Poet Daphne Gottlieb stopped by City Lights to discuss the author she discovered at City Lights, the author she calls a sort of “Holy Grail” . . . Daphne Gottlieb…

Toxicology – Jessica Hagedorn I want there to be no ambiguity, no cause for misinterpretation: I love Jessica Hagedorn’s Toxicology. I have long felt that Hagedorn and New York City…

I’m Not a Man I’m not a man. I can’t earn a living, buy new things for my family. I have acne and a small peter I’m not a man….

Life-long North Beach resident Peter DeLucca reminisced about his memories of the actual opening of City Lights Bookstore! Born in 1940 at his family’s North Beach house, Peter’s first job…

Author Ali Liebegott visited City Lights in our booth at this gigantic book expo to say, “Happy Birthday” and answer the question: How old were you when you first visited…

Mingus Speaks John F Goodman (University of California Press) A sun speaks. At times promethean, hilarious, and vexing, this is Mingus as spontaneous combustion. The music is in his words….

City Lights has a long history of engagement with the punk rock scene, you may know already that V.Vale started the insurrectionary Search and Destroy fanzine with financial help from…

Maybe you missed this press release from the University of North Dakota in 2011- long and short of it; you can watch the above poets reading on streaming video at…

from San Francisco Chinatown Chinatown Beginnings The first known person of Chinese descent to settle in San Francisco was a woman. On February 2, 1848, nine days after Marshall’s discovery…

Antwerp Robert Bolaño This book is actually a labyrinth. —Recommended by Dia, City Lights Books Antwerp‘s signature elements—crimes and campgrounds, drifters and poetry, sex and love, corrupt cops and misfits—mark…