Rain Taxi Literary Events

In keeping with its drive to celebrate and support literature, Rain Taxi sponsors (and co-sponsors) live events in the Twin Cities. All events are free unless otherwise noted. If you have any special accommodation needs, please email us at info [at] raintaxi [dot] com.

To learn more about our event structure and previous programs, click here.

Upcoming Events 

Stay tuned for more info!


MORE ABOUT RAIN TAXI’S EVENTS:

Rain Taxi’s live events focus on presenting innovative authors in a variety of literary genres, from poetry and fiction writers to memoirists and cartoonists. We have two main programs that demonstrate our commitment to contemporary literary culture:

Twin Cities Book Festival:

One big day celebrating our vibrant literary community, Rain Taxi’s annual Twin Cities Book Festival hosts readings and conversations with authors from the region and from around the world; the TCBF’s vibrant book fair features aisles upon aisles of publishers, magazines, booksellers, arts organizations, and more. In its recent live incarnations between 6,000 and 7,000 people have attended; 2020’s all-virtual event drew even more eyeballs to its online programs. For more information, click HERE.

Rain Taxi Reading Series:

Since its inception in 1998, more than 350 authors have appeared at Rain Taxi’s literary events, which are held at a variety of venues — from art galleries to bookstores to large theaters. Rain Taxi sincerely thanks all the venues that have welcomed us into their spaces and all the partners and collaborators that have helped to make these events happen. Below is a complete listing of the events Rain Taxi has hosted or co-hosted since 1998.

Rain Taxi sincerely thanks all the venues that have welcomed us into their spaces and all the collaborators that have helped to make our events happen. Below is a complete listing of the events Rain Taxi has hosted or co-hosted since 1998.

Previous Events

2023

Twin Cities Independent Bookstore Day Passport 2023 • Rain Taxi 25th Anniversary Party • Raja Shehadeh • Megan Kelso • Angela Rodel • Anne Enright

2022

Kim Ki-taek, Yi Won, Ed Bok Lee, E. J. Koh, Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Bomi Yoon, Lee Herrick  • Ben Okri  • Judith Margolis & C.S. Giscombe  • Samuel R. Delany  • Gregory Maguire & David Litchfield  • Jonathan Galassi  • Harmony Holiday  • Independent Bookstore Day  • Jeffrey Yang & Anni Liu  • Gabrielle Civil • Steve Sem-Sandberg & Saskia Vogel  • Jeffrey Archer & Carl Brookins  • Twin Cities Book Festival • Paul Chan • Will Alexander • Peter Cole & Iman Mersal • Judith Thurman, with Kate DiCamillo & Louise Erdrich

2021

Toi Derricotte & Dawn Lundy Martin  •  Damion Searls  •  Nin Andrews & Denise Duhamel  •  Peter Gizzi with Ocean Vuong  •  John Jennings & David Brame  •  André Gregory  •  Victor L. Wooten  •  George Saunders  •  Michelle Nijhuis  •  Claudia Zoe Bedrick & Ping Zhu  •  Timothy Brennan  •  Sesshu Foster & Arturo Ernesto Romo  •  Nate Powell  •  Ted Rall & Pablo Callejo  •  Independent Bookstore Day  •  Kim Todd & Kathryn Nuernberger  •  Olivia Laing  •  Rikki Ducornet  •  Chris Bohjalian  •  Charles Bernstein with Tonya M. Foster  •  Adrian Matejka with Kevin Neireiter and Nicholas Galanin  •  Curtis Sittenfeld  •  Nathaniel Mackey  •  Arthur Sze  •  J. Michael Straczynski  •  Rita Dove with Jericho Brown  •  Honorée Fanonne Jeffers  •  TCBF: Mary Roach  •  TCBF: Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström  •  Tongo Eisen-Martin and Crystal Wilkinson  •  TCBF: Shruti Swamy • TCBF: Marie Lu • TCBF: Dhonielle Clayton, Bethany C. Morrow, & Nafiza Azad • TCBF: Kao Kalia Yang, Melina Mangal, & Molly Beth Griffin • TCBF: Lemony Snicket • TCBF: The Kerlan Award: Ariane Dewey • TCBF: Tananarive Due • TCBF: Veera Hiranandani, Ronald Smith, and Susan & Lexi Haas • TCBF: Alessandra Narváez Varela, Harmony Becker, and David Levithan & Jennifer Niven • TCBF: Achy Obejas and Phillip B. Williams • TCBF: Douglas Wolk • TCBF: Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall • The 21st Annual Twin Cities Book Festival • Elizabeth Strout • Uwem Akpan • Grzegorz Kwiatkowski • Ann Patchett with Kate DiCamillo

