While there are plenty of themed monthly reading series and open-mic nights, how many can you say combine stand-up comedy with erotica with rants with science fiction (and more)? Since 2001, io9 co-founder and author Charlie Jane Anders has been running the spoken-word variety show Writers With Drinks in San Francisco. This delightfully subversive monthly event brings together writers from all genres, from Jonathan Lethem to Mallory Ortberg. But San Francisco doesn’t get to have all the fun—Writers With Drinks is finally coming back to New York City!
In April and May, Anders will host Writers With Drinks events in NYC and Chicago. We’re especially excited about the NYC event, which will feature Uprooted author Naomi Novik, Annalee Newitz (whose novel Autonomous is forthcoming from Tor Books), and others including Anders herself. In her usual role as emcee, Anders has been praised for her “legendary introductions, which tend to veer into surrealistic whimsy” and which “travel as freely as a sci-fi novel, voyaging from Postmodernism to twerking to super-freak librarians to 18th century fashion history.” (Read more about WWD here and here.)
The cost of admission is on a sliding scale (“no-one turned away,” all events note), with the proceeds going to charities such as New York’s Housing Works and San Francisco’s Center for Sex and Culture. Here are the WWD lineups for the next two months:
Saturday, April 9
Adam Savage (Mythbusters), Isabel Yap (A Cup of Salt Tears), and Princess Kali (Enough to Make You Blush: Erotic Humiliation)
The Make Out Room @ 7:30 (doors at 6:30)
San Francisco, CA
Wednesday, April 13
Naomi Novik (Uprooted), Colson Whitehead (The Underground Railroad), Annalee Newitz (Autonomous), Aparna Nancherla (Late Night with Seth Meyers), Charlie Jane Anders (All the Birds in the Sky), and Jee Leong Koh (Steep Tea)
The Delancey @ 7
New York, NY
RSVP on Facebook!
Tuesday, May 3
Luis Alberto Urrea (Queen of America, Into the Beautiful North), Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife), Charlie Jane Anders (All the Birds in the Sky)
Martyrs’ @ 8
Chicago, IL
Saturday, May 21
Guy Gavriel Kay (Children of Earth and Sky), Yangsze Choo (The Ghost Bride), and David Lau (Virgil and the Mountain Cat)
The Make Out Room @ 7:30 (doors at 6:30)
San Francisco, CA
For more information, visit the Writers With Drinks website.
