Rhapsodomancy: A Reading Series in Los Angeles

We're Five Years Old Now

Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of our series. You're an amazing audience to read for. Photos will be posted shortly.

Stay tuned for details about the Sunday, December 13th reading!

Rhapsodomancy's Fifth Anniversary Reading, Sun. October 25th, 2009

SALVADOR PLASCENCIA ELOISE KLEIN HEALY WENDY C. ORTIZ ANDREA QUAID

Sunday, October 25, 2009*The 5th Anniversary of Rhapsodomancy!
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:30pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, 90027 (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
21 and over only.
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla (at) yahoo dot com. RSVP not required, but appreciated)
$3 suggested donation at door.
There will be a cash bar.
www.rhapsodomancy.org

Salvador Plascencia was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and raised in El Monte, California. His debut novel, The People of Paper, was named a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times, and has been translated into ten languages. He is the recipient of the Bard Fiction Prize and the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. His next novel, a shuffle roman, is about a time derailment, oceans, and shapeshifters.

Eloise Klein Healy, Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing Emerita, was the founding chair of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Antioch University Los Angeles. She is the author of six books of poetry. Her most recent collection, The Islands Project: Poems For Sappho, is from Red Hen Press. Ms. Healy directed the Women’s Studies Program at California State University Northridge and taught in the Feminist Studio Workshop at The Woman’s Building in Los Angeles. She is the co-founder of ECO-ARTS, an eco-tourism/arts venture and founding editor of Arktoi Books.

Wendy C. Ortiz is a Los Angeles native. She is currently a graduate student of psychology and marriage and family therapy trainee. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. Wendy was a 2007 and 2009 Writer-in-Residence at Hedgebrook. Recent and forthcoming publications include Spillway, Blood Orange Review, Palabra: A Magazine of Chicano and Latino Literary Art, Cranky, KNOCK, and Eclipse. She has read at various venues, including the West Hollywood Book Fair, The Knitting Factory, World Stage, the Echo Park Poetry Festival, and the first Ladyfest in Olympia, Washington in 2000. Wendy has been a creative writing teacher of Los Angeles youth in juvenile detention facilities, as well as a journalist, mudwrestler, library worker, and editor and publisher of a handbound literary journal. She received a B.A. from The Evergreen State College in 1995 and lived in Olympia, Washington for eight years before returning to Los Angeles. She is currently at work on various projects including a memoir and a poetry collection. Wendy is co-founder and curator of the Rhapsodomancy reading series.

Andrea Quaid co-facilitates the Poetry and Politics Research Cluster and Reading Series at UCSC where she is a Ph.D. candidate in literature. Her work focuses on contemporary avant-garde movements, experimental writing, the urban city and gender.  She earned an MFA in creative writing with an emphasis on poetry, and her publications include The Alembic, aPlod, Carquinez Poetry Review, Eureka Literary Magazine, Fox Cry Review, Limestone, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Phantasmagoria, Prairie Winds, Rio Grand Review, South Carolina Review, Soundings East, West Wind Review, and Xavier Review.  She is the co-founder of the Los Angeles reading series Rhapsodomancy and co-editor of Lounge-Lit: An Anthology of Poetry and Fiction by the Writers of Literary Cocktail and Rhapsodmancy.  In addition to teaching within the university system, she has co-created and directed creative writing-education outreach programs throughout the greater Los Angeles area.

Five Year Anniversary Coming Up

Thanks to everyone who attended our August reading! Photos from the evening will be posted shortly.

Please mark your calendar for the 5 year anniversary reading on Sunday, October 25, 2009. Details are forthcoming, so check back in mid-September!

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on Sunday, August 9th, 2009

TARA ISON ROBERT KRUT ALEXANDRA TEAGUE

Sunday, August 9, 2009
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:30pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, 90027 (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
21 and over only.
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com (RSVP not required, but appreciated)
$3 suggested donation at door.
There will be a cash bar.
www.rhapsodomancy.org

*Due to unforeseen circumstances, David Ulin will not be reading on August 9. Please check back for a future date.*

 

Tara Ison's first novel, A Child out of Alcatraz (Faber & Faber, Inc.), was a Finalist for the 1997 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, "Best First Fiction."  Her new novel, The List (Scribner), was published in February 2007.  Her short fiction, essays and book reviews have appeared in Tin House, The Kenyon Review, Nerve.com, Black Clock, The Mississippi Review, LA Weekly, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News, and numerous anthologies.  She is the recipient of a 2008 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship and a 2008 COLA Individual Artist Grant, as well as Yaddo fellowships, Pushcart Prize nominations, a Rotary Foundation Scholarship for International Study, a Brandeis National Women's Committee Award, a Thurber House Fiction Writer-in-Residence Fellowship, the Simon Blattner Fellowship from Northwestern University, and a California Arts Council Artists' Fellowship Award. 

Robert Krut is the author of The Spider Sermons (BlazeVOX, 2009).  His poetry has appeared in a variety of journals, including Blackbird, The Mid-American Review, Barrow Street, and more.  He teaches at the University of California at Santa Barbara and lives in Los Angeles.

Alexandra Teague has an M.F.A. from the University of Florida and was a 2006-08 Stegner Fellow at Stanford. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Best New Poets 2008 and Best American Poetry 2009, as well as The Missouri Review, New England Review and other journals. Her first book, Mortal Geography, winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky Prize, is forthcoming from Persea in April 2010. She teaches English at City College of San Francisco and lives in Oakland.

Stay tuned for August date

Thanks to everyone who chose a good reading over the Tony awards, the Lakers game and the Dodgers game. We wouldn't survive without you!

Photos will be posted soon, as well as information about the August reading. Thank you for your support!

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on Sunday, June 7, 2009

SARAH SHUN-LIEN BYNUM FARRAH FIELD ELENA MINOR JARED WHITE

Sunday, June 7, 2009
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:30pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, 90027 (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
21 and over only.
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com (RSVP not required, but appreciated)
$3 suggested donation at door.
There will be a cash bar.
www.rhapsodomancy.org
www.rhapsodomancy.org<br>

Sarah Shun-lien Bynum is the author of two novels, Ms. Hempel Chronicles, a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award, and Madeleine Is Sleeping, a finalist for the 2004 National Book Award and winner of the Kafka Prize. Her work has appeared in several magazines and anthologies, including The New Yorker, Tin House, The Georgia Review, and The Best American Short Stories. The recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award and an NEA Fellowship, she directs the MFA Program in Writing at the University of California, San Diego. She lives in Los Angeles with her family.

 

Farrah Field's poems have appeared in many publications including the Mississippi Review, Pool, Typo, Harp & Altar, 42Opus, La Petite Zine, Pebble Lake Review, and Fulcrum, among others. Rising won Four Way Books' 2007 Levis Prize and is her first book of poetry. She lives in Brooklyn and blogs at adultish.blogspot.com.

  

elena minor is the founding editor of PALABRA A Magazine of Chicano & Latino Literary Art.  Her fiction and poetry have been published or are forthcoming in Puerto del Sol, Quercus Review, Verdad, Buffalo Carp, Mandorla, OCHO, Diner, Passager, Poetry Midwest, Segue, Magnapoets, Prism Review, BorderSenses and The Big Ugly Review, among others.  She is a past First Prize recipient of the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize for drama and her work has placed as finalist in several national writing competitions.  She’s also a high school creative writing instructor with Spoken Interludes Next and a veteran arts administrator.

 

 

Jared White grew up in Massachusetts and lives in Brooklyn. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in journals like Cannibal, Coconut, Fulcrum, Harp & Altar, Inscape, The Modern Review, Sorry 4 Snake, and Verse. He has published essays in Harp & Altar, Poets Off Poetry at Coldfront, and Open Letters, and a chapbook entitled Yellowcake was included in the recent hand-sewn anthology Narwhal from Cannibal Books. From time to time, he blogs at jaredswhite.blogspot.com and plays the piano.

April Photos Posted; June Announcement to Come

Please check out our photo album for photos of the April reading.

The June reading announcement will be up by May 22nd. Keep checking back!

Full House

Thanks to everyone who made last night's reading pure joy--from audience member to writer reading, you were fantastic!

June reading details will be posted shortly, as well as photos from the April 19th reading. Stay tuned!

