This special evening brings together an incredible lineup of writers, artists, and storytellers for a celebration of queer storytelling, humor, and community. Expect a lively, thoughtful, and unforgettable night of literary conversation, comic brilliance, and creative connection. Hosted by Charlie Jane Anders and Baruch Porras Hernandez. Featuring Kim Shuck, Gwendolyn Paradice, Ajuan Mance, Rebecca Hall, Maria Minguez Arias, and Ginny Berson.
Charlie Jane Anders is the award-winning, nationally bestselling author of Lessons in Magic and Disaster. Her other books include All the Birds in the Sky, The City in the Middle of the Night, and the young adult Unstoppable trilogy. She also published a book about how to use creative writing to get through tough times called Never Say You Can't Survive. Her writing has appeared in Tin House, Conjunctions, ZYZZYVA, the Paris Review, McSweeney's, Esquire and the Catamaran Literary Reader. She’s currently writing the comic book Star Trek: Zero Point for IDW.
Baruch Porras-Hernandez is a writer, performer, organizer, professional MC/Host, curator, stand up comedian, and the author of the chapbooks “I Miss You, Delicate” and “Lovers of the Deep Fried Circle” both with Sibling Rivalry Press. He had the honor of touring with the legendary Sister Spit Queer poetry tour in 2019, is a is a two-time winner of Literary Death Match, a regular host of literary shows for KQED, and was named a Writer to Watch in 2016 by 7×7 Magazine. His poetry can be found with Write Bloody Publishing, The Tusk, Foglifter, Assaracus and many more. He has been an artist in residence at The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, a Lambda Literary Fellow in Poetry, and Playwriting. He’s been featured in shows with The Rumpus, Writers with Drinks, has performed several times with Radar Productions, LitQuake, and Quiet Lightning. His solo show “Love in the Time of Piñatas” got a clapping man from the SF Chronicle and was performed to sold-out houses at Epic Party Theatre in December of 2019. He is the head organizer of ¿Donde Esta Mi Gente? a Latinx literary performance series, he is an immigrant originally from Mexico, and is currently the lead artist in a multidisciplinary project that will create new Queer Latino Superheroes with MACLA, which stands for Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana in San Jose. He lives in San Francisco.
Kim Shuck embraces the fool and jester qualities of being a modern poet and artist. She is a devotee of San Francisco, whose hills she wanders nearly always on foot. Her maternal grandparents met at the Polish Hall on Shotwell and she spent many hours with her mother and grandmother wandering the Mission St. Miracle Mile, taking books out of the Mission Branch library and watching aquarium fish on the ground floor of what used to be Hale's. She firmly believes in carrying a bubble wand, keys, pen and notebook and cats cradle string at all times. Shuck is widely published in journals, anthologies and a couple of solo books. She enjoys volunteering in SFUSD elementary school classrooms to share her loves of origami, poetry and basket making... in other words, math of various kinds. In 2019 Shuck was awarded an inaugural National Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets, and a PEN Oakland Censorship Award.
Gwendolyn Paradice writer professor editor scholar genre/gender bender
Ajuan Mance is a Professor of African American literature at Mills College in Oakland, California. A lifelong artist and writer, Ajuan has participated in solo and group exhibitions as well as comic and zine fests, from the Bay Area to Brooklyn. In her art, illustration, and comics, Ajuan uses humor and bright colors to explore race, gender, power, and the people and places in which they intersect. Her work has appeared in a number of digital and print media outlets, including, most recently, The Women’s Review of Books, Blavity.com, BET.com, Transition Magazine, Buzzfeed.com, KQED.org, the San Francisco Chronicle, NYTimes.com, KPIX News, and Publisher’s Weekly. You can reach Ajuan at 8rockart@gmail.com
Rebecca Hall, JD PhD is an independent scholar, activist, and educator. Her paternal grandparents were born enslaved and she is the daughter of Harry Haywood. Dr. Hall writes and publishes on the history of race, gender, law, and resistance as well as articles on climate justice and intersectional feminist theory. She is a graduate of Swarthmore College, Berkeley Law, and University of Santa Cruz.
María Mínguez Arias es narradora, ensayista, editora circunstancial y traductora. Es autora de Nombrar el cuerpo (Editorial Egales/España y El BeiSmAn PrESs/USA, 2022), elegido en España entre lo mejor de la literatura Queer del 2022 por la revista Qué Leer, e incluida entre las recomendaciones de Vanity Fair Spain para el mes del orgullo 2025 ; y de la novela Patricia sigue aquí (Editorial Egales, 2018), ganadora de un premio ILBA en Estados Unidos. Sus relatos y ensayos aparecen en antologías y revistas de Estados Unidos, México y España, fue co-editora de la antología #NiLocasNiSolas: narrativa escrita por mujeres en Estados Unidos (El BeiSmAn PrESs, 2023), y editora (2021-2024) de la sección Letras USA de El BeiSmAn, revista de literatura en español de Estados Unidos. La autora parte de su identidad como inmigrante, mujer queer, madre y escritora en español en EE.UU para explorar temas como la memoria digital, familiar e histórica, la maternidad, el lenguaje, el cuerpo o la cotidianeidad y la fortaleza de la vida cursada desde los márgenes. Mínguez Arias trabaja como directora de operaciones y co-directora interina en la editorial feminista Aunt Lute Books en la Bahía de San Francisco donde reside con su compañera e hijes.
Ginny Z Berson is a long-time political activist driven by a longing for justice. She was a member of The Furies-- a radical lesbian feminist separatist collective in Washington, D.C. that lived and worked collectively to develop lesbian feminist political thought and philosophy. The group produced a newspaper, The Furies, that had a significant impact on women’s groups in the U.S. Ginny was a contributor and member of the editorial staff.