Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn

I Finished Middlemarch. Finally.

And I am very sad that it is over because I have become so involved with George Eliot's living, breathing characters and her engrossing tale of life, all of it, including love, anger, money, death and deceit. 

Oh, how I will miss the earnest, outspoken and sometimes impulsive Dorothea and her lovely sister Celia. And Mary Garth, the opinionated and sometimes sharply critical one. And Dr. Lydgate and Mr. Ladislaw. Oh and the underachieving Fred Vincy and the revolting Mr. Casoubon.

I truly recommend this book to everyone despite it's 888 page length.

Alas, now I am alone without my Middlemarch, my companion for so many weeks. I will miss the weight of it on my chest as I fell asleep reading it late into the night. I will miss its almost constant psychological insight and power.

And here are Ms. Eliot's final lines about our heroine Dorothea:

...But we insignificant people with our daily words and acts are preparing the lives of many Dorotheas, some of which may present a far sadder sacrifice than that of the Dorothea whose story we know.

Her finely-touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, its half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisted tombs.

Young Writers Night at Brooklyn Reading Works

Young Writers Night
Curated by Jill Eisenstadt
Thursday, November 19 at 7 PM
A night of original fiction, poetry and music from teenagers (ages 13-18) across the city, featuring:

Fiction and poetry: Hannah Frishberg, Maria Robbins Somerville and Ben Waldman and surprise guests!

Songwriters: Lily Konigsberg, Heather Boo, Lucio Westmoreland, Henry Crawford

Surprise Guests!
At the Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope
at 7 PM (note early starting time!)
$5 suggested donation includes refreshments
brooklynreadingworks.org
theoldstonehouse.org

Nov 19 at 7 PM: Brooklyn Reading Works Presents Young Writers Night

Brooklyn Reading Works presents Young Writers Night curated by novelist Jill Eisenstadt. A night of original fiction, poetry and music from teenagers across the city, featuring Hannah Frishberg, Lily Konigsburg, Maria Robbins Somerville, Ben Waldman, Lucio Westmoreland and other surprise guests.

Thursday, November 19th at the Old Stone House at 7 p.m. (note early starting time!). Fifth Avenue and Third Street. $5 suggested donation includes refreshments.

Young, Gifted & Black (Men) with James Hannaham, Victor LaValle and Clifford Thompson

Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Young, Gifted and Black (Men) with Clifford Thompson, Victor LaValle and James Hannham. This reading is curated by Martha Southgate.

Where: The Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope

When: October 1, 2009 at 8 p.m.

James Hannaham's stories have appeared in The Literary Review, Open City and Nerve, and one is about to show up in One Story. He has received fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The Blue Mountain Center, Chateau de Lavigny, and Fundacion Valparaiso. He teaches creative writing at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and lives near there. His first novel, God Says No, came out through McSweeney's Books in late May of 2009. An excerpt from the book appears in McSweeney's 31, which looks a lot like a yearbook, binding-wise.

Victor LaValle is the author of slapboxing with jesus, a collection of stories, and two novels, The Ecstatic and Big Machine. He has received numerous awards including a Whiting Writers' Award, a United States Artist's Ford Fellowship, and the key to Southeast Queens. His website is victorlavalle.com

Clifford Thompson grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended Oberlin College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. His essays on literature, film, jazz, and other subjects have appeared in publications including The Threepenny Review, Commonweal, Cineaste, Film Quarterly, The Iowa Review, Black Issues Book Review, and The Best American Movie Writing. He is the editor of the H.W. Wilson publication Current Biography. Thompson lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two children. Signifying Nothing is his first novel.

Martha Southgate is the author of three novels, most recently Third Girl from the Left which was published in paperback by Houghton Mifflin in September 2006. It won the Best Novel of the year award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She received a 2002 New York Foundation for the Arts grant and has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.  Her July 2007 essay from the New York Times Book Review, “Writers Like Me” appears in the recent anthology Best African-American Essays 2008.  Previous non-fiction articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, O, Premiere, and Essence. She also has essays in the recent anthologies Behind the Bedroom Door and Heavy Rotation: Writers on the Albums That Changed Their Lives. She is working on her next novel, to be published by Algonquin Books. You can visit her website at www.marthasouthgate.co

And here's the schedule for the 5th anniversary season of Brooklyn Reading Works:

October 15:  POETRY PUNCH curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
November 19 at 7 p.m.  YOUNG WRITERS curated by Jill Eisenstadt (note: earlier start time)
December 10:  FEAST: WRITERS ON FOOD curated by Michele Madigan Somerville. A benefit for a local soup kitchen.
January: 21:  TIN HOUSE READING curated by Rob Sillman
February 11:  MEMOIRATHON curated by Branka Ruzak
March 18:  BLARNEYPALOOZA curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
April 15:  TRUTH AND MONEY Curated by John Guidry
May 13:  4TH ANNUAL EDGY MOTHER'S DAY
June 13: FICTION IN A BLENDER Curated by Martha Southgate

The Old Stone House is located on Fifth Avenue at Third Street in Park Slope, 718-768-3195. Directions here.

August 22: Ft Greene Lit Festival Taps Into Local Lit Scene

This weekend, The New York Writers Coalition (NYWC) presents its popular Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival. In addition to young writers, the event will feature Fort Greene literary luminaries: Colson Whitehead, Toure and Nelson George.   There's lots of literary history in the Fort Greene neighborhood. For starters: poet Marianne Moore lived and wrote on Cumberland Street .  Novelist Richard Wright wrote his landmark piece Native Son while living in the neighborhood.  Screenwriter and filmmaker Spike Lee established his 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks in Fort Greene in the 1980s.  The park itself was built through the influence of the iconic poet Walt Whitman in 1843.

The 5th annual free outdoor reading will be held on August 22nd at 3:00 PM.  This year features young writers, ages seven to eighteen reading alongside Colson Whitehead, Touré, and Nelson George. This exciting event brings several generations of writers together to build on the rich literary traditions of the neighborhoods surrounding beautiful Fort Greene Park . 

The Festival celebrates the end of a free summer-long series of creative writing workshops held in the historic Fort Greene Park .  The groups serve 7-12 year olds and teenagers in dynamic and innovative workshops designed to create a safe space for young writers to find their voices through all genres of creative writing.  “This continues to be one of our more popular programs.  We see many of the same faces year after year and many have grown up writing in the park,” said Aaron Zimmerman, Founder and Executive Director of NYWC, a not-for-profit organization that operates the workshops.  “Who knows which one will be become the next Touré or Nelson George?”

  One of the Festival’s organizers, Johnny Temple of Akashic Books, said, “We are lucky this year to be able to tap into Fort Greene ’s rich literary history.  All the readers this year live in the neighborhood and are inspired by the park.” 

 

Tonight at Union Hall: Brooklyn Writers Space Listening Party

Scott Adkins, who runs the Brooklyn Writers Space, sent word of the last BWS reading of the year followed by a Listening Party at Union Hall tonight at 5 p.m.

My friend playwright Rosemary Moore is reading tonight so I hope to make it over there. Scott writes:

"Come join us for the final readings in the 2008/9 reading series. It's a fun night with playwrighters, a fictioneer and a creative non-fictionaire...good times.

Presenting:
**rosemary moore**
Rosemary Moore is a playwright who has also published fiction and non-fiction. Her play “The Pain of Pink Evenings” was published in The Best American Short Plays of 2001 (Applause Books). In 2000 she was selected as one of five Emerging Playwrights in the Cherry Lane Alternative Mentor Project for the development and production of “Aunt Pieces" (directed by Michael Sexton, mentored by A.R. Gurney). She lives in Brooklyn and teaches writing at Rutgers University.

**lorraine martindale**
Lorraine Martindale is a recent graduate of the New School's MFA Program in Fiction. She has published work in the online literary journal Hitotoki, and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two cats.