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on Sunday, April 19, 2009

JERICHO BROWN CHING-IN CHEN SINA GRACE EDAN LEPUCKI

Sunday, April 19, 2009
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:30pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, 90027 (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
21 and over only.
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com (RSVP not required, but appreciated)
$3 suggested donation at door.
There will be a cash bar.
www.rhapsodomancy.org
Jericho Brown worked as the speechwriter for the Mayor of New Orleans before receiving his Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. He also holds an M.F.A. from the University of New Orleans and a B.A. from Dillard University, and he has served as poetry editor at Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts. His poems have appeared in Callaloo, The Iowa Review, jubilat, New England Review, and Prairie Schooner. The recipient of a Cave Canem Fellowship, two scholarships to the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, and two travel fellowships to the Krakow Poetry Seminar in Poland, Brown is currently an Assistant Professor of English at the University of San Diego where he teaches creative writing. Western Michigan University's New Issues Poetry & Prose published his first book, Please. www.jerichobrown.com

Ching-In Chen is the author of The Heart's Traffic (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press), a novel-in-poems chronicling the life of an immigrant girl haunted by the death of her best friend. Daughter of Chinese immigrants and a Kundiman Fellow, Ching-In has worked in the Asian American communities of San Francisco, Oakland, and Boston. Her work has been recently published in Tea Party, Fifth Wednesday Journal, OCHO, Iron Horse Literary Review, and Water~Stone Review. www.chinginchen.com

Sina Grace is the author of the comic book series Books with Pictures and The Roller-Derby Robo-Dykes versus The Cannibals. His work has appeared in several prose and graphic novel anthologies. He illustrated More Adventurous, the Rilo Kiley comic to the eponymous album; and also illustrated inserts and promotional material for Common Rotation, Finest Dearest, and others. Cedric Hollows in Dial 'M' for Magic is his first novel. He lives in Southern California.

Edan Lepucki has published fiction in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, CutBank, Meridian, Avery, Narrative Magazine, and the Los Angeles Review. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, and a regular contributor to The Millions book blog. She is the founder of Writing Workshops Los Angeles, private writing school for the brave, enthusiastic and talented. She's currently at work on a novel.

First reading of 2009 a beauty...

Thanks to everyone who came out to hear Carine Topal, Lynne Thompson, Gayle Brandeis and Paul Lisicky! Photos will be posted soon. The next reading is schedule for Sunday, April 19. Stay tuned!

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on February 8, 2009

PAUL LISICKY GAYLE BRANDEIS LYNNE THOMPSON CARINE TOPAL

Sunday, February 8, 2009
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:30pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, 90027 (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
21 and over only.
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com (RSVP not required, but appreciated)
$3 suggested donation at door.
There will be a cash bar.
www.rhapsodomancy.org
Paul Lisicky is the author of Lawnboy and Famous Builder (Graywolf Press). His work has appeared in Five Points, Gulf Coast, Ploughshares, The Seattle Review, Subtropics, Truth in Nonfiction and other magazines and anthologies. His awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Michener/Copernicus Society, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, where he was twice a winter fellow. He has taught in the graduate writing programs at Cornell University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Antioch University Los Angeles. He currently teaches at NYU and in the low residency MFA program at Fairfield University. In the fall of 2009 he'll be a visiting professor in the MFA program at Rutgers-Newark. A new novel and a collection of short prose pieces are forthcoming. For more see: http://paullisicky.blogspot.com.

Gayle Brandeis is the author of Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (HarperSanFrancisco), Dictionary Poems (Pudding House Publications), The Book of Dead Birds: A Novel (HarperCollins), which won Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize for Fiction in Support of a Literature of Social Change, and Self Storage: A Novel (Ballantine) as well as the forthcoming novels, Pears (Ballantine, 2010) and My Life with the Lincolns (Holt, 2010). Gayle's fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in dozens of magazines and anthologies, including Salon.com, The Nation and the Mississippi Review, and have won several awards, including the QPB/Story Magazine Short Story Award and a Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award. In 2004, the Writer Magazine named Gayle a Writer Who Makes a Difference. Gayle is on the national staff of the women's peace organization CODEPINK and is a founding member of the Women Creating Peace Collective. Mother to two teenagers, Gayle teaches creative writing at UC Riverside and Antioch University. You can find her at www.gaylebrandeis.com.

Lynne Thompson won the 2007 Perugia Press Book Prize for her first full-length collection of poems, Beg No Pardon. Beg No Pardon was also awarded the 2008 Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award. A frequent reader, both locally and nationally, Thompson is also the author of two chapbooks: We Arrive By Accumulation and Through A Window and her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Essence, Margie, Crab Orchard Review, Indiana Review, and Blue Arc West, An Anthology of California Poets. She is employed as the Director of Employee & Labor Relations at UCLA.

Carine Topal, a native New Yorker, writes and teaches in Los Angeles. She has lived in Jerusalem, Israel, where she worked with Palestinian merchants, traveling to villages and towns in the West Bank and Bethlehem. She was also employed by the Office of Assimilation, in a small town outside Jerusalem, working with Morrocan Jews. She then lived in Germany on the American army base in Heidelberg. Since 1982, she has anthologized the poetry of special needs children. She participated in the grassroots organization California Poets in the Schools. She was the Poet-in-Residence for the city of Manhattan Beach and Poet-in-Education for Manhattan Beach elementary schools. In 1994, her first collection of poetry, God As Thief, was published by The Amagansett Press. Her work has appeared in Water-Stone, Caliban, The Best of the Prose Poem, Pacific Review, Greensboro Review and many other journals throughout the U.S. and Canada. In 2004, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and in 2005, awarded a residency at Hedgebrook, as well as a fellowship in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2006, Carine had the good fortune of teaching poetry at the VA Hospital in Los Angeles. She is the recipient of numerous poetry awards, including the Jane Kenyon Poetry Prize, and most recently, the 2007 Robert G. Cohn Prose Poetry Award from California Arts and Letters. A special edition chapbook, “Bed of Want,” was published by Black Zinnias in January 2008. Her new collection of poems, “In the Heaven of Never Before,” was recently published by Moon Tide Press.

Farewell to 2008

Thanks to everyone who came out on December 7 for the reading! Photos will be posted by the end of the year. Happy holidays and best wishes in the new year! Rhapsodomancy will return in February 2009. Join our mailing list by emailing rhapsodomancyla at yahoo dot com and check here for details in January.

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on Sunday, December 7, 2008

TREBOR HEALEY JILLIAN LAUREN JERRY PYLE LAVONNE CAESAR

Sunday, December 7, 2008 Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:30pm The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, 90027 (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst) 21 and over only. RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com (RSVP not required, but appreciated) $3 suggested donation at door. There will be a cash bar. www.rhapsodomancy.org

Recipient of the 2004 Ferro-Grumley and Violet Quill awards for his first novel, Through It Came Bright Colors (Harrington Park Press), Trebor Healey is also the author of a collection of poems, Sweet Son of Pan, (Suspect Thoughts, 2006), as well as the recently-published A Perfect Scar & Other Stories (Harrington Park Press, 2007). He co-edited (with Marci Blackman) Beyond Definition: New Writing from Gay and Lesbian San Francisco (Manic D Press, 1994) and co-edited (with Amie M. Evans) Queer & Catholic (Routledge, 2008). His short fiction and poetry were nominated for a 2008 Pushcart Prize. Trebor lives in Los Angeles. www.treborhealey.com.

 

Jillian Lauren's memoir Some Girls will be published by Plume/Penguin in the Spring of 2010. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. Her writing has appeared in Flaunt Magazine, Pindeldyboz Magazine, Opium Magazine,The Chiron Review, Society, Pale House: A Collective and in the anthology My First Time: A Collection of First Punk Show Stories. She has read at spoken word events in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, including Tongue and Groove, Talk, Talk, Talk and Words like Sugar. She has recently worked with directors as diverse as Steve Balderson, Lynne Breedlove and Margaret Cho.She is married to Weezer bass player Scott Shriner. They live in Los Angeles. Her website is www.jillianlauren.com.

  Jerry Pyle is a writer and filmmaker whose work has been screened in film festivals all over the world. His video, Zavislost, for the Czech band, Post-it, spent eight weeks at number one on the Czech TV Ocko hitparada in the summer of 2006. He's written on film and music for weeklies like the Copenhagen Post and the Prague Pill and on the web for Provokator magazine. He's currently an editor at Eqal Entertainment. He has an MFA in Creative Writing in Creative Nonfiction from Antioch University Los Angeles.

