Three years ago, three stalwarts of the East Bay writing scene — working writers and teachers all — decided to start a reading series with the generous support of Pegasus Bookstore. Sharon Coleman, Tomas Moniz and Mk Chavez wanted to showcase a mix of both prominent and emerging writers, including some not yet published, emphasizing the diversity of our writing community.

Three years later they can boast this astounding statistic: they have hosted 38 events with over 145 different readers and no repeat performances (except the occasional participation of the curators). The presentation of such an enormous variety of high quality work is a most impressive accomplishment!

Recently, they celebrated their three-year anniversary (“The Unholy Trinity”) with a reading that included a whopping fifteen contributors reading for no more than three minutes each. The show packed quite a punch, as you can see from the video.

– Charles Kruger

Videos (and order):

1. Tomas Moniz
2. Soma Mei Sheng Frazier
3. Cassandra Dallett
4. Michelle Gonzalez
5. Denise Jolly
6. John Panzer
7. Kwan Booth
8. Justin Chin
9. Mk Chavez
10. Meliza Banales
11. Sharon Coleman
12. Baruch Porras-Hernandez
13. Terry Taplin
14. Melissa Stein
15. Zarina Zabrisky

The next Lyrics & Dirges is this Wednesday, October 16th, featuring Julia Vinograd, Tehmina Khan, Marcus Lund, Avotcja Jilatonilro, and Ingrid Keir.