September 25th Readings, Baltimore Book Festival

Thanks for visiting us at the Baltimore Book Festival! We had a great group of readers to kick off the fall and great weather as well. Here, Michael Kimball emcees and also reads an excerpt from a work-in-progress:



Jen Michalski reads an excerpt from her novella, MAY-SEPTEMBER (Press 53, 2010)



Jon Cotner and Andy Fitch read a selection from their co-authored book, Ten Walks/Two Talks (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010)



Paula Bomer reads a story from her forthcoming story collection, Baby (Word Riot Press, 2010)



Justin Kramon reads an excerpt from his novel, Finny (Random House, 2010)



Aryn Kyle reads a story from her collection, Boys and Girls Like You and Me (Scribner, 2010)



Next month (October 16th), we'll be back at Minas Gallery. Don't miss Brian Evenson, Carolyn Parkhurst, Joanna Howard, Matt Bell!

Live Preview of Unsaid #5

We had a live preview of Unsaid #5 at the 510 Readings. The issue will be with us soon. In the meantime, I started the live preview by holding up Unsaid #4 and talking about what a behemoth it is. Then I introduced myself and read from Dear Everybody because I left the pages for the new thing that I was going to read at home on my desk. People called out years and subject matter (tornado, pancakes) and I found pieces that matched.


Next up was Kate Wyer who read four shorts, including work from Unsaid #5 and a new piece that reminded us "to press where it hurts." I think I've messed up the line, but the sentiment stands.






Then we took a break and people talked with each other.

Then Kim Calder read five pieces of work, the first of which is called "After Adorno" and is so good that it was distracting in that I couldn't stop thinking about it, trying to rehearse the lines so that I didn't forget them.




The live preview of Unsaid #5 ended with Andy Devine giving a reading unlike any that you have ever heard before unless you have heard Andy Devine read before. It was amazing.

September 18th: An Unsaid Reading

Sure, we took the summer off, but we want you to know that we missed you and that nothing has changed between us. The first episode of the Fall 510 is going to feature readers from Unsaid Magazine, one of the greatest literary magazines ever published. The September line-up features Michael Kimball, Kim Calder, Kate Wyer, and Andy Devine.

Michael Kimball’s third novel, DEAR EVERYBODY, is now in paperback in the US, UK, and Canada. 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). His three novels have been translated (or are being translated) into many languages. His work has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and in Vice, as well as The Guardian, Prairie Schooner, Post Road, Open City, Unsaid, and New York Tyrant. He is also responsible for Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard)—and two documentary films, I WILL SMASH YOU (2009) and 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES (2010).

Kim Calder lives in Los Angeles, but keeps leaving to study creative writing and literature in other places. Currently, she is an MFA student at the University of Maryland.



Kate Wyer is a mental health interviewer for the public health system of Maryland. Her work has most recently been published in Unsaid, PANK and The Collagist. Wyer is the recipient of the Elisabeth Woodworth Reese award. FENCE magazine granted her a fellowship to attend the Summer Literary Seminars in Lithuania. She heads the collaborative book project And, Afterward. Wyer supports the Understanding Campaign.

Andy Devine’s alphabetical fiction and essays have appeared in a variety of literary magazines, including New York Tyrant, Unsaid, elimae, Everyday Genius, and Taint. In 2002, Devine was awarded the Riddley Walker Prize (for a work that ignores conventional rules of grammar and punctuation). In 2007, he published his first chapbook, “As Day Same That the the Was Year” (Publishing Genius). In 2009, Devine was awarded The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Award (for fiction in the face of adversity). WORDS (2010, Publishing Genius) is his first book. Andy Devine Avenue — in Flagstaff, Arizona — is named after him.

September 25th Readings (at the Baltimore Book Festival)

We're back after a summer hiatus (miss us?) and will open our fall 2010 schedule at the Baltimore Book Festival, September 25th, 5-6:30 pm, CityLit Tent. You can find information about the Baltimore Book Festival here. you can find out about our amazing lineup here:

Paula Bomer is a writer, the co-publisher at Artistically Declined Press, and the supervising editor at the literary journal, Sententia. Her collection of stories, BABY, is available from Word Riot Press (2010).


Jon Cotner and Andy Fitch are the authors of Ten Walks/Two Talks (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010). They recently completed another collaborative manuscript called Conversations over Stolen Food. Fitch’s Not Intelligent, but Smart: Rethinking Joe Brainard is forthcoming from Dalkey Archive. Cotner lives in Brooklyn, NY; Fitch, in Laramie, WY, where he’s an assistant professor in the U. of Wyoming’s MFA Program.

