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(Nicole McFeely)

Featured Event: Dean Young Benefit

One thing I’ve noticed again and again with the people I meet who are involved in these types of events is their eagerness to give—whether its time, resources, or inspiration. It should come as no surprise then that benefits held to support the members of whatever you’d like to call this—a lifestyle, a science, a scene—feature some ridiculously fantastic writers. Here’s a chance to see what I’m talking about. On Thursday, June 23rd, a ton of noteworthy folks will be reading to benefit Dean Young. (I don’t care if you already know who he is. Read this. We were not children together, but we are now) Admission is free. You are free. Yes? Then come show support in this national effort! Read the rest of this entry »

(Evan Karp)

I contract. I dilate.

“Push! Push!”

I wax. I wane.

“Push! You can do it!”
…

“Congratulations! It’s a nonprofit organization.”

At some point, I mistook the voices in my heart for yours. Maybe I’m distracted because there’s so much going on in my life. Or is my heart so strangled? I don’t feel to blame. Maybe I listened, really listened while you spoke, thought, ‘we are the same,’ or, ‘we are close enough.’

I write for a living, and what living. Once I dreamt this, and devoted my every waking hour toward it, did everything but cut my eyelids off to stay awake and move toward it, and here it is: happening. Read the rest of this entry »

(Nicole McFeely)

We’ve all heard them: melo-dramatic poems written in the style of famous authors, exaggerated in-class essays, transparently autobiographical “short stories,” overly confident job applications with poor spelling…

Chances are, all of us have written a few things we regret—writers or not. Things we look back on minutes or years later and shudder, run for our shredders. Many a frustrated friend has proposed the burning of our old journals and notebooks, as though incinerating our humble beginnings might erase them, convincing everyone we were, indeed, child prodigies.

Prodigy smodigy. Regreturature, which took place as a benefit for Litquake on Thursday April 7th at the Swedish American Hall, provided its audience with 14 good reasons not to let those regrettable pages go up in smoke. Read the rest of this entry »

(Nicole McFeely)

“Thank you very much and welcome to Not So Fast. Uh, that is a title that we thought of. It’s caused a lot of controversy—a lot of people have been asking what it means.”

[slight pause]

“No. No one has asked,” Jack says.

A few people shed their seriousness—begin to chuckle.

“What does it mean!?” someone yells from the audience.

“We just needed a title,” Jack responds, and everyone begins to laugh. Read the rest of this entry »