Malvern Books

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 authors are M. Ward Leon and J. Darris Mitchell.

M. Ward Leon’s new book, Blood of the Beast, is an action thriller featuring an international French eco-terrorist group waging a world war against poachers and big game hunters. And J. Darris Mitchell’s Fireflies and Cosmos: Interstellar Spring Book 1 is a humorous space opera about love in all of its forms.

M. Ward Leon is a former advertising creative director who started his career at Doyle Dane Bernbach, New York, during the Madmen era. While at DDB his writing on the Volkswagen Rabbit campaign won him inclusion into the Smithsonian Institution Advertising Archives. Recently his writing has earned him two National Emmy Awards for Public Service advertising. He recently became a published author, with his novel; The Blood of the Beast, published with Beacon Publishing Group. He is a graduate of California State University Los Angeles and an alumnus of Art Center College of Design.

J. Darris Mitchell is a native of Austin, TX who is obsessed with bringing biodiversity back to the city. He lives with his darling wife, his amazing son, a flock of chickens, a lazy cat, and a backyard brimming with wildflowers and insects.

In the interview series Borderless: Conversations on Art, Action, and Justice, emerging and established writers and artists talk with host Chaitali Sen about the power of words and the role of art in reflecting and changing our world. This month’s Borderless guest is Raj Patel, co-author of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet.

Raj Patel is an award-winning writer, activist and academic. He is a Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin, and a Senior Research Associate at the Unit for the Humanities at the university currently known as Rhodes University (UHURU), South Africa. In addition to numerous scholarly publications in economics, philosophy, politics and public health journals, he regularly writes for The Guardian, and has contributed to the Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Times of India, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Mail on Sunday, and The Observer. His first book was Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. His second, The Value of Nothing, was a New York Times and international best-seller. His latest, co-written with Jason W. Moore, is A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things.

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.

Join us in celebrating the launch of the 2019 summer 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.

Join us for an evening with Emily O’Neill, E. Kristin Anderson, and Layne Ransom.

Emily O’Neill teaches writing and tends bar in Cambridge, MA. Her debut poetry collection, Pelican (2015), won YesYes Books’ inaugural Pamet River Prize, as well as the 2016 Devil’s Kitchen Reading Series in Poetry. Her second collection with YesYes, a falling knife has no handle (2018), was named one of the ten most anticipated poetry titles of fall by Publishers Weekly and long-listed for the Julie Suk Award from Jacar Press. She is the author of five chapbooks and her recent work appears in Bennington Review, Catapult, Hypertrophic Literary, Little Fiction, Redivider, and Salt Hill, among others.

E. Kristin Anderson is a poet and glitter enthusiast living mostly at a Starbucks somewhere in Austin, Texas. She is the editor of Come as You Are, an anthology of writing on 90s pop culture (Anomalous Press), and her work has been published worldwide in many magazines. She is the author of nine chapbooks of poetry including Pray, Pray, Pray: Poems I wrote to Prince in the middle of the night (Porkbelly Press), Fire in the Sky (Grey Book Press), 17 seventeen XVII (Grey Book Press), and Behind, All You’ve Got (Semiperfect Press, forthcoming). Kristin is a poetry reader at Cotton Xenomorph and an editorial assistant at Sugared Water. Once upon a time she worked nights at The New Yorker.

Join us in celebrating the launch of Donna Dechen Birdwell’s new novel, Not Knowing, on July 20th, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon walk—an event that is of some significance in this book!

Donna Dechen Birdwell is an anthropologist whose latest novel takes place in two locales she knows and loves—Belize and Texas. Stepping away from the dystopian future she created in Recall Chronicles, she writes in Not Knowing about two wings of our human quest for knowledge—archaeology and space exploration.

Join us for a discussion with Daisy Hernández, co-editor of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism. Daisy will be interviewed by Chaitali Sen.

Newly revised and updated, this landmark anthology offers gripping portraits of American life as seen through the eyes of young women of color.

