It was a dark and stormy Saturday night here in Austin—but that didn’t deter an intrepid band of literary enthusiasts from heading down to Malvern Books for a truly wonderful and long anticipated reading…

We were delighted to be hosting an evening with two highly acclaimed writers: Michael McGriff and Malachi Black (above, left and right). Malachi was reading from his hot-off-the-press poetry title, Storm Toward Morning. (Fun fact: when asked in an interview to give a one-sentence synopsis of the collection, Malachi summarized it by saying, “There is nothing more truly peculiar, confusing, and surprising than being entirely alive.”) And Mike was reading from Our Secret Life in the Movies, a brilliant collection of short fiction he wrote with J. M. Tyree (it’s one of the BBC’s Ten Books to Read in November).

You can have a listen to their poetry and prose below—and yes, that cozy background sound you can hear at certain points is in fact torrential rain. Also worth noting: our rather generous Small Business Saturday Special Offer starts this Friday and runs till Sunday… what better time to stop by the store and pick yourself up some Black and McGriff?