LaVonne Natasha Caesar was born in Canada and raised throughout South America, Europe, Mexico and various islands of the Caribbean. She is the recipient of Naropa University's Zora Neale Hurston scholarship and is currently completing her MFA at Naropa University. If you would like more information about her childhood, her past, her convictions or her general interests, you can buy her chapbook The Black Pussy Revolution Part 1 at www.lulu.com...it's kind of like a memoir.

Officially into Year 5

Please check out the photos from our fourth anniversary reading. Stay tuned for the December 7 reading announcement!

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading at the Fourth Anniversary, Sunday, October 19, 2008

ELOISE KLEIN HEALY ELIZABETH BRADFIELD MICHELLE BITTING WENDY C. ORTIZ

Sunday, October 19, 2008
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:30pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, 90027 (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
21 and over only.
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com (RSVP not required, but appreciated)
$3 suggested donation at door.
There will be a cash bar.
www.rhapsodomancy.org

Eloise Klein Healy is the author of six books of poetry and three spoken word recordings. She was the founding chair of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Antioch University Los Angeles where she is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing Emerita. Healy directed the Women’s Studies Program at California State University Northridge and taught in the Feminist Studio Workshop at The Woman’s Building in Los Angeles. She is Resident Poet at the Idyllwild Summer Poetry Festival, the co-founder of ECO-ARTS, an eco-tourism/arts venture, and founding editor of ARKTOI BOOKS, an imprint of Red Hen Press. Her latest collection of poems is The Islands Project: Poems For Sappho.

Elizabeth Bradfield is the author of Interpretive Work (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press, 2008) and editor of Broadsided. Her poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, several anthologies, and are forthcoming in Orion and The Believer. Currently a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, when not writing, she works as a naturalist.

Michelle Bitting grew up in Los Angeles, California. She was educated at U.C. Berkeley and in 2009, will graduate with an MFA in Poetry from Pacific University, Oregon. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Prairie Schooner, Narrative, Poetry Daily, Crab Orchard Review, Passages North, Many Mountains Moving, and Rattle. Thomas Lux chose her full-length manuscript, Good Friday Kiss, as the winner of C & R Press’s DeNovo First Book Award. Formerly a dancer and a chef, Michelle devotes a portion of her time to doing outreach work in Los Angeles where she lives with her husband, the actor, Phil Abrams, and their two children, Elijah and Vera Rose.

Wendy C. Ortiz is a Los Angeles native. She was awarded a writing residency from Hedgebrook in 2007. Recent publications include Blood Orange Review, Palabra: A Magazine of Chicano and Latino Literary Art, Cranky, KNOCK, Eclipse, and others. She is cofounder and curator of the Rhapsodomancy Reading Series at the Good Luck Bar in Hollywood. Wendy is currently a graduate student of psychology. Some of her work can be found at http://www.wendyortiz.com.

The Literati Cocktail/Rhapsodomancy Sampler at West Hollywood Book Fair

Rhapsodomancy will be sharing a stage with Literati Cocktail at the 7th Annual West Hollywood Book Fair!

featuring poets
Eloise Klein Healy
liz gonzález
Jamie Asae FitzGerald
Robert Montoya

September 28, 2008
The Robertson Coffee House Stage
11am sharp

West Hollywood Park: 647 N. San Vicente Blvd.
free admission and parking (at Pacific Design Center)
www.westhollywoodbookfair.org
www.litparlor.com

About the 2008 Sampler:

Tess. Lotta, editor of Media Cake eMagazine, and Wendy C. Ortiz, curator of Rhapsodomancy, are proud to present The Literati Cocktail/Rhapsodomancy Sampler. The 2008 Sampler showcases the literary selections offered in Media Cake eMagazine, a Los Angeles-based online lit and art magazine, and the Los Angeles reading series Rhapsodomancy, which presents outstanding established and up-and-coming poets as featured guests of a bimonthly reading held at the Good Luck Bar in Los Feliz.

Curated by Tess. Lotta, the Sampler reading series celebrates its third year at the West Hollywood Book Fair. After enjoying two fruitful years as Literati Cocktail, a bi-monthly reading series held at The Parlor Club and The Space at Fountain’s End, the Sampler continues to support the Los Angeles literary community as an annual event held at the West Hollywood Book Fair. Each year, Tess. partners with another literary curator to present a taste of the vibrant So Cal lit scene.

Thank you, August Audience

Photos are now posted of the August 10 reading. See you October 19!

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on Sunday, August 10, 2008

ALISTAIR MCCARTNEY JILLIAN WEISE MICHELE MATHESON KRISTI MAXWELL

Sunday, August 10, 2008
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:30pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, 90027 (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
21 and over only.
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com (RSVP not required, but appreciated)
$3 suggested donation at door.
There will be a cash bar.
www.rhapsodomancy.org

Kristi Maxwell currently lives and writes in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the author of Realm Sixty-four (Ahsahta Press, 2008), Elsewhere & Wise (Dancing Girl Press, 2008), and Hush Sessions (Saturnalia Books, forthcoming in 2009).

Jillian Weise wrote The Amputee's Guide to Sex (Soft Skull Press, 2007) and Translating the Body (All Nations Press, 2006). Her work appears in A Public Space, The Atlantic Monthly, Tin House and others. Plays have been staged at the Provincetown Theater and the New York Fringe Festival. She now teaches at Clemson. In the winter, she will travel to Patagonia on a creative writing Fulbright.

Michele Matheson is the author of Saving Angelfish. She is currently working on a second novel and plays in a band called The Black Tales. Michele lives in Echo Park with Noodles and Harold, her two cats, and hopes to adopt a stray dog one of these days to join her on walks.

Alistair McCartney
is the author of The End of the World Book: a Novel (University of Wisconsin Press, April, 08). The End of the World Book is both a novel and an encyclopedia (A to Z) of memories, obsessions and philosophical fixations, working in and building upon the same metafictional terrain as Roberto Bolano and W.G. Sebald. Praising this novel, Dennis Cooper, author of Frisk, wrote, “If I’ve read a more deeply impressive, beautiful, sweeping, mindful, and innovative first novel than Alistair McCartney’s The End of the World Book, I have no memory of it. McCartney is a writer of peerless, brilliant originality and pure, giant talent.” Publishers Weekly described it as ". . . a surreal and self-referential encyclopedia for the 21st century... fans of alternative literature and Borges may discover a kindred spirit." And The Los Angeles Times characterized it as "...a giddy literary jape...'The End of the World Book' ...is an interrogation of literature -- how we think about writing, what we choose to write about and why." The book was recently chosen to be featured on Critical Mass, the blog for the National Book Critics circle. McCartney is currently at work on his next novel The Death Book: A Comedy, which is the 2nd book in a trilogy. Other writings of his have appeared in Fence, Bloom, James White Review, and numerous literary journals, as well as in a number of fiction and creative nonfiction anthologies, including Wonderlands (University of Wisconsin Press) and Between Men (Carroll and Graf.) Originally from Australia, since 1997 he has been based in Los Angeles, where he lives with his partner Tim Miller. McCartney teaches creative writing and literature at Antioch University LA, in the MFA Creative Writing and BA programs.

June Reading A Success

Thanks to everyone who came out for the June mix of poetry and fiction. Photos will be posted shortly, as well as the announcement of the August 10 reading. Stay tuned!

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on Sunday, June 8, 2008

NINA REVOYR JASON BREDLE LOUISE MATHIAS DENNIS FULGONI

Sunday, June 8, 2008
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:30pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, 90027 (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
21 and over only.
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com (RSVP not required, but appreciated)
$3 suggested donation at door.
There will be a cash bar.
www.rhapsodomancy.org

Nina Revoyr was born in Japan, the only child of a Japanese mother and a white American father. She grew up in Tokyo, Wisconsin, and from the age of nine, Los Angeles, and she received her MFA from Cornell University. Nina is the author of three novels, The Necessary Hunger, Southland, and The Age of Dreaming. Her second novel, Southland, was a BookSense 76 pick, won the Ferro Grumley and Lambda Literary Awards, and was one of the Los Angeles Times’ "Best Books of 2003." Library Journal has called her new novel, The Age of Dreaming, “Fast-moving, riveting, unpredictable and profound.” Booklist has said, “Rare indeed is a novel this deeply pleasurable and significant,” and Los Angeles Magazine writes that “Nina Revoyr…is fast becoming one of the city’s finest chroniclers and myth-makers.” Nina has taught at Cornell University, Antioch University, and Occidental College; and has worked for more than a decade in the fields of child welfare and public education.

