on Beer River. His poetry book, Why Trees Stay Outside, is coming in October.

Keith Gaboury earned an MFA from Emerson College. Kelsay Books published The Cosmos is Alive (2023), and Still Human is forthcoming from Falkenberg Press. Learn more at keithgaboury.com.

Kristen Caven writes at the intersection of School and Champion Streets in Oakland, where she evolved from “Ellie Bay of the East Bay” to “Polly Polkadot, America’s Friend.” Learn more at kristencaven.com.

Henry Hitz’ First novel won the Walter Clark Prize. Squirrels in the Wall was a finalist for American Fiction Award, excerpt nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Published in Cube, Magnolia, Scarlet Leaf, Moonfish.

Kazue Watanabe: Kazue Watanabe’s poetic journey started around 2005, and ever since she participates in open mics and readings throughout SF Bay Area. Her poetry has been published in the Poets Wanted Anthology

5:30pm Leg 2 - Block Community Hub

Black Freighter Press  -    BAM House

Black Freighter Press publishes revolutionary books founded by Alie Jones & Tongo Eisen-Martin. We are committed to the exploration of liberation, using art to transform consciousness.  A platform for Black and Brown writers to honor ancestry and propel radical imagination.  We aim to create a world where the collective determines cultural reality. 


shah noor is a writer, visual artist, and scholar crafting narratives at the nexus of Black feminist thought, Queer diaspora studies, and liberatory pedagogies. shah's poetry has been featured in Foglifter Press, the LA Review of Books, Umber, CUNJUH. They have performed at the Museum of the African Diaspora, Ashara Ekundayo Gallery, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, and the Black Joy Parade, to name a few. shah works as Managing Editor for the Arrow Journal, where they publish scholarship at the critical nexus of racial justice and spiritual wisdom. 


Landon Smith (he/him) is a father, a professor, a poet, a painter, half Mende and half Balanta & Fulani, that feeling of falling that wakes you up in a dream, the amethyst geode on your desk, Angela Davis’ afro, Frantz Fanon’s pocket notebook, Walter Rodney’s fingernail, the 7-10 bowling split, your favorite pillow. Despite his institutional degrees, he really became a poet through the East Side Arts Alliance in Oakland. Landon thanks his older sister Alia for buying him his first journal, starting his ever-evolving relationship with words. You can often find him processing the world through poetry.


Meilani Clay is a writer, mama, and educator from Oakland, CA. Her debut poetry collection, and the creek don’t rise, was the winner of the 2021 Michael Rubin Book Award from San Francisco State University’s Fourteen Hills Press. A graduate of Howard University, the University of San Francisco’s Urban Education and Social Justice program, and a current MFA Poetry candidate at SFSU, Meilani aspires to be in school forever, to bridge worlds with her words, and to one day build forts out of books written by Black folks.


Alie Jones is a self-care advocate, writer, artist, and Creole mermaid. She is a founder of Bodacious Bombshells, a wellness collective in Oakland. Alie is passionate about centering our breath work as sacred and hopes to build a legacy of awareness and expression. She is the Director and Co-founder of Black Freighter Press, a revolutionary press committed to the exploration of liberation. Alie graduated with a BA in Cinematic Arts & Technology from CSU Monterey Bay & a minor in Creative Writing & Social Action. She received her MPA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies as well as a MFA from Mills College in Creative Writing. Alie is the host of the podcast called Chit Chat with Aliecat, exploring self-care practices & journeys of self-love

5;30 Leg 2 - Bam House  -  1540 Broadway, Oakland CA 94612

16th and Mission Chalk Circle - M.A.D.E.


16th and Mission Poetry has happened at the southwest corner of 16th and Mission in the city every Thursday for 21 years, usually starting at 10pm, rain or shine.  We try to create a welcoming safe space for expression. It's always a work in progress and it's on the street, so if you come, be prepared!! 


D.S. Black is a Crap St Irregular, D.S. Black became a street poet in the Mission district of San Francisco where he lived for 26 years until evicted.


