Due to a number of mitigating factors (mainly having to do with the construction that’s taking place in Central Square), Middlesex Lounge is cutting back their hours and no longer hosting non-club events. They were always really kind to me and to the series, so I know it wasn’t a decision they made lightly.
I’ve had a number of friends offer to look at new venues for the series, very kind offers, all. But since I’m neckdeep in work right now (my own writing, plus teaching, plus everything going on at Aforementioned), and because I want a space that combines theatricality and proximity (i.e., I don’t want the readers distanced from the audience, but I do want a place where I can dim the lights and create a mood that’s indicative of a performance), and because I don’t know of another venue like that in the Boston area, I’m putting the series on hiatus.
As soon as I’m able to find a comparable venue for Literary Firsts, I promise to bring it back. Until then, I’m really proud to have had a hand in making Boston’s literary community a little warmer and a little brighter.
Thanks to all the readers and the faithful audience members.
I hope to be back at it soon.
Fondly—
Carissa
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Just in case you couldn’t be there, you can still check out the photos below and the videos here.
A million thanks to the readers and everyone who came out. It was a fantastic evening and I can’t wait to see everyone in January!
]]>Be there for Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, Dolan Morgan, Wesley Rothman, and Sam Cha!
7pm at Middlesex Lounge!
]]>Sam Cha recently completed his MFA in poetry at UMass Boston, where he was the 2011 and 2012 recipient of the Academy of American Poets Prize. He’s a poetry editor for Radius. His work (poems, essays, fiction, translations) can be found at Amethyst Arsenic, anderbo, apt, ASIA, Banipal, The Bakery, decomP, Gravel, Memorious, Paper Scissors, Printer’s Devil Review, and shufPoetry. Also, in two anthologies: Knocking at the Door: Poems About Approaching the Other, and The &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing. He lives and writes in Cambridge, MA.
Sam is the confessional reader for the October 13 reading.
]]>Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York Times, Iowa Review, Salon, Oxford American, Los Angeles Review, The Rumpus, TriQuarterly, and many other publications. Alexandria was recently named a 2014 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow. She earned her JD at Harvard Law School, where she focused on death penalty issues, and she also holds a BA in Sociology from Columbia University and an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from Emerson College. She lives in Boston and teaches at Grub Street and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Alexandria is the essayist for the October 13 reading.
]]>Dolan Morgan is the author of That’s When the Knives Come Down (Aforementioned Productions, 2014) and an editor at The Atlas Review. His work can be found in The Believer, The Lifted Brow, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, apt, Pank, Field, The Collagist and elsewhere.
Dolan is the fiction writer for the October 13 reading.
]]>Wesley Rothman‘s poems and criticism have appeared in 32 Poems, Crab Orchard Review, New England Review, PANK, Post Road,Prairie Schooner, Southeast Review, Vinyl, and The White Review, among other publications. He has worked with Copper Canyon Press, the Mass Poetry Festival, Ploughshares, Narrative, Salamander, and Tupelo Quarterly, and teaches writing and cultural literatures throughout Boston. Recent honors include a Pushcart Prize nomination and a Vermont Studio Center fellowship. He is nearing completion of first collection of poems, SUBWOOFER.
Wesley is the poet for the October 13 reading.
]]>Can’t wait to see you there, Boston!
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Thanks, as always, to Randolph Pfaff for handling the bulk of the recording duties, photo and video:
Thanks to everyone who made it out, especially (of course) Amy, Nicole, Jeremy, and Dan. And if you couldn’t make it, you can check out the videos here.
I hope to see you in October when we close out 2014 with our autumn reading—more details soon!
]]>7pm, 315 Mass Ave: be there!
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