July 18th Readings: Jamie Gaughran-Perez, S.L. Price, Ivy Goodman, and John Barry

Fresh from our June hiatus, we're keeping Minas Gallery hot with readings from Jamie Gaughran-Perez, S.L. Price, Ivy Goodman, and John Barry. Don't worry; we'll have plenty of words to quench your thirst.

Jamie Gaughran-Perez lives in Baltimore, works in D.C., and is part of the tripartite leadership behind Narrow House. His work has appeared in various journals and other places. He’s been playing bass in Sweatpants (the band, not the article of clothing) lately.

S. L. Price is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where he has worked since 1994. Price has authored two previous books: Pitching Around Fidel, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Far Afield, which was named one of the five best reads of 2007 by Esquire magazine. He lives in Washington, DC, with his family.

Ivy Goodman has published two collections of short stories, Heart Failure (University of Iowa Press, 1983), which is part of the Iowa Award Series, and A Chapter from Her Upbringing (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2001). Individual stories have appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies.


John Barry is a Baltimore writer. He has written extensively on theatre and arts, as well as tax sales, city planning, aging rock stars, the decline of the Sun, mayoral candidates you never heard of, why he has so many books that he hasn't read, and anything else he's thinking of at the time. He has written for Baltimore City Paper, as well as Urbanite, Style, Chesapeake, Washington Post, Smart Set, n + 1 online, and elsewhere.

In case you missed Saturday's 510 reading at Minas Gallery, here are a few highlights:

Another standing-room crowd joined us instead of going to Preakness. But we could really, really brag if some horses had shown up, too:



Ric Royer started the evening off by literally turning us on our head. From the back of the gallery, Ric and special guest Temple Crocker (left) read from Ric's work in progress, She Saw Ghosts, He Saw Bodies:



Leslie F. Miller decided to read in the front, whetting our appetites for all things cake. Here she reads from the newly released Let There Be Cake:



After the break, Geoffrey Greif discussed the secrets of male friendships. Here he reads excerpts from his nonfiction release, The Buddy System:



Thad Rutkowski ruminated on the origins of his name and other names he has been called. He forgot to mention a few: delightful and mesmerizing. Here he reads from his "novel in fractuals" Tetched:



Although we will be on vacation the month of June, don't forget to come back in July, when we mix it up again with Scott Price, Ivy Goodman, Jamie Gaughran-Perez, and John Barry.

May 16th Readings: Ric Royer, Leslie F. Miller, Geoffrey Greif, and Thaddeus Rutkowski

Ric Royer is a writer, performer, writer of performances and performer of writings. Works of literature include The Weather Not The Weather (Outside Voices, 2008), Hystery of Heat (Publishing Genius, 2007), There Were One and It Was Two (Narrow House Records 2007) and Anthesteria (Bark Art Press, 2001). He is also a founding editor of Ferrum Wheel and co-organizer (with Catherine Pancake and Bonnie Jones) of the Transmodern Performance Festival in Baltimore. He teaches in the film, video, theatre department at Stevenson University. For more words and works, visit www.ricroyer.com


Leslie F. Miller is a poet, essayist, and author of the new Simon & Schuster book, Let Me Eat Cake: A Celebration of Flour, Sugar, Butter, Eggs, Vanilla, Baking Powder, and a Pinch of Salt. She likes breaking things and putting them back together in a random, yet tasteful, order. She loves beer and cake. Even at the same time.


Geoffrey L. Greif, DSW, LCSW-C, is professor at the School of Social Work University of Maryland and has authored more than 100 journal articles and book chapters, as well as ten books. His books include being co-editor of Group Work with Populations at Risk and co-author of Beating the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Males and Overcoming the Odds: Raising Academically Successful Females His most recent book, Buddy System: Understand male friendships, was published September, 2008. He is married to Dr. Maureen Lefton-Greif, associate Professor Johns Hopkins Medical School, and is the father of two daughters, a social worker and a psychologist.


Thaddeus Rutkowski grew up in central Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Cornell University and The Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of the novels Tetched (Behler Publications) and Roughhouse (Kaya Press), Both books were finalists for an Asian American Literary Award; Tetched was chosen as one of the best books reviewed in 2006 by Chronogram magazine. His stories and poems have been nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize. His book reviews have appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Daily News and other papers. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter.

April 18th Reading: CityLit Festival!

This is the 510's first year at the CityLit Festival, and we hope it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

What does it mean for you? It means two hundred seats of comfort in the Poe Room (no sitting on the floor, we hope). It means a whole day of readings from the likes of Mark Doty, Junot Diaz, and our own 510 series. We have Christian Bauman, Thomas Glave, Chad Willenborg, and Michael Kimball lined up ready to enchant you, make you cry, make you do the hokey pokey. That's what it's all about.

So here's what you need to know:

New Fiction from the 510 Reading Series
CityLit Festival, April 18th
Enoch Pratt Free Libray
400 Cathedral Street, Baltimore
Poe Room, 1:00 - 2:00 pm




Christian Bauman's latest novel In Hoboken, about a group of young musicians and the mental health facility where one of them works, has been described by critic Paul Constant as "one of those books—like Lethem when he's cooking or Chabon at his most vibrant—when every line snaps and propels you forward...Bauman is an incredible writer." Christian Bauman's first two novels—the critically acclaimed The Ice Beneath You and Voodoo Lounge were loosely based on his experiences as a soldier in Somalia and Haiti. An occasional contributor to NPR's All Things Considered and an editor-at-large for IdentityTheory.com, Bauman lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and daughters. [christianbauman.blogspot.com]


Thomas Glave was born in the Bronx and grew up there and in Kingston, Jamaica. A graduate of Bowdoin College and Brown University, Glave traveled as a Fulbright Scholar to Jamaica, where he studied Jamaican historiography and Caribbean intellectual and literary traditions. While in Jamaica, Glave worked on issues of social justice, and helped found the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays (J-FLAG, www.jflag.org). Glave is the author of the collection Whose Song? and Other Stories (City Lights), which was nominated by the American Library Association for their “Best Gay/Lesbian Book of the Year” award and by the Quality Paperback Book Club for their Violet Quill/Best New Gay/Lesbian Fiction Award. His essay collection Words To Our Now: Imagination and Dissent was published in November 2005 by the University of Minnesota Press. His edited anthology, Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles, was published by Duke University Press in 2006. He has recently completed a second collection of fiction, and is working on a longer fictional work.



