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.

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.

The Great October 510

I started off by reading some things that had been written on a piece of paper.










Then Matt Bell read from How They Were Found, the very first reading from the actual book, and the 510 felt honored.










Then Joanna Howard read the first story from On the Winding Stair and the syntax was intricate and beautiful. We were all caught up in it.









Then we took a break while Brian Evenson signed books and Alphonso Lingis (the great philosopher) said the truest things.






Then Carolyn Parkhurst read from her new novel, The Nobodies Album, which is a novel that denies it is in fact a novel while also containing seven other novels.





And then Brian Evenson read a story with a title I don't know how to spell, but it was good.

And then we went to Frazier's.

The Great October Reading

You don't want to miss this one--Brian Evenson, Carolyn Parkhurst, Matt Bell, Joanna Howard.

Brian Evenson is the author of ten books of fiction, most recently the limited edition novella Baby Leg, published by New York Tyrant Press in 2009. In 2009 he also published the novel Last Days (which won the American Library Association's award for Best Horror Novel of 2009) and the story collection Fugue State, both of which were on Time Out New York's top books of 2009. His novel The Open Curtain (Coffee House Press) was a finalist for an Edgar Award and an IHG Award. His work has been translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Slovenian. He lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island, where he directs Brown University's Literary Arts Program. Other books include The Wavering Knife (which won the IHG Award for best story collection), Dark Property, and Altmann's Tongue. He has translated work by Christian Gailly, Jean Frémon, Claro, Jacques Jouet, Eric Chevillard, Antoine Volodine, and others. He is the recipient of an O. Henry Prize as well as an NEA fellowship.

Joanna Howard is the author of the story collection On the Winding Stair and the chapbook In the Colorless Round, with artwork by Rikki Ducornet. She teaches at Brown University and lives in Providence, RI.


Matt Bell is the author of How They Were Found, a collection of fiction from Keyhole Press. His fiction has been anthologized in Best American Mystery Stories 2010 and Best American Fantasy 2. He is also the editor of The Collagist.

Carolyn Parkhurst is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels "The Dogs of Babel" and "Lost and Found," as well as the new novel "The Nobodies Album." Her first children's book, Cooking With Henry and Elliebelly, will be published later this month. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two children.

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!