**michael lazan**
Michael Lazan has had plays produced by and at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater, Workshop Theater Company, Midtown International Theater Festival (award for best production, nominated for best play), New York Musical Theater Festival, Naked Angels, Manhattan Theatre Source, Neighborhood Playhouse, among others. He has been a finalist for the National Ten Minute Play Festival (Actors Theater of Louisville). He is a member of the Drama Desk, the Dramatists Guild and the Brooklyn Writers Space.

**susan gregory thomas**
Susan Gregory Thomas is an investigative journalist, broadcaster and the author of "Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds" (May 2007: Houghton Mifflin) She has written for U.S. News & World Report, Time, the Washington Post, Glamour, and Babble.com. She has three children.

It's free! Doors open at 5p - readings start 5pish. Join us upstairs after'words' for an end of series drink.

Perfection: A Memoir by Park Slope's Julie Metz

Park Slope's Julie Metz, who read at Brooklyn Reading Works' Memoirathon in 2008, just got a nice review in the Times from Janet Maslin about her new memoir, Perfection, A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal.

In addition to writing a memoir, Julie Metz is a graphic designer who runs design firm specializing in book covers, as well as identity and brochure design. Since 1988, her cover designs have appeared in the AIGA 50 Books, 50 Covers Show, as well as Graphis and PRINT magazine. Here's the  mention in the NY Times. The book is available at the Community Bookstore. 

"Julie Metz’s “Perfection” is a visual standout for good reason: Ms. Metz designs book jackets. And she has given her all to the vibrant tulip on her memoir’s cover. She also gave her all to what she thought was a solid marriage. Then her husband died suddenly, in 2003, and left behind a secret history of philandering, complete with e-mail trail. He left one particularly devious lover in the same small town where Ms. Metz found herself trapped as a new widow. How would she rear her daughter there when the daughter’s best friend’s mother (chick-book aficionados can follow this, no problem) was her husband’s married girlfriend?

"Ms. Metz provides a blow-by-blow account of how she processed these revelations. Little did she know that the man who wrote her a florid poem for Valentine’s Day was also sending pornographic holiday e-mail messages to at least two women with whom he was having affairs. (“I had to smile at the efficiency of it all,” Ms. Metz writes about this cut-and-paste job.) Little did she realize how truly distant her husband was. And little did she imagine that she would ever be living one of the most basic dreams of chick lit: going back to dating after years of marriage. Ms. Metz changes the names of the men in this book, but she brings refreshing candor to a startling, painful tale."

Tonight: Edgy Mother's Reading at The Old Stone House

Third Annual Edgy Mother's Day
Tales of Motherhood without Sanctimony

Join acclaimed playwright Diana Son, journalist Beth Harpaz, novelist Mary Morris, and five other notable mother-writers for a fun reading over a much-needed glass of wine, just a few days after Mother’s Day.

From aggrieved moms of pot-smoking teens to fed-up new mothers of colicky infants, these writers will shock, amuse, and entertain you, and they won’t make you eat your vegetables before you get your glass of wine. .

Hear them at Brooklyn Reading Works’ Third Annual Edgy Mothers Reading at the historic Old Stone House in Park Slope, Brooklyn, on Thursday, May 14th at 8:00 pm.  Louise Crawford runs Brooklyn Reading Works and the Edgy Mothers Reading curators are Sophia Romero, Amy Sohn, and Michele Madigan Somerville.

The complete line-up:

Jill Eisenstadt, author of From Rockaway and Kiss Out
Beth Harpaz, author of 13 is the New 18 and other things my children taught me while I was having a nervous breakdown being their mother and The Girls in the Van
Mary Morris, author of Revenge, Vanishing Animals, The Bus of Dreams, and The Lifeguard Stories
Jenny Offill, author of Last Things and editor of Money Changes Everything
Sophia Romero, blogger, The Shiksa from Manila and author of Always Hiding
Amy Sohn, author of Run Catch Kiss and the upcoming Prospect Park West
Michele Madigan Somerville, poet and author of WISEGAL and Black Irish
Diana Son, playwright of Stop Kiss and Satellites

Location:  Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets
Phone:  718-768-3195
7:30 p.m.:  Open bar/Wine donated by Shawn Liquors
8:00 p.m.:  Reading
Suggested contribution:  $5 to benefit Old Stone House
Reading is open to all – not just mothers – though please leave children at home

picture by /www.flickr.com/photos/originalcenz/2990458503/in/set-72157608554646411/

Third Annual Edgy Mothers Day: Tales of Motherhood without Sanctimony

Join acclaimed playwright Diana Son, journalist Beth Harpaz, novelist Mary Morris, and five other notable mother-writers for a fun reading over a much-needed glass of wine, just a few days after Mother’s Day.

From aggrieved moms of pot-smoking teens to fed-up new mothers of colicky infants, these writers will shock, amuse, and entertain you, and they won’t make you eat your vegetables before you get dessert.

Hear them at Brooklyn Reading Works’ Third Annual Edgy Mothers Reading at the historic Old Stone House in Park Slope, Brooklyn, on Thursday, May 14th at 8:00 pm.  The Brooklyn Reading Works is run by Louise Crawford and the Edgy Mothers Reading curators are Sophia Romero, Amy Sohn, and Michele Madigan Somerville.

The complete line-up:

--Jill Eisenstadt, author of From Rockaway and Kiss Out

--Beth Harpaz, author of 13 is the New 18 and other things my children taught me while I was having a nervous breakdown being their mother and The Girls in the Van

--Mary Morris, author of Revenge, Vanishing Animals, The Bus of Dreams, and The Lifeguard Stories

--Jenny Offill, author of Last Things and editor of Money Changes Everything

--Sophia Romero, blogger, The Shiksa from Manila and author of Always Hiding

--Amy Sohn, author of Run Catch Kiss and the upcoming Prospect Park West

--Michele Madigan Somerville, poet and author of WISEGAL and Black Irish

--Diana Son, playwright of Stop Kiss and Satellites

The Where and When

Location:  Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets
Phone:  718-768-3195
7:30 p.m.:  Open bar/Wine donated by Shawn Liquors
8:00 p.m.:  Reading
Suggested contribution:  $5 to benefit Old Stone House
Reading is open to all – not just mothers – though please leave children at home

Readings on the 4th Floor: Jonathan and Said

This Wednesday: April 22nd at 7:30 p.m. hear Jonathan Safan Foer and Said Sayrafiezadeh read at PS 107's Readings Series. Sound like a ticket might be a good idea. It's a worthy benefit for the school's library.

The Memoir-a-Thon is This Thursday Night

Ready. Set. Memoir! Brooklyn Reading Works presents the Third Annual Memoir-A-Thon on Thursday, March 12th at 8 p.m. at The Old Stone House in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Curated by Branka Ruzak:

On the surface at least, this event seems to come straight from the pages of The Bellevue Literary Review. The themes covered are dysfunction and disease with topics ranging from family dysfunction, alcoholism and sexual child abuse to AIDS to wrongful adolescent mental institutionalization to Alzheimers to chemical/emotional toxicity and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

But upon digging deeper, one finds these writers' journeys are not just mired in disease and dysfunction. Yes, they may write about illness, victimization and the loss of innocence, but each personal account is a story of survival and the amazing power of the individual to overcome the greatest imaginable personal challenges and ultimately heal oneself.

These stories are haunting, moving and inspiring - each one in their own raw honesty and emotion. They reflect upon the divinity and beauty of what it means to be deeply human in all its messiness. There is a lot of courage, compassion and humor to be found in the journeys we will embark on during this reading.

Join BRW for an intimate and memorable night with these incredible writers:

Robert Goolrick, author of: The End of the World As We Know It
Mindy Lewis, author of: Life Inside
Branka Ruzak
Elena Schwolsky
Erica Silberman, author of: Nuts in My Pock

THE WHERE AND WHEN:

Thursday March 12th at 8 p.m.
Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets
A $5 suggested donation includes light refreshments and wine.
Books will be available for sale and signing

March Events at The Old Stone House

Here's what's going on in March at The Old Stone House.

Friday, March 6th

Jazz at OSH
Tacuma Bradley, Sax; Mike Petrosino, Drums; Dan Shuman, Bass; and Charles Sibirsky, Piano
8:00 pm.
Tickets: $12.

