Rebecca Solnit and Brit Marling.
Courtesy City Arts & Lectures

You Won’t Want to Miss These Virtual Talks and Book Readings

By Aileen Kwun
July 11, 2020
2 minute read

Festivals are canceled for the year, and online dance parties now a bit played out, several months into the pandemic—restlessness is high. Luckily for the indoors kids and bookworms, there are plenty of online readings, workshops, and talks to give your eyes a rest and make the solitary act of reading a little less so, even if only virtually. House Party, a digital performance and semiweekly publication series from The Poetry Project (not to be confused with the social media app of the same name), launched this March as a way to share readings, songs, dances, and new and older works alike—“from the hearts and living rooms and bathtubs of our collective digital church,” in the organization’s words, along with a regularly updated list of emergency grants and resources for writers and artists. Over at the Center for Fiction, book talks with authors, such as one taking place on July 31 titled “The Long View: New Fiction from Edmund White and Yiyun Li,” are continuing online, as are various workshops, including a communal writing experience, along with a meditation for the hands led by a Jivamukti yoga teacher. Another can’t-miss is the ongoing digital series at San Francisco’s City Arts & Lectures, home to a trove of previously recorded conversations and upcoming talks that will be webcast and later available to the public with a suggested donation. We highly recommend taking the time to watch this recent webcast between author Rebecca Solnit and actor and screenwriter Brit Marling (pictured above).