About Us • Events and Readings • Podcast • Map and Directions • FAQ • Contact Us

Visit the City Lights Blog!
The virtual home for our growing collection of favorite authors writing on their favorite topics.

This week at City Lights:

Tues, May 15, 7PM a celebration of Kenneth Rexroth

Weds, May 16, 7PM, David Meltzer, devorah major, and friends honor the poetry of Marilyn Buck

Thurs, May 17, 7PM, Brian Lucas and Bill Luoma

More upcoming events here.

New! Live from City Lights Podcasts featuring Hari Kunzru; and Gayle Rubin

Welcome to City Lights Books of San Francisco

City Lights is a landmark independent bookstore and publisher that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics.

Founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights is one of the truly great independent bookstores in the United States, a place where booklovers from across the country and around the world come to browse, read, and just soak in the ambiance of alternative culture's only "Literary Landmark."... Read more>>

New at City Lights Bookstore

At Sea
A poem for Pablo Neruda by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE AT CITY LIGHTS! Exquisite handmade letterpress edition of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's new poem, "At Sea".

Season of the Witch
Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love

David Talbot

In a kaleidoscopic narrative, the New York Times bestselling author of Brothers recounts the gripping story of the civil strife and tragedies that beset San Francisco between 1967 and 1982—and led to þe city's ultimate rebirth and triumph.

The Event of Literature

Terry Eagleton

What is literature? Can we even speak of "literature" at all? What do different literary theories tell us about what texts mean and do? In throwing new light on these and other questions, Eagleton offers a new theory of what we mean by literature.

Private Empire
ExxonMobil and American Power

Steve Coll

In Private Empire, Steve Coll investigates the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States. A penetrating, newsbreaking study, Private Empire is a defining portrait of ExxonMobil and the place of Big Oil in American politics.

The Dozens
A History of Rap's Mama

Elijah Wald

In tracing the form and its variations over more than a century of African American culture and music, The Dozens sheds fascinating light on schoolyard games and rural work songs, serious literature and nightclub comedy, and pop hits from ragtime to rap

Perla

Carolina De Robertis

A coming-of-age story, based on a recent shocking chapter of Argentine history, about a young woman who makes a devastating discovery about her origins with the help of an enigmatic houseguest.

Angel Island
Immigrant Gateway to America

Erika Lee, Judy Yung

In this landmark book, historians Erika Lee and Judy Yung provide the first comprehensive history of the Angel Island Immigration Station. Drawing on extensive new research, the authors produce a sweeping yet intensely personal history.

New and Forthcoming from City Lights Publishers

Friends, Followers and the Future
How Social Media are Changing Politics, Threatening Big Brands, and Killing Traditional Media

Rory O'Connor

Available now: Award-winning journalist Rory O'Connor explores how social media is transforming not only politics, media, and business, but every aspect of how we live.

Occupy the Economy
Challenging Capitalism

Richard Wolff, David Barsamian

Just published! From prominent economist Richard Wolff and David Barsamian, a hot-button primer on the taboo subject impacting most Americans today: the failure of capitalism to deliver public good.

I Must Resist
Bayard Rustin's Life in Letters

Bayard Rustin, Julian Bond, Michael G Long

Hot off the press: Bayard Rustin's life story told in his own words through his intimate correspondence, published on the centennial of his birth.

Redefining Black Power
Reflections on the State of Black America

Joanne Griffith

Just published: Conversations with black leaders and activists exploring current African American political and cultural life.

Making the Future
Occupations, Interventions, Empire and Resistance

Noam Chomsky

New from Noam Chomsky: Short, forceful commentaries on U.S. politics, from the economic crisis to Obama's strategies in Afghanistan and around the world.

Inside/Out
Selected Poems

Marilyn Buck

Just published! The first-ever collection of Marilyn Buck's poetry, searing, soaring, a living tribute to her indomitable spirit, revolutionary intelligence, and poet's vision.

Dear White America
Letter to a New Minority

Tim Wise

Just out: Wise addresses whites' anxiety about cultural shifts displacing their power and privilege, and offers ideas on how to move forward.

Crusade 2.0
The West's Resurgent War on Islam

John Feffer

Now Available: Why anti-Muslim sentiment is on the rise in the U.S. and Europe, and what can be done to stop it.

Advice for Lovers

Julian Talamantez Brolaski

New from the Spotlight Poetry Series! Inspired by Ovid and renaissance sonnet cycles, Advice for Lovers is a queer re-imaginging of the art of courtly love.