I'm probably the least qualified person in this lineup

Vol. 1 Brooklyn’s Birthday Party: The Greatest 3-Minute Record Reviews Ever

Vol. 1 Brooklyn Presents

The Greatest 3-Minute Record Reviews Ever

With special musical guests: Xray Eyeballs

Aaron Lefkove (LiveFastDie/Creator: Summer of Megadeath)
Adam Wilson (The Faster Times)
Andrea Bartz (Stuff Hipsters Hate)
Ben Greenman (The New Yorker, new book called What He’s Poised to Do)
Bill Pearis (Sound Bites NYC/Brooklyn Vegan)
Brenna Ehrlich (Mashable/Stuff Hipsters Hate)
Brandon Stosuy (Stereogum/The Believer) Canceled/had a baby/mazel tov!
Claire Shefchik (The Faster Times)
Emma Straub (Author)
Jared Bloom (The Full Ginsburg)
Jason Diamond (Vol. 1 Brooklyn)
Jason Orlovich (Brooklyn the Borough)
James Yeh (Gigantic Mag)
Jed Smith (My Teenage Stride)
Jens Carstensen (Limewire/The Giraffes)
Jeremy Krinsley (Impose)
Jesse Hlebo (Swill Children)
Maggie Serota (New York Press)
Maris Kreizman (Slaughterhouse 90210)
Marisa Meltzer (Author of Girl Power: 90′s Revolution in Music)
Marty Beckerman (Online features editor at Esquire/author)
Maura Johnston (The Awl)
Rob Tannenbaum (Playboy Magazine/Rolling Stone)
Sara Jaffe (Writer/musician)
Scott Lindenbaum (Electric Literature)
Tobias Carroll (The Scowl/Vol. 1 Brooklyn)
Zachary Lipez (Freshkills/Author of “Please Take Me off the Guest List”)

At: Bar Matchless – 557 Manhattan Ave. Greenpoint, Brooklyn

7 PM, no cover

Reunited

Not only is author Eric Davidson an accomplished music journalist who's written for CMJ and the Voice, he is, in fact, a member of the legendary New Bomb Turks, who are reuniting tonight at the Bell House for one night only to celebrate the release of We Never Learn, Davidson's firsthand account of the punk underground of the '80s and '90s. So you get to see him read and play. And if that's not enough, I'll be selling the book, so you can keep me company. There's nobody lonelier than the merch girl during a good show. And wait, what's this about gourmet barbecue?

Join me Thursday for story time in Greenpoint

Here's your chance to hear me tell whatever stirring story I come up with between now and Thursday night (and that will most likely involve a penis, because as I've come to realize, at readings, much like in kindergarten, penis references are invariably gold) and if you're so inclined, join me and the other talented readers before and/or after for a drink and a hang. It happens this Thursday, November 19 at 8 pm at Bar Matchless, 557 Manhattan Ave. in Greenpoint. Detailed directions can be found here: http://www.barmatchless.com/about.html.

Vol. 1 Brooklyn Storytelling Series

Come wish us a happy winter break as we present our final Vol. 1 Brooklyn Storytelling of 2009. This month, we present two contributes to our site, and three newcomers to the Matchless stage.

:Porochista Khakpour
::Clay Mcleod Chapman
:::Tobias Carroll
::::Aaron Hartman
:::::Claire Shefchik

Hosted by Jason Diamond
http://www.vol1brooklyn.com

The cool kids

How often do you get to hear fiction writers read entire stories in one sitting? In my experience, almost never. But last night at NYU's Lillian Vernon House was different. Contributors to the past and current (shown above) issues of Epiphany defeated the Curse of the Fiction Reader (i.e., when you can only read three pages of a 12-page story, nobody knows what the hell you're talking about).

Editor Jeffrey Gustavson plays emcee.

Lara Tupper steams things up with "Ting!," a tale of hot encounters between cruise ship crew.

April Naoko Heck gets in our face with her non-confessional confessional poetry (note that's an index finger, not a middle!).

Your next chance to experience current Epiphany work will be Wednesday at 7, upstairs at Pianos, during the official issue release party. Rumor has it there will be people reading, but it will be business as usual, at only about 5 minutes each, so, alas, poets win again. But as always, we fiction writers have liquor to make up for that.

