March 11th, 2013 § § permalink
AWP was a frenzied rush of visitors and last-minute plans–weather-related and otherwise.
But at least it ended with a bang. On Saturday night, we convened at Middlesex Lounge for a reading worth celebrating.
The photos are below. The videos can be seen here.
This was one of my favorite readings ever, Literary Firsts or otherwise. As you’ll see from the videos, the readers brought an arsenal.
Thanks to them. And thanks to you, lovely listeners.
Melissa Febos
James Tadd Adcox
Elisa Gabbert
Adrian Todd Zuniga
Robert Kloss
Sam Cha
Vanessa Veselka
John Cotter
See you next month for the 3-year anniversary reading!
January 27th, 2013 § § permalink
James Tadd Adcox is a roundtrip ticket to sanity.
James Tadd Adcox‘s work has appeared in TriQuarterly, The Literary Review, and Barrelhouse, among other places. His first book, The Map of the System of Human Knowledge, a collection of short fiction, is available from Tiny Hardcore Press. He is a founding editor of Artifice Magazine, and lives in Chicago.
James is part of the March 9 AWP reading.
January 27th, 2013 § § permalink
Sam Cha is a turn in the tide.
Sam Cha is an MFA candidate at UMass Boston. His poems, essays, and translations have appeared in apt, Amethyst Arsenic, Anderbo, ASIA, Banipal, decomP, Opium Online, Printer’s Devil Review, and Radius. He was a finalist for the 2007 Anderbo Poetry Prize and the 2012 Memorious Art Song Contest, and he was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize at UMass Boston in 2011 and 2012. He lives and writes in Cambridge, MA.
Sam is part of the March 9 AWP reading.
January 27th, 2013 § § permalink
John Cotter is a pocketed embrace.
John Cotter is a New England native who lives in Denver and teaches at Colorado University Boulder and Lighthouse Writers. John is the author of a novel, Under the Small Lights, from Miami University Press and he edits the online book review site, Open Letters Monthly. His short story “The Arcadia Series” is just out in the newest issue of Puerto Del Sol and his ghost story “After the Storm” will appear in the spooky magazine New Genre at some indefinite point in the future.
John is part of the March 9 AWP reading.
January 27th, 2013 § § permalink
Melissa Febos is the one that got away.
Melissa Febos is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Whip Smart (St. Martin’s Press, 2010), and her work has been widely anthologized and appeared in publications including Glamour, Salon, Dissent, The Southeast Review, New York Times, Bitch Magazine, The Rumpus, Drunken Boat, Hunger Mountain, and The Chronicle of Higher Education Review. She has been featured on NPR’s Fresh Air, CNN’s Dr. Drew, Anderson Cooper’s daytime show, New York magazine, and elsewhere. A 2010 & 2011 MacDowell Colony fellow, and 2012 Bread Loaf fellow, she teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in Brooklyn.
Melissa is part of the March 9 AWP reading.
January 27th, 2013 § § permalink
Elisa Gabbert is a reckoning force.
Elisa Gabbert is the author of The Self Unstable (forthcoming from Black Ocean in 2013) and The French Exit (Birds LLC, 2010). Her poems, prose, and collaborations have recently appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, The Collagist, Court Green, Lemon Hound, Sentence, and other journals. She lives in Denver and blogs at http://thefrenchexit.blogspot.com.
Elisa is part of the March 9 AWP reading.
January 27th, 2013 § § permalink
Robert Kloss is a pre-dawn ambush.
Robert Kloss is the author of The Alligators of Abraham (Mud Luscious Press).
Robert is part of the March 9 AWP reading.
January 27th, 2013 § § permalink
Vanessa Veselka is a violent eclipse.
Vanessa Veselka has been, at various times, a teenage runaway, a sex-worker, a union organizer, and a student of paleontology. Her work appears in GQ, Bitch, The Atlantic, Tin House, and Zyzzyva. Her novel Zazen won the 2012 PEN / Bingham Prize for fiction.
Vanessa is part of the March 9 AWP reading.
January 27th, 2013 § § permalink
Adrian Todd Zuniga is a coveted bootleg.
Adrian Todd Zuniga is the host/creator/CCO of Literary Death Match (a literary event now featured in 46 cities worldwide) and the founding editor of Opium Magazine. His fiction has recently been featured in Gopher Illustrated and Stymie, and online at Lost Magazine and McSweeney’s. He lives between Los Angeles and guest rooms all over Europe. He longs for a Chicago Cubs World Series and an EU passport.
Adrian is part of the March 9 AWP reading.
January 26th, 2013 § § permalink
For those of you who were at Literary Firsts on Monday night, you probably remember that I ended the evening by mentioning our next event. I said it would be special (on a Saturday!), and twice as long (eight readers!), and it would feature the following writers, each of whom are suffused with literary know-how:
James Tadd Adcox
Sam Cha
John Cotter
Melissa Febos
Elisa Gabbert
Robert Kloss
Vanessa Veselka
Adrian Todd Zuniga
Those things are all still true and now even better because we have a promotional image!
So please join us on Saturday, March 9 at 5:30pm at Middlesex Lounge. This reading will involve the return of former LF readers Elisa Gabbert and John Cotter (with John as confessional reader!). This reading will bring together collaborators James Tadd Adcox and Robert Kloss. This reading will showcase the work of writers both near and far, some so far away from Boston that it would be silly to ask them to travel such a distance. To sum up: this reading will result in nothing short of elation.