Poetry & Readings in San Francisco

Upcoming poetry readings in San Francisco: featured readings, open mics, book launches, slams and literary festival events. Each listing links to the organizer's own page and shows the date we last checked it, and only upcoming dates are shown. Seating at many readings is limited, so check the organizer's page for RSVP details before you go.

San Francisco has a long poetry tradition with events that recur. City Lights Booksellers at 261 Columbus Avenue hosts frequent readings, and its events are free to the public. The Poetry Center at San Francisco State University runs a reading series it calls one of the longest consistently running programs of its kind in the country, with recordings from 1954 to the present. San Francisco Public Library has marked National Poetry Month with Poems Under the Dome, an all-ages open mic in the North Light Court of City Hall. And each October, Lit Crawl, a one-night literary pub crawl through the Mission District, caps off the Litquake festival.

Sources: City Lights, The Poetry Center, SF State, SF Public Library, Lit Crawl SF.