Malvern Books

Welcome to Malvern Books’ Club: Reading Classics from New York Review Books, hosted (on most occasions) by Malvern’s own curmudgeon-in-chief, Dr. Joe. Everyone is invited to join us for what we’re sure will be a series of irreverent and insightful conversations.

Our January selection is Tayeb Salih’s The Wedding of Zein.

Everyone in the village is dumbfounded when the news goes around that Zein will be getting married, since Zein’s particular role in the life of the village has been the peculiar one of falling in love again and again with girls who promptly marry another man. It would be unheard of for him to get married himself.

In Tayeb Salih’s wonderfully agile telling, the story of how this miracle came to be is one that engages the tensions that exist in the village, or indeed in any community: tensions between the devout and the profane, the poor and the propertied, the modern and the traditional. In the end, however, Zein’s ridiculous good luck augurs an ultimate reconciliation, opening a prospect of a world made whole.

The NYRB Classics series started in 1999 with the publication of A High Wind in Jamaica and by the end of this year over 400 titles will be in print—so we have plenty of excellent reading material to choose from. The series includes nineteenth-century and experimental novels, reportage and belles lettres, established classics and cult favorites, and literature high, low, unsuspected, and unheard of. Literature in translation also constitutes a major part of the NYRB Classics series, including new translations of canonical figures such as Euripides, Aeschylus, Dante, Balzac, Nietzsche, and Chekhov, as well as fresh translations of Stefan Zweig, Robert Walser, Alberto Moravia, and Curzio Malaparte, among others.

How it works:

Stop by Malvern Books to sign up and you’ll receive a 10% discount off the title! Read the book and then come to the meeting prepared with either a question or specific passage to discuss with the group. We’ll look forward to seeing you on January 6th.

In association with VSA Texas (The State Organization on Arts and Disability) and the Pen2Paper Creative Writing Contest (a project of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities), we’re delighted to present an inclusive (mic-less) open mic for writers and musicians. Join us for a fun and friendly afternoon suitable for performers of all ages and abilities.

Footage from previous Lion & Pirate open mic events can be seen here: http://bit.ly/1m7v4L8.

Join us for a meeting of the Boomertime Book Club!

The Boomertime Book Club aims to read all types of books, fiction and nonfiction. We select the book to be read at a meeting and then discuss it at the next meeting. We meet monthly. We limit attendance at each meeting to  no more than twelve in order to encourage participation by all. Attendance is first come, first served. We encourage guests and encourage new membership within the Meetup Boomertime social group. For more information, please email Greg Smith at greg02390239@gmail.com.

Boomertime is a Meetup group for babyboomers (ages 50+). Its purpose is to provide opportunities for Austin adults to have fun and meet new people. Boomertime is a group where individuals can make friends and can plan events around their special interests for all to participate in. Boomers dance, hike, read, talk, laugh, and engage in many more activities.

Join us for another installment of Novel Night, a monthly celebration of all things prose! Here’s how it works: published authors will read from their books and there’ll be an audience Q & A. And we’ll also have “Book Talk,” in which an intrepid Malvern staff member will introduce you to one of our favorite prose titles. Also worth noting: we’re offering 20% OFF ALL FICTION TITLES during Novel Night (from 6pm till closing).

This month we have two wonderful authors—Rob Reynolds and REYoung—and we’ll be celebrating the recent launch of Rob’s new novel, Wire Mother Monkey Baby.

Rob Reynolds’ stories have appeared in the Tampa Review, Kennesaw Review (online), Mad Hatter’s Review, flashquake, Vestal Review, and Eunoia Review, and have been honored by the Austin Chronicle. “What You Can Learn in a Bar” was anthologized in You Have Time for This: Contemporary American Short-Short Stories. He’s a former contributing associate and contributing editor of the Harvard Review and the Boston Book Review. In what seems like a previous life, he taught English for four years at Tom Petty’s alma mater, Gainesville High School in Florida. He’s lived in Austin since 1994, and is a big fan of cats, dogs, and children. Well, most of them.

REYoung was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and lives in Austin, Texas, in a limestone cave deep beneath the city. He is the author of the novels Unbabbling (Dalkey Archive Press, 1997) and Margarito and the Snowman (also DAP, 2016).

In the interview series Borderless: Conversations on Art, Action, and Justice, emerging and established writers talk with host Chaitali Sen about the power of words and the role of art in reflecting and changing our world.

This month’s guest is poet, playwright, and activist Nikki Luellen.

Nikki Luellen is a poet, playwright, and activist from Houston, Texas. In the past year, she has been writing and performing poems inspired by her active involvement with families who have lost their loved ones to police brutality and by her work with the group Refuse Fascism.

Chaitali Sen is a writer and educator based in Austin, Texas. She is the author of the novel The Pathless Sky, and numerous stories and essays which have appeared or are forthcoming in Catapult, Colorado Review, Ecotone, LitHub, Los Angeles Review of Books, New England Review, New Ohio Review, and other journals. She is the founder of the interview series Borderless: Conversations on Art, Action, and Justice.

“We read all types, we take all types. Aim to keep things light and fun.” Hosted by Jon Meador. Please visit Austin Book Club for more information.

Austin Writers Roulette is an uncensored, theme-inspired spoken word and storytelling event. It features a different monthly theme and line up of artists who perform their original written works such as poetry, essays, spoken word, singer-songwriting, or excerpts from novels for 5-8 minutes (1200 words or fewer). Interested artists who would like to perform for an upcoming event can email their submission to mathdreads@yahoo.com. Or you can show up during the day of the event and sign up for the open mic after all the featured artists perform. And of course, performance art lovers are always welcome!

This month’s theme is “Shock of a New Beginning.” Featured artists are BRENNAN UTLEY, RYAN GOSSEN, HOPE RUIZ, AUDREY BRAZEEL, URSULA PIKE, TERESA Y. ROBERSON, and THOM THE WORLD POET. An open mic follows after intermission. Visit the Austin Writers Roulette website for more information.

The Finnegans Wake Reading Group of Austin is a monthly get-together to dive into the depths of James Joyce’s greatest, weirdest, and most notorious masterpiece.

The process is to take turns reading aloud from the text, which allows its musicality to flow forth. Then we all discuss our interpretations and the many meanings and themes contained within the selection we’ve read.

We’ll read 2 or 3 pages of the book, depending on how many people are there and how much time we spend discussing the content.

This event is FREE and open to everyone. NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE of Joyce or Finnegans Wake is required, just have an open mind—and be prepared to read aloud in front of strangers.

For more information, please visit the reading group’s website.

A representation of the book’s structure by Bauhaus artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.

Join us for a reading to celebrate the launch of the latest issue of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review! Readers will include E. Kristin Anderson, J. Scott Brownlee, Nick Courtright, Jonathan Moody, and Sasha West.

Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review is a literary journal based in Austin, Texas that publishes poetry along with photographs, reviews, and essays. Since its debut in 1992, Borderlands continues to receive wide critical acclaim and garners a national readership.

E. Kristin Anderson is a poet, Prince fan, Starbucks connoisseur and glitter enthusiast living in Austin, Texas. She is the author of eight chapbooks, including We’re Doing Witchcraft; Pray, Pray, Pray: Poems I wrote to Prince in the middle of the night; and 17 seventeen XVII. Kristin is an editor at Red Paint Hill and once upon a time worked at The New Yorker.