Jason Bredle is the author of Standing in Line for the Beast, selected by Barbara Hamby as winner of the 2006 New Issues Poetry Prize, and A Twelve Step Guide, winner of the 2004 New Michigan Press chapbook contest. His most recent book, Pain Fantasy, was released by Red Morning Press in summer 2007. He lives in Chicago.

Louise Mathias grew up in England and Los Angeles, and currently splits her time between Southern California and South Bend, Indiana. She is the author of Lark Apprentice, which won the New Issues Poetry Prize, and published by New Issues Press in 2004. Her poems have been published in journals such as Prairie Schooner, Epoch, Boulevard, Crazyhorse, Denver Quarterly and The Journal. Poems from her new manuscript-in-progress The Traps, appear or are forthcoming in Triquarterly, Massachusetts Review, and Pool. She was educated at the University of Southern California, and works as a fundraising consultant.

Dennis Fulgoni's stories have appeared in Parting Gifts, Quarterly West, the Colorado Review, and New Stories from the Southwest. He was the winner of an AWP Intro Journals Award, a James Kirkwood Award for Fiction through UCLA, and a Special Mention in the 2008 Pushcart Prize. He teaches high school English at John Marshall High School and is currently enrolled in the MFA program at Antioch University Los Angeles.

See you in June!

Thanks to the wonderful writers and great crowd who helped make the April reading phenomenal! Stay tuned for the announcement about June's line-up, and save the date: June 8.

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on Sunday, April 6, 2008

ROB ROBERGE KAREN HARRYMAN ANA THORNE ROBERT D. MONTOYA

Sunday, April 6, 2008
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:30pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, 90027 (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
21 and over only.
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com (RSVP not required, but appreciated)
$3 suggested donation at door.
There will be a cash bar.
www.rhapsodomancy.org

Rob Roberge is the author of the upcoming book of stories Working Backwards from the Worst Moment of My Life (Black Arrow Press, scheduled for 2008), the neo-noir novels More Than They Could Chew (Perennial Dark Alley/Harper Collins, February 2005) and Drive (re-issue, Hollyridge Press, 2006). His stories have been featured in ZYZZYVA, Chelsea, Other Voices, Alaska Quarterly Review, and the Ten Writers Worth Knowing Issue of The Literary Review. His work has also been anthologized in Another City (City Lights, 2001) and It’s All Good (Manic D Press, 2004). Rob also teaches writing at a number of programs in the Los Angeles area, including the Antioch University Los Angeles, MFA in Creative Writing and the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, where he received the Outstanding Instructor Award in Creative Writing in 2003. In his spare time, he plays guitar and sings with the Los Angeles area garage/punk bands The Violet Rays, The Danbury Shakes and LA’s seminal (class of 78) punk band Urinals, and restores and rebuilds vintage amplifiers and quack medical devices. For news and more info, visit & or email at www.myspace.com/robroberge

Karen Harryman's poems have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Los Angeles Review, Poetry New Zealand, and other journals. Her first book of poetry, Auto Mechanic's Daughter, was published in 2007 by Akashic Books. Before moving to Los Angeles with her husband, Kirker, she lived and worked in Kentucky for most of her life. She teaches creative writing at YULA, an orthodox Jewish girls' high school.

Ana Thorne stays busy pursuing creative and academic dreams deferred. She will receive an MA in Humanities in May from Mount St. Mary’s College and will complete her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles in December. A finalist in the recent Santa Fe Writers Project competition, Ana’s creative nonfiction piece “No Thank You, Otto Titzling” will appear in the SFWP online journal and in the Mount St. Mary’s literary journal. Born in the Midwest, Ana lived in Seatlle, San Francisco, New York City, and the Virgin Islands before settling in Los Angeles. She is working on a series of essays about her parents and her biracial heritage.

At some point Robert D. Montoya was born in Los Angeles, CA. Having grown up in this sprawling setting, much of his writing is latently (and often overtly) influenced by the city’s multi-nodal, concrete urban environment and sporadic urban parks. Robert attended UCLA, receiving his B.A. in American Literature and Culture with a minor in Biological Anthropology. Other things happened. Robert is currently working toward his Masters of Fine Arts degree, with an emphasis on poetry. Domestic and international travel has strongly influenced Robert’s writing, as have literary figures such as Immanuel Kant, William Wordsworth, Ralph Waldo Emerson (go Transcendentalists!), Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, Jorie Graham, and Reginald Shepherd. He currently lives in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles.

One of the Best!

Thanks to everyone who came out on Feb. 24, 2008. It was a fantastic reading! See you in April!

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on Sunday, February 24, 2008

ELLEN BASS FRANK X. GASPAR GLEAH POWERS ROBERT W. FOX

Sunday, February 24, 2008
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:15pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
21 and over only.
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com
$3 suggested donation at door; after expenses, a portion of the proceeds will benefit a nonprofit to be determined.
There will be a cash bar.
www.rhapsodomancy.org

Ellen Bass's most recent book of poetry, The Human Line, was published by Copper Canyon Press this year and was named a Notable Book of 2007 by the San Francisco Chronicle. Her previous book, Mules of Love (BOA, 2002) won the Lambda Literary Award. Her work has been read by Garrison Keillor on The Writers Almanac and her poem “Gate C22” was included in Roger Housden’s best-selling anthology, Ten Poems to Change Your Life Again and Again (Harmony, 2007). Her work has been published in many journals and magazines including The Atlantic Monthly, The American Poetry Review, Ms., Ploughshares, Field, and The Kenyon Review. Among her awards for poetry are The Pushcart Prize, the Elliston Book Award, The Pablo Neruda Prize from Nimrod/Hardman, the Larry Levis Prize from Missouri Review, the New Letters Prize, the Greensboro Award, the Chautaqua Poetry Prize, and a Fellowship from the California Arts Council. She co-edited, with Florence Howe, the groundbreaking book, No More Masks! An Anthology of Poems by Women (Doubleday, 1973) and her nonfiction books include Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Youth and Their Allies (HarperCollins, 1996), and The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (HarperCollins, 1988) which has been translated into twelve languages. She teaches in the MFA writing program at Pacific University.

Frank X. Gaspar was born and raised in Provincetown, Massachusetts and now lives in Southern California. He is Professor of English at Long Beach City College. He also teaches poetry and novel writing in the summer program at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and at Antioch University, Los Angeles. He served three and a half years in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam Conflict and attended colleges and universities after his discharge, receiving an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. Gaspar is the author of four books of poetry and one novel. His short stories and poems have been published widely in literary journals, including The Nation, The Harvard Review, The New England Review, The Sewanee Review, Prairie Schooner, The Massachusetts Review, Ploughshares, The Hudson Review, Provincetown Arts, The Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Antioch Review, The Tampa Review, The Denver Quarterly, and others. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies including, The Beacon Best Poetry of 1999, The Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and others. Gaspar is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, and his work is included in the 1996 Best American Poetry and in Best American Poetry 2000. He is the recipient of three Puschcart Prizes for literature, and the Edgar Stanley Award and a Readers’ Choice Award both from Prairie Schooner. He is currently working on new poems and a new novel.

Gleah Powers received her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles where she recently taught an undergraduate writing workshop. While in the MFA program she completed her first novel set in the 1960s southwest desert of Phoenix, the beaches of Ft. Lauderdale and the streets of Hollywood. Gleah has worked professionally as an actress, dancer and painter in New York, Los Angeles and Mexico City. She currently lives in Santa Monica and is at work on a second novel.

Born over a half a century ago during a different millennia in New York's scenic Hudson Valley, Robert W. Fox has been around, and mostly in a good way. Robert became a writer at the suggestions of friends who liked his witty e-mail responses. Much to his own surprise, Robert found out he is actually not that bad. He has a brand spankin new MFA degree in Creative Nonfiction. He has been published in LA Weekly, and even had a quasi-socialist letter to the editor printed in The Sunday New York Times Business Section. That must take talent. Not having found love, and therefore with no family, Robert has found his family and happiness teaching creative writing to teenage prostitutes and gang-bangers at Central Juvenile Hall in Lincoln Heights, LA.

Happy New Year

See you February 24, 2008!