Saturday Night Lit

UPDATE: See corrected date for issue release party below:


Grab this chance to hear writers read their selections from the past two issues of Epiphany Magazine; last spring's Naked Psyches and this fall's Who's Still Alive, at the Lillian Vernon House at NYU, 58 W. 10th St. It's the first of two Epiphany events taking place this week; the second one will be Wednesday at 7 at Pianos. The lineup tonight is as follows:

Part 1
7 - 9 P.M.
Last Spring’s Classic:
NAKED PSYCHES Issue

Keith Hendershot, “I Heart You Past August”
Susan Ruel, “Medium Shuffle Blues in E”

Part 2
9:30 P.M.
The New Issue:
WHO’S STILL ALIVE . . . / (l)ove = (o)cean
Lara Tupper, “Ting!”
April Naoko Heck, two poems
Michael Ferch, four poems
H.V. Chao, “Jewel of the North”

It's all curated by Epiphany editors Jeffrey Gustavson, Willard Cook and Karol Nielsen. Who knows, maybe next issue it will be YOU reading. Or even me.

John Hughes Night at Vol. 1 Brooklyn,Thursday 9/17

Some background: I was born the year Ferris Bueller came out. Thus, I was privileged enough to discover the John Hughes canon all over again around the time I thought I was the only one to ever discover it. So (By the way, I don't care what anyone says, the existence of Some Kind of Wonderful does NOT make up for Duckie and Andie not ending up together at the end of Pretty in Pink. But this does:



Okay, maybe not. But we tried (so did Hughes, for that matter, but that's another story). Anyway, I was delighted to be able to attend Vol. 1 Brooklyn's tribute to the late director, tragically relocated from its usual location at Bar Matchless, to the loft at Public Assembly. Some highlights:

The emcee - somebody want to help me out with his name? I sure appreciate his encouraging us to ponder the eternal question: Jake Ryan vs. Ferris Bueller vs. John Bender? Guess which one I picked? No really, guess. I promise it will be an amusing diversion for you. And me.


Jesse Sposato (Sadie Magazine) on how Hughes films ruined her love life.


Susie Hwang being adorable and a very talented accordionist and singer as well, especially working from the Hughes songbook: "If You Leave," "Danke Schoen." No Simple Minds, alas, but maybe next time.

Newly minted authoress Ivy Pochoda (The Art of Disappearing) who by the time I got there, was already having way more fun than I've had in weeks.

Chelsea Hodson, an classmate of mine in an undergrad English class, a long time ago in another life, writing from the perspectives of each of Hughes' main characters.

And of course, Jason Diamond of Vol. 1 itself, himself a native of Hughesville (aka North Shore of Chicago) who is the most self-deprecating talented guy I've ever met. Jason, write more fiction (And I'm not only saying that because he links to me a lot).
'
"When you grow up, your heart dies."

- Allison

Nick Cave appears tonight at Barnes and Noble

Before I post the recap from last night's Rasputina show, I feel the need the call your attention to this event, which starts in less than an hour but sounds well worth dropping everything for. Dark and moody (and needless to say, multi-talented) songwriter Nick Cave will be on hand to read from and discuss his novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, which is just out. My views on artists/celebrities from other disciplines crossing over into fiction are well known, but Cave is a born storyteller and an established novelist (having published 1989's And the Ass Saw the Angel) and those familiar with his prose have told me that his gift for language and morbid humor is no less evident there. He'll hopefully be discussing that gift with Katherine Lanpher, a talented writer and media personality herself, and a family friend of mine from the Twin Cities, a long time ago in another life.

The event starts at 7 PM at Barnes and Noble Union Square,
33 East 17th Street.

Mp3 - Nick Cave - Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!

The early show: At-Large packs 'em in, literally

Editors and emcees Rohin Guha and Niina Pollari, the latter looking rather indignant.


Benjamin Dickerson.

Rebecca Keith and the crowd.

Kaveh Bassiri.

Rena Priest.



