Wednesday, October 28, 2009

List of Upcoming Readings

November 6, 2009, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Hosting and reading at The Dire Literary Series, 8 PM

Out of the Blue Art Gallery Backyard
106 Prospect Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Featuring: Nathan Graziano, Daniel Crocker and Rebecca Schumejda


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November 7, 2009, Kingston, New York

Half Moon Books, 6 PM

35 North Front Street
Kingston, New York

Reading With: Nathan Graziano, Daniel Crocker, Tim Horvath,
Alan Catlin and Rebecca Schumejda (hosting)

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November 14, 2009. Somerville, Ma.

Somerville News Writers Festival, Readings at 7 PM

Hosting and Reading
Featuring: Rick Moody, Frank Bidart

writers: Margot Livesey , John Buffalo Mailer, Steve Almond, Lise Haines and Kim Chinquee

poets: Boston Poet Laureate Sam Cornish, Richard Hoffman, Tina Villanueva,
Tam Lin Neville and Douglas Holder

with music by The Swaggerin" Growlers

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December 4, 2009, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Hosting and reading at The Dire Literary Series, 8 PM

Out of the Blue Art Gallery Backyard
106 Prospect Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Featuring: Sherri Flick, Paul Schneider and Ethan Gilsdorf
plus surprise caped Christmas guest author.
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December 5, 2009, Providence, Rhode Island

Myopic Books, 7 PM

5 South Angell,
Providence, RI

Reading With: Sherrie Flick, Molly Gaudry, and Steve Himmer.
William Walsh (hosting)

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December 12, 2009, Allston,Ma.

Outlaws of Poetry, 2 PM

Allston Library
300 N Harvard Street
Allston, Ma

Reading With: Sam Cornish and other outlaws

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December 29, 2009. Plymouth, Ma.

Featured Reader
Dreamspeak at The Vine, 6:30 PM

The Vine Winebar
47 Court Street, Plymouth, Ma.

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Future Series Appearances

April 11, 2009. Red Bank, NJ
The River Read Reading Series
The Dublin House, 30 Monmouth Street, Red Bank, NJ 07701
hosted by John Joseph Petrolino III
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May 19, 2010. Pittsburgh, PA
New Yinzer Reading Series
Modern Foundations, 4919 Penn Ave.
hosted by Savannah Guz
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June 19, 2010. Baltimore, MD
510 Reading Series
MinĂ¡s Gallery, 815 W. 36th Street
hosted by Michael Kimball

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction

Read my review HERE




The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to W


Review by Timothy Gager

· Paperback: 208 pages

· Publisher: Rose Metal Press; First edition (May 13, 2009)

· ISBN-10: 0978984862

· ISBN-13: 978-0978984861 




As a writer of flash fiction, I found this field guide extremely interesting, pertinent and useful. It is full of surprises and mind opening essays for those who only look at flash or very short fiction in a limited way.. The essays included in this book read like a who’s who in the form of very short fiction. These are authors that I’ve read and admired for either their economy of language, their punch of prose or their paint strokes of fast and deep emotion. Included are many personal favorites of mine such as Randall Brown, Rusty Barnes, Kim Chinquee and Pamela Painter whom are only a small piece of this literary all-star team ripe for the reading.



Inside the pages of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction you will receive twenty-five short written lectures; points of view of what comprises great flash fiction. There also are writing exercises intended to help writers of various skill levels create work from each point of focus. This is very helpful if you like to write from prompts. Each author also pick examples of flash fiction pieces they feel back up their points.



Fiction today, especially what you may read on-line tends to run shorter in length than ever before. Whether it is the short attention span of readers, the need for something quick and hard hitting and grabbing as a computer read. Whatever the reason, flash fiction has become increasingly popular to both writers and readers. The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction demonstrate this phenomena in great detail by the varying theories from each author, whom all have different focuses on the same point.



The book is aptly presented as a “field guide”, and I couldn’t agree more with that descriptor. It is user friendly, can be picked up and read at any chapter point break by any individual, writing group or classroom. The book also presents historic references of fiction, short fiction, micro-fiction and flash. Shouhua Qi points out the early origins from the Chinese short short or what is called a “Smoke-Long story”. (note: Randall Brown, the editor of Smoke Long Quarterly is also included in Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction) TRMPFGTWFF also distinguishes between narrative/prose poetry and flash fiction---often viewed as interchangeable. Robert Olen Butler says on the form, “it may not have a fully developed plot, but it must have the essence of a plot, a yearning.” Steve Almond instructs as on how to turn your bad poetry into fantastic flash, which was an essay I found to be extraordinarily useful and entertaining.