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on Sunday, December 16, 2007

MAGGIE NELSON EMILY RAPP MAUREEN ALSOP CATHERINE DUPREE

Sunday, December 16, 2007
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:15pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
21 and over only.
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com
$3 suggested donation at door; after expenses, a portion of the proceeds will benefit a nonprofit to be determined.
There will be a cash bar.
www.rhapsodomancy.org

Maggie Nelson is most recently the author of a critical book about poetry and painting titled Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (U of Iowa Press, 2007), a fourth collection of poems, Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press, 2007), and a nonfiction book about sexual violence, criminal justice, media spectacle, and her family titled The Red Parts: A Memoir(Free Press, 2007). Previous books include a mixed-genre narrative titled Jane: A Murder (Soft Skull, 2005), which was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir, and the poetry collections The Latest Winter (Hanging Loose Press, 2003) and Shiner (Hanging Loose Press, 2001). After living in New York City for many years, she moved to Los Angeles in 2005. A recipient of a 2007 Arts Writers Grant from the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, she currently teaches on the faculty of the School of Critical Studies at CalArts in Valencia, CA.

Emily Rapp is Core Faculty in the MFA in Creative Writing at Antioch University-Los Angeles. A former Fulbright scholar, she was a James A. Michener Fellow in Fiction and Poetry at the University of Texas-Austin. Her first book, Poster Child: A Memoir, was published by Bloomsbury in 2007 and is due out in paperback in January 2008. She has received awards and recognition for her work from The Atlantic Monthly, StoryQuarterly, the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation, the Jentel Arts Foundation, the Corporation of Yaddo, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, where she was a winter writing fellow. She was the Philip Roth Writer-in-Residence at Bucknell University and was recently awarded a Rona Jaffe Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Women Writers. She is currently at work on a novel.

Maureen Alsop's first full collection of poetry, Apparition Wren (Main Street Rag) was recently released. Her poems have appeared or are pending in various publications including: The Cortland Review, Barrow Street, Typo, Columbia : A Journal of Literature and Art and Texas Review. She was the winner of Harpur Palate's 2007 Milton Kessler Memorial Prize for Poetry and Bitter Oleander’s 2007 Frances Locke Memorial Award for Poetry. Her poetry has been thrice nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Catherine Dupree's work has appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, The Connecticut Review, National Geographic Traveler, Boston magazine, Harvard magazine, and Nylon. She was a fiction resident at the Millay Colony for the Arts in Austerlitz, NY, and at the Kimmel-Harding-Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, NE. In 2006, she received a creative fellowship from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. She was born and raised in Cambridge, Mass.

December 16, 2007 Line-up

On Sunday, December 16, 2007, Rhapsodomancy is pleased to have writers Maggie Nelson, Emily Rapp, Maureen Alsop and Catherine Dupree. More details to come. Please mark your calendars!

Rhapsodomancy featured in L.A. Times, November 1, 2007

Click here to read the article.

--------------------
Hit the town, read a book
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A salon in a saloon? L.A. book fans are getting lit in a whole new way.

By Pauline O'Connor
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Nov 1 2007

FOR far too long, Los Angeles -- the largest book-buying market in the country -- was stuck with an undeserved reputation as a cultural wasteland where nobody reads. It was a ludicrous put-down, given L.A.'s well-documented literary pedigree as home to a multitude of talents both native (Ray Bradbury, Charles Bukowski) and imported (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Evelyn Waugh, William Faulkner). But the truth can no longer be denied. L.A.'s lit scene continues to grow and thrive, powered by a battalion of independent bookstores, small presses, writing programs and blogs.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.calendarlive.com/books/cl-gd-cvr1nov01,0,5797817.story?coll=cl-lat-homepage

::Happy Third Anniversary::

Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate with us at the third anniversary on Sunday, October 28, 2007! Photos to come, and announcement of the December 16 line-up. Stay tuned.

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading at the Third Anniversary, Sunday, October 28, 2007

MARTHA RONK DAVID MARRIOTT ALEX LANG WENDY C. ORTIZ ANDREA QUAID

Sunday, October 28, 2007
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:15pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
21 and over only.
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com
$3 suggested donation at door; after expenses, a portion of the proceeds will benefit a nonprofit to be determined.
There will be a cash bar.
www.rhapsodomancy.org

Martha Ronk is the author most recently of Vertigo, selected for the National Poetry Series by C.D. Wright and published by Coffee House Press 2007; and of In a Landscape of Having to Repeat, published by Omnidawn Press and winner of the PEN USA award for a book of poetry 2005. She has published eight books and several chapbooks, has received residencies at Djerassi and MacDowell, and is the 2007 recipient of an NEA grant. She is professor of English at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

David Marriott currently teaches at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the author of Incognegro(Salt Publications, 2006) and Haunted Life: Visual Culture and Black Modernity (Rutgers, 2007). A new book of poetry, Hoodoo Voodoo, is forthcoming in 2008.

Alex Lang is a poet and lyricist living in Los Angeles. His poems have appeared in many magazines and anthologies, and his lyrics (written under the name Shuggie Love) can be found on Monkey Bars’ album Food Eating Food. For cash, Alex works as a television executive for a network no one has ever heard of.

Wendy C. Ortiz is co-curator of Rhapsodomancy. Recent or forthcoming publications include Blood Orange Review, Palabra: A Magazine of Chicano and Latino Literary Art, Cranky, and Eclipse, among others. She was awarded a writing residency from Hedgebrook in 2007. Wendy is currently a graduate student of psychology.

Andrea Quaid is the co-curator of Rhapsodomancy. She currently attends UC Santa Cruz as a Ph.D. candidate in literature where she is the co-organizer of the Poetry and Politics Research Cluster and Reading Series.

Stay tuned for news of our 3 Year Anniversary

Thanks to everyone who braved the Sunset Junction crowds and made it out to the Sunday night reading. Unfortunately we have no photos of the evening, but it was incredible. See you in October!

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on Sunday, August 19 2007

MARY OTIS LARKIN HIGGINS JILLIAN LAUREN CRYSTAL COOK

Sunday, August 19, 2007
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:15pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
21 and over only.
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com
$3 suggested donation at door; after expenses, a portion of the proceeds will benefit Hedgebrook, a nonprofit that invests in women who write by providing them with space and time to create significant work, in solitude and community, and by developing an international network to connect writers and audiences.
There will be a cash bar.
www.rhapsodomancy.org

Mary Otis's short story collection Yes, Yes, Cherries was published this past May by Tin House Books. She has also had stories published in Best New American Voices, Los Angeles Times, Cincinnati Review, Berkeley Literary Journal, Santa Monica Review, Tin House Literary Journal, and the Alaska Review. Her story "Pilgrim Girl" received an honorable mention for a Pushcart Prize, and her story "Unstruck" was cited in 100 Distinguished Stories in the Best American Short Stories 2006. A 2007 Walter Dakin Fellow, Mary currently lives in Los Angeles. http://www.maryotis.com

Larkin Higgins is a writer and artist living in Los Angeles. Her poetry is included in anthologies published by University of Iowa Press, Fossil Press, Tebot Bach, and Red Wind. An artist-in-residency at the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony for the years 2000, 2001, and 2002, her writing has also appeared in Genre, Saturday Afternoon Journal, Beyond Baroque Magazine and elsewhere. Her artworks have been reviewed &/or published in Artweek, The Boston Globe, Antiques & The Arts Weekly (New York), U-Turn, The Los Angeles Times, and others. As a member of Perimeter Arts Collective, Higgins performed original text at Highways, Occidental College, and The World Stage. She earned her MFA from Otis College of Art and Design. In Ventura County she teaches college drawing, painting, and a writing-intensive for senior art majors.

Jillian Lauren is currently completing her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. Her writing has appeared in Pindeldyboz Magazine, Opium Magazine, The Chiron Review, Society, Pale House: A Collective and will soon be in the upcoming anthology My First Time, a collection of first punk show stories. She was a semifinalist in the 2006 Project: QueerLit contest. She has participated in spoken word events in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, including Tongue and Groove, Talk, Talk, Talk and Words like Sugar. She also performs in various film and theater projects and has worked with directors as diverse as Richard Foreman, Lynne Breedlove and Margaret Cho. She lives in Los Angeles and is working on a novel.

Born in West "by God" Virginia, Crystal Allene Cook is a self-described "hillbilly-New-Yorker-Angelena." A Barnard alumna and a creative writing Fulbright recipient, Cook holds an MST from The New School and a MFA in Writing from Antioch LA. In addition to her long-time day-job commitment to education and to women's/girls' issues, her creative work has appeared in Shenandoah, The Flint Hills Review, The Southeast Review, Ararat, and online in CARVE and southernhum. She most recently finished writing a novel set during the war in the 1990's between Armenia and Azerbaijan. You can also catch her around town gigging with several bands, playing E-flat tuba.

