The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Rachel Maier

Chris Cole was born in Los Angeles before the Internet and now lives in Northern California. He is a board member of the S.F. lit series Quiet Lightning (full disclosure: founded by the author), and has been published in several anthologies, magazines, journals, websites and bathroom walls. He runs the West Coast office for a killer user experience agency called EffectiveUI and he coaches West Marin Little League games like nobody's business. And, he is nice to animals.

Chris is also co-founder of Pints and Prose, the Fairfax-based reading series founded by the Tuesday Night Writers. He writes daily verse and prose under the name Disembodied Poetics. Such Great Heights is his first novel.

More »

Ben Aronoff, Fogline Studio

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Andrew Touhy is a founding member of the Flat Earth Writing Collective. He teaches creative writing at the Writing Salon and weighs his thoughts on the craft and art of short stories at The Urgent Voice.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them ... ?

Long ago I would've answered dot-com whore. These days I try to teach, write, raise a child and generally treat myself to fits of benign selfishness, all without indulging in too much hope or despair. The "do" question is a pretty prescient one for me, though. Just yesterday (read as every day) I was worrying about the close relationship between identity and anxiety. We hold a lot of "positions" in our daily lives, and while it's cool to be such dynamic or busy or driven or talented or exciting social people ... the truth is I find it exhausting. The whole jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none thing can beat you down, leave you sliding over the surface of yourself and life. Whatever those are. I'm looking to settle in to depth whenever possible. I like Robert Walser's line from Jakob von Guten: "A little, but thoroughly." Or Faye Dunaway's answer to the same question in the movie Barfly: "I drink." Two little words said with conviction.

More »

It was Renoir who said that a work of art "must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, and carry you away." Interviews with artists should have a similar effect. With "Artist's Statement," our weekly interview series with prominent and upcoming visual artists in San Francisco, SF Weekly speaks to the people behind the art you see in the galleries, in the museums, and in the streets.

More »

Rusty Blazenhoff

Fight Club and Burning Man come from the same place. Where flash mobs and poetic terrorism come from. Yes, a place inside of you. But The San Francisco Cacophony Society had a lot to do with putting that together for you. This is their book. This is their... unauthorized release party?

Enter Chicken John. Outspoken proponent for and enabler of the City of Art And Innovation, Chicken sent out an email to his large list of followers about a show on Friday, May 31st at the Castro Theatre. If you're not on his list, I suggest you sign up for it now, before reading about how he champions the weird creative underground of Bay Area artists with long, hilarious pleas for you to become the person you've always wanted to be. There aren't many people like Chicken, nor are there many people worthy enough to follow (in what was largely a performance art project he ran against Gavin Newsom for mayor, under the campaign "Nuisance '07", and garnered about 12,000 votes). Naturally, he's involved with The San Francisco Cacophony Society.

Here's an excerpt from his email:

More »

Tom Mitchell

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Joe Clifford's work has been called "beautiful and vicious." He is the author most recently of Junkie Love, and producer of Lip Service West, a "gritty, real, raw" reading series in Oakland. He is acquisitions editor for Gutter Books and managing editor of The Flash Fiction Offensive.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them ... ?

Depends on the day, the person. Usually I'm straight up: "I'm a writer." I've been a struggling artist for so long. This is the first I've ever been able to wear the badge proudly.

More »

It was Renoir who said that a work of art "must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, and carry you away." Interviews with artists should have a similar effect. With "Artist's Statement," our weekly interview series with prominent and upcoming visual artists in San Francisco, SF Weekly speaks to the people behind the art you see in the galleries, in the museums, and in the streets.

More »

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Chris Pedler

Sarah Ciston writes books and runs Bootleg Books, an editing and design studio that helps independent authors and publishers go rogue. Her literary pursuits also include the small-batch lit mag We Still Like and her print shop on Etsy.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them ... ?

I tell them that I make artisanal literature. Actually, I wish I could say that without balking, even though in my heart and in practice I suppose it's true. I write books, and I help other authors edit, design and publish theirs. I make fine art prints inspired by found language. I am still practicing claiming the mantle of writer and figuring out how all the parts compliment each other.

More »

It was Renoir who said that a work of art "must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, and carry you away." Interviews with artists should have a similar effect. With "Artist's Statement," our weekly interview series with prominent and upcoming visual artists in San Francisco, SF Weekly speaks to the people behind the art you see in the galleries, in the museums, and in the streets.

More »

In a city that serves as a progressive paragon, it's easy to forget that American women didn't get the right to vote until 1920. And that's just one facet of the tumultuous history and continuing struggle for women's rights -- here and abroad.

The International Museum of Women (IMOW) -- an innovative online museum based in San Francisco -- has been championing female-focused issues since 2006, but its history of fierce feminism has roots stretching back to 1985.

First founded as the Women's Heritage Museum, this nascent organization operated as a museum "without walls" for 10 years, producing exhibits, sponsoring an annual book fair, providing fodder for teachers during Women's History Month, and of course, celebrating the lengthy lineage of women throughout the past, long overlooked for their accomplishments.

Elizabeth Colton, original founder of IMOW

In 1997, a Bay Area woman named Elizabeth Colton was hoping to take her daughter to a museum dedicated to women's contributions to society...but she couldn't find anything. She called up Gloria Steinem, a noted feminist activist, who she didn't know, and asked her if such a place existed.

"Gloria told her 'no, but I think you should [start] one!'" says Catherine King, Vice President of Exhibitions and Programs at IMOW. "Elizabeth took that has a call to arms." Elizabeth soon corralled a group of Bay Area teachers equally disappointed by the current feminist offerings and established the International Museum of Museum.

"She thought, 'lets expand the mission, let's get global.'"

More »

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Ben Mirov is the author of two books of poetry, Hider Roser and Ghost Machine, and the chapbooks I is to Vorticism, Vortexts, and Collected Ghosts.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them ... ?

I usually tell them I'm a teacher. I don't usually tell them I write poems. I prefer to think of my relationship to poetry as a completely isolated aspect of my life. It feels good to protect it, like I don't need to incorporate being a poet into my identity to make it a thing. Even though it's integral to who I am, maintaining the illusion that my role as a poet is relegated to its own dimension is important to me for reasons I've never fully explored. I just take the impulse as something of value.

More »