J. Scott Brownlee is a poet-of-place from Llano, Texas. His books include Highway or Belief (Button Poetry), Ascension (Texas Review Press), Requiem for Used Ignition Cap (Orison Books), which won the 2016 Bob Bush Memorial Award for Best First Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters, and On the Occasion of the Last Old Camp Meeting in Llano County (Tree Light Books).

Nick Courtright is the author of Let There Be Light, called “a continual surprise and a revelation” by Naomi Shihab Nye, and Punchline, a National Poetry Series finalist. He is co-executive editor and book designer for Gold Wake Press, and the founder and executive editor of Atmosphere Press. His poetry has appeared in Harvard Review, The Southern Review, Kenyon Review Online, and Boston Review, among many others. His son, William, can usually be found reading a book or surrounded by Lego bricks.

Join us for an evening with poets Jenny Johnson, Shangyang Fang, and Travis Tate.

Jenny Johnson is the author of In Full Velvet, published by Sarabande Books in 2017. Her honors include a 2015 Whiting Award and a 2016-17 Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University. She has also received awards and scholarships from the Blue Mountain Center, Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo. Her poems have appeared in the New York Times, New England Review, Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, and elsewhere. After earning a BA/MT in English Education from the University of Virginia, she taught public school for several years in San Francisco, and she spent ten summers on the staff of the UVA Young Writer’s Workshop. She earned an MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College. She is a Contributing Editor at Waxwing Literary Journal. She teaches at the University of Pittsburgh and at the Rainier Writing Workshop, Pacific Lutheran University’s low-residency MFA program.

Shangyang Fang grew up in Chengdu, China. He majored in Civil Engineering as an undergrad. After knowing there is a higher employment rate in the field of poetry, he decided to pursue an MFA. He writes both in English and Chinese. Sometimes he writes poems first in Chinese to structure their skeletons, then translate them into English to add flesh and blood. He is now a poetry fellow at the Michener Center for Writers.

travis tate is a queer black playwright, poet and performer from Austin, Texas. Their poetry has appeared in Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Underblong and Mr. Ma’am, among other publications. Their one-person drag show, It’s a Travesty! One Night with Jazzie Mercado!, was presented at the 2017 Cohen New Work Festival and at Salvage Vanguard’s Three Headed Fest in November 2017. Their play MotherWitch will be presented in the University of Texas New Theatre presentation in April 2018.

We’d like to invite you to join Malvern’s Line/Break Poetry Book Club! Hosted by Malvernian Julie Poole, this is a brand-new reading group for those of you interested in exploring works from our expansive poetry section.

For our inaugural meeting, we’ll be discussing Joy of Missing Out by Ana Božičević.

Joy of Missing Out is starlite verse on death and independence for the dreamers, dropouts, rebels and the neuroatypical. A confession and sublimation of breakdowns personal and systemic, JOMO paints a playful and unflinching portrait of the ups and downs of city survival and queer romance. Simultaneously it deploys online slang and high lyrical registers, morphs the sad girl into Baba Yaga, drops truth bombs on art and politics, and puts the sin into sincerity. Even as it engineers the death of its speaker, JOMO is a paradoxically joyous litany of her endurance and a boost-plea to stay in a messed-up world and say it out loud. This anthem is best read at night or dawn when no one’s around for a Like or a kiss.

How it works:

Stop by Malvern Books to sign up and you’ll receive a 10% discount off the title! Read the book and then come to the meeting prepared with either a question or a specific poem to discuss with the group. We’ll look forward to seeing you on Saturday, January 27th, at 1pm for the inaugural meeting of our Line/Break Poetry Book Club.

WHAT: An Open Mic Night to celebrate “We Are ALL America!”

This event is open to the public! We invite the Austin community to tell their stories, read poems, make a brief statement or share their ideas on our theme of “We Are All America.” This is an opportunity to speak to our experiences and challenges, especially in response to the last year of events.

We only ask that our speakers and attendees be kind and respectful to one another. For many people, this was a particularly challenging year and we want to ensure that everyone feels welcome and supported. Our Open Mic Night is intended to bring people together in solidarity as an inclusive and welcoming community.

WHY: On January 27, 2018 the Austin Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations will host a Open Mic Night to support the National Day of Action one year after the date the first Executive Orders were issued banning refugees and individuals from several Muslim-majority countries from traveling to the United States.

This event is intended to increase awareness of the challenges faced by our neighbors, our community and our nation. The “We Are All America” movement works to uphold and strengthen our community’s commitment to welcome and protect all those seeking freedom, safety and refuge. Joining us in supporting this cause will strengthen the message that we belong to an inclusive and diverse community where all belong, no matter their differences.

Join us in celebrating the launch of the second issue of Kallisto Gaia Press’ literary journal, The Ocotillo Review, which features over 100 pages of literary genius by award-winning writers from around the world and superb new pieces by writers from underserved communities. Numerous poets and writers will read excerpts of their work from this edition, including Gloria Amescua, Catherine Castoro, Karen Collier, Marilyn Duncan, Gayle Guernsey, Stephen Hamilton, Lindsey Lane, and Allyson Whipple.

Welcome to Malvern Books’ Club: Reading Classics from New York Review Books, hosted (on most occasions) by Malvern’s own curmudgeon-in-chief, Dr. Joe. Everyone is invited to join us for what we’re sure will be a series of irreverent and insightful conversations.

Our February selection is Elaine Dundy’s The Dud Avocado, the hilarious tale of a young American woman hell-bent on living who heads overseas to conquer Paris in the late 1950s.

One of the funniest books I’ve ever read; it should be subtitled Daisy Miller’s Revenge.
— Gore Vidal

American goes to some big city with dreams of conquest, hilarity ensues. Dundy’s 1958 novel (which had a huge fan in Groucho Marx) is pretty much the best and funniest example of that whole genre.
—Flavorwire

The NYRB Classics series started in 1999 with the publication of A High Wind in Jamaica and by the end of this year over 400 titles will be in print—so we have plenty of excellent reading material to choose from. The series includes nineteenth-century and experimental novels, reportage and belles lettres, established classics and cult favorites, and literature high, low, unsuspected, and unheard of. Literature in translation also constitutes a major part of the NYRB Classics series, including new translations of canonical figures such as Euripides, Aeschylus, Dante, Balzac, Nietzsche, and Chekhov, as well as fresh translations of Stefan Zweig, Robert Walser, Alberto Moravia, and Curzio Malaparte, among others.

How it works:

Stop by Malvern Books to sign up and you’ll receive a 10% discount off the title! Read the book and then come to the meeting prepared with either a question or specific passage to discuss with the group. We’ll look forward to seeing you on February 3rd.

In association with VSA Texas (The State Organization on Arts and Disability) and the Pen2Paper Creative Writing Contest (a project of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities), we’re delighted to present an inclusive (mic-less) open mic for writers and musicians. Come and celebrate our 4th birthday with this fun and friendly evening suitable for performers of all ages and abilities.

Footage from previous Lion & Pirate open mic events can be seen here: http://bit.ly/1m7v4L8.

Join us in celebrating the release of John Vanderslice’s historical novel, The Last Days of Oscar Wilde. With readings from John Vanderslice and Lucas Schaefer.

Oscar Wilde is struggling through his final years in Paris. His reputation is ruined. His finances are in shambles. He drinks too much. He is reduced to begging meals from strangers; he even resorts to minor fraud to raise a few more pounds to live on. The most important romantic relationship of his life, his alliance with Lord Alfred Douglas, is now but a strained, overwrought friendship marked on both sides by resentments and guilt. And yet against this backdrop of poverty, social downfall, and disappearing fortitude, Oscar Wilde survives. While his sense of self has been rent, he maintains his humor, an active joie de vivre, an affection for superstitious religiosity, and a network of devoted friends. He even manages to fall in love again. But can his close circle of devoted friends convince him to pick up his pen one more time and write?

