A collection including four poems by David Francis with: "Abundant thanks to David Francis, whose heart and humor are huge and come with good counsel, and strong poetry. And whose dinner party has provided the sensory banquet on the cover of this anthology."

The PEN America LitFest Gala is a highlight of the Los Angeles literary and social calendars, with over 500 guests and an impressive group of leading writers and creatives who sit among them as Literary Hosts. 

Now in its 29th year, PEN America’s LitFest Gala is a celebration of free expression and the literary arts. Each year, the event brings together impassioned tributes, conversation, and levity before an esteemed audience of authors, screenwriters, producers, showrunners, executives, philanthropists, actors, and devotees of the written word who share a commitment to the robust defense of creative freedom in Los Angeles and around the world.

Proceeds from PEN America’s LitFest Gala support initiatives including: advocacy for writers, journalists, and artists threatened or imprisoned worldwide; landmark research that addresses critical free speech issues; and the advancement of literary excellence and cross-cultural exchanges through hallmark initiatives, including the World Voices Festival of International Literature, PEN America’s Literary Awards, and fellowship and grants programs.

Recently honored luminaries and participants include Ai Weiwei, Barry Jenkins, Marti Noxon and Gillian Flynn, Roxane Gay, Isabel Allende, Jose Antonio Vargas, Margaret Atwood, Janet Mock, Norman Lear, Guillermo del Toro, Amber Tamblyn, Aisha Tyler, Amy Poehler, and Cecile Richards.

David is Table Host, Co-chair of PEN America Los Angeles Committee, and a member of the Gala Committee.

Red Hen Press celebrates their 25th anniversary. Join David as he hosts the Author Table.

Author David Francis talks about writing and letting-go, guided by The Boon Companions.

MWF19’s Queermotions series looks at six emotional states – anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness and surprise – through an LBGTQI+ lens.

Enter a realm where sadness is kept at bay and happiness held aloft. Jay Bernard, Nayuka Gorrie, David Francis and Jess McGuire will share a story from their golden hearts guaranteed to make you leave giddy and smiling. With music from Mama Alto.

Join David Francis for a guest presentation based around Peter Paul Rubens’s paintingThe Garden of Love

Meet at The Garden of Love, Level 1 Mezzanine at the National Gallery of Victoria.

David Francis hosts a conversation at the Berggruen Institute with Elif Shafak to unpack the “us” versus “them” rhetoric, to reveal what lies beneath, while exploring how to navigate the political and cultural challenges of our turbulent times.

Representative of Los Angeles Committee of PEN America

Fiction Panel: Swept Along by Circumstances with Janet Fitch and Rebecca Makkai, moderated by David Francis

Rebecca Makkai, Janet Fitch and Lydia Fitzpatrick's most recent novels all contain characters struggling to overcome major forces beyond their control. These authors discuss how to find the core of a character that's swept up by chaos.

Guest teaching appointment for Mark Sarvas’s Fiction Workshop at UCLA Extension

Brio invites you to join Robert Dessaix as he chats with David Francis about art, autobiography in fiction, and the writing life.

Join us to celebrate the rerelease of David’s debut novel Agapanthus Tango: 

6 for 6.30 pm
Thursday 6 September
Berkelouw Paddington
19 Oxford St, Paddington

Please RSVP to rsvp@briobooks.com.au

To celebrate the release of the new paperback edition of Wedding Bush Road, join David Francis and Marisa Silver for a discussion, followed by a book signing from David.

A talk (with visuals) about David’s unusual autobiographical novel, Wedding Bush Road, set on the farm he must return to in rural Australia, by way of Laurel Canyon.

David is on Fellowship to Hawthornden Castle,
The International Retreat for Writers,
Lasswade, Midlothian EH18 1EG Scotland

The luncheon will be held from noon - 2 p.m. in USC Doheny Memorial Library, room 241.

David Francis reading as part of the Saturday lineup for the Harbor Springs Festival of the Book. Tickets available at the door. Additional readers include Erin Entrada Kelly, Drew Philp, Kia Corthron, and Carmen Maria Machado, amongst others.

Presenters: Kia Corthron, David Francis, and Idra Novey

An award winning writer for the HBO series The Wire, a defender of free speech through the PEN Center USA, and a translator of beloved works from the Brazilian Portuguese cannon; these presenters have found alternate paths to the written word, aside from their careers as published poets, playwrights and novelists.

The Festival’s most exciting suspense writers bring along their latest novels and discuss their art. Sara Foster’s The Hidden Hours is a timeless thriller with a modern twist, set between London and the Australian outback. David Francis’s Wedding Bush Road uses Australia’s outback to explore memory and loss, while Sarah Schmidt’s See What I Have Done is a true story of an 1892 axe murder in Massachusetts. Sara, David and Sarah discuss mood, setting and the art of suspense. With John M. Green.

What happens when a writer leaves their homeland for another? Four authors who have hung their hats in fresh fields come together to discuss the effect of their backgrounds and nomadic lives on their work. Join author and foreign correspondent Caroline Brothers (The Memory Stones), Chinese-Australian performer and writer Jenevieve Chang (The Good Girl of Chinatown), English-born author Sara Foster (The Hidden Hours) who now lives in Perth, and Australian author David Francis (Wedding Bush Road), who calls Los Angeles home.

Facilitated by Michaela Kalowski.
Supported by Macquarie University.