Malvern Books said a fond farewell to February with two lively literary events. First up, we enjoyed another installment of W. Joe’s Poetry Corner. This month’s esteemed guest was Ash Smith, who began her poetry career in the eighth grade, selling romantic poems to friends who needed a little help in the love-note department! Check out the footage below to hear more about Pigeon of Tears, her writing process, and her lasting admiration for that “word pig” Walt Whitman…

And the following night we hosted a reading with the brilliant folks from Monofonus Press, an Austin-based record label and multimedia imprint. They were celebrating the release of Bad Jobs III, a new memoir from William Z. Saunders (part of a series in which he chronicles his misadventures in the workplace). William was joined on our stage by Karen Davidson, Morgan Coy, and Grant Cross. Morgan (who founded Monofonus) and Karen created the Shadow Healer graphic novel together, and Morgan directed the short movie that you’ll see in the first video below. Grant, meanwhile, shared mostly haiku (“I was going to read no haiku poetry tonight, I was going to take a big plunge, but I got to the edge of the pool and then I decided to put my clothes back on, and so I’m going to read mostly haiku…”)—plus a short poem called “Limp Old Testament.” It was a fun, eclectic reading, and I strongly encourage y’all to watch the clips below and then come by the store and check out our Monofonus Press offerings in person.