John Vanderslice teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Central Arkansas. His stories, poems, essays, and one-act plays have appeared in scores of literary journals, including Laurel Review, Seattle Review, South Carolina Review, and Crazyhorse. His linked booked of stories Island Fog (Lavender Ink Press) was named by Library Journal as one of the Top 15 Indie Fiction Titles of 2014. His historical novel The Last Days of Oscar Wilde has just been released by Burlesque Press. 

Everyone is welcome to attend the Austin Community College Creative Writing Department’s Literary Coffeehouse, hosted by John Herndon. An open mic follows the featured reader, so bring poems, stories, scripts, rants, raves or midnight confessions to share, or just come to listen and enjoy.

This month’s featured reader is Emilee Araujo, an aspiring screenwriter and Creative Writing major at ACC. She has served as an editor of the Rio Review, and has been published there.

“We read all types, we take all types. Aim to keep things light and fun.” Hosted by Jon Meador. Please visit Austin Book Club for more information.

Austin Writers Roulette is an uncensored, theme-inspired spoken word and storytelling event. It features a different monthly theme and line up of artists who perform their original written works such as poetry, essays, spoken word, singer-songwriting, or excerpts from novels for 5-8 minutes (1200 words or fewer). Interested artists who would like to perform for an upcoming event can email their submission to mathdreads@yahoo.com. Or you can show up during the day of the event and sign up for the open mic after all the featured artists perform. And of course, performance art lovers are always welcome!

This month’s theme is “Talk Dirty to Me.” Readers include: NICOLE CORTICHIATO, R.G. HOOK, GUME LAUREL III, HOPE RUIZ, TERESA Y. ROBERSON, and THOM THE WORLD POET. An open mic follows intermission. Visit the Austin Writers Roulette website for more information.

The Finnegans Wake Reading Group of Austin is a monthly get-together to dive into the depths of James Joyce’s greatest, weirdest, and most notorious masterpiece.

The process is to take turns reading aloud from the text, which allows its musicality to flow forth. Then we all discuss our interpretations and the many meanings and themes contained within the selection we’ve read.

We’ll read 2 or 3 pages of the book, depending on how many people are there and how much time we spend discussing the content.

This event is FREE and open to everyone. NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE of Joyce or Finnegans Wake is required, just have an open mind—and be prepared to read aloud in front of strangers.

For more information, please visit the reading group’s website.

A representation of the book’s structure by Bauhaus artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.

Join us for an evening with acclaimed poet Carl Phillips. We’ll be celebrating the recent release of his new collection, Wild Is the Wind. This event is sponsored by the Michener Center for Writers.

In Wild Is the Wind, Carl Phillips reflects on love as depicted in the jazz standard for which the book is named—love at once restless, reckless, and yet desired for its potential to bring stability. In the process, he pitches estrangement against communion, examines the past as history versus the past as memory, and reflects on the past’s capacity both to teach and to mislead us—also to make us hesitate in the face of love, given the loss and damage that are, often enough, love’s fallout. How “to say no to despair”? How to take perhaps that greatest risk, the risk of believing in what offers no guarantee? These poems that, in their wedding of the philosophical, meditative, and lyric modes, mark a new stage in Phillips’s remarkable work, stand as further proof that “if Carl Phillips had not come onto the scene, we would have needed to invent him. His idiosyncratic style, his innovative method, and his unique voice are essential steps in the evolution of the craft.” —Judith Kitchen, The Georgia Review

Carl Phillips is the author of numerous books of poetry, including Wild Is the Wind (FSG, 2018). His collection The Rest of Love (FSG, 2004) won the Theodore Roethke Memorial Foundation Poetry Prize and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Male Poetry, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. His other books include Rock Harbor (FSG, 2002); The Tether (FSG, 2001), winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award; and Pastoral (Graywolf Press, 2000), winner of the Lambda Literary Award. Carl Phillips is a visiting poet at the Michener Center for a one week residency this semester.

Join us for something rather special: Austin Community College’s Creative Writing Department will be introducing us to the two winners of their 2016 Balcones Prize: fiction winner Tara Laskowski (left, below) and poetry winner Jacqueline Allen Trimble (right, below).

Tara Laskowski is also the author of the flash fiction collection Modern Manners for Your Inner Demons, tales of dark etiquette. Her fiction has been published in W. W. Norton’s Flash Fiction International, Best Small Fictions, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Mid-American Review, and other places. She won the grand prize for the 2010 Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards Series. Tara earned a BA in English with a minor in writing from Susquehanna University and an MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University. Since 2010, she has been the editor of the online flash fiction journal SmokeLong Quarterly.

American Happiness is Jacqueline Allen Trimble’s first book. A professor of English at Alabama State University in Montgomery, she has published in The Griot, The Offing and The Blue Lake Review; she was a Cave Canem fellow and recipient of a literary arts fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts in 2017.

This month’s three featured readers are from the Speak Piece Poetry Project, a collective of artists committed to developing the language, comprehension, and presentation skills of youth in central Texas through competitive spoken word poetry. The organization also provides a safe space for youth in central Texas to express themselves freely, and promotes the artistic and leadership talents of young people as they engage with their community.

Sheenika Medard is a first-generation West-Indian American poet, performer, educator and organizer. After competing at Brave New Voices 2010 with the Austin TheySpeak youth team, she was inspired to spread the art of spoken word and slam as a viable platform for both literacy and as a tool of change. She has since begun programs in her home country of St. Lucia, and has appeared on several stages across the world. She recently participated in the Youth Speaks Future Corps Fellowship and launched the #FirstGenWoes and #SpeakWithoutCage initiatives. She intends to use her work in different mediums to further level the playing field for women, ethnic groups and the youth. She firmly believes that recording our stories in history is leaving a road for future generations to follow and by openly discovering and expressing our truth, we leave a framework behind for others to do the same. She is excited and honored to be a part of this team and cannot wait to begin the work of building opportunities for the youth to speak up!

Christina Romero is a teacher, a performer, and a life-long learner. She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a BFA in Theater Education and has spent the subsequent years establishing her approach to teaching literacy through the arts. While teaching Performing Arts in Beijing, Christina performed regularly at Spittoon Poetry’s monthly meetings and spearheaded their budding Slam Poetry events. She is an Austin Poetry Slam champion and participated in the 2017 Women of the World poetry slam qualifier. She believes that the marriage between written expression and performance is crucial in developing self-awareness, strong communication skills, and leadership. It is her hope to cultivate a learning environment that is safe, challenging, and inspiring in order to bring meaningful change through storytelling and community engagement. She currently teaches English Language Arts to grades 5-7.

Breana Miller is a black female youth poet. She is an Austin native. She began writing at the age of 11 and performing at the age of 12. She has been a part of the youth slam scene for about six years and is now working on transitioning into being a teaching artist to help bring about the next generation of youth poets. Writing was the driving force of her self-discovery as a black queer woman, but poetry has been her main tool for seeking and providing inspiration for those whose voices are not heard. She is a psychology major at Texas State University with hopes of becoming a licensed psychologist and plans to use creative writing as a means to treat clients who suffer from traumas and other disabilities. Storytelling is one of the few things Breana claims to be a specialist in. She lives by the words of one of her favorite poets, Maya Angelou: “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you”.

We’d like to invite you to join Malvern’s Line/Break Poetry Book Club! Hosted by Malvernian Julie Poole, this is a reading group for those of you interested in exploring works from our expansive poetry section.