Michael Kimball’s third novel, Dear Everybody, was recently published in the US, UK, and Canada. 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. His work has been on NPR’s All Things Considered and in Vice, as well as The Guardian, Prairie Schooner, Open City, Unsaid, and New York Tyrant. He is also responsible for Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard) and the documentary films, I Will Smash You (2009) and 60 Writers / 60 Places (2010).

Justin Kramon is the author of the novel Finny (Random House 2010). A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he has published stories in Glimmer Train, Story Quarterly, Boulevard, Fence, TriQuarterly, and others. He has received honors from the Michener-Copernicus Society of America, Best American Short Stories, the Hawthornden International Writers' Fellowship, and the Bogliasco Foundation. He teaches at Gotham Writers' Workshop in New York City and at the Iowa Young Writers' Studio. He lives in Philadelphia.


Aryn Kyle is the author of the internationally bestselling novel The God of Animals (Scribner, 2007) and the short story collection Boys and Girls Like You and Me (Scribner, 2010). Her fiction has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, Best American Short Stories 2007, and elsewhere. Aryn is the recipient of an American Library Association's Alex Award, a Rona Jaffe Award, and a National Magazine Award in fiction. She lives in New York City.

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. She also is the editor of the anthology City Sages: Baltimore (CityLit Press 2010) and edits the literary quarterly jmww.

Summer Break

The 510 Readings will be on summer break until September.

June 19th Readings

Thanks for attending the June 19th edition of the 510 Readings. We'll be on hiatus until September, so here's what happened if you weren't there:

Readers visited us this month from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. A sizable and appreciative crowd was on hand:



Laura Ellen Scott read selections from her collection in progress of "creepy" flash fictions. Although it would be cheap to call them haunting, what else can you say about a story with a baby crib inside a bedroom wall? (We hope the B&W photo helps you get in the mood.) Anyway, be on the lookout for this collection sometime soon!



Timothy Gager followed, describing the perils of using high-wattage light bulbs in Easy Bake ovens. If you want to find out more, check out his latest collection, Treating a Sick Animal: Flash and Micro Fictions.


After the break, Bill Black mesmerized us with a true cruel story of youth, which can be found in the latest issue of The Southern Review.



To close, Curtis Smith treated us to some essays from his upcoming collection of essays, The Agnostic's Prayer.


I am sorry you missed out on such wonderful readings (and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, courtesy of Timothy Gager). But you can catch us twice in September—9/18 at our regular haunt (Minas) and 9/25 at the Baltimore Book Festival. See you then!

June 19th Readings: Laura Ellen Scott, Timothy Gager, Bill Black, and Curtis Smith

Laura Ellen Scott teaches fiction writing to undergraduates at George Mason University, and in 2009-2010 published 19 short stories in print and online, including work selected for The Wigleaf Top Fifty and Barrelhouse magazine's Futures issue. Her work was nominated for Dzanc's Best of the Web 2010 anthology twice, and she is currently Fiction editor of Prick of the Spindle.

Timothy Gager is the author of eight books of short fiction and poetry. His latest, Treating a Sick Animal: Flash and Micro Fictions (Cervena Barva Press), features over 40 stories, many previously published in various literary magazines. He hosts the Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, Massachusetts, every month and is the co-founder of Somerville News Writers Festival. He has had over 200 works of fiction and poetry published since 2007, of which eight have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Timothy is the current Fiction Editor of The Wilderness House Literary Review, the founding co-editor of The Heat City Literary Review, and has edited the book OUT OF THE BLUE WRITERS UNITE: A BOOK OF POETRY AND PROSE FROM THE OUT OF THE BLUE ART GALLERY.

Bill Black's work has appeared in The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, Hotel Amerika, The Black Warrior Review, Short FICTION, and elsewhere. He has taught literature and creative writing at Western Washington University, Ohio University, and The Johns Hopkins University, and is currently Writer-in-Residence at Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania. He a founding Co-Director of the Pages & Places Book Festival in Scranton, Pennsylvania.


Curtis Smith's stories and essays have appeared in over 60 literary journals and have been cited by The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories, and The Best American Spiritual Writing. Press 53 has released his last two story collections (THE SPECIES CROWN and BAD MONKEY); Casperian Books has published his last two novels (SOUND AND NOISE and TRUTH OR SOMETHING LIKE IT). This fall, Sunnyoutside will publish his essay collection, THE AGNOSTIC'S PRAYER.