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).