This month’s selection is The Black Unicorn by Audre Lorde.

The Black Unicorn is a collection of poems by a woman who, Adrienne Rich writes, “for the complexity of her vision, for her moral courage and the catalytic passion of her language, has already become, for many, an indispensable poet.”

Rich continues: “Refusing to be circumscribed by any simple identity, Audre Lorde writes as a Black woman, a mother, a daughter, a Lesbian, a feminist, a visionary; poems of elemental wildness and healing, nightmare and lucidity. Her rhythms and accents have the timelessness of a poetry which extends beyond white Western politics, beyond the anger and wisdom of Black America, beyond the North American earth, to Abomey and the Dahomeyan Amazons. These are poems nourished in an oral tradition, which also blaze and pulse on the page, beneath the reader’s eye.”

How it works:

Stop by Malvern Books to sign up and you’ll receive a 10% discount off the title! Read the book and then come to the meeting prepared with either a question or a specific poem to discuss with the group. We’ll look forward to seeing you at this meeting of our Line/Break Poetry Book Club!

Join us for a FREE monthly reading series, Malvern’s Multi-Verse, in which we explore the infinite possible (multi)verses of Austin’s boundless literary universe! Space-time might be flat and stretch out infinitely, but Malvern’s Multi-Verse is well-rounded, lasts for about an hour, and includes free cookies! Yes indeed, it’s the best of all possible worlds…

This month we have something rather special: our curmudgeon-in-chief Dr. Joe will interview Malvern’s own Annar Veröld and Schandra Madha, hosts of our ever-so-popular I Scream Social monthly reading series. I Scream Social features women-identified writers from the Austin community (and beyond)… as well as, as the name would suggest, free locally crafted ice cream. The series debuted in June 2015 and was initially intended to run for the summer, but proved such a hit that it’s now a permanent monthly fixture—and Annar and Schandra are editing an anthology of writing from the Scream, due for publication Fall 2018.

Annar Veröld is a Honduran-American poet, screenwriter, and artist based out of Austin, Texas. She proudly co-curates the monthly feminist reading series I Scream Social, and is currently writing and directing a post-apocalyptic comedic tragedy short film titled Ophelia, In Between.

Schandra Abigail Madha is a chronic student, cross-genre writer on hiatus, and one half of a double scoop co-host sundae for the monthly I Scream Social feminist reading series. She earned a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The University of Texas at Austin in 2015, during which time she was awarded the Fania Kruger Fellowship for Fiction of Social Vision and was a finalist for the Regents’ Outstanding Arts & Humanities Award in Poetry. She is currently back at UT pursuing a BS in Microbiology with an eye towards a graduate degree in Astrobiology.

Welcome to Malvern Books’ Club: Reading Classics from New York Review Books, hosted (on most occasions) by Malvern’s own curmudgeon-in-chief, Dr. Joe. Everyone is invited to join us for what we’re sure will be a series of irreverent and insightful conversations.

This month’s selection is Stefan Zweig’s The Post-Office Girl, a masterful analysis of what happens to human feeling in a completely commodified world.

Christine toils in a provincial post office in post–World War I Austria, a country gripped by unemployment. Out of the blue, a telegram arrives from Christine’s rich American aunt inviting her to a resort in the Swiss Alps. Christine is immediately swept up into a world of inconceivable wealth and unleashed desire. She feels herself utterly transformed: nothing is impossible. But then, abruptly, her aunt cuts her loose. Christine returns to the post office, where yes, nothing will ever be the same…

In The Post-Office Girl Stefan Zweig explores the details of everyday life in language that pierces both brain and heart … The story is poignant, painful, and must be one of fiction’s darkest indictments of how poverty destroys hope, enjoyment, beauty, brightness and laughter, and how money, no matter how falsely, provides ease and delight.
—The Spectator

The NYRB Classics series started in 1999 with the publication of A High Wind in Jamaica and by the end of this year over 400 titles will be in print—so we have plenty of excellent reading material to choose from. The series includes nineteenth-century and experimental novels, reportage and belles lettres, established classics and cult favorites, and literature high, low, unsuspected, and unheard of. Literature in translation also constitutes a major part of the NYRB Classics series, including new translations of canonical figures such as Euripides, Aeschylus, Dante, Balzac, Nietzsche, and Chekhov, as well as fresh translations of Stefan Zweig, Robert Walser, Alberto Moravia, and Curzio Malaparte, among others.

How it works:

Stop by Malvern Books to sign up and you’ll receive a 10% discount off the title! Read the book and then come to the meeting prepared with either a question or specific passage to discuss with the group. We’ll look forward to seeing you to discuss a NYRB classic!

In association with VSA Texas (The State Organization on Arts and Disability) and the Pen2Paper Creative Writing Contest (a project of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities), we’re delighted to present an inclusive (mic-less) open mic for writers and musicians. Everyone is welcome to join us for this fun and friendly free afternoon suitable for performers of all ages and abilities.

Footage from previous Lion & Pirate open mic events can be seen here: http://bit.ly/1m7v4L8.

Join us for an afternoon with poets David Cavanagh, Sharon Webster, and Steven Ray Smith (left to right, below).

David Cavanagh often writes poems about borders—not just physical borders but borderlands in the mind and heart. His most recent book of poems is Straddle, from Salmon Poetry of Ireland. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and been supported by grants from the Vermont Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Sharon Webster is a poet and a visual artist in Burlington, Vermont. Her book, Everyone Lives Here, was published by Fomite Press in 2014. Webster’s mixed media work has been described as “images of the world as seen from within.” That could be a good description of her poems too.

Steven Ray Smith’s poetry has appeared in Slice, The Yale Review, Southwest Review, The Kenyon Review, New Madrid, Tar River Poetry, Puerto del Sol, THINK and others. New work is forthcoming in Clarion. He lives in Austin.

Everyone is welcome to attend the Austin Community College Creative Writing Department’s Literary Coffeehouse, hosted by John Herndon. An open mic follows the featured reader, so bring poems, stories, scripts, rants, raves or midnight confessions to share, or just come to listen and enjoy.

This month’s featured reader is David Thornberry.

David Thornberry is a painter and poet, alternating between the two art forms. He continues to make, publish and show art, both literary and visual, in the Austin area. His 30th chapbook, Too Soon, is scheduled to be published in March.

Join us for a reading from poets Heather Tone, Grace Ortman, and Joanna Kaminski (left to right, below).

Heather Tone is the recipient of the 2015 APR/Honickman First Book Prize for her collection Likenesses (Copper Canyon Press). She is also the author of a chapbook, Gestures (The Catenary Press). Her poetry has appeared in The Boston Review, The Colorado Review, Fence, and other journals. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she now lives in Austin.

Grace Ortman writes poems, lyrical essays, the occasional homily, and short short stories. She holds an MFA from the University of Montana and has published poems in publications such as Octopus Magazine, Play/No Play, The Concher, and Copper Nickel. She teaches Creative Writing, English, and Comparative Religion courses at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School here in Austin, Texas.

Joanna I. Kaminski received her MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. Her poems have appeared in Crazyhorse, Indiana Review, Privacy Policy: An Anthology of Surveillance Poetics, among other places. She has an upcoming publication in The Southern Review. Joanna works at UT and runs a monthly-ish poetry bookclub that you should ask her about.

