Councilman/children’s author Nick Licata will bestow top honors in the eighth Poet Populist competition today. The election winner was novelist (Counterclockwise), writing teacher, and erstwhile SW contributor Mike Hickey, whose latest poetry collection is In Defense of Eve. He’ll be joined in his reading by San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman and last year’s Poet Populist, Cody Walker. Also on stage—the unlucky losers who couldn’t match Hickey’s total of 500 online votes (among 2,500 cast). It’ll be like a slightly less cruel version of American Idol, only without the rampant illiteracy. BRIAN MILLER

Sun., Jan. 25, 2 p.m., 2009