Jen Siraganian spent a good deal of this summer curating our Poetry Tuesdays in Jessie Square, bringing you incredibly talented poets and musicians once a month. She has been hard at work putting together the wonderful programs, though the authors and musicians have taken much of the spotlight, so we wanted to hear a bit more about Jen and the upcoming Litquake Festival!

Enjoy the questions and answers below and we’ll see you at the last Poetry Tuesday of the 2014 season on October 7!

How has programming for YBG Festival been different for you? How has the outdoor venue been different for you?
Programming for YBGF has been wonderful!  I love working with Raul, Preston, Marcelo, Steve, Alice, and more – they make everything so EASY and FUN!  The lunchtime crowd is so diverse and interesting, and getting a suntan during the reading instead of wearing a scarf isn’t shabby either.

What can you leak about Litquake?
Oh my gosh, where to start? Litquake has so many exciting and innovative headliners such as Emma Donoghue who wrote the bestselling and completely terrifying Room, Native American conceptual and performance artist James Luna, and an intimate luncheon with Piper Kerman who wrote Orange is the New Black on October 16. And then of course there is a special place in my big San Francisco heart for the 100% FREE Lit Crawl with 101 events and 500+ writers!

What poem or which poet most recently excited you?
My favorite poem is “In the Waiting Room” by Elizabeth Bishop.  She was a true master.

Any defense or agreement to the stereotyping that all poets are quiet, sensitive, beret-wearing beatniks? (or to this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-soto/poet-stereotype_b_3895376.html)
Ha!  I love that stereotype, but the poets I know are so diverse. They’re electricians, sociologists yoga teachers, and more.  For instance, Joseph Lease is far from quiet when he reads his poem “America,” and Robin Ekiss could don a beret and look so much better than any beatnik!