With "Forty Pillars," Tin House introduces the arrival of a future star in modern poetry and a gay Iranian who emigrated from Iran to America in 2018 when he was 17.

Rumi Missabu, one of the last original Cockettes, and a film, music and theater artist, died in his Oakland home on April 2. He was 76. Missabu performed in several of the shows, but later went on to many other artistic accomplishments.

We've sprung into spring action with a blossoming array of arts and nightlife events in Going Out.

John-Andrew Morrison returns in "A Strange Loop," the Tony and Pulitzer-winning musical being remounted by American Conservatory Theater with its original Broadway creative team, beginning later this month.

James Pauley Jr. is a humor writer with a knack for storytelling, focusing on personal experiences that are both entertaining and heartwarming. His two books contain a collection of laugh-out-loud anecdotes and messages of love and acceptance.

The Lambda Literary Foundation announced the finalists for this year's annual awards in numerous LGBTQ categories. Finalists were selected by judges comprised of 70 avid readers, critics, and literary professionals.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to Cal Performances at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley for its 55th annual residency, and dancer Chalvar Monteiro shared his experiences in performing and teaching new and repertory works.

You can call it a romance. You can call it a comedy. But there's probably no better way to describe Shotgun Players' new production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" than to just call it a Play.

The new poetry collection by Cianga, "Congo, seen from the heavens," contains 18 intriguing poems, including highly innovative poetry forms.

"I've been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember," said Joset Medina, whose art has been seen in South America, Europe and the United States. Now his murals and paintings can be seen around the Bay Area.

The Los Angeles-based writer discusses their play, "The Pride of Lions," a sharp, funny and heart-wrenching portrayal of trans folk in 1920s Manhattan, which will have its world premiere at Theatre Rhinoceros March 28.

Playwright Lloyd Suh's sturdily carpentered, gimmick-free "The Far Country," now at the Berkeley Rep under the seamless direction of Jennifer Chang, examines the struggles Chinese immigrants to San Francisco in the early 20th Century.

Presenting the fourth and final piece in our big Spring books roundup. Titles in this enchantingly fiction-heavy installment include works of autofiction by French author Edouard Louis and a story collection from gay Vietnam Veteran.

Visionary pop artist Keith Haring's short, meteoric, glamorous life and career is the subject of a new biography, "Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring," by Brad Gooch.