It has been decades since women of color first turned feminism upside down, exposing the feminist movement as exclusive, white, and unaware of the concerns and issues of women of color from around the globe. Since then, key social movements have risen, including Black Lives Matter, transgender rights, and the activism of young undocumented students. Social media has also changed how feminism reaches young women of color, generating connections in all corners of the country. And yet we remain a country divided by race and gender. Now, a new generation of outspoken women of color offer a much-needed fresh dimension to the shape of feminism of the future. In Colonize This!, Daisy Hernández and Bushra Rehman have collected a diverse, lively group of emerging writers who speak to the strength of community and the influence of color, to borders and divisions, and to the critical issues that need to be addressed to finally reach an era of racial freedom. With prescient and intimate writing, Colonize This! will reach the hearts and minds of readers who care about the experience of being a woman of color, and about establishing a culture that fosters freedom and agency for women of all races.

Daisy Hernández is the author of A Cup of Water under My Bed: A Memoir and the former editor of ColorLines magazine. She has written for National Geographic, The Atlantic, the New York Times, and NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and currently teaches creative writing at Miami University in Ohio.

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.

Get your cones ready for another round of Malvern Books’ FREE reading series, I SCREAM SOCIAL, hosted by Malvern’s own Annar Veröld and Schandra Madha. Featuring women-identified writers from the Austin community (and beyond!), this month’s I Screamers are Jasmine Waiters, Susan Niz, and Simone Warner.

Jasmine Waiters is an emerging spoken word poet from California. As an artist, she often uses raw truth, relentless imagery, and ambitious metaphors as a means for commentary and expression. In June of this year Jasmine released her poetry book, Before We Were Magic, and performed on an international stage for the first time. She traveled to Australia to perform at, and co-facilitate a workshop for the Emerging Writers Festival. She also headlined a feature performance for Slamalamadingdong Poet Slam while in Melbourne. Jasmine’s hope is that through spoken and written word she can promote healing, understanding, empowerment, and community. Her favorite flavor of ice cream is orange sherbet!

Susan Niz’s first poetry chapbook is Beyond this Amniotic Dream (Beard Poetry, Minneapolis, 2016). She has a second chapbook, Left-Handed Like a Lightning Whelk, forthcoming with Finishing Line Press (November 2019). Her short work has appeared in Ponder Review, Ginosko, Tipton Poetry Journal, Blue Bonnet Review, and other places. She has been featured in live poetry shows in Minneapolis and Austin. Susan writes across genres. Her novel Kara, Lost (North Star Press, 2011) was a finalist for a Midwest Book Award (MIPA) for Literary Fiction. She has a Master’s Degree in Education, raises kids, has been a grassroots community organizer, and conserves Monarchs. She recently relocated from Minnesota (having survived the Polar Vortex last winter) to the Austin area. She will be leading a poetry workshop at local libraries called “You are a poet.” Her favorite flavor of ice cream is salted caramel!

Simone Warner is passionate about language. She studied French at UT and currently translates commercial copy. She studied Creative Writing at ACC where her poetry habit found technique and where she opened to other genres. Her favorite flavor of ice cream is cookies and cream.

~7pm – Ice cream & Open Mic for women-identified and non-binary writers. We want a chance to hear everyone’s wonderful work, so please try to keep readings under 3 minutes.

~The featured reading begins after the open mic and will be followed by even more ice cream.

Can’t make it this time around? No worries. I Scream Social is every month ’til the end of time.

Join us in celebrating the launch of C. S. Woolwine’s debut novel, Cyclic.

Cyclic is a new take on the integration of man and machine. Imagine being able to think of anything you desire, and instantly spawn it into existence. Imagine the good that could come from this, the wonder and excitement, the freedom of creation. Nothing is off limits! Now, imagine the bad. The purpose of this tale is to open your mind to the possibility, to explore what could be. This epic adventure is set in the distant future when society has already deemed this technology worthy. The story follows Cal, whose mediocre life can be best described as wanting. He’s thrown into a world he never knew existed when he discovers certain traits which make him particularly skilled with this technology. He must rebuild himself after tragedy, learn to master cyclic, and fight for what he believes in… even when it’s only him who believes it.