Jennifer Pieroni’s thoughts on the purpose of images “smart and surprising” was also useful, not only to those whom enjoy Jennifer’s writing but also whom read her and her well know magazine, Quick Fiction (TRMPFGTWFF indirectly shows you what certain editors like). Kim Chinquee presents us with examples of five distinctly different stories based on the same event. Rusty Barnes, author of Breaking It Down and Editor of Night Train, takes you on a journey in the revision process. Randall Brown points out ways to “make flash count’ for the aspiring author.



I highly recommend this book as a learning tool and prompt generator. It pulls from the insight of today’s very best writers of short shorts, many whom are the editors of some of very well known anthologies, magazines and journals of fiction.

For more information about Timothy Gager go to:

http://www.timothygager.com

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Somerville News Writers Festival VII, 11.14.09, The Center for the Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville, Ma.

Rick Moody
Frank Bidart



7 PM-- Reading

$10 admission
tickets available at www.brownpapertickets.com

Hosting and Reading Timothy Gager
Music by The Swaggerin' Growlers

Featuring: Rick Moody and Frank Bidart
Writers: Margot Livesey , John Buffalo Mailer, Steve Almond, Lise Haines and Kim Chinquee
Poets: Boston Poet Laureate Sam Cornish, Richard Hoffman, Tino Villanueva, Tam Lin Neville and Douglas Holder

For the latest SPEAKER and BOOTH UPDATES, please visit www.SomervilleNewsWritersFestival.com

Sponsored by Porter Square Books and Grub Street



This year there is a Book Fair from 11:00 AM to 4:30 PM

Porter square Books
signings by Main Event Readers plus Special Guests 

Margot Livesey, 1 PM
Brian MacQuarrie and Robert Curley, 2 PM
Lise Haines, 3 PM
Kim Chinquee, 4 PM

Grub Street
Ibbetson Street Press
The Somerville News
Cervena Barva Press
Black Lawrence Press, (Norman Waksler, Jason Tandon and Helen Marie Casey)
Propaganda Press
Adastra Press
Naugatuck River Press
The Boston Review
Off the Grid Press


AUTHOR TABLES

Daniel Hudon
Paul Stone
John Sheier
Kristin Callender
Paul DeFazio
Erik Tate
Luke Salisbury
Denise Robbins
Kevin Daley


Tuesday, October 20, 2009

New News

I've decided to move my news to a blog form, mostly because my current news page is a pain in the ass to edit and I've not updated it in about ten months, even though lots of work has been published. Yesterday I received two very pretty things in the mail.

1) The print anthology of Dogzplot.



My story "Coney Island is Dead" appears. Check out who's who--pretty amazing read all stories less than 200 words.

DAVID AICHENBAUM
C. EDWARD ANABLE
CORBY ANDERSON
BILL BARR
RUSTY BARNES
LAUREN BECKER
ERIC BENNETT
CL BLEDSOE
BEN BROOKS
RANDALL BROWN
CHRISTY CALL (COVER ART)
DAVE CLAPPER
LYDIA COPELAND
SPENCER DEW
ROBERT A. DOLLESIN
NICOLLE ELIZABETH
KATHY FISH
TIMOTHY GAGER
MOLLY GAUDRY
ROXANE GAY
ALICIA GIFFORD
BARRY GRAHAM
KYLE HEMMINGS
JAMIE IREDELL
ALEXANDRA ISACSON
BRYAN JONES
HARDY JONES
DREW KALBACH
KIP KNOTT
CHARLES LENNOX
SEAN LOVELACE
ANTONIOS MALTEZOS
RAVI MANGLA
CORTNEY MCLELLAN
STEVEN J. MCDERMOTT
KYLE MINOR
KIM PARKO
JENNIFER PIERONI
SAM PINK
TED POWERS
S. CRAIG RENFROE, JR.
FORREST ROTH
EDMUND SANDOVAL
PETER SCHWARTZ
M. BARTLEY SEIGEL
EMILY SIEGENTHALER
ANI SMITH
CLAUDIA SMITH
AUDRI SOUSA
ATHENA STRICKLAND
ROBB TODD
ANIA VESENNY
JARED WARD
BRANDI WELLS
BLYTHE WINSLOW
XTX
ORLO YEAHBLIP
MIKE YOUNG


2) Askew Review 14, where my "Feed Your Head" gets eaten.




40 pages cover to cover  
Fiction? Yes
Nonfiction? It’s in there.
Flash? That’s in there, too.
DVD, CD, and book reviews? But of course!
Other mumbo jumbo found in this thing? Wouldn’t have it any other way. Order now via Paypal for a mere $3! (buy my book and get it for free)
Or mail the money to the below address.
Cheers and thanks for your support,
Denis Sheehan
Askew Reviews
PO Box 684
Hanover, MA 02339