Reading Series Showdown

 Opium Magazine's Literary Death Match, begun in New York by Todd Zuniga and Elizabeth Koch and now an S.F. staple, pits writers against one another to read and be judged on literary merit, performance, and the delightfully vague "intangibles." In past shows, those intangibles have included a sing-along, shadow boxing, trash-bag races, Stephen Elliot throwing a beer on Zyzzyva's Howard Junker, and other sordid events. Today's match, Episode 3, gets meta. Instead of matching up writers associated with various publications — LDM's usual route — it picked combatants who represent our own local reading series. Readers include Carol Queen (Writers with Drinks), Kelly Beardsley (Porchlight), and Regina Louise (Inside Story Time). The judges are no slouches, either — they include Anika Streitfeld, senior editor at Random House; Jesse McKinley, S.F. bureau chief of the New York Times; and Eric Spitznagel, who has written a book or two on porn.
Wed., Sept. 19, 8 p.m.