Thanks!

A beautiful Los Angeles evening in summer...and still, a great audience in our dark bar. Thanks for coming out last night! Be sure to view photos from the evening. Stay tuned for August announcements shortly.

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on Sunday, June 24, 2007

ELOISE KLEIN HEALY
ROBERT KRUT
TESS. LOTTA
BONNIE BOLLING

Sunday, June 24, 2007
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:15pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst) 21 and over only.
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com
$3 suggested donation at door; after expenses, a portion of the proceeds will benefit a nonprofit organization to be determined.
There will be a cash bar.
www.rhapsodomancy.org

Eloise Klein Healy is the author of six books of poetry. Her most recent collection, The Islands Project: Poems For Sappho, is from Red Hen Press. Ms. Healy, Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing Emerita at Antioch University Los Angeles, was the founding chair of the MFA in Creative Writing Program. She is also the co-founder of ECO-ARTS, an eco-tourism/arts venture and founding editor of Arktoi Books, an imprint of Red Hen Press specializing in publishing the work of lesbian writers. Healy is Resident Poet at the Idyllwild Summer Poetry Festival and will serve as poetry faculty for the Lambda Literature Foundation’s LBGT Writers Retreat in 2007.

Robert Krut is the author of the chapbook Theory of the Walking Big Bang (H-ngm-n Books, 2007). His poetry has appeared in a variety of journals, including Blackbird, The Mid-American Review, and Hayden's Ferry Review, among others. He lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Tess. Lotta is finishing her MA in English (lit and lit theory) while writing poetry and journalism, teaching, and making art. She serves as Poetry Editor for www.poeticdiversity.org and as the Editor and Creative Director for Media Cake eMagazine www.mediacakemagazine.com. Information on her creative projects and writing is available at www.litparlor.com.

Bonnie Bolling lives in Long Beach with her family. She is an editor of Verdad, a literary and art web magazine. She is a finalist for the 2007 Rita Dove Poetry Award and the winner of two Donald Drury Awards, for fiction and poetry and a PEN USA/Emerging Voices participant. Her work has been published in Pearl Magazine, Chickasaw Plum, Verdad, Poetic Diversity and other magazines and newspapers. Her current projects are a novel titled The Book of Ruth, and a collection of poetry. She holds a B.A. in English and is a student of the creative writing program at Long Beach City College.

Another Incredible Evening!

Thank you all so much for coming out and making it another spectacular event. Apologies for not having any photos of the last two events, but picture this: even on a rainy night, we had a big audience, and the engagement the audience had with the work was remarked upon several times by our readers. From Pennsylvania to San Francisco to L.A.--excellent work, all. Stay tuned for an announcement in May about the next show. See you June 24th!

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on Sunday, April 22, 2007

ROBIN BECKER
TARA ISON
TUNG-HUI HU
SUZAN LUSTIG

Sunday, April 22, 2007
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:15pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com
$3 suggested donation at door; after expenses, a portion of the proceeds will benefit a nonprofit organization to be determined.
There will be a cash bar.

Robin Becker, professor of English and women’s studies at The Pennsylvania State University, is the author of six collections of poetry, including Domain of Perfect Affection, The Horse Fair, All-American Girl and Giacometti’s Dog. Becker is the recipient of individual fellowships from the Bunting Institute, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her poetry column “Field Notes” appears in the Women’s Review of Books, where she serves as poetry editor.

Tara Ison's first novel, A Child out of Alcatraz (Faber & Faber, Inc.), was a Finalist for the 1997 Los Angeles Times Book Awards, "Best First Fiction." Her new novel, The List, was just released (March 2007). Her short fiction, essays and book reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in Tin House, The Kenyon Review, Nerve.com, The Mississippi Review, LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine and Book Review, and other newpapers and numerous anthologies. Tara is the recipient of Yaddo fellowships, Pushcart Prize nominations, a Rotary Foundation Scholarship for International Study, a Brandeis National Women's Committee Award, a Thurber House Fiction Writer-in-Residence Fellowship, and the Simon Blattner Fellowship from Northwestern University.

Tung-Hui Hu lives in San Francisco, where he writes on film and new media. He is the author of two collections of poetry, Mine (Ausable, 2007) and The Book of Motion (Georgia, 2003). In the spring, he will be a resident at MacDowell and Millay Colonies, and later this summer, he will release the inaugural vintage of his pinot noir from Anderson Valley, California.

Suzan Lustig's work has been published in several journals including Smartish Pace, Poeticdiversity, Triplopia and Mannequin Envy. She was a finalist for the 2006 Beullah Rose Poetry Prize and was nominated for a 2007 Pushcart Prize, as well as the Best of the Net Anthology. She is currently working on an original screenplay and is a mentor with “WriteGirl,” an LA based writing program for teenage girls. Suzan holds an MFA in poetry from Antioch University.

See you in April!

Thanks to everyone who packed the house for the February reading! Soon you should see our "adoption" of poet Amy Gerstler on www.poets.org. Thanks for your support!

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on Sunday, February 11, 2007

AMY GERSTLER CATHY COLMAN ARMINE IKNADOSSIAN CHRYS TOBEY

Sunday, February 11, 2007
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:15pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com
$3 suggested donation at door; after expenses, a portion of the proceeds will benefit The Academy of American Poets (www.poets.org) Adopt-A-Poet program.
There will be a cash bar.

Amy Gerstler is a writer of poetry and nonfiction whose most recent book is Ghost Girl. She teaches writing and art at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and poetry at the Bennington Writing Seminars at Bennington Collegein Vermont. Her other books of poetry include Medicine, Crown of Weeds and Nerve Storm. Her work has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies including Paris Review, the New Yorker, and The Norton Anthology of Postmodern Poetry.

Cathy Colman’s book Borrowed Dress won the 2001 Felix Pollak Prize for Poetry and made the The Los Angeles Times Best-seller List the first week of its release. Her work has appeared in The Colorado Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Journal, Mudfish, Quarterly West, Pool, Contemporary 88, and elsewhere and has been widely anthologized. She has won the Browning Award for Poetry and the Ascher Montandon Award for Poetry. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize six times and was a former reviewer for The New York Times Book Review. She has done readings in Los Angeles, Berkeley, San Francisco, Oakland, New York, Prague, Paris and elsewhere. She collaborated with composer Robert Johnson and their vocal piece honoring the fall of the Berlin Wall was presented at the Kennedy Center. Her newest collection is Tattoo.

Armine Iknadossian lives in Pasadena, California and teaches high school English. She received her BA from UCLA and an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles. She has just completed her first manuscript, Gnosis. Publications include Pasadena City College's Inscape, UCLA's Wisteria, Cal State Northridge's Edges, Literati Cocktail, Experimental Candy, Poetic Diversity, and Poets Against War. "The Return" was a finalist in Backwards City Review's annual poetry contest. "March Eulogy," winner of Prose Poems at Work, and "Bodies of Water," a featured poem of the month, can be viewed at www.writersatwork.com. She will be a featured poet in ARARAT magazine and two of her poems will appear in zaum this spring.

Chrys Tobey was born and bred in the city that soaks in sulfur (ie. Cleveland). She just completed her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. Most recently she has had poetry published in Soundings East, Poetic Diversity, The Pen, and Margie. Chrys has poetry forthcoming in Mochila Review, Mad Poet's Review and Salt Hill. Her poem "Seven Things I Know About Hearts" won semifinalist for Margie's Marjorie J. Wilson Award for 2006 judged by Molly Peacock. Chrys dwells among the planted palm trees in Santa Monica, California.

2006 is closed...

Thanks to everyone who made the final Rhapsodomancy of 2006 a blast. Onto 2007! Check back here in January for details about the February 11, 2007 reading. Happy New Year!

Rhapsodomancy Announces the Writers Reading on Sunday, December 17, 2006

CHRIS ABANI
BRAD KESSLER
SHOLEH WOLPÉ
JIM NATAL

Sunday, December 17, 2006
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:15pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com
$3 suggested donation at door; a portion of the proceeds will benefit a nonprofit organization.
There will be a cash bar.

Chris Abani's prose includes the novels The Virgin of Flames (Penguin, 2007), GraceLand (FSG, 2004/Picador 2005), Masters of the Board (Delta, 1985) and the novellas, Becoming Abigail (Akashic, 2006) and Song For Night (Akashic, 2007). His poetry collections are Hands Washing Water (Copper Canyon, 2006), Dog Woman (Red Hen, 2004), Daphne's Lot (Red Hen, 2003), and Kalakuta Republic (Saqi, 2001). He is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Riverside and the recipient of the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award & the PEN Hemingway Book Prize.