 

Saturday, March 7

Light & Sound
The Music of GI Gurdjieff & Thomas de Hartman
Featuring Timothy Hill, Vocals; Julianne Klopotic, Violin; and John Watts, Piano
Special Guests: Tabla Maestro Aditya Kalyanpur & Maria Jeffers, Cello
8:00 pm.

Thursday, March 12th 

Brooklyn Reading Works
The Memoirathon
Curated by Branka Ruzak
8:00 pm.
$5 suggested donation

Friday, March 13th & Saturday, March 14th

Theatre Group Dzieci Presents
Makbet: A Chamber Ensemble Interpretation
8:00 -9:00 pm.
$10 suggested donation

Memoir-A-Thon Tackles The Darker Side of Life

  On your mark, get set, MEMOIR!

Brooklyn Reading Works presents the annual Memoir-A-Thon, which is curated this year by Branka Ruzak. For this special event, she has gathered together a stellar group of memoirists, whose work collectively touches on: incest, teenage psychiatric incarceration, life in a Cuban AIDS sanitorium, a mother's Alzheimer's, and the family legacy of obsessive compulsive disorder.

This iteration of the Memoir-a-thon is not for the faint hearted. That's for sure.

Robert Goolrick reads from "a blistering family memoir of a life deformed."

Mindy Lewis writes in honest, unflinching prose of a teenage stay on a psychiatric ward.

Elena Schwolsky shares her experience working in an AIDS Sanitorium in Cuba.

Erica Silberman writes about her mother's experience with Alzheimer's.

Branka Ruzak writes about a family legacy of obsessive compulsive disorder.

Bios:

Robert Goolrick is the author of The End of the World As We Know It, described by the New York Times, as "a blistering family memoir." His novel A Reliable Wife, will published by Algonquin Book on April 7th. He worked for many years in advertising and lives in NYC.

Mindy Lewis is the author of Life Inside: A Memoir (Washington Square
Press), named a 2003 Book of the Year by the American Journal of Nursing and
an ELLE "Must Read". She is also the editor of Dirt The Quirks, Habits and
Passions of Keeping House, forthcoming from Seal Press this spring. Her
essays have been published in Newsweek, Lilith, Poets & Writers, and Body &
Soul magazines. She teaches at The Writer¹s Voice of the Westside YMCA, and
has also taught at Brooklyn College and the Metropolitan Center of Empire
State College/SUNY.

Elena Schwolsky public health educator in NYC who is writing a memoir
about her experience working in an AIDS Sanatorium in Havana, Cuba in the
mid 90's.  Elena spent ten years on the frontlines of the AIDS epidemic as a
pediatric nurse in Newark, NJ.  When her husband died of AIDS in 1990, she
found her voice in writing and began to explore the intersection of her
personal and professional experience.  In 2001, Elena was honored with an
award for her writing from the Barbara Dane/Money for Women Fund.

Erica Silberman reads from her collection of essays, Nuts in My Pockets,
Tissues Up My Sleeve. She is a playwright, essayist, and screenwriter. She has written
sixteen times for theAtrainplays, a twenty-four hour theatre project. Her
plays have been produced or developed at The Ensemble Studio Theatre, New
World Stages, Playwrights Horizon, the Stonington Opera House, and the
Metropolitan Playhouse. She is published in Teachers and Writers, and will
be published in Playscripts, and Sunday Salon 'zine. Erica has been featured
on NPR's PRI. She is a mentor at Girls Write Now and the co-president of The
New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts & Media.

The Where and When

Thursday March 12th at 8 p.m.

The Old Stone House

Fifth Avenue and Third Street

Lydia Denworth: The Minimum You Need to Know About Lead and Your Child

Park Slope's Lydia Denworth is the author of Toxic Truth: A Scientist, A Doctor and the Battle Over Lead, the first book to tell the incredible story of the two men behind the bitter thirty-year fight to protect children from lead.

I asked Denworth to tell me the most important facts we need to know about lead. She sent me this:

The Minimum You Need to Know About Lead and Your Child: 

--Test your child if you live in a house or apartment built before 1978.

...if you child attends a school or day care (or visits a relative) in a building built before 1978.

...if you or your spouse works in an industry where lead is used. 

--Test yourself if you are pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant and any of the above is true. 

--Test your home if it was built before 1978, especially if you are planning renovations or you have peeling or cracked paint

--The latest research shows that the greatest effects from lead come at the lowest levels. Put another way the difference between lead levels of 3 micrograms per deciliter and 10 micrograms is much greater than that between 13 and 20.

The Bottom Line:

Lead poisoning is a man-made disease and entirely preventable. The way we prevent it is by not exposing children to lead. Almost every product that is currently made with lead (certainly this is true of toys and artificial turf) can also be made without lead. Why not avoid the problem in the first place?

I also asked Denworth what she is most proud of in relation to this important book:

That writer Steven Johnson called the book “a page-turner” (not an easy thing to pull off!) and Newsweek’s Sharon Begley called it “riveting” and “fascinating.”

That the book will bring more attention to the work of Clair Patterson and Herb Needleman

TODAY: Denworth is having a book launch party and talk at the Old Stone House (in conjunction with the Community Bookstore). That's Tuesday March 3rd at 7 p.m.There will be books for sale and signing. 

Last Night at Brooklyn Reading Works' Cupid's Arrow

  Elissa Schappell, Ira Goldstein, Marian Fontana, Susan Karwoska,

photos by Tom Martinez

Tonight Cupid's Arrows: Writers on Love

Brooklyn Reading Works presents Cupid's Arrow: Writers on Love curated by Marian Fontana. Another one of the great themed readings at Brooklyn Reading Works curated by interesting writers.

Marian  Fontana, author of A Widow's Walk; A Memoir of 9/11 and the upcoming, The Middle of the Bed, has gathered together some wonderful writers, including  Elissa Schappell author of Use Me and the upcoming Blueprints for Better Girls; Novelist, poet and editor of Teachers and Writer Magazine, Susan Karwoska; and Poets Ellen Ferguson and Ira Goldstein and memoirist, Mila Drumke. Marian will be reading an excerpt from her upcoming book.

As Marian writes: Join us two nights before Valentines as six talented authors tackle the profound, challenging and even funny topic of love.

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." -- Shakespeare

It should, as always, be a great night. These themed group readings are fascinating as you see the subject matter shift, the approach, and the language shift from author to author.

Alison, the owner of Paper Love, the new card and stationery shop on Lincoln Place, will be selling letter press Valentine's cards at the show. She happens to be a fiction writer and was very excited to be part of this event.

The Where and When:

February 12th at 8 p.m.
Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets (in Washington Park)
A $5 suggested donation includes light refreshments and wine.
There will most definitely be Valentine's chocolates and candy hearts.

Thurs Jan 22: Steven Berlin Johnson at Court Street Barnes and Noble

Yes, this does conflict with tonight's Brooklyn Reading Works which is presenting New Work by Brooklyn Playwrights. But, Steven Berlin Johnson is a friend of OTBKB and a brilliant guy. He has a new book out called The Invention of Air. You decide. Here's a note from him:

Friends, a somewhat last-minute notice to let you know that I'll be doing a special post-Inauguration talk about The Invention of Air tomorrow, Thurs Jan 22, at the Court Street Barnes and Noble in Brooklyn at 7PM. I try to not to overwhelm you all with these events -- this is actually the third NY event we've done -- but I've just returned from a exciting tour with big crowds pretty much at every stop, and so it'd be nice to end on a high note in my home borough. So if you can come out, or encourage others to come out, that'd be awesome!

So far, we've had a great response to the book, both in the event turnout and the reviews. There's a good overview on my blog if you're interested, including a wonderful review we just got from the Financial Times over the weekend:

http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/2009/01/ft-on-invention.html

TONIGHT: Brooklyn Reading Works Presents Brooklyn Playwrights

TONIGHT at 8 pm

Brooklyn Reading Works Presents
An Evening of New Work by Brooklyn Playwrights
Curated by Rosemary Moore   
with Lizzie Olesker, Gary Winter, Jessica Bauman and Scott Adkins  

These playwrights will present scenes with professional actors.