C. S. Woolwine, also known as “HaxDogma,” was born in the little border town of Yuma, Arizona. Growing up he lived in Pasadena, Maryland where he found his passion for technology. After high school, he decided to pursue cyber security and found his calling for Information Technology. Right after college, he moved down to Austin, TX with his girlfriend, now wife, and started climbing the corporate ladder. His quick rise in the IT field, and his YouTube channel dedicated to analytical discussion, gave him the confidence to continue pursuing a dream he’s had since he was a boy, writing. Inspired to create a better world for his wife and furry children, Mr. Woolwine finished the story he has been trying to tell his entire life… Cyclic.

Join us in celebrating the launch of Ron Seybold’s Stealing Home, a memoir about fatherhood, baseball, and an epic road trip with a Little Leaguer.

An epic road trip with my tween set me on a path to uncover perfection in fatherhood—and how my father’s suicide didn’t doom me to recreate his mistakes. Stealing Home is the story of an 11-day, 9-game road trip I took with my Little Leaguer—and how my plans for perfection delivered things much deeper than scores, miles, and smiles. You don’t have to drive 3,147 miles to find your way to fatherhood. When I did, something magical and rare appeared at the end of the journey, inside my heart as well as on a diamond. As a divorced dad, I was trying to redeem my fatherhood with a baseball road trip with my Little League son Nicky. Our odyssey of nine games in eleven days, crossing eight states in a rented convertible, was supposed to salvage my life as an unsure father. Custody Dad fatherhood demoted me to the second team. I was certain of that. One sign of salvation came unbidden in an unscheduled tenth ballgame. The adventures and revelations of the road led to a deeper reckoning of how my father had failed enough at his fatherhood to take his own life. Thousands of miles and dozens of innings delivered a discovery: a drive toward perfect fatherhood has a destination that cannot be found on any map.

Ron Seybold directs the Writer’s Workshop in Austin, a place for workshopping, books and weekly creativity groups. His debut novel is Viral Times, futuristic thriller about a pandemic that changes the way the world heals and loves. A two-time finalist in the Writer’s League of Texas manuscript contests for memoir and historical fiction, he’s reported over the radio, acted in Austin melodramas, and walks his standard poodle Tess Harding less often than she’d like. A teaching volunteer at the Austin Bat Cave literacy program in schools, he coaches writers, edits books, and plays a part in helping authors from inspiration to publication.

Join us for a reading and exhibit to celebrate the launch of the latest issue of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review.

The keynote poet is Alex Lemon, author of Another Last Day (Milkweed Editions, 2019). Saúl Hernández will be an additional poetry reader. The featured artist for this issue is James Surls, who contributed his artwork to the cover of Borderlands‘ Issue #1 in 1992! An engaging visual series by Surls is showcased in Issue 50 and several pieces will be presented at Malvern Books by Ruby Surls, James’ daughter. Frances Thompson from the UMLAUF Sculpture Garden & Museum will discuss Surls’s current exhibit there. Liz Garton Scanlon, early Borderlands editor, will provide remarks on the history of the journal. Terry Sherrell, account liaison for Borderlands since the premier issue, will discuss her experiences designing and printing the journal.

Bring friends – join the celebration! The event is free of charge and open to everyone. Copies will be available for purchase on-site.