The scene: S. 6th St. in Williamsburg, in the doorway of a quaint, and shall-we-say intimate little space on the site of a bike repair shop-turned-DIY-venue, or so my investigative work turned up (i.e. talking to the bartender). Plus his outspoking curly-haired blonde companion, who, while flipping me the bird, wasn't shy about making her jealousy known about my plans for the second part of the evening-- seeing Chairlift at the Bowery Ballroom (see above). A stackful of PBR from the (as-promised) cash bar made things start to seem all right, while Rohin and Niina drew names out of a hat, and Rebecca Keith (look for an Mp3 from her band The Roulettes coming here soon) reading Craigslist ads encountered (like many of the rest of us) during her search as an underemployed writer and musician, and Brett Saxon (whose photograph eluded me as I crouched in a corner, but my opinion, but who I recall looking somewhat like Carrot Top, his musical talent notwithstanding) played with his beautiful cellist, and I reclined inreadings, events, recaps, At-Large Magazine, lit mags, the warm, dark sylvan sound of the instrument I love so much. Twenty minutes later, I dashed. Could it be, perhaps, time to rethink my strategy all this time for wearing out my welcome?

Continued above.

At-Large Magazine parties in Brooklyn, possibly in an abandoned storefront

If you'd like to come hear various friends and enemies of mine present very excellent work from the storied history of At-Large Magazine, then this event is for you. Despite advertising a "cash bar," investigation has revealed that it does not actually take place at a "bar" per se. But wherever it is, I can almost guarantee you there will be some degree of penis-related humor. Because I don't know if you've noticed this, but at readings, penis-related humor never fails to draw laughter.

Fort Greene Park becomes a public space

A Public Space has long (well, since 2005, but that's longer than I've been in New York) been one of my favorite journals to find excellent writing that's unexpected but not gimmicky (usually), like their clever "If You See Something, Say Something" series. Tonight, they're coming to the lovely and local (to me) Fort Greene Park to do a writing with three of their writers. I never miss an opportunity to promote events in my hood.

Also of note, is that the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, the impressive obalisque you see above, has at some point this year been restored to its former majesty, instead of being inaccessible behind orange plastic fences and covered in ugly scaffolding, as it was ever since I've been living near Fort Greene. The monument, and the impressive stone steps leading up to it, as I discovered several weeks ago during a David's stay, are worthy of a D.C.-caliber walkdown.

Michael Schwartz is a poet, playwright, and Coney Island resident. He is an awardee of the Interpreting Brooklyn Project, founded by the Brooklyn Historical Society.

Elizabeth Gaffney is a writer and editor at large for A Public Space. Her first novel, Metropolis, was a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. She is now at work on a second novel and a story collection.

L.J. Davis is a prize-winning journalist and author of A Meaningful Life. A former Guggenheim Fellow and the winner of a National Magazine Award, he lives in Brooklyn.

It all gets started tonight at 6:30 at the Fort Greene Park Visitor Center.

Directions: G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Ave; 2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St; B, M, Q, R to DeKalb Ave

Pack your suspenders, I'll come meet your plane

Last night at the Slipper Room, I witnessed the indomitable writers of Featherproof Books get up onstage to read stories they'd crafted from stuff like vaguely icky greeting cards with cartoon bears on them and CDs with music composed by Barry McGuire ("Eve of Destruction"), to coffee mugs inexplicably touting internet abbreviations, to a pair of erotic suspenders. Keep in mind, if I were them, I, too, would be a bit crazed by the hours and hours they've spent packed into a van at this point. It was all part of the cross-country Dollar Store Tour. Observe:

Aaron Burch, editor of Hobart, pre-strip. (Sorry I didn't get that pic.)


Zach Dodson, framed by heads (I don't know, it kind of looks deliberate, don't you think?) IMHO, he's just as funny an actor as he is a writer...on MyBook and SpaceFace.



The lovely Amelia Gray, author of the just-out AM/PM, a book of very short fiction. (Don't worry, I won't say the f-word).

During a chat with Amelia, I asked her how they'd survived two weeks already in a van without killing each other, and she revealed that the group worked out one simple principle for surviving the long hours in the van -- whoever's most likely to throw up, gets the window seat.

Dollar store junk + literature = gold?

Featherproof Books is a Chicago-based independent publisher, who, this summer, have loaded 7 or so of their very earnest and talented writers into a van like some kind of hyper-literate indie-rock band, and taking their show on a month-long cross-country tour. Tonight, the Dollar Store Tour is landing in The Slipper Room in NYC, at which I hope to join some of my elusive acquaintances from the local blogerati to watch D.E. Rasso, Robert Lopez, Aaron Burch, Blake Butler, Zach Dodson, Amelia Gray, Mary Hamilton and Jac Jemc read stories they've written based on broken waffle irons, CB radios, and fake Tiffany lamps.

