I'm a guest blogger for Food Shenanigans

Michelle Benedetti's fantastic food blog, Food Shenanigans had me write up some recipes and history of my Super Bowl Parties. Click that link and there's some great food pictures, fun videos and pictures of beautiful women (and fishing boats!):

http://foodshenanigans.com/2010/02/04/super-bowl-party/

 

Touchdown!!

Two new published in Big Toe Review

 

Big Toe Review's final issue is out and here's the Table of Contents. My very short stories Channeling and Grubs are found within.

William L. Alton William Doreski Heather Fowler Timothy Gager Richard Garcia Christopher Hilliard COREY MESLER Romy Shinn Piccolella Jessica Reidy Mitchell Sommers Andrés Wilson

Just found this review on Short Story Reader ...a review of a story of mine

On "Your Vasectomy Journal" by Timothy Gager (833 words) ***

I'm not at the point in life where a vasectomy is something I'm looking for, but this short piece has an interesting structure and is an interesting comment on how such a surgery might go and on how the relationship around it might also go. Its conclusion is one I think some men can identify with--this idea that in a sense the surgery is immasculating and something to be feared. 

Read the story here at Twelve Stories.

Upcoming Readings in 2010

February 5, 2010 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: Joseph Riippi, Hannah Baker-Siroty and TBA



 


March 5, 2010 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: Lewis Robinson, Daniel Nester and Ethan Gilsdorf



March 25, 2010 Salem, Ma

Cornerstone Books, 7 PM

45 Lafayette St,
Salem, Ma.

Thursday Theater of Words and Music, guests TBA



April 2, 2010 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: Adam Gallari, Sean Hill and TBA


April 10, 2009. Boston, Ma

The Boston Poetry Festival, 12:30 PM
Boston Public Library

Large Auditorium


April 11, 2009. Red Bank, NJ

The River Read Series
The Dublin House, 30 Monmouth Street, Red Bank, NJ 07701

Featuring with Steve Peacock

First publishing credits of 2010

Two new poems on Istanbul Literary Review:
 

"April Ends"
"Here's to your new life and Those Who Didn't Know You"

 

 

Dire Literary Series 1/8/10

Out of the Blue Art Gallery
106 Prospect St
Cambridge, Ma
1/8/09, 8 PM
more info www.direreader.com

Features
Kevin Dailey "South Pacific Survivor"
Jade Sylvan "The Spark Singer"
Yuyutsu RD Sharma "Poemes de l’ Himalayas"
Timothy Gager "Treating a Sick Animal"


Bios

Kevin Daily

After graduating from Northeastern University magma cum laude, Kevin joined the U.S. Peace Corps. He trained for months in Samoan culture and language then taught at the Western Samoa Techincal Institute, now part of National University of Samoa. He also founded a multi-national culture club and wrote fiction. One poem, published in over sixty countries, was amusingly misprinted under the name “Kevin Klein.”



At Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., Kevin studied on scholarship and became one of its few Caucasians graduates. He won awards and earned a spot on the national and international moot court teams. He and his classmates protested the Rodney King verdict across from the White House, and often debated on the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial. He was a law clerk at federal government agencies and marched in President Clinton’s inaugural parade.



A stint with a prestigious, minority-owned law firm kicked off his legal career. Kevin's law firm—in Government Center, Boston, for over a decade—is now in the heart of Central Square, Cambridge, MA. He teaches law classes at Bunker Hill Community College of Boston, beginning over a dozen years ago. He enjoyed Social Law Library programs like Kafka and the Law, and being a judge at the American Trial Lawyers Association competition and at Boston University’s moot court competition.


At Boston Area Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, a community non-profit corporation, he was a board member and vice president. He volunteered for local schools, Cambridge Cares About Aids, and People Making a Difference. He campaigned for others vying for congress and school committee.


Jade Sylvan

Jade is a writer and performer living in Boston. Her first full-length collection of poetry, The Spark Singer, was published in 2009 by Spuyten Duyvil Press. Her first novel, Backstage at The Caribou, was published in 2009 by Ray Ontko & Co. She has performed across the country, appearing as the featured performer at The Cantab Lounge (Boston), The Green Mill (Chicago), and The Nuyorican Poets Cafe (New York City), among others. She has also lectured and facilitated writing workshops, most recently at Indiana University and The University of Cincinnati. Her favorite yoga position is Crane Pose, and she never learned how to whistle. She is currently at work on a second novel, an album of songs, and more poetry. You can find her at www.jadesylvan.com.


