This Thursday, October 27, is the fifth annual Lit Crawl, a free, five-hour event featuring more than 35 readings in four "phases" at different locations across Capitol Hill, First Hill, and downtown. Stranger Books Editor Rich Smith says, "Lit Crawl is an obnoxious, overwhelming, FOMO-inducing literary nightmare that exploits the labor of writers who feel as if they have to say 'yes' to all readings. But last year all the events were really well-attended! And it ran pretty smoothly! And the evening introduced Seattle to some new writers and revived interest in more established ones! And this year, the 35+ readings will be spaced out over the course of five hours instead of three hours, so you'll get to see more readings and drink more booze and have more terrible conversations about Dylan's Nobel Prize."

It's impossible to go to all of the events, so Rich has instead recommended five separate itineraries based on various themes—prose, politicos, poets, playful, and parents. You can read more about them below, and, once you've decided which one best suits you, you can plan your route accordingly using our Lit Crawl Google map. (The map is also embedded below, and you can open the link on your phone to make traveling between the events a breeze.) For even more readings, check out our complete Lit Crawl calendar, which features even more recommended events than could even fit here.

PROSE
Some people are congenitally unable to like poetry. I get it. Believe me. I get it. But there’s plenty of prose to keep you happy at Lit Crawl this year. T.C. Boyle is the big name on this list. He’s written ~1,000 books (26). A lot of them are obsessed with 1960s and ‘70s culture (check out Drop City for a good example of this) and often feature roguish characters that are hard to love. His latest, The Terranauts, is basically a reimagining of Bio-Dome. Aside from that, you should look forward to Jean Burnet and Jessica Mooney at Cheap Beer & Prose. And A Fool and His or Her Money is stacked with funny, solid, local, writers who will not disappoint.

1. Get Mineral School(ed) - 6-6:45 pm
2. T.C. Boyle - 7:30 pm, $5
3. Cheap Beer & Prose - 8-8:45 pm
4. A Fool and His or Her Money - 9-9:45 pm

POLITICOS
These events feature writers who will likely wear their political passions on their sleeves, as it were, and they lean unabashedly feminist. Highlights here include lawyer/activist/poet/powerhouse Nikkita Oliver at Working Stiffs: Tales from the Grind, as well as the quartet of awesome that is Kristiana Kahakauwila, Sara Marie Ortiz, Cooper Lee Bombardier, and Elissa Washuta at VIDA Presents. Elissa Washuta, one of three indigenous women on this bill, recently completed a residency in the Fremont Bridge. She might read from that project or from one of her sonorous and deep-diving personal/historical essays.

1. Politics & Poetry - 6-6:45 pm
2. Working Stiffs: Tales from the Grind - 7-7:45 pm
3. Dead Feminists: Chandler O’Leary and Jessica Spring - 8-8:45 pm
4. VIDA Presents - 9-9:45 pm

POETS
This list is full of local poets whose surprising imagery and sharp wit will cut through your boozy haze. Go see Jane Wong read from her latest book, Overpour, at Poetry Northwest Presents. Sierra Nelson will be there with her funny/touching science-y poetry, and Megan Snyder-Camp will read from her two latest books: Wintering and Gunnywolf. Then at the Kundiman Reading, check out Pimone Triplett, professor of poetry at UW. Sarah Galvin is reading at Hedgebrook, and her stuff is like a poetic Turing test. If you don’t laugh you’re a robot.

1. Poetry Northwest Presents - 6-6:45 pm
2. A Kundiman Reading - 7-7:45 pm
3. Lilly Ledbetter Reading - 8-8:45 pm
4. Hedgebrook - 9-9:45 pm

PLAYFUL
Go to these readings if you don’t want to feel like you’re at a reading. But don’t get me wrong: My “playful” designation by no means forecloses the powerful. Fuck Yo Couch, for instance, promises to present unbridled Black brilliance in many forms. Stranger Genius nominee Robert Lashley will read his amazing poems along with Imani Sims, Anastacia Renee, and Quenton Baker. The whole thing is hosted by the incomparable Natasha Marin, whose reparations.me project is still going strong. Another thing you have to see on this list is James Gendron and friends at APRIL in October. Gendron has a new book of poems called Weirde Sister, and the poems I’ve read from it are hilarious and moving.

1. Visual Storytelling: Fiction Memoir & Science - 6-6:45 pm
2. Fuck Yo Couch - 7-7:45 pm
3. APRIL in October - 8-8:45 pm
4. Hey There, Macaroni - 9-9:45 pm

PARENTS
Being a single and deeply lonely person, I tend to forget that families exist and that our society is almost completely shaped around their concerns! It turns out that there’s a lot of great writing about them, too. The highlight of this route will be It's all Relative, which features the very funny Jeanine Walker and that GIF-pimping policy wonk from Seattlish, Hanna Brooks Olsen.

1. Literary Mixology, presented by SPL - 6-6:45 pm
2. It's all Relative - 7-7:45 pm
3. Late Night at the Library - 8:05-9:05 pm
4. The Comics Pages - 9-9:45 pm