Better Off Dead: Coffin Factory’s Issue Two Launch Party at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe

1. Michael Signorelli, Adam’s editor and beer rest; Adam Wilson, writer, Faster Times editor, mean-mugger; Sarah Rapp, Adam’s girlfriend and community manager at Behance; and Amanda Bullock, the Housing Works events director who brought these lit-loving beer-drinkers together. 2. Joe, Penguin representative, Tiffany, book blogger, and Robert, tie-wearing MTA employee who couldn’t tell me when I’ll be able to trust the Q train again. Between Tiffany and Robert: grade-A photo bomb. 

 

Somehow, I managed to be an English major in New York without visiting Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. I fixed that last night around seven. Two hours and a few $5-suggested-donation beers later and Amanda, the events director, had to remove me from under the store’s sloping staircase, where I figured I’d hide forever and live among the books. In between I’d attended the launch party for Issue Two of The Coffin Factory, a new literary magazine that I’ve fallen for as suddenly and unconditionally as Housing Works. Contributors Adam Wilson, Carlos Labbé, Jeannie Vanasco, and Justin Taylor read excerpts from their Factory pieces to celebrate the launch before the evening flowed into beery schmoozing.

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Radio Reading! StoryCorps at Greenlight

1. Never seen so many people at a reading that didn’t advertise free wine. Sweet. 2. Isaac Kestenbaum, Mike Dougherty, Kate Brown, Kira Limer, and Sylvie Lubow, all wonderful people from StoryCorps and old regulars from the cafe I worked at next door. Hi!

 

Last night something happened at Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene: They had a radio program. Sort of. It was the first night of the book tour for All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps, the third anthology from the fantastic public radio program founded by Dave Isay, five-time Peabody Award and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient. It was a reading, a listening, a cartoon-watching event rolled up into one uber-intimate media presentation that made a few people tear up, which, for me, was a first at a literary event. I’m embarrassed to tell you when the last time I saw someone cry in public, but I’ll tell you: I was 8. There was a dinosaur.

 

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum (But Don’t Spill it on Me Book): Sara Levine’s Treasure Island!!!

1. Happy buccaneers milling around the rum punch.  2. Sara Levine in the swashbuckling act of READING!

 

Way to go for WORD of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Last night’s Treasure Island!!! event kicked off the month of February with rum, adventure, and the American sensibility of self-improvement! And yes, that’s Treasure Island with three exclamation points—author Sara Levine’s editor wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Fiction Addiction — That’s Some Good $hi*

1. John, a photographer, & Lacey, a bartender, going back to the LES after feeling withdrawals from their recent move to Brooklyn. 2. As Brad Listi would say: “It’s a book, you can read it, oh my god.”

 

I’d been hearing some buzz around the new(ish) reading series Fiction Addiction, but had failed to make it out to see what all the talk was about. Then I met the series’ curator, Christine Vines, at Franklin Park earlier this month, and, after being impressed by both her writing skills and sweetness, I decided I really had to get over to 2A this month to check it out. This month seemed to be an especially good place to start, with the theme being “Potential” (fitting for the new year), and the readers including Said Sayrafiezadeh, Joshua Furst, Nadia Kalman and Tanya Rey.

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Boy With a Blog in His Side – Largehearted Lit’s 10th Anniversary at WORD Brooklyn

1. WORD’s “Vandalized by Author” wall. There weren’t any phone numbers. 2. Jen Gillmore, Dead Heads, joints.
 
David Gutowski, of Largehearted Boy and most recently Book Boroughing, describes himself on his Twitter bio as such: “I read and write and listen to music. A lot.” This is all you really need to know about Gutowski and his blog, who celebrated 10 years (!) of lit/music blogging at Greenpoint’s fantastic WORD bookstore last night with readings from Emma Straub (Other People We Married), Jen Gilmore (Something Red), a musical performance from Alina Simone (You Must Go and Win), and a ridiculously sweet raffle benefiting Girls Write Now.

 

From P-Town… A Salon Grows in Portland

1. A smoker’s view of SE Mall Street around 7:45pm. 2. The kitchen meets the dining room at the intersection of Dunbar and Coffelt.

