Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn » BROOKLYN READING WORKS

I Finished Middlemarch. Finally.

louise crawford — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:45:50 +0000

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

louise crawford — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:00:25 +0000

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

louise crawford — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:38:30 +0000

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

louise crawford — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:30:00 +0000

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

louise crawford — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:12:27 +0000

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

louise crawford — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:18:37 +0000

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

louise crawford — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:31:57 +0000

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

louise crawford — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:38:00 +0000

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

louise crawford — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:07:02 +0000

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

Readings on the 4th Floor: Jonathan and Said

louise crawford — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:42:40 +0000

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.