Thursday, January 22nd, 8pm  Old Stone House
Fifth Ave. btw 3rd and 4th Street in Park Slope
718-768-3195   suggeste $5 donation incl. snacks and drinks

Jan 22: An Evening of New Work by Brooklyn Playwrights

Brooklyn Reading Works Presents
An Evening of New Work by Brooklyn Playwrights
Curated by Rosemary Moore   
with Lizzie Olesker, Gary Winter, Jessica Bauman and Scott Adkins  

These playwrights will present scenes with professional actors.

Thursday, January 22nd, 8pm  Old Stone House
Fifth Ave. btw 3rd and 4th Street in Park Slope
718-768-3195   suggeste $5 donation incl. snacks and drinks

Baby Love: Can We Trade In Our Kid for A New One?

Next week at Brooklyn Reading Works:

Michael Winks’ absurdist comedy “Baby Love,” takes an acerbic look at two self-absorbed parents who can’t be bothered to tend to a cranky baby.  They trade him for a “grownup” baby who progresses in his development at such a speed, they hope to have him off to college in a matter of months!  But to quote Radiohead,  the “Karma Police” will have their way with this couple.  Oh, Baby!

Come to the reading, featuring Linda Larson,  Broadway actress and Children’s School mom.  This play will provoke laughter and sadness as the course of true love between a parent and child never was supposed to run smooth.

The Where and When

Thursday, November 20 at 8 p.m.
The Old Stone House
in Park Slope's JJ Byrne Park Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets
718-768-3195

Brooklyn Reading Works: October 16th and Beyond

No I haven't forgotten about Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House. It's one Thursday a month at 8 p.m., the actual dates are below. We ask for a $5 donation and provide you with wine, sometimes cocktails and light snacks.

I've got a great schedule lined up. This year I selected a bunch of great writers to curate the evenings and it's going to be a whole lot of fun as always. Be on the look out for the new poster designed by Elizabeth Reagh at Good Form Design. Here's the schedule:

October 16: Poetry Punch curated by Michele Madigan Somerville with poets Bill Evans, Jeff Wright, Joanna Sitt, Ilene Starger, Will Nixon, Michele Madigan Somerville and Louise Crawford. Michele says: "Juicy, libidinous, good performers, not dry."

November 20: Baby Love, a reading of a new play by Michael Winks with Michael Buscemi

December 11: Food for Thought: Writers on Food (and a fundraiser for a local soup kitchen TBD).

January 22: New Works by Brooklyn Playwrights curated by Rosemary Moore

February 12: Cupid's Arrow: A Valentine's Day Reading curated by Marian Fontana

March 12: The Third Annual Memoir-a-thon curated by Branka Ruzak

April 23: Fiction in a Blender curated by Raina Washington

May 14: Edgy Mother's Day Event curated by Michel Madigan Somerville, Sophia Romero and Amy Sohn

June 11: Annual Reading of Montauk Basement Writers

The Where and When

10/16, 11/20/, 12/11, 1/22, 2/12, 3/12, 4/23, 5/23, 6/11

The Old Stone House in Park Slope's JJ Byrne Park Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets 718-768-3195

Tonight: Park Slope Writers Group At The Old Stone House

On June 12th, Brooklyn Reading Works presents the annual reading of the 808 Union Writers group at the Old Stone House on Thursday, June 12th at 8 p.m. There is a suggested donation of $5 to support Brooklyn Reading Works. There will also be wine and light refreshments.

The group used to meet at The Dance Studio at 808 Union Street—so that's why we called ourselves 808 Union). But now that's Kidsville so we don't meet there anymore. Jokingly we call ourselves Writers and Drinkers because we usually go out afterward for drinks. Actually, Hepcat coined that phrase.

Now we meet in The Montauk Club so we are renaming the group Montauk Basement.

But we are an awesome group that's been in existence for more than ten years. It's usually a great reading, a diverse ride, a fun night. We did a dress rehearsal tonight and it's going to be a great show.

Here's the line-up:

Barbara Ensor, author of Cinderella, As If You Didn't Already Know the Story and Thumbelina, Tiny Runaway Bride.

Wendy Ponte, PS...I Love You columnist for the Brooklyn Paper, author of Having a Baby...Naturally, and contributing editor for Mothering Magazine.

Rosemary Moore, an award-winning playwright, her play, The Pain of Pink Evenings,was included in Best American Short Plays of 2000-2001

Marian Fontana, author of A Widow's Walk: A Memoir of 9/11 and the forthcoming The Middle of the Bed.

Jeffrey M. Jones, author of the plays, Crazy Plays, The Endless Adventures of M C Kat, and Tomorrowland.

Louise Crawford, who runs OTBKB, is the Smartmom columnist for the Brooklyn Paper and the author of The Last Sublet, a novel about a serial subletter.

Typewriter embroidery by Jerryleetypes

The Treachery of a Trusted Partner: May 14th Reading at the Old Stone House

It’s happened to too many women we know.The guy that they thought they knew well walks out. In fiction and in real life, what happens?

This is the territory covered in two remarkable books.

--Martha Dudman’s latest novel Black Olives
--Nan Bauer-Maglin’s Cut Loose, a collection of true stories and reflections written by 27 women

For an entertaining and therapeutic evening, join
Martha and Nan reading from their books

Wednesday May 14
7:00 pm
The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets, Park Slope, Brooklyn
(easy to reach from R train, Union Street stop, or F train, 4th Avenue stop)
718-768-3195
For additional information, call Betsey at 718-768-1130

What's Going on this Week?

Look what's going on this week. Try to get to one of these events!

May 14 at 7 pm: Martha Dudman, author of Black Olives and and Nan Bauer-Maglin, author of Cut Loose, a collection of true stories and reflections written by 27 women, read their work at the Old Stone House. Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope

May 15 at 7 pm: Have a post-Mother's Day cocktail (or two) with NY Sun Columnist, Lenore Skenazy, magazine writer, Amy Sohn, and the Brooklyn Paper's tell-it-like-it-really-is Smartmom and others, who will will shock, amuse, and entertain you, and they won't make you eat your vegetables before you get dessert. It's happening at the elegant and fun The Montauk Club at 7 p.m. Cocktails and a reading. Free.  Lincoln Place and 8th Avenue.

May 17 all day: NY Writer's Coalition Write-A-Thon: a daylong writing festival will benefit NYWC's free, unique and powerful creative writing programs across New York City. Colson Whitehead is the guest speaker. 

Use the day however best serves your writing needs; write on your own, participate in workshops, or receive fun and stimulating prompts from our “prompt stations.” Like a walk-a-thon, our attendees will ask friends and family to donate in support of their day of writing. These contributions will help fund NYWC's creative writing programs for at-risk youth, the homeless and formerly homeless, the formerly incarcerated, seniors, and many others that aren’t heard from often enough in our society. At theNY Center for Independent Publishing. 20 West 44th Street.

May 18: Cho-Chiqq: The ultimate Park Slope backyard theater festival. 11:00am - 4pm
369 1st Street, Garden Apartment - Park Slope. R to Union Street. For details go here.

 

 

May 15th is Post-Mother's Day Cocktails for Edgy Moms

Join ruckus rousing NY Sun Columnist, Lenore Skenazy, magazine writer, Amy Sohn, and the Brooklyn Paper's tell-it-like-it-really-is Smartmom and others, who will will shock, amuse, and entertain you, and they won't make you eat your vegetables before you get dessert.

Come to this reading/cocktail party (cash bar) at the Montauk Club in Park Slope on May 15th at 7:00 pm.