Yuyutsu RD Sharma

Yuyutsu is the recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Trubar Foundation, Slovenia, The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature, Yuyutsu RD Sharma is a distinguished poet and translator.


He has published eight poetry collections including, Space Cake, Amsterdam, & Other Poems from Europe and America, (Howling Dog Press, Colorado, 2009), Annapurna Poems, (Nirala, New Delhi 2008), Everest Failures (White Lotus Book Shop, Kathmandu, 2008) www.WayToEverest.de: A photographic and Poetic Journey to the Foot of Everest, (Epsilonmedia, Germany, 2006) with German photographer Andreas Stimm and a translation of Irish poet Cathal O’ Searcaigh poetry in Nepali in a bilingual collection entitled, Kathmandu: Poems, Selected and New, 2006. He has translated and edited several anthologies of contemporary Nepali poetry in English and launched a literary movement, Kathya Kayakalpa (Content Metamorphosis) in Nepali poetry.


A collection of his poems in Slovenian translation, entitled, Jezero Fewa in Konj has just come out from the Sodobnost International Press, Ljubljana. A collection of his poems in French, Entitled, Poemes de l’ Himalayas shall appear from Harmattan, Paris in the Fall, 2009.

Writer Brad Green says....

On a writer's board Brad Green    wrote:
I'd urge anyone who hasn't bought a copy to do so. It's worth it. I've read many of the stories in there more than once. That says a lot. Tim's such a different writer than I am. There's quite a bit to learn from his approach to the short form. I'd call it straight-up writing or in-your-face perhaps. Although he'll often render tension allegorically via imagery or off-focus action, the entire piece never seems to labor under the fuzzy obliqueness that much of flash fiction often does. It's good stuff, but you all knew that, right?


Not an official review, but when other writers give praise I feel pretty happy but more fortunate than anything. Thanks Brad!

Looking for something to do?

Tomorrow night Tuesday December 29th
DreamSpeak at The Vine   700PM

Feature: Timothy Gager
Timothy is the author of eight books of short fiction and poetry.His latest book of flash fiction, Treating a Sick Animal,was released in November 2009. he has had over 200 works of fiction and poetry published since 2008, of which five have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.






Music by The Ravens
One reviewer: "Best thing we've heard since the Gypsy Kings!"

Word Open-Mic - bring short fiction, poetry to share.

The Vine

47 Court St., Downtown Plymouth

The Premiere European Wine Bar in New England

Fabulous wine, desserts, appetizers, coffee

Official release of Treating A Sick Animal, Cervena Barva Press

Here's the link from their website

The Outlaw

POETS  outside the academy, barbarians at the gate, Philistines, ner-do-wells, poseurs, stumble bums, nattering nabobs of negativism.. .
everything you won't find in cafe society..... .


                         IBBETSON STREET PRESS ANNOUNCES:
                                http://ibbetsonpress.com

                                  OUTLAW POET READING:

                   TIMOTHY GAGER, IRENE KORONAS, CD COLLINS

                                   DEC.12, 2009.   2 to 4PM

                            ALLSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

                        Honan-Allston Branch Library

                  300 North Harvard Street, Allston, MA 02134
                                617-787-6313
                     Branch Librarian: Jennifer Koerber

                              

                  Hosted  by Boston Poet Laureate Sam Cornish

Three Pushcart Nominations: This is an Official Announcement

 Here they are and I'd like to thank the generous editors of these fine publications.




A Little Slice of...
Night Train

Diary of an Angry Psychologist: Wednesday's Appointments
The Legendary

how easy is a spring weekend
Naturally Green Blog

New Interview by Ravi Mangla for his Recommended Reading blog

Enjoy:

http://readreadreadreadreadreadread.blogspot.com/2009/12/timothy-gager.html

This weekends readings: Dire Series and Myopic Books in Providence

    

 Friday December 4, marks the 105th installment of the Dire Literary Series and it should be a great one. Sherrie Flick, Molly Gaudry and Paul Schneider will be the features after an always pleasing open mic (4, 15 minute slots available first come, first served). It all takes places at The Out of the Blue Art Gallery, 106 Prospect Street, Cambridge, Ma. There will be plenty of books, beer, wine and shenanigans.

