The April Five:ten Readings, CityLit Festival, April 16th

We're so excited to be hosting the April 510 Readings at Baltimore's CityLit Festival for the third straight year, and we're especially proud to feature Susi Wyss, Ron Tanner, and Janice Eidus. The reading, free to all, will be held in the Fine Arts Department of the Enoch Pratt Library, Downtown branch, on April 16th from 3:30-4:30. As always, we hope you'll enjoy the many wonderful readings scheduled that day, including 2010 National Book Award winner and Baltimore native Jaimy Gordon, as well as the hundreds of vendor tables and panels.


Susi Wyss's fiction is influenced by her twenty-year career managing women's health programs in Africa, where she lived for more than eight years. Her work has appeared in numerous literary magazines and has been recognized by awards from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, among others. She holds a B.A. from Vassar, an M.P.H. from Boston University, and an M.A. in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University.



Ron Tanner has won numerous awards for his fiction, including a Faulkner Society Gold Medal, a Pushcart Prize, a New Letters Award first prize, a Best of the Web award, among others. His stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines and his collection of short stories, Bed of Nails, won both the G.S. Sharat Chandra Award and the Towson Prize for Literature.




Janice Eidus’s new novel, The Last Jewish Virgin, features mythology, sexuality, politics, and feminism all colliding in contemporary New York City—and beyond. A two-time winner of the O. Henry Prize, Janice Eidus’s other books include the novel The War of the Rosens and the story collection The Celibacy Club. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. (http://www.JaniceEidus.com)

The March 19th 510 Greatness

Season Four, Episode Three: Deb Olin Unferth, Megan Boyle, Jen Grow, and Mikita Brottman. This actually too much greatness to have in one place at one time, but please come anyway. Saturday, March 19th, at 5pm, at Minas.

Deb Olin Unferth is the author of the memoir Revolution, the story collection Minor Robberies, and the novel Vacation. Her work has been published in Harper's Magazine, McSweeney's, The Believer, and the Boston Review. She has received two Pushcart Prizes and a 2009 Creative Capital grant for Innovative Literature, and was a Harper's Bazaar Editors' Choice: Name to Know in 2011.

Megan Boyle has lived in Baltimore for three years. She has been published by 3 AM, Muumuu House, and frequently contributes to Thought Catalog. Her debut poetry collection, selected unpublished blog posts of a mexican panda express employee, is forthcoming from Muumuu House in October 2011.


Jen Grow has had her fiction and nonfiction appear in The Writer’s Chronicle, Other Voices, The Sun Magazine (of North Carolina), The GSU Review, Shattered Wig Review, Hunger Mountain, Indiana Review, City Sages: Baltimore and others. She’s received two Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council and her stories have earned nominations for both the Best New American Voices and a Pushcart Prize. Her story collection, O.K., Goodbye, was a finalist for the St. Lawrence Book Award, the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Fiction and the Spokane Prize. She holds her MFA from Vermont College and taught for several years at Goucher College and MICA.

Mikita Brottman is an author and cultural critic known for her psychological readings of the dark and pathological elements of contemporary culture. She is the author of books on the horror film, cannibalism, psychoanalysis, critical theory and contemporary popular culture. Her most recent book, The Solitary Vice: Against Reading (Counterpoint, 2008) was selected as one of the Best Books of the year by Publishers Weekly.

February 19th readings

Another big crowd for the February 510:



Jessica Blau reads from her second novel, Drinking Closer to Home:



Pat King sings "I Left My Heart in Philadelphia" while reading from his autobiographical novel in progress:



Author and Smokelong editor Tara Laskowski reads three haunting and sweet flash pieces:



Nik Korpon tells Dashiell Hammett how it's done in Stay God:



See you next month for Deb Olin Unferth, Megan Boyle, Jen Grow, and Mikita Brottman!

The February 510

Its Episode Two of Season Four: Jessica Anya Blau, Nik Korpon, Pat King, and Tara Laskowski. It's difficult to think about this much good writing (and reading) happening all in one place at one time, Saturday, February 19th, at 5pm, at Minas.

Jessica Anya Blau's first novel, THE SUMMER OF NAKED SWIM PARTIES, was chosen as a Best Summer Read by the Today Show, the New York Post, and New York Magazine. Barnes and Noble, The San Francisco Chronicle, and other major newspapers chose it as one of the Best Books of the Year. Jessica's second book, DRINKING CLOSER TO HOME, pubs today, January 18th. Currently, Jessica is teaching at Goucher College in Maryland.


Nik Korpon is the author of Stay God, a noir novel set in Baltimore. His stories have ruined the reputation of Out of the Gutter, 3:AM, Cherry Bleeds, Everyday Genius, Sex and Murder, TripleQuick!, Do Some Damage, and a bunch more. He co-hosts the reading series Last Sunday, Last Rites and his noir novella Old Ghosts will be out in March. Give him some danger, little stranger, at www.nikkorpon.com


Pat King was born in Texas but has only been there twice. His autobiographical novel, Exit Nothing, is close to completion. Recently, he's been writing about movies and television for the pop culture website Cin City 2000 (www.cincity2000.com). Along with Nik Korpon, he co-hosts the Baltimore reading series, Last Sunday, Last Rites.


Tara Laskowski was the 2009 Kathy Fish Fellow and writer-in-residence at SmokeLong Quarterly, and is now a senior editor there. She won the 2010 literary awards series from the Santa Fe Writers Project. Her story, "Ode to the Double-Crossed Lackey in 'Thunderball'" was nominated for Dzanc's Best of the Web series for 2009. Her short stories "They" and "Like Everyone Else" were recognized by storySouth as noteable online stories in 2004 and 2009. Another story, "Hole to China," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She currently lives in a suburb of Washington, D.C. with her husband Art Taylor.

510 Readings: The Fourth Season Commenceth on January 15th!

Welcome to the fourth season of the 510 Readings, and we've got a terrific first reading lined up for you on January 15th: Robin Black, Ken Sparling, Shya Scanlon, and Megan McShea. Thank you for being so good to us for the past three years, Baltimore, and we hope, with our amazing lineups of readers, that we've been good to you right back. Let's celebrate the new year together on the 15th!


Robin Black's debut collection, If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This (Random House, 2010) was a finalist for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize, a San Francisco Chronicle and Irish Times Best Book of 2010, and a pick on the O Magazine and Huffington Post Summer Reading Lists. The book has also been published or is forthcoming in six countries overseas. Her nonfiction essays have also been recognized and anthologized. Robin is currently at work on her first novel. She lives in Philadelphia with her family.


Pedlar Press has published three novels by Ken Sparling, the most recent being BOOK, and will release a new novel by Ken in May 2011. Artististically Declined Press released a tenth anniversary edition of Ken's handmade novel, HUSH UP AND LISTEN STINKY POO BUTT in 2010. Mud Luscious press will re-issue Ken's first novel, DAD SAYS HE SAW YOU AT THE MALL, in 2012. Ken also has work in New York Tyrant and Sententia, as well as at corium and at jmww.


Shya Scanlon is the author of the poetry collection In This Alone Impulse (Noemi Press, 2010), and the novel Forecast (Flatmancrooked, 2010). He received his MFA from Brown University, where he was awarded the John Hawkes Prize in Fiction.


Megan McShea lives in Baltimore. She's put out two chapbooks, "Recipes for Greatness" and "Yarn!" as Thingy Press. Her writing has appeared in the i.e. reader (Narrow House Press), Topograph (Novello Press), and the Shattered Wig Review (Shattered Wig Press).

On Holiday

The 510 Readings is on holiday until January. See you next year.

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.