Readers include:

Christen Clifford, writer/ performer of Off-Broadway's hit show Baby 
Love, true stories about sex and motherhood
Louise Crawford, The Brooklyn Paper’s Smartmom and editor of Only the 
Blog Knows Brooklyn
Michele Somerville Madigan, poet and blogger, Fresh Poetry Dail
Sophia Romero, blogger, The Shiksa from Manila and novelist, Always 
Hiding
Lenore Skenazy, the controversial New York Sun writer, who let her 9-
year-old take the subway alone
Louise Sloan, Huffington Post blogger and author of Knock Yourself 
Up: A Tell-All Guide to Becoming a Single Mom
Amy Sohn, author of the novels Run Catch Kiss and My Old Man

Location: 25 8th Avenue between Lincoln and St. John in Park Slope, Brooklyn
Date: Thursday May 15th
7 p.m. Cash bar for cocktails
7:30: The reading begins
Admission free

Fiction x Three at Brooklyn Reading Works: TONIGHT

Tonight: Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Fiction x 3 with Sheila Kohler, Barbara Ensor and Martin Kleinman.

Renowned author Sheila Kohler will read from her novel of the French Revolution, Bluebird or the Invention of Happiness, a radiant and artful novel based on the life of Lucy Dillon, an 18th-century French aristocrat.

The wildly creative Barbara Ensor will read excerpts from her funny, modern twists on fairy tales, including Cinderella (As If You Didn't Already Know the Story), Thumbalina; Tiny Runaway Bride, and Little Red Riding Hood.

Martin Kleinman will read from his new fiction.

April 10th at 8 p.m.
Brooklyn Reading Works
The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope
info; 718-288-4290
louisecrawford(at)gmail (dot)com

Suggested donation: $5 includes wine and light refreshments

Brooklyn Reading Works Presents: Fiction x 3

This Thursday, Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Fiction x 3 with Sheila Kohler, Barbara Ensor and Martin Kleinman.

Renowned author Sheila Kohler will read from her novel of the French Revolution, Bluebird or the Invention of Happiness.

A radiant and artful novel based on the life of Lucy Dillon, an 18th-century French aristocrat. Her intelligence, beauty, and lack of pretension made Lucy a favorite of luminaries like Talleyrand and Germaine de Staël — and equipped her to survive the "Terror" that swept France in the wake of the Revolution. Possessed of considerable wit and practicality, Lucy manages to keep her beloved husband and small children safe while all her former circle, including King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, are guillotined.

Barbara Ensor will read excerpts from her funny, modern twists on fairy tales, including Cinderella (As If You Didn't Already Know the Story), Thumbalina; Tiny Runaway Bride, and Little Red Riding Hood.

Martin Kleinman will read from his new fiction.

Brooklyn Reading Works
The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope
info; 718-288-4290
louisecrawford(at)gmail (dot)com

This Thursday: Barbara Ensor at Brooklyn Reading Works

You won't want to miss the wildly imaginative Barbara Ensor at Brooklyn Reading Works' Fiction x 3 (with Shelia Kohler and Martin Kleinman).

Ensor will read excerpts from her highly unusual takes on Cinderella, Thumbalina, and Little Red Riding Hood.

Fiction x 3 at The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope
Thursday April 10th at 8 p.m.

Here's a bit about Ensor's Cinderella book:

I know, I know. You’ve heard the story a million times before. Mean stepmother. Lots of sweeping. Fancy ball. You remember.

Or do you?

Did you remember that Cinderella was such a nice girl—so smart and funny? You probably would’ve liked her. Did you know that “Cinderella” was just a nickname? And that her handsome prince loved Jell-o and was a wonderful dancer?

Readers will delight in following Cinderella through all the usual happenings, presented in a most unusual way. And they’ll finally see what becomes of her after she marries the prince. So maybe you should hear the story one last time. Because it’s actually way different than you might have thought. . . .

Kids who have outgrown picture books and are ready for something longer—but still love illustrated texts—will gravitate toward this Cinderella. Black-and-white silhouettes of everything from the ugly stepsisters to Cinderella’s slipper (actual size) are intermingled with Cinderella’s letters to her recently deceased mother in this totally original package, written and illustrated by an exciting newcomer to children’s books.

Barbara Ensor has written for New York Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Family Life, The Village Voice, and numerous other publications and Web sites. Her illustrations have appeared in the New York Times, Harpers, Self, Child and elsewhere. This is her first children’s book. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Fiction x Three at Brooklyn Reading Works: April 10th

This should be a great reading at Brooklyn Reading Works. Renowned author Sheila Kohler will read from her novel of the French Revolution, Bluebird or the Invention of Happiness.

A radiant and artful novel based on the life of Lucy Dillon, an 18th-century French aristocrat. Her intelligence, beauty, and lack of pretension made Lucy a favorite of luminaries like Talleyrand and Germaine de Staël — and equipped her to survive the "Terror" that swept France in the wake of the Revolution. Possessed of considerable wit and practicality, Lucy manages to keep her beloved husband and small children safe while all her former circle, including King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, are guillotined.

Barbara Ensor will read excerpts from her funny, modern twists on fairy tales, including Cinderella (As If You Didn't Already Know the Story), Thumbalina; Tiny Runaway Bride, and Little Red Riding Hood.

Martin Kleinman will read from his new fiction.

Brooklyn Reading Works
The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope
info; 718-288-4290
louisecrawford(at)gmail (dot)com

Tonight: See you at Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House

Thursday, March 27: Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Inner Lives Out Loud at the Old Stone House. Readings from Regina McBride's workshops. 8 p.m. The Old Stone House is located at Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope. Go to their website (above) for directions.

Saturday, March 29: If you are a Brooklyn blogger, get interviewed for a video about Brooklyn blogging by Blue Barn Pictures and me. Let me know what's a good time for you (louise_crawford(at)yahoo.com. The shoot is from 11 am until 7:30 on Saturday the 29th in DUMBO. Email me if you can be there and what's a good 90-minute time slot for you. You must be a Brooklyn blogger, who's been around for 3 months, who updates with some frequency. This video will be at the May 8th Blogfest! You snooze you lose. In other words, let me know soon if you are coming!

Poetry Reading at the Community Bookstore

This Thursday March 6th at 7:30, poet Sally Bliumis-Dunn, of whom Billy Collins wrote: "The best poems in Sally Bliumis-Dunn' s Talking Underwater proceed tentatively, one line at a time, a pace that reassures us there is no agenda here, only the faith that one utterance will lead to another. Sally Bliumis-Dunn's readers are lucky to be part of this adventure, this pushing forth in the direction of revelation", will be reading at Seventh Avenue's Community Bookstore.

Her poems have appeared in Lumina, Nimrod, The Paris Review, Poetry London, RATTLE, and Spoon River Poetry Review. Her book, Talking Underwater, was published by Wind Publications in 2007, and has been a finalist for The University of Arkansas Press' First Book Prize in 2006, a semifinalist for The Kenyon First Book contest in 2002, the Bright Hill Press in 2005 and a finalist for the Richard Snyder Poetry Prize from Ashland Press in 2006. She teaches Modern Poetry and Creative Writing at Manhattanville College.

She will be joined by poet Van Hartmann's, who's poetry has appeared in multiple journals. His first book, Shiva Dancing, is a collection of lyrical poems set in motion by a concrete observation or recollected moment that releases its own organic stream of poignant associations. The result is an embodiment, in each poem and in the collection as a whole, of the complex energies and perceptions that define our most human experiences. Van Hartmann teaches literature and film studies at Manhattanville College, in Purchase, New York.

BROOKLYN READING WORKS WELCOMES THE ASSOCIATION OF WRITERS AND WRITING PROGRAMS

AWP: The Association of Writers and Writing Programs, an annual conference and book fair is in town and some of the participants are coming out to Brooklyn on Thursday night at 8 p.m. That's January 31st at 8 p.m.

BROOKLYN READING WORKS AND THE OLD STONE HOUSE WELCOME AWP 2008 (The Association of Writers and Writing Programs).

Come on out to Brooklyn for a a great reading. There are many great restaurants and bars right nearby on Fifth Avenue. Brooklyn Reading Works is located at the Old Stone House in Park Slope. Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope. Take the F-train to Fourth Avenue or Union Street and walk. The R train to Union Street. Directions are here. For information or questions: 718-288-4290 (if you get lost or need better directions).

