In the last few days I’ve been poeting out. I went to Poets House, and Butler Library at Columbia, and a zillion bookstores, and found poetry in bathrooms and books laid out on the sidewalk; to Labyrinth Books for a reading from Literature from the Axis of Evil by Words Without Borders; and tonight I went to the Bowery Poetry Club for Urban Erotika, a monthly reading MCed by Mo Beasley.

My favorite performers tonight were Purple Haze and Stef, improvising during the “seduction” phase of the Urban Erotika Four Movements. Then the Universes, who you can catch tomorrow at Henry Street Settlement. (There will be an open mic and food for a late brunch.) And last but not least my 3rd favorite was in the “Raw” movement of the evening – Cake Cash. Her Raw was amazing, witty, and dirty-hot. Somehow, I can’t find her myspace, but I know she’s got one because Mo mentioned it.

It was a fabulous poetic pilgrimage for me. Now if I can get to the Nuyorican Cafe in the next few days, life will be great…

I note that poetry is expensive in New York. 7 bucks for Poetry House. Labyrinth was free, luckily. And the Bowery Poetry Club quite expensive at $20! Yikes.

As you can see from the photo, even in the bathroom at the BPC, I found poetry – this one is by Pedro Pietri.

- Let me be the first to say that I am absolutely flabbergasted that Britney and Kevin are breaking up. That really always seemed like a marriage with staying power. It was built on a strong foundation of love, caring, and mutual respect. Yesterday, I would have thought it was as crazy as Pam and Kid Rock breaking up, which will obviously never happen.

- Thank god Delgado is staying! The Mets are finally good, and it would have really sucked if they lost a core member. 2007 will be a great year!
(more…)

Last night I had the chance to attend A Better Bee, a spelling bee with literary celebrities to benefit the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses.

The event was held in what seemed to be an artists’ space on 36th and 10th, which is a kind of desolate area if you haven’t been there, not the place to walk around with your headphones on at night. Among the famous scribes being put to the test were Billy Collins, Paul La Farge, Rick Moody, Sigird Nunez, and Meg Wolitzer.

As word after erudite word was lobbed at the spellers, I realized my vocabulary could stand some beefing up. But now forever emblazoned on my brain are not just the spellings but also the definitations of such gems as macaque, pukka, and the word that made Village Voice food writer Robert Sietsema last night’s winner, bezoar.

After the bee, there was a musical performance by the Wingdale Community Singers, featuring Rick Moody, author of Demonology, The Ice Storm, and Garden State. We didn’t stay though Moody is hot in an arrogant-Michael Stipe kind of way.

Upcoming CLMP events include their Literary Writers Conference, November 2-4, co-sponsored by the New School, and their Periodically Speaking reading series, the next installment of which is on November 14 and features emerging writers.

Last night I attended a reading celebrating the PEN American Center’s Beyond Margins winners, Richard Blanco, Andrew Lam, Ed Bok Lee, Caryl Phillips, and Jennifer Tseng.

The Beyond Margins Awards honors outstanding authors of color and was created by PEN American Center’s Open Book Committee, “a group committed to racial and ethnic diversity within the literary and publishing communities.”

This free event was held at the NY Public Library branch near the MoMA and the theatre was packed.
(more…)

It’s Thursday, which means it’s practically Friday, and you know what that means. One Story literary reading at Pianos! Woohoo! Par-taaay.

No but seriously, One Story is a great literary magazine that publishes one story every few weeks. This sole tale is then mailed to subscribers. Several pieces have recently been recognized in the Best American Short Stories series, as well as the O. Henry awards. An excerpt of the latest publication is also available online.

As well, the mag hosts readings about once a month. Tomorrow it’s Patrick Somerville, whose first book of short stories, Trouble, will be out this fall. The readings are free and start promptly at 7 PM – I say promptly because last time I was 15 minutes late and missed almost the whole thing.

There’s also “cocktail hour” between 6:30pm and 8:00pm, during which the night’s reader’s “chosen cocktail” will be sold at a reduced price.

Hey, free literature and cheap drinks – what more can you ask for?

One Story reading with Patrick Somerville :: Friday, October 13
Cocktail hour: 6:30pm to 8pm :: Reading: around 7pm
Pianos (158 Ludlow St. at Stanton St.)

This past Friday author Joan Didion read as part of Central Park’s SummerStage series.

A native Californian, Didion moved to New York as a young woman in the late ’50s. She worked at Vogue as a features editor before publishing her first novel, Run River, in 1963. That same year she married fellow writer, John Gregory Dunne, and the following year they returned to the West Coast, where they lived for the next 25 years.

Tiny with a gray bob and in a simple black dress, Didion began by reading from an early essay, “Goodbye to All That,” which chronicles her first years in New York:
(more…)

Damn that Kaavya Viswanathan! Now that she’s been caught plagiarizing, scrutiny upon us Asian American authors is at an all-time high, and so I won’t be able to submit my own piece – um, INSPIRED, let’s say, by The New Yorker piece from last week – to the likes of The Paris Review, Harper’s, and well, The New Yorker (they can’t possibly keep track of all of their submissions, can they?).

It’s not a plagiarism. Really it’s not! I was just so heavily influenced by the great Larry Doyle that it all came out subconsciously. It’s more of an homage. An homage to a satire to a plagiarism. Hm, so does it really even exist? See for yourself.
(more…)

Yesterday concluded the Small Press Center’s 2nd Annual New York Round Table Writers’ Conference.

This two-day conference is a chance for writers to come hear editors, agents, publicists, marketers, and of course authors talk about the writing craft and the writing business. This particular author attended Day 2.
(more…)

Last night the Small Press Center kicked off its reading series, Emerging Voices: Writers Published by Groundbreaking Independent Presses, with a talk from Lee Stringer, author of the acclaimed memoir, Grand Central Winter: Stories from the Street, and now of a second memoir, Sleepaway School: Stories from a Boy’s Life.
(more…)

The second annual New York Roundtable Writers’ Conference – brought to you by the Small Press Center – will be held this year on April 28 and 29.

Registration is $325 for two days and $225 for one day, but if you register before March 31, you get an early bird discount of $299 for 2 days and $199 for one day.

I went last year and most of the panels were interesting and/or helpful. The only thing you have to tolerate are the dumb-ass questions from the audience, the most vocal of whom know zippo about the publishing world.

The keynote speaker this year will be Jonathan Ames.