Brooklyn Reading Works starts up again on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 AT 8 p.m. at the Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets.
And it’ll be so much easier to pull off than Brooklyn Film Works, our exciting July outdoor film series. I’m not kidding you: putting up a 15 x 20 ft. screen, audio equipment, tents, etc. every week was as A LOT OF WORK. Luckily we had a crack crew of volulnteers and technicians. But boy. And all that worry about rain and HEAT and the garbage truck and on and on. Not to mention we set up on either the hottest days of the summer or the wettest. On the Moonstruck night, we had to stop the film and were just lucky to get the audience off the lawn before the big lightning storm. But it was really, really fun and a great sucess.
But a reading series is easy by comparison: you don’t have to worry about the weather because it’s indoors, you set up a bunch of chairs, drinks and refreshments, the podium…Easy and fun. And oh so literary.
BROOKLYN READING WORKS 2006-2007 SEASON
September 21, 2006 Opening Night Festivities
Lori Soderland, author of CHASING MONTANA (UW Press) will read. park Slope residet, Mary Sternbach reads recently published short story.
October 19, 2006
LEORA SKOLKIN-SMITH will read from her book, “EDGES: O PALESTINE, O ISRAEL” published by “Glad Day Books” a small literary house founded by GRACE PALEY and Robert Nichols. Ms. Paley was the editor of “Edges” . The novel has recently been nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award. It was also, selected by The Jewish Book Council for a National Tour and will be featured at this year’s Virginia Festival for the Book.
RICHARD GRAYSON reads from his new collection of short stored, “AND TO THINK HE KISSD HIM ON LORIMER STREET AND OTHER STORIES.”
November 16, 2006
Author DARCEY STEINKE, author of SUICIDE BLONDE (chosen as a New York Times notable book of the year), UP FROM THE WATER and JESUS SAVES will read from her new book.
December 14, 2006
An evening of poetry with 32 POEMS MAGAZINE. 32 Poems is a semiannual poetry magazine published in April and November. Each issue of journal contains 32 poems so you can give intimate, unhurried attention to each. It’s easy to carry and inviting to read.
The comfortable size of 32 POEMS and the superb quality of the work therein provides an alternative to larger collections and is attractive to new readers of contemporary poetry. Publisher Deborah Ager and a group of 32 Poems poets will be present.
January 18,2007
CLYDE OF NYC: THE FUNKY HOMOSEXUAL Clyde is a twenty-, thirty-, forty-something living in New York City, the Northern suburbs, the Eastern suburbs, in a van down by the river; the East River, the Hudson River. He love naps, White Castle cheeseburgers, The Flintstones, I Love Lucy, and Batman-THE Batman. He is madly in love and totally unavailable (sorry girls; and guys). He is a prolific short fiction writer and dabbles in poetry, rarely.
February 22, 2007
CARLA THOMPSON will read from her book, BEARING WITNESS, NOT SO CRAZY IN ALABAMA, which was well-reviewed by Booklist, Library Journal, Baltimore City Paper, MyShelf.com and Black Issues Book Review. There will be another reader TBD.
MARCH 15,2007
Brooklyn Reading Works celebrates ONE STORY MAGAZINE, an acclaimed literary magazine published right here in Park Slope. About their unusual, one-story, small format: “We believe that short stories are best read alone. They should not be sandwiched in between a review and an expos� on liposuction, or placed after another work of fiction that is so sad or funny or long that the reader is worn out by the time they turn to it.”
Publisher Marybeth Batcha and Editor Hannah Tinti will gather up a bunch of ONE STORY fiction talent for a night of fun, frolic and readings at The Old Stone House.
APRIL 19,2007
KRISTINA CHEW, a classics professor and mom writes a blog called AUTISMLAND. “Finding out your child has autism is like the end of a love affair and the start of a new, lifelong, really beautiful relationship.” MOTHERS VOX, the nom-de-net of a mother, teacher, scholar and activist living in New York City, will read from her blog, AUTISM’S EDGES.
MAY 24,2007
In honor of Mother’s Day, ALISON LOWENSTEIN, author of City Baby Brooklyn, will read from her novel-in-progress, MOMMY GROUP, about a group of Park Slope moms. SMARTMOM (aka Louise Crawford) will be reading excerpts from her Brooklyn Papers column and another Mommy blogger TBD.
JUNE 21,2007
Poets MICHAEL RUBY and NANCY GRAHAM will read
Michael Ruby’s first book, At An Intersection , was published in 2002 by Alef Books in New York. His poems have been published, or are forthcoming, in the print journals Lungfull!, syllogism , Fell Swoop ‘s Brooklyn Stoop issue, Lost & Found Times, and The Torch ; and in e-zines xStream , Aught , Big Bridge , La Petite Zine , Sidereality , BlazeVOX, Castagraf and Unpleasant Event Schedule, as well as in single-author issues of Mudlark and Poethia . He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and works as a journalist.
Nancy Graham’s poetry and prose have appeared in Aught, BlazeVOX, Chronogram, Prima Materia, Listening in Dreams: A Compendium of Sound Dreams, Meditations and Rituals for Deep Dreamers and Eratio. Her chapbook, Somniloquies, is available through Pudding House Publications.