2020

Sean Hill  •  Jeff Alessandrelli & Paula Cisewski  •  Louise Erdrich  •  Summer Issue Virtual Party  •  The Collected Works Film Screening  •  Twin Cities Book Festival

2019

Tessa Hadley  •  Robert Bly Celebration  •  Claudia Keelan  •  Ed Bok Lee  •  Don Cummings  •  Carolyn Forché  •  Independent Bookstore Day  •  Cherríe Moraga  •  Andri Snær Magnason  •  Jessica Abel  •  Print Matters  •  Steve Healey & Daniel Borzutzky  •  Amitav Ghosh  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  John Freeman, with Wang Ping, David Mura, Chris Martin, and Hawona Sullivan Janzen

2018

Tribute to Denis Johnson with Charles Baxter, Venus DeMars, Lynette Reini-Grandell, & Har Mar Superstar  •  Mary Jo Bang & Stephanie Burt  •  Peter Stenson  •  DJ Savarese  •  Gregory Orr  •  Åsne Seierstad  •  Twin Cities Independent Bookstore Day Passport  •  Michael Ondaatje  •  Print Matters  •  Rain Taxi Book Club: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance  •  Kevin Carollo  •  Gary Shteyngart  •  Olga Tokarczuk  •  18th Annual Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Julie Carr  •  Brian Laidlaw

2017

Paul Auster  •  George Saunders  •  Susan Stewart & Ann Hamilton  •  Asemic Translations  •  Red Pine  •  Somalis in the Twin Cities: Stefanie Chambers, Ahmed Ismail Yusuf, Jaylani Hussein, R. T. Rybak  •  Twin Cities Lit Community Picnic  •  Adrian Matejka  •  Nicole Krauss  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  John Hodgman  •  Rain Taxi @ Mia  •  James P. Lenfestey  •  Anne Fadiman

2016

Brian Blanchfield, Juliet Patterson, Paula Cisewski  •  Connie Wanek  •  Hell, I Love Everybody: a celebration of James Tate  •  Graphic Novel Battle Royale featuring Will Dinski, Rob Kirby, Anders Nilsen, Zak Sally, and Jordan Shiveley  •  Salman Rushdie  •  Rain Taxi @ Uptown Art Fair  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Laure-Anne Bosselaar

2015

Scott McCloud  •  Rain Taxi @ AWP  •  Aase Berg and Johannes Göransson  •  Martian Dawn  •   Charles Burns  •  Rain Taxi @ Read and Ride Day  •  Portraits of Jack  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Mark Z. Danielewski   •  Eileen Myles and Chris Martin  •  George Saunders

2014

Social/Brief: Blank Slate  •  Kim Stafford  •  Okey Ndibe  •  Latasha N. Nevada Diggs  •  Pattiann Rogers  •  Michael McClure  •  Poetry Tarot  •  Social/Brief: Cat Poetry  •  Naja Marie Aidt and Dorthe Nors  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Cory Doctorow  •  J. Otis Powell‽  •  Gillian Conoley and Brian Laidlaw

2013

Social/Brief: The Love Version  •  Tao Lin  •  Richard Hell  •  Natalie Diaz  •  Jane Hirshfield  •  Kate Greenstreet and Richard Meier  •  Analog Cave  •  Social/Brief: Big Joy  •  Dessa  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Robert Bly  •  Brenda Hillman  •  Erin Murphy, William Stobb, and Rodney Wittwer

2012

Jaap Blonk  •  Amanda Nadelberg  •  Bedtime Stories: Charles Baxter  •  Bridge: A Gathering  •  Bernadette Mayer, Philip Good, and Jennifer Karmin  •  Twin Cities Book Festival

2011

Mark Siegel  •  Aleš Šteger  •  Erasure Poetry: Matthea Harvey, Janet Holmes, and Travis MacDonald  •  Daniel Tiffany  •  Ravi Shankar  •  Jim Woodring  •  Craig Thompson  •  James Tate  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Anne Carson

2010

Emergent Poems: Julie Carr, Christine Hume, and Andrew Zawacki  •  Brian Evenson and Zak Sally  •  Miranda Mellis and Megan Vossler  •  Susan Howe and David Grubbs  •  A Celebration of Midwestern Poetry  •  Steve Healey and Gillian Conoley  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Eileen Myles  •  John Yau

