City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, Goethe Institut San Francisco, MIT Press, and Centre for International Security Studies at University of Sydney present For The Protection of All Beings: An inquiry into advancing technologies and their consequences and possibilities Saturday, October 7 and Sunday October 8, 2023. Events will be both virtual and onsite between 12 […]

City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, Goethe Institut San Francisco, MIT Press, and Centre for International Security Studies at University of Sydney present For The Protection of All Beings: An inquiry into advancing technologies and their consequences and possibilities Saturday, October 7 and Sunday October 8, 2023. Events will be both virtual and onsite between 12 […]

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz discusses her newly published book An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (the 10th Anniversary Edition) By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Published by Beacon Press City Lights and Beacon Press celebrate the 10th Anniversary Edition of the first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples. An Indigenous Peoples’ History […]

City Lights and Litquake celebrate the publication of Justin Torres’s new novel Blackouts Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux From the bestselling author of We the Animals, Blackouts mines lost histories—personal and collective. This event is part of the Litquake 2023 Festival. To learn more visit: https://www.litquake.org/ Out in the desert in a place called […]

City Lights and Liveright Books celebrate the publication of Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights By Dylan C Penningroth published by Liveright Books A prize-winning scholar draws on astonishing new research to demonstrate how Black people used the law to their advantage long before the Civil Rights Movement. The familiar story […]

City Lights celebrates its 70th Year! Have you ever wondered about the origins of City Lights? Did you know there were two court cases in addition to the famous HOWL trial? Ever wonder how Lawrence Ferlinghetti became a pacifist, and how that was reflected at City Lights? Learn about these historical events and other intriguing […]

Join us for a reading & signing of author Phoebe Wagner's newest book, A Shot of Gin. In A Shot of Gin, Juniper "Gin" Cain is pretty sure she's mostly human. Working security for the vampire-owned All Saints Casino, Gin's got an edge on the other employees: vampires can't drink her blood, making her perfect […]

Celebrating Necessary Alternatives: An Evening with The 3rd Thing Join The 3rd Thing in virtual space to celebrate the emergence of this innovative press’s latest genre-bending offerings. City Lights hosts an evening of short readings, screenings and oracular activation, featuring Alissa Hattman author of Sift, Summer J. Hart author of Boomhouse, Carlos Sirah and Diane […]

Ayana Mathis reads from The Unsettled: a novel published by Alfred A Knopf From the best-selling author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, a searing multi-generational novel—set in the 1980s in racially and politically turbulent Philadelphia and in the tiny town of Bonaparte, Alabama. This is a story about a mother fighting for her sanity […]

City Lights and Litquake celebrate John Freeman’s final issue of “Freeman’s” journal Freeman’s: Conclusions published by Grove Atlantic With John Freeman and friends (TBA) This event is part of the Litquake 2023 Festival. To learn more visit: https://www.litquake.org/ Over the course of ten years, Freeman’s has introduced the English-speaking world to countless writers of international […]

On the third Wednesday of every month, open to all.  The October selection is Dinners with Ruth:  A Memoir on the Power of Friendships by Nina Totenberg. 

A Noir Soiree with Jonathan Lethem Join us in celebrating the publication of his new novel Brooklyn Crime Novel Published by Ecco Books (an imprint of Harper-Collins) This event will take place at an undisclosed location. Tickets available via Litquake (TBA). Once purchased, you will be directed to the front-counter at City Lights where a […]

Join us for the launch of a new City Lights published book! the delicacy of embracing spirals by mimi tempestt One of Publisher’s Weekly’s Most Anticipated Poetry Books for Fall 2023! Incendiary, lyrical poems of liberation from the phantasm of Black womanhood. “mimi tempestt writes like a third testament in which God (or our understanding) […]

An illustrated talk presented by Steve Robison, founder and printer of Tahoe Letterpress.  In addition to the presentation which begins at 5pm, participants can enjoy a display of an 1800s era antique letterpress type and engravings that came from the Territorial Enterprise newspaper in Virginia City and take home prints of some of the engravings.  […]

Celebrate Alta Journal’s Issue 25 and the publication David L. Ulin’s Thirteen Question Method published by Outpost19 Books   City Lights will be hosting Alta Journal to toast the release of its 25th issue, which is dedicated to writers and writing in the Golden State. The evening will double as a book launch party for […]

Moderated by Olivia E. Sears, with Gabriela Alemán, Dick Cluster, Gillian Conoloy, Elaine Katzenberger, Emilie Moorehouse, and Mark Schafer. City Lights was conceived as an international project. From the very beginning, from Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s own translations of Jacques Prévert , and on to some of the exciting authors City Lights publishes today, the world in […]

Check out local community resources for the whole family while enjoying crafts, games and a pie drawing.  Our FOL will have a table with free books for kids.