 

On Friday, If Not for Kidnap, a living room poetry series curated by Donald Dunbar and Jamalieh Haley, brought Kevin Sampsell, Edward Mullany, Chloe Caldwell, Bryan Coffelt and The We Shared Milk to Dunbar’s house in Southeast Portland. Only one of the above is a poet, unless you count the band.

SE Mall Street is not well-lit compared to the glare of an iPhone’s Google Map in the hands of my passenger; however, we obtained a visual of what appeared to be several band members carrying amps and equipment headed towards a large house. After initiating pursuit we were led straight to Dunbar, who was greeting guests from his porch in front of a one-smoker audience. I was unable to get a usable picture of Dunbar at this point and waded through the people who like to stand in the kitchen towards a table with cold beer and book donations for Crow Arts Manor to get a better look at the crowd.

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Why We Need You, Blue… Tom Agnotti at Bluestockings

1. $1 for a cup o’ Joe. 2. Angotti standing behind his bookcover (not to scale).

 

 

Sitting front row, with a book authored by Fidel Castro to my left and murmurings from book buyers to my right, I knew I was in the welcoming-yet-active atmosphere of Bluestockings located at 172 Allen Street. If you haven’t been yet, you have to get there, it’s one of the best bookstores in the city. It’s a volunteer ran “bookstore, activist center, and free trade café” that’s occupied mostly by veterans of the occupy movement (see posters hanging from the ceiling).

Bluestockings usually features nonfiction but this time, fiction writer Tom Agnotti celebrated the premier of his newest story collection, Accidental Warriors and Battlefield Myths. His multi-genre short-story collection features illustrations by Sofia Vigas and, throughout the reading, the images were projected onto a nearby screen. The illustrations, which remind me slightly of Jamie Hewlett’s work, bookend each story with a haiku and foster a layered take to the collection.

NEENER, NEENER – Ben Marcus’ The Flame Alphabet at BookCourt

1. The cheery cover art for Ben Marcus’ “lighthearted comedy.” 2. Sam Margevicius, a photographer, was more interested in looking at that dope David Lynch book than at me. I don’t blame him.

 

What I love most about BookCourt in Cobble Hill, besides it being one of the best all-around bookstores in Brooklyn, is its interior design– the open backroom is expansive enough to hold a large crowd, yet it retains the intimacy of a much smaller room, which doubly renders any reading more penetrating and effective. So as I’m on my way to see Ben Marcus read from his new novel, The Flame Alphabet, having only read interviews with him discussing poisonous language from the mouths of adorable children, I’m getting really excited to go in totally blind and hear him read.

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Booze, Brownies and Books at WORD Brooklyn

1. Gillian Telling: mom, writer, Dirty Girl.  2. Author Kate Rockland escaped Wenner and lived to tell the tale.

“I want women to be in touch with their bodies,” began Kate Rockland, author of 150 Pounds“>150 Pounds, “but not in a, you know, touchy-feely Smith College kind of way.”

And so the tone was set for last night’s reading, “Booze, Books, and Brownies with the Women of Wenner Media (Former!): Gwen Cooper, Kate Rockland, and Gillian Telling.”  It was standing room only in the basement of Greenpoint’s WORD bookstore, the double allure of Rolling Stone horror stories combined with advice on breaking into publishing having drawn a mixed crowd of young hopefuls and seasoned warriors alike.

 

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Franklin Park’s 3rd Annual Short Fiction Night

1. Katy Pierce, a painter, with David Greenwood, who writes monographs on tweed. 2. Sarah Caciaio, a linguistics student at the CUNY Grad Center, Melynda Fuller, an editor and nonfiction writer, Andy Devlin, a filmmaker, & Liza Monroy, author of Mexican High. 

 

On Monday, I arrived at Franklin Park Bar in Crown Heights over an hour early, in order to meet with some of my co-workers here at EL for happy hour before the reading. The bar was already crowded, and all of the seats were occupied. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and managed to snag one of the booths as its inhabitants were leaving. My point: if you’ve ever wondered how early you have to get to the bar to find a seat, the answer is Very Early.

Fortunately, the crowd had come for good reason: great literature, and an especially great line-up, featuring two talented hot ladies and three talented and hilarious Woody Allenish-voiced men, showcasing the wonders of short fiction. And the rest of the world is taking notice of what is happening at the monthly series, earning mentions in publications from BlackBook to The New Yorker to Time Out.

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