Spread the word, folks! …

Spread the word, folks! Let's pack the house (and show McSweeney's and Zoetrope and all those lit folks what enthusiastic spec fic lovers can do! :-) Just wish I could be there for this one too...

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Thrilling Wonder Tales:

A border-crossing evening of readings and discussion with Michael Chabon, Terry Bisson, and Claire Light

When: Thursday, May 20, at 7 pm.

Where: Valencia Street Books, located at 569 Valencia St., between 16th and 17th Streets in San Francisco (one block from the 16th St. BART station).

Featuring:

Terry Bisson
Author of _Dear Abbey_, _The Pickup Artist_, and _Bears Discover Fire_
Winner of the Locus, Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, and Hugo Awards.

Michael Chabon
Author of _Summerland_ and _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay_
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Claire Light
Contributor to _McSweeney's_, "Writings From the Long Table," and more
Literary editor of Hyphen Magazine
Former program manager, Kearny Street Workshop

What: From Chaucer to Dante to Shakespeare to contemporary authors like Ursula K. Le Guin, Toni Morrison, and Margaret Atwood, literary novelty has evolved out of genre-crossing and interaction with popular culture. Today, American literature is seething with innovations derived from science fiction, comic books, B-movies, and other popular or commercial sources.

Tonight, we'll hear readings and discussion by Bay Area writers who are crossing the borderlands that traditionally divide mainstream from speculative fiction. This event is a fundraiser for the new Fountain Award, a $1000 prize for excellence in short fiction, which will encourage this thriving tradition. Hosted by Charlie Anders (Publisher of _other magazine_ and MC of Writers with Drinks) and Jeremy Adam Smith (book critic and Director of the Independent Press Development Fund).

Cost: $5-10, sliding scale. All proceeds go directly to the Fountain Award.

Sponsored by the Speculative Literature Foundation, with _Zoetrope: All-Story_, Borderlands Books, _other magazine_, _Emerald City_, _NFG Magazine_, Watchword Press, and _Kitchen Sink Magazine_.

The Speculative Literature Foundation (http://www.speculativeliterature.org) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting literary quality in speculative fiction. "Speculative literature" is a catch-all term meant to inclusively span the breadth of fantastic literature, encompassing fiction ranging from science fiction to ghost stories to folk and fairy tales to magical realism to modern myth-making.

For more information, contact Jeremy Smith at exformation1@yahoo.com.