Keynote poet Alex Lemon’s Another Last Day was just published by Milkweed Editions. He is the author of two memoirs—Feverland: A Memoir in Shards and Happy: A Memoir—and four poetry collections: The Wish Book, Fancy Beasts, Hallelujah Blackout and Mosquito. His writing has appeared in Borderlands, Esquire, American Poetry Review, The Huffington Post, Ploughshares, Best American Poetry, Tin House, Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, AGNI, New England Review, The Southern Review, Grist, and jubilat, among numerous other publications. Among his awards are a 2005 Fellowship in Poetry from the NEA, a Jerome Foundation Fellowship, and a 2006 Minnesota Arts Board Grant. He is an editor at large for Saturnalia Books, the Poetry Editor of descant and he sits on the advisory board of The Southern Review and TCU Press. He lives in Fort Worth with his amazing family and teaches at TCU.

Saúl Hernández is a queer writer from San Antonio, TX. He was raised by undocumented parents and as a Jehovah Witness. He has a MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Texas at El Paso. He’s the former Director for Barrio Writers at Borderlands. He’s a semi-finalists for the 2018 Francine Ringold Award for New Writers, Nimrod Literary Journal. His work has appeared/is forthcoming in Cosmonauts Avenue, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, The Normal School, and Rio Grande Review.

Borderlands is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.

Join us for an evening with translator Sam Bett, who will be introducing and reading from his new book, a translation of Yukio Mishima’s novel Star. Sam will be joined by a number of poets, including Sarah Matthis, Rainey Frasier, Taylor Davis, Dion K. James, and Stephanie Davison, who will read poems that address the novel’s themes of celebrity, the camera, and “being seen.”

All eyes are on Rikio. And he likes it, mostly. His fans cheer, screaming and yelling to attract his attention—they would kill for a moment alone with him. Finally the director sets up the shot, the camera begins to roll, someone yells “action”; Rikio, for a moment, transforms into another being, a hardened young yakuza, but as soon as the shot is finished, he slumps back into his own anxieties and obsessions. Being a star, constantly performing, being watched and scrutinized as if under a microscope, is often a drag. But so is life. Written shortly after Yukio Mishima himself had acted in the film Afraid to Die, this novella is a rich and unflinching psychological portrait of a celebrity coming apart at the seams. With exquisite, vivid prose, Star begs the question: is there any escape from how we are seen by others?

SAM BETT studied Japanese at UMass-Amherst and Kwansei Gakuin University. Awarded Grand Prize in the 2016 JLPP International Translation Competition, he has translated fiction by Yoko Ogawa, Yukio Mishima, and NISIOISIN. With David Boyd, he is co-translating the novels of Mieko Kawakami for Europa Editions.

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 open mic for writers, performers, and acoustic musicians. Everyone is welcome to join us for this fun and friendly free 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 recent release of Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s David Mogo, Godhunter, a powerful and atmospheric urban fantasy novel set in Lagos. Suyi will be joined by Austin writer Jack Kaulfus.

The gods have fallen to earth in their thousands, and chaos reigns. Though broken and leaderless, the city endures. David Mogo, demigod and godhunter, has one task: capture two of the most powerful gods in the city and deliver them to the wizard gangster Lukmon Ajala. No problem, right?

Suyi Davies Okungbowa is a Nigerian SFF author of the recent godpunk novel, David Mogo, Godhunter. His shorter works have appeared in Lightspeed, Tor.com., Strange Horizons, Fireside, and other periodicals and anthologies. He lives in Lagos, Nigeria and Tucson, Arizona, where he teaches undergraduate creative writing while completing his MFA.

Join us for another installment of Novel Night, a monthly celebration of all things prose! Here’s how it works: published author/s 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 authors are Joseph Reid and Meg Gardiner. Joseph will be reading from his recent thriller, False Horizon, and Meg will also be reading from her most recent thriller, Into the Black Nowhere, the second novel in the UNSUB series, featuring rookie FBI agent Caitlin Hendrix.

