Babylon Salon

16/06/2025

💖BIG thanks to the 5 authors who wowed us at Babylon Saturday night! Every one of your readings was stellar! Check out their beautiful books! 🌠📚🌠

⭐Scott G. Browne
⭐ Duane Horton
⭐Paul S. Flores
⭐Kate Folk
⭐Lauren Dissident Parker

14/06/2025

"March in Michigan is birch trees as stark as corn stalks. It’s not home but it is ancestral, the cemetery filled with tombstones with my last name on them. Everything is brown and gritty as a ghost. It’s how I know it. Like one, long, endless November creeping its skeleton hands through the wool of your sweater to give you a chill that makes you feel not just mortal, but terminal."

Now that's what we call an essay! Give the "True Story of a Sandwich" by Lauren Dissident Parker a read and get excited to hear Lauren perform her work at our Babylon Salon Summer 2025 Performance!

TOMORROW! June 14 at The Sycamore! The reading starts right at 5:30pm 🍻📚

the Parker Sub doesn't want those things. It likes simple. Plain. Which is why it's something a simple and plain man has to ask for. But I am a Parker. And I do want those: the pepper, the onions, the upgrades. That’s because I see our sub as a project, not a perfected object.

13/06/2025

"I’d written three or four novels before this that were never published, one of them when I was in an MFA program and then a few others, including one that we took on submission but didn’t sell. I think all of that was important in figuring out how to write novels. It’s really difficult to know how to do it other than by doing it. That’s the advice that novelists always give, which is very annoying – it’s both insufficient and completely true." ~ Kate Folk

This whole interview is a craft lesson! Give it a read and learn how Kate Folk wrote her debut novel, Sky Daddy, which Rachel Yoder says is "Audaciously imagined. Slyly executed. Surprisingly tender. Deliciously weird.”

We can't wait to hear Kate read her work at our Babylon Salon Summer 2025 Performance TOMORROW! Saturday, June 14 at The Sycamore! The reading starts right at 5:30pm 🍻📚

In "Sky Daddy," Kate Folk takes forbidden romance to new heights

12/06/2025

“I told you, Ma. This is the man of my dreams. And that’s where he’s from: my dreams.”

"Summer Land" is just one example of Duane Horton's dreamy, fantastical fiction! Give this short story a read in Green Mountains Review and get excited to hear Duane share work from his new collection, No Hero Alone, at our Babylon Salon Summer 2025 Performance!

Saturday, June 14 at The Sycamore! The reading starts right at 5:30pm 🍻📚

EVER SINCE VERNON WAS A TEENAGER, HE WAS GOOD AT SLEEPING. SO GOOD in fact, that his mother was scared he’d never wake up when he went to bed. Vernon held the record for the longest sleep ever taken in his family. And there weren’t many records between him and his mom, although she was good at a...

11/06/2025

What do we do when life throws unexpected curveballs? Artist and poet, Paul S. Flores explores this question and so much more in his collection, "We Still Be."

Take a couple of minutes to listen to this gorgeous clip of Paul reading some of his work (we promise it will make your whole day!) Then get excited to meet Paul and hear him read at our Babylon Salon Summer 2025 Performance!

Saturday, June 14 at The Sycamore! The reading starts right at 5:30pm 🍻📚

San Francisco author Paul Flores reads from his new book, "We Still Be.”

10/06/2025

These days there are very few American comedy writers bringing their A-game, but Browne is swinging for the fences.”

If you haven’t read Scott G. Browne's work, get thee to the bookstore (or public library!) S.G. Browne is the author of five novels (Breathers, Fated, Lucky Bastard, Big Egos, and Less Than Hero), two short story collections (Lost Creatures and Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel), and the heartwarming holiday novella I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus! They are all fantastic and we highly recommend adding them to your TBR list. We can’t wait to hear Browne read at our Babylon Salon Summer 2025 Performance!

Saturday, June 14 at The Sycamore! The reading starts right at 5:30pm 🍻📚

Another radically funny comedy from one of America’s best satiric novelists.

14/03/2025

Dear Babylon Salon family,

Our longtime home, The Sycamore, has been more than just a venue—it’s been a gathering place, a community, and a cornerstone of our reading series. Now, one of the incredible people behind it, Tim, is facing a tough battle. His cancer has returned, and as he undergoes treatment, he’ll be stepping back from running the bars. The financial strain of his recovery, on top of the challenges of keeping a small business afloat in SF, has put him and his family in a difficult spot.