WORD GIRLS with poets published by Word Tech: BARBARA CROOKER, MEREDITH DAVIES HADAWAY, KIM GARCIA, ERIN MURPHY. OPEN MIC TO FOLLOW. Starts at 8 p.m.

BARBARA CROOKER is the author of more than 575 poems published in over 1675 anthologies, books, and magazines She is the recipient of the 2006 Ekphrastic Poetry Award from Rosebud, the 2004 WB Yeats Society of New York Award, the 2004 Pennsylvania Center for the Book Poetry in Public Places Poster Competition, the 2003 Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award and many more. A twenty-six time nominee for the Pushcart Prize, she was nominated for the 1997 Grammy Awards for her part in the audio version of the popular anthology, Grow Old Along With Me--The Best is Yet to Be (Papier Mache Press).

MEREDITH DAVIES HADAWAY'S collection of poetry, Fishing Secrets of the Dead, was a Word Press First Book Selection in 2005. Her poems have appeared in Poet Lore, Spillway, Bayou, Isotope, Gulf Stream, Margie, California Quarterly, the South Carolina Review, River Oak Review, and the Delmarva Quarterly as well as in the Literary House Press anthology entitled Here On The Chester. She is a contributing editor for Hunger Mountain and a book reviewer for Poetry International. She is also a musician who has performed in the U.S. and Ireland.

KIM GARCIA lives and writes in Boston. Her poetry collection Madonna Magdalene was published by Turning Point books in the fall of 2006. Her work has appeared in many publications and she is the recipient of an AWP Intro Writing Award, a Hambidge Fellowship and an Oregon Individual Artist Grant.

ERIN MURPHY'S poems have appeared in The Georgia Review, Field, Nimrod, The Paterson Literary Review, Literal Latte, Kalliope, and elsewhere. She received her M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she was a Poetry Fellow. Her awards, include the 2003 National Writers Union Poetry Award judged by Donald Hall; a Pushcart Prize nomination; and a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award. She lives in Pennsylvania and teaches at Penn State-Altoona. She is the author of three books of poetry: Dislocation and Other Theories (Word Press, 2008); Science of Desire (Word Press, 2004); and Too Much of This World (forthcoming)

BROOKLYN READING WORKS: A NEW PLAY BY ROSEMARY MOORE

Brooklyn Reading Works presents SIDE STREET, a staged reading (with actors) of a play by Rosemary Moore directed by Ian Morgan of the New Group.

A woman discovers that her dead mother has been living in a studio apartment on the Upper East Side for the last 30 years. And she's still the same age she was when she died. A mother/daughter reunion you won't want to miss.

Thursday, January 17th at 8 p.m.
at the Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street
8 p.m.

TONIGHT JAZZ ARTIST ROY NATHANSON AT BROOKLYN READING WORKS

Brooklyn Reading Works presents Roy Nathanson and Jason Weiss reading spoken word, fiction, and non-fiction. Mulled cider, cookies and candy canes.

ROY NATHANSON founded the Jazz Passengers and is a renowned jazz artist, spoken word poet and teacher of music at The Institute for Collaborative Education.

JASON WEISS will read from a new novel, Faces By the Wayside. He is the author of Conversations with Steve Lacy and Writing At Risk: Interviews in Paris with Uncommon Writers (University of Iowa Press, 1991)

The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street (the stone house in JJ Byrne Park)
8 p.m.
It's the Snowflake Celebration. The Old Stone House sells great stocking stuffers!

BROOKLYN READING WORKS: ROY NATHANSON

Brooklyn Reading Works presents Jazz Writing, Writing Jazz with Roy Nathanson and Jason Weiss. 8 p.m. December 13 at the Old Stone House. Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street.

Roy Nathanson will read his jazz/spoken word poetry and author and Jason Weiss will read from his fiction and non fiction.

ROY NATHANSON founded the Jazz Passengers and is a renowned jazz artist, spoken word poet and teacher of music at The Institute for Collaborative Education.

JASON WEISS will read from a new novel, "Faces By the Wayside." He is the author of "Conversations with Steve Lacy" and "Writing At Risk: Interviews in Paris with Uncommon Writers" (University of Iowa Press, 1991).

GREAT STOCKING STUFFERS AT THE OLD STONE HOUSE

Stop in at the Old Stone House on Snowflake night -- DECEMBER 13th at 8 p.m and catch some culture with Park Slope treasure (and one of 2007's Park Slope 100) ROY NATHANSON-- jazzy, spoken word poet and novelist JASON WEISS who will read from new novel and "Conversations with Steve Lacy."

Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Jazz Writing, Writing Jazz with wine, hot cider, candy canes, books and shopping at the Old Stone House. In JJ Byrne Park  on Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street at 8 p.m.

PS The Old Stone House has great stocking stuffers for sale. You can pick up some books, too.

BROOKLYN READING WORKS: DECEMBER 13

On December 13 at 8 p.m.

Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House presents: JAZZ WRITING, WRITING JAZZ

JASON WEISS will read from a new novel, Faces By the Wayside. He is the author of Conversations with Steve Lacy and Writing At Risk: Interviews in Paris with Uncommon Writers (University of Iowa Press, 1991).

ROY NATHANSON founded the Jazz Passengers and is a renowned jazz artist, spoken word poet and teacher of music at a New York City high school.

It happens to be on Snowflake night. But stop into the Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue and Fifth for a glass of wine or warm cider and listen to some jazzy writing and spoken work brought to you by Brooklyn Reading Works.

Brooklyn Reading Works presents author Jason Weiss and jazz/spoken word artist, Roy Nathanson on December 13th at 8 p.m. This should be quite a show. Hope to see you there.

The Old Stone House is located in JJ Byrne Park on Fifth Avenue and Third Street.

JASON WEISS will read from a new novel, Faces By the Wayside. He is the author of Conversations with Steve Lacy and Writing At Risk: Interviews in Paris with Uncommon Writers (University of Iowa Press, 1991).

ROY NATHANSON has a varied career as a saxophonist, composer, band-leader, actor and teacher. He is leader and principal composer of the Jazz Passengers, a six piece group that he founded with Curtis Fowlkes in 1987. They have toured Europe many times and played at major festivals in Finland, Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland—as wll as the J.V.C. Festival in New York, the De Maurier Festival In Canada and in clubs and concerts throughout the U.S. and Canada. The band has also recorded eight albums.

POETRY PUNCH AT BROOKLYN READING WORKS: NOVEMBER 15

Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House presents:
POETRY PUNCH WITH LYNN CHANDHOK, CHERYL B, ZAEDRYN MEADE, MICHELE MADIGAN SOMERVILLE, AND MARIETTA ABRAMS.

Punch with be served.

The Old Stone House is on Fifth Avenue and Third Street in JJ Byrne Park. It is an old stone house behind the playground.

Lynn Chandhok's book "The View from Zero Bridge" was published in September 2007.  Her poetry has appeared in The New Republic, Tin House, The Antioch Review, The Missouri Review, and Sewanee Theological Review.

Cheryl Burke a.k.a. Cheryl B., is writer, editor and literary series curator from NYC.

Zaedryn Meade has produced two chapbooks and one CD, and her work has been included in various anthologies and literary magazines, including The Seattle Review, Monkey Bicycle, Our Truths, Benthology, Best Lesbian Erotica 2006 and 2007, and others. 

Michele Madigan Somerville is the author of Wisegal from Ten Pell Books. Her verse has appeared in Mudfish, Puerto del Sol and Hanging Loose. She was the 2000 First Place Winner of the WB Yeats Society's poetry competition. She has a blog called Poetry Fresh Daily

Marietta Abrams, is a Brooklyn poet who runs the Go Green Initiative at PS 321.

TODAY AT 4PM: JONATHAN LETHEM AT THE LIRBRARY

Author Jonathan Lethem will be reading and talking about his work at the Brooklyn Public Library on Saturday at 4 p.m. They have a new auditorium called the Dweck Center. It might be fun to take a look.

