So there will be not one, but two, major offsite readings in conjunction with this year’s MLA in San Francisco .

The first, Sunday night, December 28 at 7:00 PM, in the Forum at the Yerba Buena Center, 701 Mission (and thus directly across the street from SF MoMA in one direction & the Moscone Convention Center in another), is sponsored by SPD & the Poetry Foundation, and includes numerous out-of-town celebs, including several (Dale Smith, Carla Harryman, Michael Davidson, Barrett Watten & Timothy Yu) with important links to the Bay Area.

The second, Tuesday night, December 30 at 7:00 PM, at the Hotel Utah at 500 Fourth Street (at Bryant just east of the freeway overpass) is sponsored by Small Press Traffic & includes more than 30 local poets. It’s a terrific opportunity for MLA nomads to check out what’s new & hot in one of the great writing cities of the U.S.

And do not forget the New Year’s Day Marathon Thursday, January 1, 2009 at 2:00 pm at St. Marks Church in New York City, 131 E. 10^th Street. The 35^th annual marathon in the series that is the Mother of All Marathon reading events.

Which gives you plenty of time to get – even walk – to Milwaukee for Woodland Pattern’s 15th annual marathon January 31st. The address there is 720 E. Locust. Those Midwesterners are early risers & this marathon starts at 10:00 am & runs until 1:00 in the morning.

Hopefully people will be taking photos – and audio recordings – of all these events. If such should go up on the web, I’ll link to them here.