Join us for another installment of Novel Night, a monthly celebration of all things prose! Here’s how it works: published authors will read from their books and there’ll be an audience Q & A. And we’ll also have “Book Talk,” in which an intrepid Malvern staff member will introduce you to one of our favorite prose titles. Also worth noting: we’re offering 20% OFF ALL FICTION TITLES during Novel Night (from 6pm till closing).

This month’s Novel Night focuses on historical fiction, with writers Sandra Fox Murphy and J. Michael Dolan. Sandra will read from That Beautiful Season, a novel set just after the civil war, and Michael will read from The Trumpets of Jericho: A Tale of the Holocaust.

Sandra Fox Murphy is the author of two historical fiction novels, A Thousand Stars and That Beautiful Season. Her award-winning paranormal short story “Passage,” was recently published, and she is currently working on the Fidelia McCord series about a family of pioneers on its way to central Texas.

As a child J. Michael Dolan happened upon the iconic I Cannot Forgive by Rudolf Vrba, thus beginning a lifelong interest in the Holocaust. A wanderer for most of his adulthood, he’s lived in a lot of places, some of them exotic, where he combined the education only travel can give with that of the written word to produce a variety of published short stories and articles. For reasons that continue to elude him, however, he never thought of writing about the Holocaust. Until, upon revisiting a remarkable piece of history he’d all but forgotten, and finding to his surprise it still lacked the book it deserved, he decided to write that book. The result is his ambitious The Trumpets of Jericho, the only novel to tackle the defiant 1944 Jewish armed uprising at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, and its just as heroic aftermath.

In the interview series Borderless: Conversations on Art, Action, and Justice, emerging and established writers talk with host Chaitali Sen about the power of words and the role of art in reflecting and changing our world.

This month’s guest is scientist and author Juli Berwald.

Marine invertebrates stole Juli Berwald’s heart on her first snorkel in the Red Sea during college. Hoping to study the ocean forever, she spent seven years building mathematical algorithms to interpret satellite imagery of the ocean, receiving her Ph.D. in ocean science. Her husband stole her heart next, and she drifted away from the ocean to Austin, Texas to be with him. Landlocked, she wrote textbooks and popular science articles for National Geographic, the New York Times, Nature, and Redbook before the story of jellyfish led her back to the sea. Her science memoir, Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone, is “a heartfelt plea for humans to fulfill their responsibilities toward nature” (The New Yorker).

Chaitali Sen is a writer and educator based in Austin, Texas. She is the author of the novel The Pathless Sky, and numerous stories and essays which have appeared or are forthcoming in Catapult, Colorado Review, Ecotone, LitHub, Los Angeles Review of Books, New England Review, New Ohio Review, and other journals. She is the founder of the interview series Borderless: Conversations on Art, Action, and Justice.

“We read all types, we take all types. Aim to keep things light and fun.” Hosted by Jon Meador. Please visit Austin Book Club for more information.

Austin Writers Roulette is an uncensored, theme-inspired spoken word and storytelling event. It features a different monthly theme and line up of artists who perform their original written works such as poetry, essays, spoken word, singer-songwriting, or excerpts from novels for 5-8 minutes (1200 words or fewer). Interested artists who would like to perform for an upcoming event can email their submission to mathdreads@yahoo.com. Or you can show up during the day of the event and sign up for the open mic after all the featured artists perform. And of course, performance art lovers are always welcome!

This month’s theme is “Like Night & Day”—what happens when a situation goes sideways? Featured artists include LIABLEWRITER, KATHY REEVES, HOPE RUIZ, BRENNAN UTLEY, ARALYN HUGHES, HELEN BUCK, TERESA Y ROBERSON and THOM THE WORLD POET. Visit the Austin Writers Roulette website for more information.

The Finnegans Wake Reading Group of Austin is a monthly get-together to dive into the depths of James Joyce’s greatest, weirdest, and most notorious masterpiece.

The process is to take turns reading aloud from the text, which allows its musicality to flow forth. Then we all discuss our interpretations and the many meanings and themes contained within the selection we’ve read.

We’ll read 2 or 3 pages of the book, depending on how many people are there and how much time we spend discussing the content.

This event is FREE and open to everyone. NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE of Joyce or Finnegans Wake is required, just have an open mind—and be prepared to read aloud in front of strangers.

For more information, please visit the reading group’s website.

A representation of the book’s structure by Bauhaus artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.

You’re invited to join us for the fifth Austin edition of the Why There Are Words reading series! This month’s readers are Brittani Sonnenberg, Steve Brooks, Domingo Martinez, and Kendra Tanacea (left to right, below).

Founded in 2010 by Peg Alford Pursell, Why There Are Words is an award-winning literary reading series that takes place every second Thursday in the San Francisco Bay Area, and beginning in 2017, will take place at 5 more national locations: New York City, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Portland, and Austin. Each reading event presents a range of writers, including those who have published books and those who haven’t. All writers share the criterion of excellence. The guiding idea behind the series is that good work is timeless and needs to be heard regardless of marketing or commercial concerns. If you’re interested in reading or would like more information, please contact Alison: wtawaustin@gmail.com.

Raised across three continents, Brittani Sonnenberg is a freelance journalist and creative writer based in Austin, Texas. Her work has appeared in The O’Henry Prize Stories, Ploughshares, The Guardian, NPR, and elsewhere. Her novel, Home Leave, was selected as a New York Times’ Editor’s Choice. She serves as a visiting lecturer and thesis adviser for Hong Kong University’s MFA Program.

Cross two famous guys named Brooks—Garth and Mel—and you get Austin folksinger Steve Brooks. A classic Texas troubadour who mixes storytelling, humor, heartbreak and cracker-barrel philosophy, his songs have been recorded by more than a dozen Americana artists, like Slaid Cleaves, Christine Albert and Russell Crowe. He wrote a song-a-week for Jim Hightower’s nationally-syndicated radio show and reigned as six-time World Pun Champion. He’s also spoken on spiritual topics at more than 40 Unitarian churches around the country. 

Domingo Martinez is the New York Times Best Selling author of The Boy Kings of Texas and was a finalist for The National Book Award in 2012. The Boy Kings of Texas is a Gold Medal Winner of the Independent Publishers Book Award, a Non-Fiction Finalist for The Washington State Book Awards, and was nominated for a 2013 Pushcart Prize. The Boy Kings of Texas was optioned for an HBO series through Salma Hayek’s production company, Ventana Rosa. His work has appeared in Epiphany Literary Journal, Seattle Weekly, Texas Monthly, The New Republic, Saveur Magazine, Huisache Literary Magazine and he is a regular contributor to This American Life.

Kendra Tanacea holds an MFA from Bennington College, where she completed her first poetry collection. A Filament Burns in Blue Degrees was a finalist for the Idaho Prize for Poetry and published by Lost Horse Press. Kendra’s poems have appeared in 5AM, Rattle, Poet Lore, and North American Review, among others. She has a BA in English from Wellesley College.

Join us for a reading from members of St. Edward’s University’s Literature, Writing and Rhetoric department. With readings from Alan Altimont, Amy Clements, Mary Helen Specht, Sasha West, and Michael Yang (left to right, below).

Alan Altimont has been translating the largely neglected Latin poetry of Marbod of Rennes (1035-1123 CE), the only early medieval European to write poems about himself, his sexuality, aesthetic experience, and the writing of poetry. He is an associate professor of English at St. Edward’s University, where he has taught various literature, creative writing, and composition courses for more than thirty years.

A native Austinite, Amy Clements teaches at St. Edward’s University and earned an MFA in creative writing at The New School in New York City. Her short fiction has appeared in Southern Humanities Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, and The South Carolina Review. She is currently working on a novel titled The Darkest Skies in North America.