Brad Kessler is the author of Birds in Fall (Scribner 2006) and Lick Creek (Scribner 2001), as well as several award-winning children’s books. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Nation, The Kenyon Review, The New York Times Magazine and Bomb. He is a recipient of a 2006 National Endowment for the Arts Grant. He lives in Vermont with his wife, the photographer Dona Ann McAdams.

Sholeh Wolpé is a poet, literary translator and writer. She is the author of The Scar Saloon (Red Hen Press), has a CD by the same title (Refuge Studios), and her translations of selected poems of Forugh Farrokhzad, arguably the most significant female Iranian poet of the twentieth century, is forthcoming in 2007 from the University of Arkansas Press. Her poems, translations, essays and reviews have appeared in scores of literary journals, periodicals and anthologies worldwide. Sholeh was born in Iran but spent most of her teen years in the Caribbean and Europe, ending up in the U.S. where she pursued Masters degrees in Radio-TV-Film (Northwestern University) and Public Health (Johns Hopkins University). She is the recipient of several awards for her poetry and is the director and host of Poetry at the Loft… and more, a successful cultural arts venue in Redlands, California. She lives in Los Angeles, California. For more information please visit: www.sholehwolpe.com

Jim Natal’s first full-length collection, In the Bee Trees was a finalist for the 2000 Pen Center Award in poetry. A second collection, Talking Back to the Rocks, was published by Archer Books in 2003. His poetry recently has been published, is forthcoming, or has been reviewed in Runes, Pool, Reed, Bellingham Review, Paterson Literary Review, Poetry International, and The Los Angeles Review. His work also appears in the new anthologies Mischief, Caprice and Other Poetic Strategies, Open Windows, Blue Arc, and Chance of a Ghost, and his poem, “Unleavened,” was selected as a winner of the 2005 postcard poetry contest sponsored by Writers at Work and the City of Los Angeles. Natal curates and co-hosts the long-running Poem.X monthly poetry series in Santa Monica and teaches the annual Plein Air Poetry Workshop in Joshua Tree National Park. With his wife, graphic designer and book artist Tania Baban, he founded Conflux Press in 2004, specializing in custom publishing and handmade books. He worked for 25 years as a creative executive for the NFL and received an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles in 2005. He teaches creative writing privately and at New Roads School in Santa Monica.

Anniversary Photos Now Online!

Check out our photo album. Enjoy!

Onto the Third Year!

The house was full, the writers shone brightly, and it was another astounding event. Thanks to everyone who came out to support Rhapsodomancy. We look forward to next October's anniversary!

Rhapsodomancy Celebrates Its 2 Year Anniversary on Sunday Oct. 15, 2006!

ELOISE KLEIN HEALY FRANK X. GASPAR EVE WOOD WENDY C. ORTIZ ANDREA QUAID JERRY GARCIA

Sunday, October 15, 2006
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:15pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com
$3 suggested donation at door; a portion of the proceeds will benefit a nonprofit organization.
There will be a cash bar.

About the writers:

Eloise Klein Healy, Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing Emerita and founding chair of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Antioch University Los Angeles, is the author of five books of poetry; the most recent is Passing (Red Hen Press). Healy’s work has been anthologized in The World in Us: Lesbian and Gay Poetry of the Next Wave; The Geography of Home: California’s Poetry of Place; Another City: Writing from Los Angeles; and California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present. She is cofounder of ECO- ARTS (www.eco-arts.net) and originator of the Red Hen Press imprint, Arktoi Books.

Frank X. Gaspar was born and raised in Provincetown, Massachusetts and now lives in Southern California. He is Professor of English at Long Beach City College. He also teaches poetry and novel writing in the summer program at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and at Antioch University, Los Angeles. He served three and a half years in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam Conflict and attended colleges and universities after his discharge, receiving an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. Gaspar is the author of four books of poetry and one novel. His short stories and poems have been published widely in literary journals, including The Nation, The Harvard Review, The New England Review, The Sewanee Review, Prairie Schooner, The Massachusetts Review, Ploughshares, The Hudson Review, Provincetown Arts, The Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Antioch Review, The Tampa Review, The Denver Quarterly, and others. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies including, The Beacon Best Poetry of 1999, The Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, and others. Gaspar is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, and his work is included in the 1996 Best American Poetry and in Best American Poetry 2000. He is the recipient of three Puschcart Prizes for literature, and the Edgar Stanley Award and a Readers’ Choice Award both from Prairie Schooner. He is currently working on new poems and a new novel.

Eve Wood is the author of three books of poems, Love’s Funeral, Six, (published by Cherry Grove Collections), and Artistic Children Breathe Differently, (Hollyridge Press), a chapbook entitled Paper Frankenstein published by Beyond Baroque Press and Correspondence (Gegensatze Press, Austria). Mark Strand has described her work as "quickened by passion and imagination, an astonishingly gifted poet." Her work has appeared in numerous journals including The Best American Poetry 1997, The New Republic, The Denver Quarterly, Triquarterly, Poetry, Witness, The Wisconsin Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Greensboro Review, Exquisite Corpse, The Florida Review, The Antioch Review, and many others. She has twice been a guest on KPFK’s Poet’s Café hosted by MC Bruce. Wood is the recipient of the Jacob Javits Fellowship and a Brody Grant. Wood has written art criticism for Tema Celeste, ArtUS, Artext, Artweek, and Artnet.com, Bridge Magazine, Latinarts.com, Flash Art, and Art Papers etc. Also a visual artist, Wood is represented by Western Project in Culver City.

Wendy C. Ortiz teaches creative writing to Los Angeles youth in juvenile detention facilities and coordinates the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Antioch University Los Angeles half-time. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Palabra: A Magazine of Chicano and Latino Literary Art; Bedwetter; Eclipse; Cranky; KNOCK; womenwriters.net; the online zine Experimental Candy; Calapooya ; EM Literary Asylum; poetrymagazine.com; and 4th Street. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Antioch University Los Angeles. Wendy lives in Koreatown and is at work on poetry, a book of personal essays, and a novella. Bits of her creative work can be found at http://www.littlemotors.org/lab_of_lux.

Andrea Quaid is a graduate of Antioch University's MFA Creative Writing Program and CSULA's graduate program in English. For the past six years she was associate coordinator of Spoken Interludes, a non-profit arts organization that brings writing programs to underserved teenagers. She has taught creative writing to high school students in both traditional high schools and incarceration facilities, in addition to teaching composition at CSULA. Recent or forthcoming publications include Carquinez Poetry Review, Eureka Literary Magazine, Fox Cry Review, Limestone, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Pearl, Phantasmagoria, Prairie Winds, Rio Grand Review, South Carolina Review, Soundings East, and Xavier Review. She currently attends UC Santa Cruz as a Ph.D. candidate in literature and travels home to Los Angeles every other month for Rhapsodomancy.

Jerry Garcia studied Communication Arts at Loyola Marymount University. He currently works in motion picture advertising; throughout his career he has written, directed and edited television commercials and short films. His interest in poetry resurfaced in the 1990s and he is a member of Laurel Ann Bogen’s Master Class. His photography and poetry have been seen in Petroglyph and Lily: Literary Review.

Midsummer Rhapsodomancy on its way to Autumn...

Thanks to everyone braving Sunset Junction down the road and the hellish parking situation to come see some great poets last night! Photos are on their way of the night's readers. Check back for our announcement of the 2 year Anniversary Reading coming October 15, 2006!

Rhapsodomancy announces the writers reading on August 27, 2006

TONY BARNSTONE MIKE SONKSEN TESS. LOTTA KATE SOTO

Sunday, August 27, 2006
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:15pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com
$3 suggested donation at door; a portion of the proceeds will benefit a nonprofit organization.
There will be a cash bar.