If you can, please consider donating to his recovery fund—every little bit helps.

And if a donation isn’t possible, you can still show support by stopping by The Sycamore, raising a glass, and sending good vibes his way.

Let’s rally for Tim the way this community always does. 💛 💛

https://www.gofundme.com/f/rally-for-tims-recovery-and-help-sycamore-and-willows/cl/s?

28/02/2025

Award-winning author Emily Jon Tobias was a recent guest on Carter Wilson’s Making It Up Podcast and YouTube channel, and holy smokes, you do not want to sleep on this conversation. Here, Emily shares her experience navigating the publishing industry without an agent, how rejection helps build community, and how writing a book helped her through early sobriety.

If you can’t listen to the whole episode now, definitely bookmark it for later; this is full of so much wisdom. Then, get excited to hear Emily read her short story, “Nova” from her powerful collection, Monarch at our Babylon Salon Spring 2025 Performance! 🦋

This Saturday, March 1 at The Sycamore! We’ll be in the outdoor covered patio in back! Reading starts promptly at 5:30pm. As always, admission is free.

Emily Jon Tobias is an award-winning writer whose work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and has been featured in literary journals such as Santa Cl...

27/02/2025

“We need stories. We need stories that move people to vote for politicians who will do something about the climate crisis; that motivate people to join an environmental organization and act. Storytelling was something I could try to do. I guess I also felt responsible for the earth—it’s given me so much, so much beauty and the perfect conditions for life.” ~ Nina Schuyler

In This Ravishing World, Nina Schuyler’s soaring linked story collection explores humanity’s response to climate change in all its emotional complexities. Give this awe-inspiring interview with Literary Hub a read, and get excited to hear Nina share her work at our Babylon Salon Spring 2025 Performance!

This Saturday, March 1 at The Sycamore! Reading starts right at 5:30pm. ⭐

In her brilliantly conceived and eloquent new linked story collection, In This Ravishing World, Nina Schuyler offers us a “loud and bright and unrelenting” chorus of voices calling us to rise above…

26/02/2025

“sax creates a ghost so deeply alive in Ezra that you almost expect him to dance off the page into reality, not only breaking the laws of life and death but of fact and fiction.”

What a knockout review for Bay Area legend sam sax! 👏 We cannot wait to hear sam read from their debut novel, Yr Dead, which was longlisted for the National Book Award! This Saturday, March 1, at our Babylon Salon Spring 2025 Performance!

Join us at The Sycamore—we’ll be in the outdoor covered patio in back! Reading starts promptly at 5:30pm.

By insisting that Ezra’s ordinary life is epic, Sax shows that every life must be epic, holding everyone accountable. No one can sit out.

25/02/2025

“For a long time, I was trying to hit all the big themes. But in getting the book ready for submission, I started to see how important it was to not just throw out a bunch of themes and thought exercises. I wasn’t writing a textbook. I had to tell a story about characters in crisis—spiritual, political, personal—to make the themes into something real and urgent.” ~ Jon Hickey

We are so, SO excited for Jon Hickey’s debut novel, Big Chief, forthcoming on April 8! For a sneak preview, join us at our Babylon Salon Spring 2025 Performance this Saturday, March 1 at The Sycamore! We’ll be in the outdoor covered patio in back! Reading starts promptly at 5:30pm. As always, admission is free.

An inside look at the publication process for the author’s debut novel.

22/02/2025

For your weekend view pleasure! 🤩 “It’s Later Than You Think,” a solo performance by the dazzling Dr. Mercilee Jenkins!

“Things don’t get easier with age,” writes Dr. Jenkins, “especially when you’re bisexual and it comes to love, marriage, and monsters from your past. How do you let go of what you don’t need to make room for what you really want? Like the song says, “Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think.”

Intrigued? So are we! Give Dr. Jenkins’ glorious performance a watch, then get excited to see her at our Babylon Salon Spring 2025 Performance!

Saturday, March 1, at The Sycamore in the outdoor covered patio in back! Reading starts promptly at 5:30pm. As always, admission is free.

Things don’t get easier with age, especially when you’re bisexual and it comes to love, marriage and monsters from your past. How do you let go of what you d...