Saturday, November 3, 4:00 PM Central Library, Dweck Center

Jonathan Lethem: In Conversation

Jonathan Lethem received critical accolades for his novels Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude, both of which were set in Brooklyn, where he was raised and spends part of every year. His most recent novel, though, You Don't Love Me Yet, is set in L.A., where he worked as a young man. Lethem has written in a range of literary genres and is known for his fondness for popular culture. In this free-ranging interview, Lethem will discuss his ideas, his life, and his work. This program is co-sponsored by Con Edison.

And next week at the library:

Saturday, November 10, 2:00 PM Central Library, 2nd Floor Meeting Room

Brooklyn Writers for Brooklyn Readers: Michael Thomas

Thomas is interviewed by Leonard Lopate and reads from "Man Gone Down" about a man who finds himself broke and estranged from his wife and children. Brooklyn Writers for Brooklyn Readers is supported in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), a state agency

INNER LIVES, DEVELOPING CHARACTERS: ALL DAY WORKSHOP WITH REGINA MCBRIDE ON NOVEMBER 10th

Novelist Regina McBride, author of The Nature of Water and Air, The Land of Women, and The Marriage Bed comes to Park Slope once a month to teach a one day, intensive workshop, Inner Lives Developing Characters.

Register now to reserve a place in her November 10th Workshop from 10 am until 5 pm that is designed for writers of all levels. The cost is $125.

NOTE FRM OTBKB: I have studied with Regina McBride since 1998 and I recommend her classes to all writers wherever you are in your process. Using relaxation and sense memory, her technique is wonderful whether you are just beginning to write, embarking on a novel or memoir, or very experienced and in the midst of a novel or short story.

For inspiration, character development and incredible writing exercises, Regina's course has been vital to my development as a writer as it always propels me to my best writing. Especially great when your work needs a little jump start.

If you are interested, please email nightsea21@nyc.rr.com

Inner Lives: Developing Characters

An Intensive Workshop with the Focus on the Fictional Character

With Regina McBride

Using relaxation, sense memory, and emotional memory (Stanislavski acting techniques transformed for the writer) a variety of exercises will be offered to enable the student to find a deeper, richer connection to the character he or she is creating.

Exercises will be followed by writing periods, and opportunities for people to read and share their work. The atmosphere will be safe, with the focus on exploration. The class is designed to help the student break into new territory with the character, and with the story itself.

READING AT ROOM 58: SCRIPTS FOR THE BIG AND LITTLE SCREEN AND THE STAGE

I just heard from Scott Adkins of the Brooklyn Writer's Space and Room 58 that Scripts in Progress, the new screenwriters reading series continues at Room 58.

According to Scott, the last one of these was so much fun, they're doing it again. There will be beer and munchies. But the real reason to go says Scott: There's some great writing happening.

SCRIPTS IN PROGRESS
On Monday November 5th Room 58 presents a night of scripts in progress.
You are invited to come and listen to excerpts from scripts written by established and emerging
screenwriters, playwrights, and TV writers.

Room 58 is located at 168 7th Street btw 2nd and 3rd Aves.
F train to 4th Ave Stop or R train to 9th Street stop.

AWARD WINNING PS POET HAS TWO READINGS IN PS

Lynn Chandhok will read from her book, View from Zero Bridge, which was selected for the Phillip Levine Prize. That's a big deal.

Congrats to Lynn, who lives in Park Slope, has taught middle and high school, and travels frequently to India.

Mark Jarman says of Chandhok's writing: "Lynn Chandhok's are poems of two worlds, united by the poet's eye for detail and ear for the iamb's narrative music. She seems constantly aware of what is happening, as she says, 'a hemisphere away.' The View From Zero Bridge, honest and necessary, could not come at a better time."

Community Bookstore reading: November 1, 2007 at 7:30 p.m.

Brooklyn Reading Works: November 15th at 8 p.m.

Lynn will be part of Poetry Punch at Brooklyn Reading Works on November 15th. That reading will also include: Michele Madigan Somerville, Cheryl B., Zaedryn Meade, Marietta Abrams, and possibly Rachel Vigier.

BROOKLYN READING WORKS WILL BE PODCAST

Last night's Brooklyn Reading Works was recorded by Hepcat with his nifty new Zoom recoring device and will be available soon for those who missed it as well as those who were there.

Broken Land: Poems of Brooklyn was the featured book of the evening. Four poets who's work appears in the book, Phillis Levin, Patricia Spears Jones, Tom Sleigh, and Michael Tyrell, read their poems as well as their favorites inside the book.

Everyone agreed that the collection, published by NYU Press, is an unusually strong representation of poems about Brooklyn. Tyrell revealed that he and his co-editor, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, tried to avoid nostalgic poems about Brooklyn, what they called knish poems.

Not that there's anything wrong with poems about knishes.

The book includes contributions from the American poets commonly associated with Brooklyn like Walt Whitman, Hart Crane, and Marianne Moore-as well as memorable poems from Elizabeth Bishop, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, George Oppen, and Charles Reznikoff.

It also includes a wide range of contemporary works from both established and emerging poets: Derek Walcott, Galway Kinnell, C.K. Williams, Amy Clampitt, Martin Espada, Lisa Jarnot, Marilyn Hacker, Tom Sleigh, D. Nurkse, Donna Masini, Michael S. Harper, Noelle Kocot, Joshua Beckman, and many others.

Patricia Spears Jones read her poem, Halloween Weather (A Suite), as well as a poem by June Jordan called Grand Army Plaza.

Philis Levin did a beautiful reading of a Brooklyn poem by Frederico Garcia Lorca, as well as her own piece about the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. She also read a startling poem called The Fire by a Croation poet named, Goran Tomcic.

In addition to his own poem, Tom Sleigh read poems by Hart Crane and Walt Whitman.

In his introduction to the evening, editor Tyrell spoke of the years he and his co-editor spent hunting and gathering poems for the book. He grew up on Manhattan Avenue and still lives in Greenpoint. He said the book was dedicated to Enid Dane, a Brooklyn poet of longstanding, who edited, Home Planet News, a Brooklyn literary tabloid "filled with poetry and gossip." She died in 2003. Tyrell read his poem, "Against Angels" about St. Anthony's Church in Greenpoint.

Phillis Levin read the last poem in the book, a beautiful poem called, After We Make Love by Melissa Beattie-Moss. Here's the final stanza:

To comfort me, we lie in bed and talk of our three-year-old-son.
You've taught him his full name, address and number, to say
Brooklyn
correctly which he tries in his mouth again and again
Mommy, he says, it's Baruch, Baruch-lyn, finding the Hebrew word Baruch
meaning Blessed in the old Dutch town of Brooklyn which you
remind me
also means a broken land

You can order Broken Land from the Community Bookstore (they may have it in stock).

The podcast will be available here and at Brooklyn Reading Works.

Don't miss next month's Brooklyn Reading Works on November 15th at 8 p.m. Poetry Punch with Lynn Chandhok, Michele Madigan Somerville, Zaedryn Meade, Cheryl B., and Marietta Abrams.

At the Old Stone House in JJ Byrne Park. 3rd Street and Fifth Avenue. For directions check the Old Stone House website.

POEMS OF BROOKLYN THIS WEEK AT BROOKLYN READING WORKS

On October 18th at 8 p.m., Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House presents BROKEN LAND: POEMS OF BROOKLYN with poets, Phillis Levin, Andrea Baker, Patricia Spears Jones, and Tom Sleigh.

Brooklyn, crouching forever in the shadow of Manhattan, is perhaps best known for a certain bridge or for the world-renowned tackiness of Coney Island. When it comes to literary history, Brooklyn can also seem dwarfed by its sister borough-until you take a closer look. As unlikely as it may sound, for more than two centuries Brooklyn has inspired poets and poetry. Although there are plenty of poetry anthologies devoted to specific regions of the United States, Broken Land is the first to focus exclusively on verse that celebrates Brooklyn. And what remarkable verse it is.