Mary Helen Specht’s debut novel, Migratory Animals, was an Editors’ Choice by the New York Times Book Review and the Austin American-Statesmen, an IndieNext Pick, and an Apple iBook selection. Migratory Animals also won the Texas Institute of Letters Best First Fiction Award and the Writers’ League of Texas Best Book of Fiction. A previous Fulbright Scholar to Nigeria and Dobie-Paisano Writing Fellow, Specht is currently an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at St. Edward’s University. Texas Monthly has named her one of “Ten Writers to Watch.”

Sasha West’s first book, Failure and I Bury the Body, won the National Poetry Series and the Texas Institute of Letters First Book of Poetry Award. Her poems have appeared in Kenyon Review Online, West Branch, Southern Review, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. Her awards include a Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Fellowship, Inprint’s Verlaine Prize, Rice University’s Parks Fellowship, and a Houston Arts Alliance grant. She is currently working on a manuscript of poems about climate change.

Michael Yang’s stories and essays have appeared in Ploughshares, Michigan Quarterly Review, Boulevard, The Seattle Review, and other publications. He is currently working on a book of short stories and a novel.

We’d like to invite you to join Malvern’s Line/Break Poetry Book Club! Hosted by Malvernian Julie Poole, this is a reading group for those of you interested in exploring works from our expansive poetry section.

This month’s selection is Silk Poems by Jen Bervin.

Silk Poems takes silk as subject and form, exploring its cultural, scientific, and linguistic complexities. In conjunction with Tufts University’s Silk Lab’s cutting-edge research on liquified silk, Jen Bervin wrote a poem composed in a six-character chain that corresponds to the DNA structure of silk; modeled on the way a silkworm applies filament to its cocoon. This poem, written from the perspective of the silkworm, explores the cultural, scientific, and linguistic complexities of silk written inside the body.

How it works:

Stop by Malvern Books to sign up and you’ll receive a 10% discount off the title! Read the book and then come to the meeting prepared with either a question or a specific poem to discuss with the group. We’ll look forward to seeing you at this meeting of our Line/Break Poetry Book Club!

Join us for a FREE monthly reading series, Malvern’s Multi-Verse, in which we explore the infinite possible (multi)verses of Austin’s boundless literary universe! Space-time might be flat and stretch out infinitely, but Malvern’s Multi-Verse is well-rounded, lasts for about an hour, and includes free cookies! Yes indeed, it’s the best of all possible worlds…

This month our curmudgeon-in-chief Dr. Joe will interview award-winning poet, literary  translator, essayist, and journalist Liliana Valenzuela.

Liliana Valenzuela’s bilingual poetry chapbook Codex of Journeys: Bendito camino was published by Mouthfeel Press in 2012. Valenzuela is the acclaimed Spanish language translator of works by Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, Denise Chávez, Nina Marie Martínez, Ana Castillo, Dagoberto Gilb, Richard Rodríguez, Rudolfo Anaya, Cristina García, Gloria Anzaldúa, and many other writers. Her translation of Sandra Cisneros’ A House of My Own was published in 2016. A member of the Macondo Writers Workshop and an inaugural fellow of CantoMundo, she works for ¡Ahora Sí!, the Spanish weekly of the Austin American-Statesman.

Join us in celebrating the launch of new books from Charles Alexander and Saba Syed Razvi. With readings from Charles, Saba, and Kyle Schlesinger (left to right, below).

Charles Alexander writes poems, publishes books, makes books, teaches poetry and other literary works. He has published 6 full books of poems and 13 chapbooks. He has been engaged for some two decades on the work Pushing Water, whose first volume was published by Cuneiform Press. The second volume, titled AT the Edge OF the Sea: Pushing Water II, has just been released by Singing Horse Press in San Diego. Alexander directs Chax Press, and has been a director and principle in many poetry community-building endeavors, including POG, Inc., in Tucson, Arizona, and currently as the co-curator of the University of Houston-Victoria Center for the Arts and the director of the MFA Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston-Victoria. He is most closely identified with Tucson, Arizona, where he and Chax Press spent approximately 30 years and to where he will return in Summer 2018. A collection of his essays on poetry and books will be published in 2019. He co-creates a variety of works and projects with his partner, the visual artist Cynthia Miller.

Saba Syed Razvi is the author of In the Crocodile Gardens (Agape Editions), heliophobia (Finishing Line Press), Limerence & Lux (Chax Press), Of the Divining and the Dead (Finishing Line Press), and Beside the Muezzin’s Call & Beyond the Harem’s Veil (Finishing Line Press). Her poems have appeared in journals such as The Offending Adam, Diner, TheTHE Poetry Blog’s Infoxicated Corner, The Homestead Review, NonBinary Review, 10×3 plus, 13th Warrior Review, The Arbor Vitae Review, and Arsenic Lobster, and others, as well as in anthologies such as Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War Faith and Sexuality, The Loudest Voice Anthology, The Liddell Book of Poetry, Political Punch: Contemporary Poems on the Politics of Identity, The Rhysling Anthology, Dreamspinning, and Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of Peace. Her poems have been nominated for the Elgin Award, the Bettering American Poetry Awards, The Best of the Net Award, the Rhysling Award, and have won a 2015 Independent Best American Poetry Award. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Houston in Victoria, TX, where in addition to working on scholarly research on interfaces between Science and contemporary Poetry, she is researching Sufi Poetry in translation, and writing new poems and fiction.

Kyle Schlesinger is a poet living in Austin. Some recent and forthcoming poetry books include: Sydney Omarr’s Wild Children, with the artist Flynn Maria Bergmann; Swish Void, with poet Grant Cross; and Life, with poet Ted Greenwald.

Join us for a reading with Montreux Rotholtz, Sid Miller, Katy Chrisler, and Stephanie Goehring. We’ll be celebrating the 2017 release of Montreux Rotholtz’s collection Unmark, selected by Mary Szybist as the winner of the 2015 Burnside Review Press Book Award.

‘To mark’ means many things: to stain, to sign, to correct, to celebrate. Montreux Rotholtz’s Unmark ambitiously means much more, performing and undoing those acts, correcting definitions, understandings, and then unraveling those corrections in a headlong, fearless drive toward what is ‘just.’ These poems leave only what ‘claw[s] to remain’—and astonish with the lushness inside that leanness, where ‘the hot cloud [is] slung/around us,’ and the ‘pale green coronas’ of ‘lit sea-lanterns’ ‘fill the space.’ Lyric traditions—confession, fable, love poem, elegy, fugue, prayer—ghost through these constantly inventive poems and let us hear the strangeness of language, its overabundance and partialness, the way it both dissociates and connects. The beautiful, sensual intensity of these poems is haunted, assured: each one leans toward us, ‘feeling/for [our] fragile pressures,’ to ‘clarify [our] ear.’ —Mary Szybist

Montreux Rotholtz is the author of Unmark (Burnside Review Press, 2017), which was selected by Mary Szybist as the winner of the Burnside Review Press Book Award. Her poems appear in Black Warrior Review, Boston Review, Prelude, jubilat, Lana Turner, and elsewhere. She lives in Seattle.

Sid Miller lives in Vancouver, Washington with his wife and identical twin 6 year old boys. He is the owner of The Triple Lindy, a neighborhood bar in NW Portland, the author of three full length books of poetry, and is the founder and editor of Burnside Review Press.