Tony Barnstone is Associate Professor of Creative Writing and English at Whittier College, and has published his poetry, fiction, essays and translations in dozens of major American journals. His books include Sad Jazz: Sonnets; Impure: Poems by Tony Barnstone; The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry; Out of the Howling Storm: The New Chinese Poetry; Laughing Lost in the Mountains: Poems of Wang Wei; The Art of Writing: Teachings of the Chinese Masters; and the textbooks Literatures of Asia, Africa and Latin America, Literatures of Asia, and Literatures of the Middle East. Born in Middletown, Connecticut, and raised in Bloomington, Indiana, Barnstone lived for years in Greece, Spain, Kenya and China before taking his Masters in English and Creative Writing and Ph.D. in English Literature at UC Berkeley. His poetry, translations, essays on poetics, and fiction have appeared in dozens of American literary journals, from APR to Agni. He has won poetry awards from the Paumanok Poetry Award, the Randall Jarrell Poetry Prize, The Sow's Ear Poetry Contest, the Milton Dorfman Poetry Prize, the National Poetry Competition (Chester H. Jones Foundation), the Pablo Neruda Prize in Poetry, the Cecil Hemley Award, and the Poetry Society of America. His forthcoming books are a translation of the selected poems of Han Shan as well as a number of textbooks for Prentice Hall Publishers, including The Pleasures of Poetry: An Introduction, World Literature (two volumes), and Modern Poetry: An Anthology with Contexts, among others. He is currently marketing on two new books of poems and a critical book titled The Poetics of the Machine Age: William Carlos Williams and Technological Modernism.

Mike Sonksen, also known as, Mike the Poet, is a Los Angeles-based writer spoken word poet, widely acclaimed for his live performances, contributions to international publications & legendary city tours. For over a decade, Mike has performed at numerous venues: bookstores, museums, nightclubs, art galleries. From the page to the stage his work has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Kotori, Anthem, L.A. Weekly, L.A. Citybeat, L.A. Alternative Press, O.C. Weekly, and the Long Beach Business Journal. Mike's energy was instrumental as co-founder of the webzine Getunderground.com. & the last 4 years with Jointz magazine. His poem "I've Seen the Best Minds of My Generation, was licensed by Scion. Mike's forthcoming book I Am Alive in Los Angeles! captures the energy of the City of Angels. The CD of the same name was given 4 Stars by URB Magazine & UK tastemaker magazine Straight No Chaser says, "The appeal of I Am Alive in Los Angeles is its effortlessness. All lovers of intricate wordplay, add this to your list." Over the last decade Mike has also become known for his L.A. City Tours. As a 3rd generation LA native, his tours of Hollywood with Red Line Tours & the Museum of Neon Art incorporate poetry & L.A. history.

Tess. Lotta is an artist, musician, and writer of poetry and journalism. Her writing and photography have appeared in such publications as Clamor, BUST, Moxie, Rockrgrl, Knock, The Raven Chronicles, poeticdiversity, and The Stranger. She curates the Literati Cocktail reading series at the Space at Fountain’s End and publishes Experimental Candy, a lit and art webzine. Tess. is finishing her MA in English at CSU, Dominguez Hills while revising her poetry for publication. Information on her many creative projects can be found at www.litparlor.com.

Kate Soto is a writer and editor living in Los Angeles. Her poetry and essays have appeared in various journals, including Poetic Diversity, Andwerve, Women of Action Network, ValleyScene, Distinction Magazine, and an anthology of Los Angeles poets entitled Literary Angles. Her poetry explores desire and disillusion through language-infused lenses. She teaches creative writing to high school students through Spoken Interludes Next, blogs at booklust.wordpress.com, and is working on a start-up literary magazine entitled [sic]. She has an MFA from Antioch University.

Thank you!

What a tremendous reading and what an amazing turnout! Thank you for making last night one to remember!

--Andrea and Wendy

Rhapsodomancy announces the writers reading on June 4, 2006

EILEEN MYLES CHERYL KLEIN CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL ARIEL ROBELLO

Sunday, June 4, 2006
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:15pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com
$3 donation at door; a portion of the proceeds will benefit a nonprofit organization.
There will be a cash bar.


Eileen Myles is the author of many books, including Chelsea Girls, Not Me and most recently Skies and Cool for You. She's currently finishing up a novel (the Inferno) about the hell of being a female poet. It's a work that covers life in two centuries. She also wrote the libretto for Hell, which just premiered in New York in April at PS 122. Since 2002 she's been living both in CA & NY, teaching writing & lit at UCSD.


Cheryl Klein’s first book, The Commuters: A Novel of Intersections, won City Works Press’ Ben Reitman Award and was published in 2006. Her fiction has appeared in journals including other, CrossConnect and The Absinthe Literary Review, and the anthology Jane’s Stories III (Jane’s Stories Press). By day she manages the California office of Poets & Writers, Inc. Cheryl also co-edits the online queer fiction magazine Blithe House Quarterly (www.blithe.com). An alumna of the CalArts writing program, she lives in Los Angeles and recently completed a novel—titled Calla Boulevard—about lesbians, ghosts and used clothing. When she feels like writing something short, she blogs at www.breadandbread.blogspot.com.


Christopher Russell is an artist and writer who lives and works in Los Angeles. He published 11 issues of Bedwetter magazine. Christopher's visual work has appeared in several American and European exhibitions, including solo shows at the Van Harrison Gallery and Acuna Hansen Gallery. A book of his photographs, Landscape, will be released this summer and a book of short stories, Gothic Romance, will be released in 2008. He has read his fiction at the UCLA Hammer Museum and his work has been collected by the RISD Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.


Ariel Robello is the author of My Sweet Unconditional (Tia Chucha Press). She is a former PEN West Emerging Voices Fellow. She works as an immigration law paralegal, adult ESL educator, freelance writer and poetry teacher in the high schools. She has performed extensively throughout California, Texas and the Southwest and is currently working on her MFA at Antioch University.

Preview of June 2006

We're happy to announce that our writers for June 4, 2006 will be Eileen Myles, Cheryl Klein, Christopher Russell and Ariel Robello. Stay tuned!

Thank you!

Thanks to everyone who came out for what was a provocative, strong, intriguing and enchanting night of fiction and poetry! Your donations will make it possible for us to send a healthy donation to the Program for Torture Victims and also purchase a high quality microphone for future readings. We thank you again and again, and hope to see you in June!

Rhapsodomancy announces the writers reading on April 9, 2006:

TARA ISON, author of Child Out of AlcatrazJENNY FACTOR, author of Unraveling at the NameBEN EHRENREICH, author of the novel The Suitors KAREN HARRYMAN, author of the forthcoming Auto Mechanic's Daughter

Sunday, April 9, 2006
Doors open at 7:00 - Reading begins at 7:15pm
The Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles (east Hollywood/Silver Lake: corner of Hollywood & Hillhurst)
Email for directions/info: rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com
RSVP at rhapsodomancyla@yahoo.com

$3 suggested donation
There will be a cash bar.

About the writers:

Tara Ison's first novel, A Child out of Alcatraz (Faber & Faber, Inc.), was a Finalist for the 1997 Los Angeles Times Book Awards, "Best First Fiction." Her new novel, The List, is forthcoming from Scribner in February 2007. Her short fiction, essays and book reviews have appeared in Tin House, The Kenyon Review, The Mississippi Review, LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News, and numerous anthologies. She is also the co-writer of the movie Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead. She is the recipient of Yaddo fellowships, Pushcart Prize nominations, a Rotary Foundation Scholarship for International Study, a Brandeis National Women's Committee Award, a Thurber House Fiction Writer-in-Residence Fellowship, and the Simon Blattner Fellowship from Northwestern University. Ison received her MFA in Fiction & Literature from Bennington College. She has taught Fiction and Screenwriting at Washington University in St. Louis, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Goddard College, the UCLA Writers' Program, and is currently Core Faculty in Antioch University's MFA Program in Creative Writing.

Jenny Factor's award-winning first poetry collection, Unraveling at the Name (Copper Canyon Press) was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. She teaches writing at Whittier College and poetry in the UCLA Extension Writer's Program. She lives in San Marino with her partner of many years and her 10-year-old son.

Ben Ehrenreich is a journalist and fiction writer. He writes regularly for L.A. Weekly, and for many other publications including the Village Voice, the Los Angeles Times, and the Believer. His first novel, The Suitors, will be published in April by Counterpoint Press.

Karen Harryman’s poems have appeared in Alaska Quarterly, Los Angeles Review, Poetry New Zealand, and Connecticut River Review as well as other print and online journals. Her first book of poetry, Auto Mechanic’s Daughter, will be published this spring and is a series selection of Black Goat, an imprint of Red Hen Press. Before moving to Los Angeles with her husband, comedy writer Kirker Butler, she lived and worked in Kentucky for most of her life. Currently, she teaches English and creative writing at Yeshiva University High School in West L.A.