The Last 510 of 2012

Jen and I have been hosting the 510 for 5 full years now. It's exhausting at times, organizing people, but we both love bringing so many good words to stand up in front of you. So the latest greatness will be Matt Bell, Amber Sparks, Robert Kloss, and Julian Berengaut. That's November 17th, 5pm, at the usual place, Minas.

Matt Bell is the author of Cataclysm Baby, a novella, and How They Were Found, a collection of fiction. His debut novel In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods will be published by Soho Press in June 2013. He is the Senior Editor at Dzanc Books, where he also edits the literary magazine The Collagist, and he teaches creative writing at Northern Michigan University.

Amber Sparks’s short stories have appeared in New York Tyrant, Unsaid, Gargoyle, Barrelhouse, The Collagist and elsewhere. Her first full-length story collection, May We Shed These Human Bodies, was recently published by Curbside Splendor. She lives with a husband and two beasts in Washington, DC. You can find her at ambernoellesparks.com or follow her on Twitter @ambernoelle.

Robert Kloss is the author of How the Days of Love & Diphtheria and The Alligators of Abraham. He is found online at robert-kloss.com.

Julian Berengaut is the author of The Estate of Wormwood and Honey, a novel about 19th century Russia. Berengaut was born in Poland. He was educated at universities in Warsaw, Jerusalem, Waltham, Massachusetts and Madison, Wisconsin. He worked for many years as an international debt negotiator. He has written poetry and short stories.

November 20th Highlights

Thanks for attending the last 510 Reading of 2010. You were there. We saw you:



Four amazing women writers rocked the house, first of whom was Amber Sparks. She read two pieces, including "The Monstrous Sadness of Mythical Creatures," which can be found in the April 2010 issue of matchbook.



Jenny Hollowell was up next, and she read from her debut novel, Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe (Henry Holt & Co., 2010).



Jen Michalski, 510 cohost, led off after the break. She read excerpts from May-September, which won first place in the 2010 Press Open Awards (novella) and appears in the anthology of the same title.



Janice Shapiro capped the evening with a story from her debut collection, Bummer (Soft Skull Press, 2010).


Join us in 2011 to kick off our first reading of the year. It promises to be excellent: Ken Sparling, Shya Scanlon, Megan McShea, and Robin Black read on January 15th.

The Season Finale: November 20th @ 5pm @ Minas

The season three finale of the 5ive:ten Readings is November 20th with Jenny Hollowell, Amber Sparks, Jen Michalski, and Janice Shapiro. Janice Shapiro will be reading from her new book of stories, Bummer. Jenny Hollowell will be reading from her novel, Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe. Jen Michalski will be reading from her new novella, May-September. And Amber Sparks will be reading from work that will surely be collected into a book in the near future. Plus, there will be prizes.

Jenny Hollowell’s short fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, Scheherezade, and the anthology New Sudden Fiction, and was named a distinguished story by Best American Short Stories. She received an MFA from the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow in Fiction and recipient of the Balch Short Story Award. She has received fellowships from Ledig House International Writers Residency and the Vermont Studio Center, and was a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the 2007 Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Her debut novel, Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe, was published by Henry Holt & Company in June 2010. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

Amber Sparks's work is featured or forthcoming in various places, including New York Tyrant, Unsaid, Lamination Colony, The Collagist, Annalemma, and PANK. She is also the fiction editor at Emprise Review. She lives in Washington, DC with two beasts and a husband, but most days you can find her here.



Jen Michalski's first collection of fiction, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, is available from So New (2007), her second is forthcoming from Dzanc (2013), and her novella MAY-SEPTEMBER (2010) will be published by Press 53 in October as part of the Press 53 Open Awards. Her chapbook CROSS SECTIONS (2008) is available from Publishing Genius. She also is the editor of the anthology CITY SAGES: BALTIMORE (CityLit Press 2010), which won a 2010 "Best of Baltimore" award from Baltimore Magazine. She edits the literary quarterly jmww, and is cohost of the monthly reading series The 510 Readings in Baltimore.


Janice Shapiro studied film at UCLA where she won first prize in The Samuel Goldwyn Screenwriting Competition. The short films she directed were screened widely at film festivals around the world and she was a recipient of an AFI Filmmakers’ Grant. She has written scripts for numerous studios and independent producers including the cult film, Dead Beat that she co-wrote with her husband, Adam Dubov. Janice’s short stories have been published in The North American Review, and The Santa Monica Review. A graphic memoir of hers was included in the anthology, What Were We Thinking? Another graphic memoir appeared in The Seattle Review. She is currently working on a novel, Bad Baseball, a second collection of short stories, a collection of food essays entitled, Eat Like Me, and a book length graphic memoir, Crushable – My Life In Crushes From Ricky Nelson to Viggo Mortensen. Janice lives in Brooklyn with her husband, son and dog. Bummer and Other Stories is her first book.