Katy Chrisler received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has held residencies with the Land Arts of the American West and 100 West Corsicana. Recent work of hers has appeared in Tin House, Black Warrior Review, The Volta, and The Seattle Review. Her chapbook, If It Be A Skeleton, will be out this summer from Walls Divide Press. She currently lives and works in Austin, Texas.

Stephanie Goehring is the author of several poetry chapbooks, including This Room Has a Ghost (dancing girl press). A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she works as a bookseller at Malvern Books and a freelance copy editor. She also serves on the advisory council for Conflict of Interest.

We’re thrilled to be hosting a series of readings as part of the 26th annual Austin International Poetry Festival.

See the Austin International Poetry Festival website to sign up and for the full schedule of readings.

AIPF takes place April 5-8 and includes unique Austin venues, diverse themed poetry readings, open mics, workshops, music and poetry, anthology reading, dusk to dawn, and a poetry symposium. AIPF is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.

Join us for an evening devoted to discussion of Claudia Rankine’s award-winning poetry collection Citizen: An American Lyric, a powerful and direct engagement with race and violence in present-day American culture. We’ll also be discussing the cultural significance of the film Black Panther, and pose questions to the audience about the world as seen through the book and the movie. With host Joe Brundidge and guests Daria Howard and Kelene Blake-Fallon.

Joe Brundidge is an author and public speaker, and has hosted a number of open mic events for almost 20 years, including Spoken & Heard at Kick Butt Coffee, an event he curates. He also served as the Director of the Austin International Poetry Festival for three years, from 2012-2015. He is currently co-host of KOOP 91.7fm’s “Writing On The Air.” His second book of poetry, Element 615, was released in 2017.

Daria Howard is a Spoken Word Artist, Youth Development Professional at Boys & Girls Clubs of the Austin Area, and a Teaching Artist with the Speak Piece Poetry Project.

Kelene Blake-Fallon is a Spoken Word Artist, Health and Wellness Consultant, and Adjunct Professor in the Adult Degree Program at Huston-Tillotson University.

Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric,  published by Graywolf Press in 2014, is the first work of poetry to become a New York Times bestseller for multiple weeks on the paperback nonfiction list. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry, and was also a finalist for the award in criticism, the first time in the history of those awards that a book was named a finalist in more than one category. “A classic that will be read, referred to and reflected on for generations” (Lit Hub), Citizen is a genre-bending work of art combining lyric prose with internal monologues, visual art, slogans, photographs, quotes, a screen grab from YouTube, and film scripts. It is a touchstone for talking candidly about racism. And it is a time capsule of contemporary headlines and key figures, with references to, among other things, Hurricane Katrina, the tennis champion Serena Williams, the 2006 World Cup, and the fatal shooting of Florida resident Trayvon Martin. Through a series of vignettes, the book recounts everyday moments of racism “of a kind that accumulate until they become a poisonous scourge: being skipped in line at the pharmacy by a white man, because he has failed to notice you in front of him; being told approvingly, as a schoolchild, that your features are like those of a white person; being furiously accosted by a trauma therapist who does not believe that the patient she is expecting could look like you” (The New Yorker). “I started working on Citizen as a way of talking about invisible racism—moments that you experience and that happen really fast,” Rankine told The New Yorker.

Jamaican-born author Claudia Rankine is the author of five collections of poetry, two plays, and numerous video collaborations. She is the editor of several poetry anthologies, serves as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 2016. Also in 2016, following ten years of teaching at Pomona College in Claremont, California, she was named the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University.

Welcome to Malvern Books’ Club: Reading Classics from New York Review Books, hosted (on most occasions) by Malvern’s own curmudgeon-in-chief, Dr. Joe. Everyone is invited to join us for what we’re sure will be a series of irreverent and insightful conversations.

This month’s selection is The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares (1914–1999). Jorge Luis Borges declared The Invention of Morel a masterpiece of plotting, comparable to The Turn of The Screw and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Set on a mysterious island, Bioy’s novella is a story of suspense and exploration, as well as a wonderfully unlikely romance, in which every detail is at once crystal clear and deeply mysterious.

A masterfully paced and intellectually daring plot. Like the best science fiction, of which this is an exemplar, Bioy’s themes have become ever more relevant to a society beholden to image. It is this keenness of thought and expression that buttresses Borges’s claim of the novella’s perfection. —The Times

The NYRB Classics series started in 1999 with the publication of A High Wind in Jamaica and by the end of this year over 400 titles will be in print—so we have plenty of excellent reading material to choose from. The series includes nineteenth-century and experimental novels, reportage and belles lettres, established classics and cult favorites, and literature high, low, unsuspected, and unheard of. Literature in translation also constitutes a major part of the NYRB Classics series, including new translations of canonical figures such as Euripides, Aeschylus, Dante, Balzac, Nietzsche, and Chekhov, as well as fresh translations of Stefan Zweig, Robert Walser, Alberto Moravia, and Curzio Malaparte, among others.

How it works:

Stop by Malvern Books to sign up and you’ll receive a 10% discount off the title! Read the book and then come to the meeting prepared with either a question or specific passage to discuss with the group. We’ll look forward to seeing you to discuss a NYRB classic!

Join us in celebrating the launch of the novel Collision Theory by Adrian Todd Zuniga. With readings from Adrian and Jason Neulander.

Collision Theory is Adrian Todd Zuniga’s memorably heartfelt and headlong debut novel. Its suddenness, its unexpectedness, its humor, and its humanity make for an unforgettable, surprising, and emotional read.

Adrian Todd Zuniga (below left) is a creator and host of Literary Death Match, and is the founding editor of Opium Magazine, which is a reading series that occurs regularly in New York City, San Francisco, and London, and has launched in 54 cities worldwide including Beijing, Edinburgh, Chicago, and Paris. Zuniga is also a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer for his short fiction and an award-winning journalist.

Jason Neulander (below right) is an award-winning theatre artist, filmmaker, and producer based in Austin, Texas. He founded and was the artistic director of Austin’s premiere producer of new plays Salvage Vanguard Theater from 1994 to 2008. His transmedia sci-fi multiverse THE INTERGALACTIC NEMESIS, which he wrote, directed, and produced, premiered in 2010 and has taken the form of graphic novels, a YouTube series, podcasts, audio dramas, novels, and a live theatrical tour. It was adapted for television by PBS. His feature film debut Fugitive Dreams shoots in 2018. “A seemingly inexhaustible ability to surprise. And thrill. And horrify. And amuse. And intrigue.” —The Austin Chronicle

In association with VSA Texas (The State Organization on Arts and Disability) and the Pen2Paper Creative Writing Contest (a project of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities), we’re delighted to present an inclusive (mic-less) open mic for writers and musicians. Everyone is welcome to join us for this fun and friendly free afternoon suitable for performers of all ages and abilities.

Our April open mic will be an official City Read for the Austin International Poetry Festival! AIPF takes place April 5-8 and includes unique Austin venues, diverse themed poetry readings, open mics, workshops, music and poetry, anthology reading, dusk to dawn, and a poetry symposium. AIPF is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.

Footage from previous Lion & Pirate open mic events can be seen here: http://bit.ly/1m7v4L8.

Austin Writers Roulette is an uncensored, theme-inspired spoken word and storytelling event. It features a different monthly theme and line up of artists who perform their original written works such as poetry, essays, spoken word, singer-songwriting, or excerpts from novels for 5-8 minutes (1200 words or fewer). Interested artists who would like to perform for an upcoming event can email their submission to mathdreads@yahoo.com. Or you can show up during the day of the event and sign up for the open mic after all the featured artists perform. And of course, performance art lovers are always welcome!