2009

Dobby Gibson  •  Dan Beachy-Quick  •  The History of the Chapbook  •  C.A. Conrad, Aaron Kunin, and Magdalena Zurawski  •  The Collaborative Artists’ Book: Bill Berkson, Vincent Katz, and Lewis Warsh  •  Joanna Rawson and John Koethe  •  Kate Greenstreet and Norma Cole  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Dara Wier and Ed Sanders  •  Digital Poetry: Oni Buchanon and Brian Kim Stefans  •  Mickey Leigh and Legs McNeil

2008

Johannes Göransson and Joyelle McSweeney  •  Kent Johnson  •  Christina Davis  •  Rain Taxi 50th Issue Celebration  •  The Flarf Collective: Nada Gordon, Sharon Mesmer, K. Silem Mohammed, and Gary Sullivan  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  William D. Waltz  •  Samuel R. Delany

2007

Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean  •  Michael Lesy  •  Michael Friedman and Anselm Hollo  •  Clayton Eshleman  •  Kevin Young  •  Austin Grossman and Douglas Wolk  •  Jerome Rothenberg  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Joe Sacco  •  Ron Padgett in conversation with Garrison Keillor

2006

Kenneth Goldsmith  •  R.M. Berry and Noy Holland  •  Richard Hell  •  Emergent Poets: Matt Hart, Anthony Hawley, Amanda Nadelberg, and Laura Sims  •  John Koethe  •  The Poetry Bus Tour  •  Brandon Downing and MacGregor Card  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Marjane Satrapi  •  Rosamond Purcell  •  Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop

2005

Aphrodite’s Back: Harriet Bart, Nor Hall, and Franz Kamin  •  Dobby Gibson  •  Gillian Conoley and Rusty Morrison  •  Paul Auster  •  Raymond Federman  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Alice Notley  •  Rain Taxi Tenth Anniversary Celebration

2004

Pierre Joris and Nicole Peyrafitte  •  Lisa Jarnot  •  Matthea Harvey and D.A. Powell  •  The Prose Poem: A Panel  •  Simon Pettet and William D. Waltz  •  Joanna Fuhrman  •  Steve Healey  •  Rebecca Wolff and Catherine Wagner  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Noah Eli Gordon and Eric Baus  •  Kathleen Fraser

2003

Lisa Fishman and Rick Meier  •  C.D. Wright  •  Terri Ford  •  Bei Dao and Eliot Weinberger  •  Joshua Beckman and Matthew Zapruder  •  Emergent Poets: Dan Beachy-Quick, Betsy Brown, Aaron McCollough, and Peter Richards  •  Arthur Sze  •  Jane Miller  •  Vénus Khoury-Ghata and Marilyn Hacker  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Gail Scott  •  Ted Enslin and Michael Heller  •  Brian Henry, Andrew Zawacki, and Ethan Paquin  •  Peter Gizzi  •  Elizabeth Robinson  •  Jeff Vandermeer

2002

Gerard Malanga  •  Cyberliterature: Alan Sondheim and mIEKAL aND  •  Michael Palmer  •  Norma Cole  •  Peter Richards and Matthew Zapruder  •  Cole Swensen  •  Dean Young  •  Lytle Shaw  •  Harryette Mullen  •  The Great American Prose Poem: A Talk by David Lehman  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Brenda Hillman  •  Serge Fauchereau  •  Ron Padgett

2001

Joe Wenderoth  •  Jim Krusoe and Jim Moore  •  Donald Revell and Claudia Keelan  •  Cecilia Vicuña  •  Marvin Bell  •  Eleni Sikelianos  •  Walter Chakela and Laurie Carlos  •  Six by Six  •  Hanif Kureishi  •  Albert Goldbarth  •  Twin Cities Book Festival  •  Rebecca Wolff  •  Olga Broumas  •  Bob Hicok

2000

Anne Waldman  •  George Kalamaras  •  Poetry as Theory, Theory as Poetry  •  Craig Arnold  •  James Tate and Dara Wier  •  Elizabeth Macklin  •  The Not Bill Knott Poetry Reading  •  Anthology Salon: Laure-Anne Bosselaar and Kurt Brown  •  Richard Jones  •  Mark Nowak  •  Damon and Noami  •  Jaap Blonk  •  An Evening in the Wunderkammern: Rikki Ducornet and Rosamond Purcell

1999

Franz Wright  •  Paul Metcalf Memorial Reading  •  Joe Wenderoth  •  John Taggart  •  Joanne Kyger  •  Rikki Ducornet

1998

Arthur Sze  •  Victor Hernández Cruz  •  Rikki Ducornet  •  Clayton Eshlemanq