Time:	7:00pm - 8:00pm
Location:	Myopc Books
Street:	5 South Angell Street
City/Town:	Providence, RI

BIG READING @ MYOPIC BOOKS

Sherrie Flick / Reconsidering Happiness

Molly Gaudry / We Take Me Apart

Timothy Gager / Treating a Sick Animal

Steve Himmer / Necessary Fiction, Ed.

Refreshments, wine, beer, and lots of books.

Larry Brown, Thanksgiving eve, 5 years ago.

I was stunned when I heard he'd had a heart attack. Also, I was disappointed, for by my own count not enough people had heard of him. I felt I had done my part, loaning my copy of Big Bad Love to more than twenty people. When I looked for it last week, I didn’t have a copy left for myself.

Brown wrote about topics that most of us wouldn't touch or ever experience. When asked about this he told people that "he writes fiction and that he enjoys life, unlike his characters." Reading Brown in college not only fueled my own motivation to write, but also gave me confidence that success in writing could be attained, the same way Brown was able to succeed.

In an interview with Southern Scribe he listed the following advice to aspiring writers trying to make it:
1. Rejection
2. Trial and error.
3. Make lots of stupid mistakes.
4. There are no shortcuts.
5. You have to learn to write fiction that grabs the reader by the throat and doesn't let him go until you're through with him.
6. The only way to do that is to sit down and spend years writing and failing and writing again. If you quit, nobody's ever going to hear from you.

Brown’s writing career gives optimism to many of us still struggling with the craft, trying to get work accepted in various places in the literary world. The story of Larry Brown’s success would seem like a fairy tale to many of us trying to be noticed in the arts. Edward Wyatt of the New York Times wrote about it Brown’s obituary:

Before graduating from high school in 1969, he failed senior English and had to attend summer school, he told an interviewer in 2000. Soon after, he enlisted in the Marines, serving for two years in non-combat positions.

After his discharge Mr. Brown returned to Mississippi, where he worked a variety of odd jobs - over the years they included lumberjack, house painter, hay hauler and fence builder - before joining the Oxford Fire Department in 1973.

He remained a firefighter for 16 years, during which he began to teach himself how to write, reading obsessively the work of Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Carver, Cormac McCarthy and, of course, Faulkner. For years afterward he would be referred to as "the fireman-writer," enough so that he tired of that designation and discouraged its use.

Though he took one writing course at the University of Mississippi, he honed his craft by writing scores of stories, many of which were rejected before he got one published in 1982 in, of all places, Easyriders, a bikers' magazine.

Five years later another story, "Facing the Music," published in the Mississippi Review, a literary journal, caught the attention of Shannon Ravenel, a founder of Algonquin Books. "I called him and asked if he had other stories," Ms. Ravenel recalled. "He said he had a lot."

In the fall of 2003, Larry Brown was being looked at as a potential feature for The Somerville News Writers Festival II. The first festival hadn’t even happened yet. I worked with his publicist at Simon and Schuster and she wanted it to happen as much as I did. After a few e-mails back and forth between Simon and Schuster and myself, I was told that he regretfully had turned down our offer, but to “Give him a call. You may be able to talk him into it.” Larry was in Portland, Oregon, touring his book, Rabbit Factory. I called the bookstore where he was reading and was told to call back. When I called back he was gone. The next day, I called Seattle. When Mr. Brown got on the phone he was very polite and gracious. In his deep southern accent he informed me that he was just too tired to do any more engagements. I tried to tell him that the event was more than a year away, but he said he was looking forward to finishing his tour and being home in Mississippi for a bit. I got the impression that he was uncomfortable being on the road. He did manage to send me a signed single chapter (literally a chapter book-bound with a staple) of Billy Ray's Farm, something I treasured and still do.

Brown died at home on Thanksgiving eve in 2004.