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:

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

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.

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.

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 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.” 

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:

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."

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/

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

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.

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

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

 
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

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. 

 

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

photos by Tom Martinez

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.

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:

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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!