October's Writers With Drinks has a theme of STRANGE ROMANCE. Featuring mind-opening speculative fiction, robot poetry, almost-human spoken word, and tons more!

When: Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017 from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM, doors open 6:30 PM
Who: devorah major, Celeste Chan, Shawna Kenney, Christopher Brown, Thomas Centolella and Margaret Rhee!
How much: $5 to $20, all proceeds benefit the Center for Sex & Culture
Where: The Make Out Room, 3225 22nd. St., San Francisco, CA

About the readers/performers:

devorah major is the author of an upcoming science fiction novel called Ice Journeys. San Francisco’s third former Poet Laureate, major is a part-time senior adjunct professor at California College of the Arts, and poet-in-residence of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Her first novel, An Open Weave, was awarded the First Novelist Award by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Curbstone Press released her second novel (which includes poetry), Brown Glass Windows to critical acclaim. City Lights Publishing released another book of major’s poetry, where river meets ocean, and Creative Arts Books, Inc. released her third solo book of poetry, with more than tongue.

Celeste Chan is a Hedgebrook, Lambda, and VONA fellow, and recent Sister Spit alum. Her writing can be found in Ada, AWAY, Citron Review, cream city review’s genrequeer folio, Feminist Wire, Hyphen, Mixed Race/Queer and Feminist, and The Rumpus.

Shawna Kenney is the author of the award-winning memoir I Was a Teenage Dominatrix, editor of the anthology Book Lovers: Sexy Stories from Under the Covers, co-author of Imposters, and co-author of the new oral history Live at the Safari Club: A History of HarDCore Punk in the Nation’s Capital 1988-1998.

Christopher Brown's first novel is Tropic of Kansas. He was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for the anthology Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic. His short fiction has appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies, including MIT Technology Review’s Twelve Tomorrows, The Baffler, and Reckoning.

Thomas Centolella is the author of four books of poetry: Terra Firma (1990), Lights & Mysteries (1995), Views from along the Middle Way (2002), and Almost Human (2017). He has received the Lannan Literary Award, the American Book Award, the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, and was selected for publication in the National Poetry Series (selected by Denise Levertov).

Margaret Rhee is a poet, artist, and scholar. She is the author of chapbooks Yellow (Tinfish Press, 2011) and Radio Heart; or, How Robots Fall Out of Love (Finishing Line Press, 2015), awarded a 2017 Elgin Award, second place by the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Her project The Kimchi Poetry Machine was selected for the Electronic Literature Collection Volume 3. Literary fellowships include Kundiman, Hedgebrook, and the Kathy Acker Fellowship. She received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in ethnic and new media studies. She is at work completing her monograph, How We Became Human: Race, Robots, and the Asian American Body.