Faithful readers will note that I'm a rabid backer of weird literary events, or really any literary event that manages to break out of the tweed-jacketed-guy-sitting-on-a-stool-reading-excerpts-from-a-book-about-his-childhood-in-1953 mode, or twentysomething-overdressed-girl-desperately-trying-to-make-something-literary-about-that-time-she-curled-up-on-her-couch-for-three-days-waiting-for-her-ex-boyfriend-to-call-back mode, so the originality of this event excites me thoroughly, and I'm looking forward to talking with some of the readers about just how badly they want to kill each other after two and half weeks in a van together.

The event, which kicks off tonight at 8 and will cost you a $1 donation, also features DJ sets from Take the Handle.

The Slipper Room is on the Lower East Side at 167 Orchard at Stanton St.

Mixer Series features Galchen, Flynn, Klosterman, Datus

Melissa Febos' and Rebecca Keith's reading series Mixer has been, in my opinion, for the past two years since is birth, the standard-bearer for NYC readings. My own various Punk/Folk/Electroclash Rock Fiction(s) can still only dream of achieving the top-drawer talent and consistent quality these girls have for their series. (Plus, after I got drunk and dropped my wallet on the floor of the Cake Shop after attending one night, afraid all was lost, Melissa found it, walked her big old dog over to my apartment and returned it to me personally. That's service, folks). This Wednesday's installment is set to be particularly delicious, since it features writers Nick Flynn, Rivka Galchen and Chuck Klosterman.

Musical guest Datus will also be in attendance. I wasn't familiar with their music before I listened to them on MySpace, but fans of moody, tribal-sounding post-rock (think Gang Gang Dance with male vocals) should enjoy them.


Mixer Reading and Music Series
Wednesday, June 17th, 7:00 p.m., FREE
hosted by Melissa Febos and Rebecca Keith
takes place
at Cakeshop
152 Ludlow St., bet. Stanton and Rivington
F, V to 2nd Ave., F, J, M to Delancey/Essex



Nick Flynn’s “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City” (Norton, 2004), won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award, was shortlisted for France’s Prix Femina, and has been translated into thirteen languages. He is also the author of two books of poetry, “Some Ether” (Graywolf, 2000), and “Blind Huber" (Graywolf, 2002), for which he received fellowships from, among other organizations, The Guggenheim Foundation and The Library of Congress. Some of the venues his poems, essays and non-fiction have appeared in include The New Yorker, the Paris Review, National Public Radio’s “This American Life,” and The New York Times Book Review. His film credits include “field poet” and artistic collaborator on the film “Darwin’s Nightmare,” which was nominated for an Academy Award for best feature documentary in 2006. One semester a year he teaches at the University of Houston.

Chuck Klosterman is the New York Times bestselling author of Downtown Owl; Chuck Klosterman IV; Killing Yourself to Live; Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs; and Fargo Rock City, winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. He is a featured columnist for Esquire, a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, and has also written for Spin, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Believer, and ESPN. His work has been selected for the De Capo Best Music Writing, Best American Travel Writing, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading anthologies. Klosterman grew up on a farm near Wyndmere, North Dakota. After graduating from the University of North Dakota, he wrote for the Fargo Forum and the Akron Beacon Journal. Klosterman is published in eight territories and seven languages. Scribner will publish his forthcoming book, Eating the Dinosaur, in October 2009.


Rivka Galchen is the author of the novel, Atmospheric Disturbances. Her essays and fiction have appeared in The Believer, The New Yorker, Scientific American, and The New York Times.

More lit mags than you can shake a stick at

2009 Lumina Editor-in-Chief Mira Ptacin will be on hand at this event to read from this year's issue:



It features fiction and poetry from Ben Greenman, Steve Almond, Sloane Crosley, Linda Gregg, Phillip Lopate and April Bernard, among others. Along with Lumina, you'll be able to sample the wares of 20+ other lit mags. It will be virtually impossible not to find something great.

Reports from Folk Rock Fiction, May 3

Sara Lippmann and the crowd.

Me introducing somebody.

Aaron Voyles of Voyles and the Is My Heroes at his first show in NYC. His next show is May 12 at 11 @ Otto's Shrunken Head, 539 14th St., NYC.

Announcing Folk Rock Fiction, Sunday May 3 at 107 Suffolk Bar

Three local writers provide the fiction. Voyles and the Is My Heroes provide the folk rock. You provide the audience.