This month’s theme is “Drugs & Fantasies”—because sometimes you just need to get away! The lineup of featured artists include: HELEN BUCK, R.G. HOOK, TERESA Y. ROBERSON, and THOM THE WORLD POET. Visit the Austin Writers Roulette website for more information.

Join us for a reading with Anna Maria Hong and Roger Reeves. We’ll be celebrating the release of Hong’s first poetry collection, Age of Glass, which won the Cleveland State University Poetry Center’s First Book Poetry Competition, and also her novella, H & G, which won the A Room of Her Own Foundation’s inaugural Clarissa Dalloway Prize and has been just published by Sidebrow Books.

Anna Maria Hong’s first poetry collection, Age of Glass, won the Cleveland State University Poetry Center’s 2017 First Book Poetry Competition and will be published in April 2018. Her novella, H & G, won the A Room of Her Own Foundation’s inaugural Clarissa Dalloway Prize and will be published by Sidebrow Books in May 2018. Her second poetry collection, Fablesque, won Tupelo Press’s Berkshire Prize and is forthcoming in 2019. A former Bunting Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, she has published poetry and fiction in over 50 journals and anthologies including The Nation, The Iowa Review, Poetry, Ecotone, POOL, Fence, Harvard Review, The Volta, Verse Daily, Fire on Her Tongue: An Anthology of Contemporary Women’s Poetry and The Best American Poetry. She will join the Literature faculty at Bennington College in July 2018.

Roger Reeves is the author of the poetry collection King Me (Copper Canyon) and recipient of honors and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, Bread Loaf, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and Cave Canem. His poems have appeared in journals such as Poetry, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, Boston Review, and Tin House. Kim Addonizio selected “Kletic of Walt Whitman” for the Best New Poets 2009 anthology. He earned his MFA from the Michener Center in 2010 and his PhD in English from UT’s Dept of English, and he previously taught at University of Illinois/Chicago.

Everyone is welcome to attend the Austin Community College Creative Writing Department’s Literary Coffeehouse, hosted by John Herndon. An open mic follows the featured reader, so bring poems, stories, scripts, rants, raves or midnight confessions to share, or just come to listen and enjoy.

This month’s featured reader is Ken Fontenot, a poet and novelist who lives in Austin. He is author of four books of poetry, including In a Kingdom of Birds, which was names best book of poetry by the Texas Institute of Letters, and All My Animals and Stars, which won the Austin Book Award; and a novel, For Mr. Raindrinker.

Join us for another installment of Novel Night, a monthly celebration of all things prose! Here’s how it works: published authors will read from their books and there’ll be an audience Q & A. And we’ll also have “Book Talk,” in which an intrepid Malvern staff member will introduce you to one of our favorite prose titles. Also worth noting: we’re offering 20% OFF ALL FICTION TITLES during Novel Night (from 6pm till closing).

This month’s Novel Night features readings from José Skinner and Oscar Cásares. José will be reading from his short story collection, The Tombstone Race, and Oscar will read from his novel Amigoland.

José Skinner is the author of two short story collections, The Tombstone Race and Flight and Other Stories. He worked as an English/Spanish court and conference interpreter in New Mexico before earning his MFA in fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His fiction and translations have appeared in Quarterly West, Colorado Review, Other Voices, Bilingual Review, Puerto del Sol, and other literary journals, and his nonfiction in anthologies such as Desde las Heridas: Transborder Testimonies and Our Lost Border: Essays on Life Amid the Narco-Violence. He was co-founder and director of the bilingual MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Texas-Pan American. He now lives in Austin, Texas.

Oscar Cásares is the author of the story collection Brownsville, and the novel Amigoland, which have earned him fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Copernicus Society of America, and the Texas Institute of Letters. His first book, Brownsville, was selected by American Library Association as a Notable Book of 2004.  Amigoland, a novel also set in Brownsville, was the 2009 selection for the Mayor’s Book Club in Austin, a citywide reading campaign supported by the Austin Public Library. His essays have appeared in Texas Monthly, the New York Times, and on National Public Radio. His new novel, Where We Come From, is due out May 2019. Since 2004, he has taught creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin.

“We read all types, we take all types. Aim to keep things light and fun.” Hosted by Jon Meador. Please visit Austin Book Club for more information.

Join us in celebrating the launch of Harold Whit Williams’ new poetry collection, Red Clay Journal. Harold will be joined by poet and firefighter Tim Krcmarik.

Harold Whit Williams is guitarist for the critically acclaimed rock band Cotton Mather. He is a 2018 Pushcart Prize Nominee, and also recipient of the 2014 Mississippi Review Poetry Prize. His collection, Backmasking, was winner of the 2013 Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize from Texas Review Press, and his latest, Red Clay Journal, is available from FutureCycle Press.  

Tim Krcmarik is a 12-year veteran of the Austin Fire Department and is a Lieutenant on Engine 1 downtown. His first book, The False Lark, was published by Diabolical Genius Press in 2013 and a pamphlet, The Heights, appeared in 2008 as part of the Lost Horse Press New Poets/ Short Books series. He is a recipient of the Paul Engle Fellowship from the University of Iowa and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He lives in Austin with his wife and son.

The Finnegans Wake Reading Group of Austin is a monthly get-together to dive into the depths of James Joyce’s greatest, weirdest, and most notorious masterpiece.

The process is to take turns reading aloud from the text, which allows its musicality to flow forth. Then we all discuss our interpretations and the many meanings and themes contained within the selection we’ve read.

We’ll read 2 or 3 pages of the book, depending on how many people are there and how much time we spend discussing the content.

This event is FREE and open to everyone. NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE of Joyce or Finnegans Wake is required, just have an open mind—and be prepared to read aloud in front of strangers.

For more information, please visit the reading group’s website.

A representation of the book’s structure by Bauhaus artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.

Join us for a FREE monthly reading series, Malvern’s Multi-Verse, in which we explore the infinite possible (multi)verses of Austin’s boundless literary universe! Space-time might be flat and stretch out infinitely, but Malvern’s Multi-Verse is well-rounded, lasts for about an hour, and includes free cookies! Yes indeed, it’s the best of all possible worlds…

This month’s guest is mónica teresa ortiz, who will be discussing, among other things, her forthcoming collection muted blood, which probes the intersection of policing and borders across bodies, sexualities, ethnicities, genders, asking what it might take to thrive. Responding to Spicer’s After Lorca, ortiz conjures “the skeleton of that tender-hearted crocodile,” Lorca’s ghost, to witness resistance, resilience, against violence and erasure.

mónica teresa ortiz was born and raised in Texas. Her work has recently appeared in Winter Tangerine Review, Texas Review, Southwestern Literature, and her first poetry collection, muted blood, is forthcoming from Black Radish Books in summer 2018. ortiz also is the poetry editor for Raspa, a Queer Latinx literary journal and can be found on Instagram or Twitter: @elgallosalvaje.

Join us for a celebration hosted by Pterodáctilo, the bilingual journal and blog run by graduate students in UT Austin’s department of Spanish and Portuguese. This bilingual event will feature poetry readings… and tamales!

fields magazine and the New Writers Project present an evening with Kaveh Akbar, author of Calling a Wolf a Wolf. This program was made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Kaveh Akbar’s poems appear recently in The New Yorker, Poetry, the New York Times, The Nation, and elsewhere. His first book, Calling a Wolf a Wolf, is just out with Alice James in the US and Penguin in the UK. He is also the author of the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, Kaveh was born in Tehran, Iran, and teaches in the MFA program at Purdue University and in the low-residency MFA programs at Randolph College.