Chad Willenborg teaches at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, although he was raised in a family of gravediggers and tombstone makers in central Illinois. His fiction appears in First City Review, Philadelphia Stories, Fugue, and McSweeney's,. He has just completed a novel called Seether.


Michael Kimball's third novel, DEAR EVERYBODY, was recently published in the US, UK, and Canada (http://michael-kimball.com/). The Believer calls it a "curatorial masterpiece." Time Out New York calls the writing "stunning" and the Los Angeles Times says the book is "funny and warm and sad and heartbreaking." His first two novels are THE WAY THE FAMILY GOT AWAY (2000) and HOW MUCH OF US THERE WAS (2005), both of which have been translated (or are being translated) into many languages. He is also responsible for the collaborative art project Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard).

March 21st Reading

If you missed the 510 Reading featuring Marion Winik, Rupert Wondolowski, Leni Zumas, and Deb Olin-Unferth, this past Saturday, maybe someone in this photo can tell you how it was:



Or maybe you should just watch this space, get on our email list, mark your calendars, and watch the phases of the moon so you do not miss the best scene (as ordained by The City Paper) next month.

The evening began with noted memoirist (and UB professor) Marion Winik reading excerpts from her latest collection, The Glen Rock Book of the Dead (Counterpoint, 2008):



Local treasure Rupert Wondolowski made his second appearance at the 510, promoting his new book, The origin of paranoia as a heated mole suit (Publishing Genius 2008):



Leni Zumas traveled down from Brooklyn to read the title story from her quirky and disquieting collection, Farewell Navigator (Open City, 2008):



Deb Olin-Unferth, author of Vacation and Minor Robberies (both McSweeneys) closed the reading with a cautionary tale about turtles ("Pets"):



REMEMBER: The April 18th reading will be at the Enoch Pratt Library in conjunction with the 2009 CityLit Festival. Thomas Glave, Christian Bauman, Chad Willenborg, and Michael Kimball will be our featured readers. See you then, promise?

March 21st Reading: Leni Zumas, Marion Winik, Rupert Wondowski, and Deb Olin-Unferth

If you thought last month was a blast, check our our March 21st reading, featuring Leni Zumas, Marion Winik, Rupert Wondolowski, and Deb Olin-Unferth! All are marvelously talented, acclaimed writers that you won't see together anywhere else!

Deb Olin-Unferth is the author of the novel, VACATION, and the story collection, MINOR ROBBERIES, both from McSweeney's.








Leni Zumas is the author of the story collection FAREWELL NAVIGATOR (Open City, 2008). Her work has appeared most recently in New York Tyrant, Quarterly West, Harp & Altar, and New Orleans Review. She is a 2008 Fellow in Fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts and an Artist-in-Residence in the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Workspace program. She teaches at Columbia University.




Rupert Wondolowski is making his second appearance at the 510 with the release of his newest book, THE ORIGIN OF PARANOIA AS A HEATED MOLE SUIT (Publishing Genius, 2008). He also is the author of THE WHISPERING OF ICE CUBES, HUMANS GO OUTSIDE TO HURT YOU, and a few others. His work has appeared in Murdaland, Lost and Found Times, Rampike, Open 24 Hours, Fell Swoop, Rock Heals, Peek Review, and many other literary journals. He is the editor of The Shattered Wig Review and host of the erratically held Shattered Wig Nights at the glorious 14 Karat Cabaret. He occasionally gets to read his work on WYPR's treasured program "The Signal" and to pass judgment on authors far more accomplished than himself in book reviews in Baltimore's City Paper.

Marion Winik writes creative nonfiction, and teaches in the MFA programs at the University of Baltimore and Carlow University in Pittsburgh. Among her eight books are TELLING, a collection of essays(Random House, 1994), FIRST COMES LOVE, a memoir of her first marriage and her husband's death (Random House, 1996), ABOVE US ONLY SKY (Seal, 2005) and her latest, THE GLEN ROCK BOOK OF THE DEAD (Counterpoint, 2008). Winik’s essays and articles have been published in The New York Times Magazine, O, Salon, Travel+Leisure, Real Simple, and many other newspapers, magazines, web sites, and anthologies; she currently has a monthly column in Ladies Home Journal. She was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Non-Fiction and has appeared on the Today Show, Politically Incorrect, and Oprah. She lives in Baltimore

February 21st Reading

It was a packed house for our February 21st reading:



Filmmaker, performance artist, and member of the Degenerettes Rahne Alexander reads from her work. She also performed a small acoustic set which, sadly, we do not have video of:



Kyle Minor reads from his collection of short fiction In the Devil's Territory:



Shane Jones reads from his new novel Light Boxes:



Kathleen Rooney shares the secrets of an art model from Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object:



Blake Butler reads from the first of his two publication this year, Ever:



See you next month for Leni Zumas, Marion Winik, Deb Olin-Unferth, and Rupert Wondowlowski!