Claire Shefchik and Indichik.com invite you to join us Sunday, May 3 at 6 p.m. in the gallery space at 107 Suffolk on the Lower East Side, as three local writers get into the folk rock spirit by reading fiction about coal miners, train wrecks, and the Bells of Rhymney. Or, you know, anything they want. They are:

Sara Lippmann holds a BA from Brown and an MFA from The New School. She has written for magazines, taught English composition, and currently spends a lot of time scraping dried bits of Play-Doh off her floor. Her work has appeared in The Raleigh Quarterly, Fourth Genre, Illness & Grace (an anthology), LIT, Carve and the Beacon Street Review. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, daughter, and son.

Melanie Olson was born in San Francisco, and attended Northwestern University in Chicago, largely because of the weather. She is currently obtaining her MFA in fiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College. If you happen to have a question about Mormons, she's the person to ask (other than an actual Mormon, of course).

Kenton deAngeli is a Russian writer widely regarded as one of the greatest novelists of all time. His masterpieces, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, represent the peak of realist fiction in their scope, breadth and vivid depiction of 19th-century Russian life and mind.



Voyles and the Is My Heroes (formerly known as Voyles Is My Hero) is currently based in Yonkers, N.Y. It consists of singer-songwriter Aaron Voyles on acoustic guitar and everything else, playing witty, acerbic and always-melodic songs in the style of Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen.

107 Suffolk Street is between Rivington Street and Delancey Street, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan

By train: Take the F train to Delancey Street or J , M , or Z to Essex Street. Walk to Suffolk Street, make a left. (around the corner from ABC No Rio). It kind of looks like a church.

An Epiphany on the Bowery

in honor of the release of Epiphany's Winter/Spring '09 issue. Along with several other stirring story-tellers, reading will feature the talent of Mira Ptacin-Jackson, reading an essay about the uterus. It's guaranteed to be as lovely as the lovingly-rendered illustration above.

NAKED PSYCHES ON THE BOWERY

Epiphany is proud to announce the release of its Winter/Spring ’09 issue, Naked Psyches. Epiphany will be celebrating the release of Naked Psyches with a reading and launch party on March 25th from 6-8 at the Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, N.Y.C. (Admission: $5, Admission + Naked Psyches: $10, Admission + one-year subscription: $15.)

No place says L'Amour like Bushwick, Brooklyn

It is a proven fact that there is no problem in life that cannot be solved by going to the Bushwick Libary. This is a perfect opportunity. It takes place Saturday, February 14, from 3 to 5 p.m. (Yes, that is Valentine's Day, which to many people is a problem in and of itself.)

There's also been rumors of pantomime and commemorative quarters.

Readers are:

Rohin Guha
Matt Carney
Aaron Short
Marc Jaffee

Something also might be done to their voice boxes, I'm not sure. The Bushwick Libary is at Bushwick Ave. and Seigel St. in Brooklyn.

Bushwick Reading Series on the Internets

She's such a punk

WARNING! Shameless self-promotion ahead:


Please join me, my closest friends, and a collection of the curious for my first curated literary event in New York City. Details below:


Claire Shefchik (Sarah Lawrence MFA '09) and Cornelia Street Cafe Present:

PUNK ROCK FICTION

Sunday, January 11, at 6:00 PM

Five young NYC writers will get all up in your face with their fresh, bold, funny and innovative prose. That's punk rock. That's Punk Rock Fiction.

Jason Amos (Sarah Lawrence MFA alum)
Amy Dupcak ((current New School MFA)
Marina Kaganova (current Columbia MFA)
Claire Shefchik (current Sarah Lawrence MFA)

and featuring:

David Hollander is the author of the novel, L.I.E. His short fiction has recently appeared in McSweeney's, Post Road, Swink, Unsaid, The Black Warrior Review, Sleeping Fish, and elsewhere; his nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Poets & Writers, and Gastronomica (and again, elsewhere). Hollander's work has been frequently anthologized, most recently in Best American Fantasy, 2007. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the writer Margaret Hundley Parker, and their daughter, Percy.

Detailed bios of all readers can be found here.

Doors open at 6. Admission is $7 and includes a free drink.

The Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia St.
NYC
212-989-9319

Directions:
A, C, E, B, D, F & V to W. 4th St.
1 & 9 to Sheridan Square
http://www.corneliastreetcafe.com