Literary Firsts

What a night last Monday was.

Anthony D’Aries read about teaching in prisons and building Boston and Jack Nicholson. Michael Thurston read about cat violence, among other things. Danielle Jones-Pruett read about feathers and blush and bicycles. And Sarah Sweeney read about picking up her life and moving it, about falling in and out of love, about tension and release.

Watch the videos here.

See the photos here:

Anthony D’Aries reads an essay

Michael Thurston reads short fiction

Danielle Jones-Pruett reads poetry

Sarah Sweeney reads her confessional tale

Thanks to Anthony, Michael, Danielle, and Sarah for reading, thanks to Randolph Pfaff for taking photos and videos, and thanks to everyone who came out to listen!

Join us! 7pm, Middlesex Lounge! Anthony D’Aries, Danielle Jones-Pruett, Sarah Sweeney, and Michael Thurston!

Anthony D’Aries is a wet whistle.

Anthony D’Aries‘s memoir The Language of Men (Hudson Whitman Press, 2012) received praise from Tracy Kidder, Andre Dubus III, and Tom Perrotta, and was recently featured in The Huffington Post and The Boston Globe. In 2010, Anthony was awarded the PEN/New England Discovery Prize in Nonfiction. His work has appeared in The Literary Review, Solstice, The Good Men Project, Shelf Awareness, and elsewhere. A graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program, Anthony served as Randolph College’s 2011 Emerging Writer-in-Residence. He currently teaches literacy at the House of Correction in Boston and creative writing at Regis College.

Anthony is the essayist for the January 21 reading.

Danielle Jones-Pruett is best served warm.

Danielle Jones-Pruett is a graduate of the MFA program in poetry at The University of Massachusetts Boston. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in DMQ Review, Midway Journal, Verse Daily, and others. She was the winner of the 2011 Vella Poetry Prize and the recipient of the Mary Doyle Curran scholarship. She lives in Salem with her husband and two sons.

Danielle is the poet for the January 21 reading.

Sarah Sweeney is a stolen breath.

Sarah Sweeney is a native of North Carolina. Her poems and essays can be seen in Rattle, Thrush, Quarterly West, Pank, Cream City Review, and Barrelhouse, among others. She was nominated this year for a Pushcart Prize for her essay “Before Adrian Grenier Got Famous,” which is about stalking.

Sarah is the confessional writer for the January 21 reading.

Michael Thurston is a one-handed catch.

Michael Thurston’s fiction has appeared in Confrontation, Knock, Quick Fiction, Revolver, Southeast Review and other magazines. He is fiction and nonfiction editor at The Massachusetts Review and teaches at Smith College.

Michael is the fiction writer for the January 21 reading.

January 21, 2013!

Anthony D’Aries! Danielle Jones-Pruett! Sarah Sweeney! Michael Thurston!

BE THERE.