Edited by poets Julia Spicher Kasdorf and Michael Tyrell, this collection of 135 notable poems reveals the many cultural, ethnic, aesthetic, and religious traditions that have accorded Brooklyn its enduring place in the American psyche. Dazzling in its selections, Broken Land offers poetry from the colonial period to the present, including contributions from the American poets most closely associated with Brooklyn-Walt Whitman, Hart Crane, and Marianne Moore-as well as memorable poems from Elizabeth Bishop, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, George Oppen, and Charles Reznikoff. Also included are a wide range of contemporary works from both established and emerging poets: Derek Walcott, Galway Kinnell, C.K. Williams, Amy Clampitt, Martin Espada, Lisa Jarnot, Marilyn Hacker, Tom Sleigh, D. Nurkse, Donna Masini, Michael S. Harper, Noelle Kocot, Joshua Beckman, and many others.

With its expansive array of poetic styles and voices, Broken Land mirrors the borough's diversity, toughness, and surprising beauty. The requirements for inclusion in this volume were simple: excellent poems that pay tribute in some way to the land that Dutch settlers, translating from the Algonquin, called "Gebroken landt." But it is the phrase emblazoned on borough billboards that best serves to entice readers into entering this book: "Welcome to Brooklyn, Like No Other Place in the World."

Published by NYU Press, it is the first poetry anthology dedicated exclusively to verse about Brooklyn. Editors Julia Spicher Kasdorf and Michael Tyrell have culled 135 poems that chart the boroughs long history as a place of danger and beauty, dreams and disappointment. Sure, there are several references to Brooklyns bridges and Coney Islands beaches — and even a few to the Dodgers — but the book also encompasses a diversity of lives lived among and between the boroughs icons.
—Brooklyn Daily Eagle

In the excellent and surprising anthology Broken Land, poets and editors Julia Spicher Kasdorf and Michael Tyrell take a chronological and panoramic look at the New York borough of Brooklyn as portrayed in poems.
—Publishers Weekly

"This book isn't only for Brooklyn residents but for all those who value community. . . . Reading this collection is a moving experience because the poems feel home-grown. It doesn't matter where they were written, each one makes Brooklyn come alive, and the poems find a home inside you."
—From the Foreword by Hal Sirowitz, author of Mother Said

 

 

BROOKLYN READING WORKS OFFICIAL SCHEDULE FOR 2007-2008

BROOKLYN READING WORKS
AT THE OLD STONE HOUSE
Curated by Louise Crawford
Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope
Info: brooklynreadingworks.com or theoldstonehouse.org

SEPTEMBER 20
HOT NEW AUTHOR, HOT NEW BOOK with Rudy Delson

OCTOBER 18
BROKEN LAND: POEMS OF BROOKLYN
with Phillis Levin, Andrea Baker, Patricia Spears Jones, and Tom Sleigh

NOVEMBER 15
POETRY PUNCH
with Lynn Chandhok, Zaedryn Meade, Cheryl B, Michele Madigan Somerville and Marietta Abrams

DECEMBER 13
JAZZ WRITING, WRITING JAZZ
with Jason Weiss and jazz/spoken word artist Roy Nathanson

JANUARY 17:
RAW THEATER
Side Street: a  reading of a new play by Rosemary Moore

FEBRUARY 28
MEMOIRATHON
with Branka Ruzak, Mary Warren, Carla Thomas, Marian Fontana and Nica Lalli

March 27
INNER LIVES OUT LOUD
Readings from Regina McBride’s Inner Lives, Developing Characters Intensive Workshops

APRIL 10
FUN WITH PUPPETS, SCISSORS AND FICTION
Barbara Ensor and Martin Kleinman

MAY 8
THIRD ANNUAL_BROOKLYN BLOGFEST (location TBD).

JUNE 12
ANNUAL READING OF THE 808 UNION WRITER'S GROUP

All readings at 8 p.m.

WRITING WORKSHOP ON OCTOBER 13TH

On October 13, Regina McBride is coming to Brooklyn for her monthly Park Slope workshop, INNER LIVES, DEVELOPING CHARACTERS.

At a convenient location near subways and Seventh Avenue. 10 am until 5 pm., the workshop costs $125. To register: nightsea21(at)nyc.rr(dot)com.

A writing workshop with the focus on the character. Good for writers at all levels and styles.

Using relaxation, sense memory, and emotional memory (Stanislavski acting techniques transformed for the writer) a variety of exercises will be offered to enable the student to find a deeper, richer connection to the character he or she is creating.

Exercises will be followed by writing periods, and opportunities for people to read and share their work. The atmosphere will be safe, with the focus on exploration. The class is designed to help the student break into new territory with the character, and with the story itself.

A GOOD NIGHT FOR RUDOLPH DELSON AT BROOKLYN READING WORKS

Rudy Delson's reading at Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House really was SPECIAL. There were over 100 people there and there was a palpable sense of good feeling and excitement for Rudy's debut novel, Maynard and Jennica.

Benjamin Kunkel, co-founder and co-editor of N+1, played rabbi at this Bar Mitzvah of a reading and spoke eloquently about Delson's ambitious book that has 35 narrators.

Rudy read excerpts from the book, which is really a series of monologues, with his agent and editor. Not only were they great readers, but their faces couldn't hid their sense of pride and accomplishment about this masterful and funny book.

Rudy called his editor and agent the book's midwives. It was a beautiful and truthful acknowledgment of the collaborative nature of book publishing. Something that is rarely acknowledged, I think.

Rudy also read sections of his book solo like the stand up comic he could be. He's dramatic, funny and really ON when he reads and that really makes the book's fictional interviews come alive.

I missed some of the reading because I was so nervous that we didn't have enough open bottles of wine. I went downstairs and starting corking wine bottles and pouring glasses. Rudy brought a delicious selection of cheeses from the Coop ("only cheeses I'd never heard of," he said) and two lovely women from  Community Books were selling books.

The party went on until 11 p.m. Rudy asked everyone to sing Happy Birthday to the person that the book is dedicated to, who happened to be there. The book was released on his birthday last Tuesday. An appropriate coincidence. Rudy  mentioned that in his thank you speech, in which he thanked just about everyone in the room. Not really.

But it was a gracious night. And a special one.

RUDY DELSON IS BRINGING CHEESE TO BROOKLYN READING WORKS

Come this Thursday to Brooklyn Reading Works and hear Rudy Delson and friends read from his brand new book, Maynard and Jennica.

Afterwards, party down and schmooze with neighbors, friends, and the literati of Brooklyn. Rudy will be bringing cheese (and wine). Here's the note from Rudy:

I ordered two and a half cases of wine at Big Nose, Full Body
yesterday. With the case you're bringing, I imagine that will be more than enough.

My plan, basically, is to buy one wedge of whatever cheeses look good at the
Coop on Thursday morning, and then to make little labels for them.
(How high class is that?)

BROOKLYN BOOK FEST: A GREAT DAY FOR BOOKS

I spent a fun half-hour browsing tables at yesterday's Brooklyn Book Festival. I also caught the tail end of a very interesting reading and discussion on the stage across from Borough Hall called Rhythm Maps, featuring Staceyann Chin, Steve Dalachinsky, Gregory Pardlo, and Danny Simmons.

Apparently 10,000 people enjoyed this day of books. The weather was perfect for browsing, listening to writers reading, and chit chatting with vendors, writers and friends.

The selection of publishing vendors was geographically diverse but it included plenty of Brooklyn-based groups including, the NY Writers Coalition Inc., One Story, Outside the Box Publishing, Pathfinder Books, PEN American Center, Poets & Writers, Polytechnic University, Power House Books/ Power House Arenas, Red Pill Press, Seven Stories Press, Sleepingfish, Small Beer Press, Soft Skull/Counterpoint, Spoonbill & Sugartown Booksellers, The Green-Wood Historic Fund, The Saint Ann’s Review, Tin House and many more.

I bought three beautifully designed editions of novellas from a series by Melville House Publishing called "The Art of the Novella."  I got The Dead by James Joyce, Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, and First Love by Ivan Turgenev.

Good subway reading, I got these three of my favorite pieces of literature for Teen Spirit.

The Melville House series celebrates the novella, a form that is too short to be a novel and too long to be a short story and is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers.

I didn't make it to any of the other readings. Did you? Do tell.