Rhapsodomancy: A Reading Series in Los Angeles

::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.