Liz Cahill is a poet, producer and curator based in the Mission,  She’s the co-founder of Decentered Arts. Her dog, Raya, is awesome!


Elio Ervin speaks to break down racial stigmas and muse on universal experiences and is an activist for the Trans Masc community, while co-hosting Divine Masc and other events.

Casey Gardner (she/they) is a soldier in the war against teenage illiteracy, serving as an English and Creative Writing teacher and youth performance poetry coach.

Charlie Getter is pretty loud, he's done poems on a street corner for longer than anyone. He's got books.


Ayla Ginger likes drinking on the shores of the Columbia River, climbing hills in San Francisco and writing things down.

EK Keith delights in the poetry of the Bay, and is thrilled to perform at The Beast Crawl! Access her poems online and read her book Ordinary Villains.

5:30pm Leg 2 - Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment

4pm Leg 1 - Chapter 510 and the Department of Make/ Believe

The Throwback                -    Telegraph Beer Garden


The Throwback was a low-tech literary journal distributed in the early 2000s. It was re-born for Beast Crawl 2022, and still lives. The Throwback Special reading features some Bay Area favorites and accompanying print journal to be distributed free in cafes and bars. If the person sitting next to you does not make you laugh or cry, the poems and stories in The Throwback will.


Bios:


K.R. Morrison is a Bay Area poet who also teaches writing workshops, plays drums, reads tarot and natal charts, and casts spells for the Divine Feminine takeback. Her poetry can be found in many anthologies. Her chapbook Cauldrons is available through Paper Press Books. 


Paul Corman-Roberts is the author of the Firecracker nominated poetry collection Bone Moon Palace (Black Lawrence Press 2021) and more recently the graphic chapbook The Sincere (Libran Apocalypse 2022.) He organizes, writes and teaches in the Bay Area.


Eric Robertson writes about what is in front of him, recently a pile of human feces at his local Safeway and his six-month battle to get it cleaned up.


Barbara Saunders is an award-winning poet, writer, and solo-theater performer, whose poetry and criticism have appeared in Highland Park Poetry, and other places. She is working on a memoir, Dead Dreams.


Dan O’Connell is a four-time award winning poet, and multiple finalist and honorable mention. His poems have appeared over eighty times. Dan O. is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, and several chapbooks. Find Dan O. at www.danoconnellpoetry.co

4pm Leg 1 - Telegraph Beer Garden

The Los Angeles Press  -    Theory Oakland
​

Welcome to The Los Angeles Press — publishing the best in art and literature from Los Angeles and the West. We’re dedicated to lifting up formerly marginalized and traditionally underrepresented artists and writers.  (The Los Angeles Press – Against Erasure)

Bernadette McComish is poet and educator From New York. She lives in Los Angeles where she teaches English and theater, and produces the poetry brothel Los Angeles, part of the poetry Society of New York. She has a new book out, Prophets of Los Angeles from The Los Angeles Ppess, 2024.

Christina Cha is a writer from San Francisco, currently living in Los Angeles. Her new book, dream of the unicorn, it's worth coming from the Los Angeles press in 2024.

Arthur Kayzakian is a writer from Los Angeles. His most recent book, the book of redacted paintings, won many accolades Including finalist for the Philip Levine prize, and winner of the black Lawrence press immigrant writing award.

Allegra Parks is a writer and psychotherapist from New York City. Living by coastally from LA/NYC, she maintains a psychotherapist practice, and writing studio. Her most recent book, contact boundary, is available from the Los Angeles press.

Linda Ravenswood, poet and publisher, is from Los Angeles. Her most recent book – – a poem is a house – – won the Arthur Smith prize from Madville press, as well an Oxford prize, a Gloucestershire prize, The Edwin Markham prize, and has been nominated for the national book award in 2024. She is the founding editor of the Los Angeles press.
​
Natasha Dennerstein is a writer from San Francisco. Originally from down under, Natasha is a trans sister, and champion of the literary community in California. With many books published from nomadic press, and black Lawrence press, her most recent book, Apps poetica, is available from the Los Angeles press, 2024

4pm Leg 1 - Theory Oakland