“An exciting final battle, plenty of technical details, quirky characters, and the West Virginia setting all add up to a riveting, fast-moving thriller.” —Publishers Weekly

A commuter flight has fallen from clear skies over West Virginia, its wing sheared off at twenty thousand feet. Air marshal Seth Walker is called to the mountains of Appalachia to investigate. But what he stumbles into is a ground war as unpredictable and combustible as a mason jar full of nitroglycerin. Before he can even start searching for what might have downed the plane, Walker finds himself caught in the confounding—and deadly—cross fire between drone-deploying eco-terrorists, unstable frackers, ruthless drug smugglers, and armed miners pushed to the breaking point. The escalating mystery takes a personal turn as Seth gets closer to the truth about the money, power, and politics motivating everyone involved—including those Seth believed he could trust. Can he dodge the danger lurking in every hill and holler long enough to discover what may be the biggest threat of all?

Joseph Reid chased great white sharks as a marine biologist before becoming a patent lawyer who litigates multi-million-dollar cases for high-tech companies. He has flown millions of miles on commercial aircraft and has spent countless hours in airports around the world. These travel experiences spawn the backdrops for his novels, which he writes each morning before dawn breaks and the real world intrudes. His thrillers—Takeoff and False Horizon—feature federal air marshal Seth Walker, a former electrical engineer whose investigative cases force him to confront the dark past he left behind. A graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, Duke University, and the University of Notre Dame Law School, Reid lives in San Diego with his wife and children.

“With a plot that moves at a breathless pace and a heroine with a history of her own issues, Gardiner’s gripping nail-biter will please fans of Alex Kava, Tami Hoag and even Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lechter novels. Be ready for requests.” –Booklist
Inspired by real-life serial killer Ted Bundy, Into the Black Nowhere is an exhilarating thriller in which FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix faces off against a charming, merciless serial killer.

Edgar-winning novelist Meg Gardiner writes thrillers. Fast-paced and full of twists, her books have been called “Hitchcockian” (USA Today) and “nailbiting and moving” (Guardian). They have been bestsellers in the U.S. and internationally and have been translated into more than 20 languages. Publishers Weekly calls Into the Black Nowhere, her current title, “excellent.” The first novel in the series, UNSUB, won the 2018 Barry Award for Best Thriller, and is in development as a television series by CBS. Meg was born in Oklahoma City and raised in Santa Barbara, California. She graduated from Stanford University, where she earned a B.A. in Economics. She went on to graduate from Stanford Law School. She practiced law in Los Angeles and taught in the Writing Program at the University of California Santa Barbara. Later she moved with her husband and three young children to London, where she began writing suspense novels. She hasn’t stopped. In addition to her fourteen novels, Meg has published short stories in American and British magazines and the anthology Echoes of Sherlock Holmes. She’s contributed essays to Now, Write! Mysteries, The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook, and the Anthony Award winning Books to Die For. Beyond writing, Meg is a three-time Jeopardy! champion and a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. She lives in Austin, Texas.

Join us in celebrating the launch of John Casey’s RAW THΦUGHTS, a visceral, mindful, and compelling fusion of poetics and black and white film photography. John will be joined by Jack Bresette-Mills, author of the bilingual poetry collection Touching Death / Tocando la Muerte (with artwork by Jennifer Klimsza).

In RAW THΦUGHTS, John Casey unfolds a compelling and viscerally honest exploration of mindfulness and spirituality through a symbiotic fusion of poetic and photographic art. A singular and provocative approach, Casey combines literary and visual abstraction into emotive and cognitive catalysts for introspection. Each successive poem-photo pairing—each ‘raw thought’—builds on an underlying philosophy that compels us to assess and adjust what and how we think, with the aim of improving our lives—and by extension, the lives of those around us.

Jack Bresette-Mills, the author of Reasoning with an Optimist and Sensitive Beekeeping, lives happily with his dear wife, Barbara, in Austin, Texas.

Austin Writers Roulette is a bimonthly 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 “Too-Woke Insomniac”—here’s what I do to sleep at night when the fate of the world depends on my political correctness. Our lineup of featured artists includes: RT KILGORE, ELLEN SWEETS, RG HOOK, STEPHANIE WEBB, HOPE RUIZ, TERESA Y. ROBERSON, and THOM THE WORLD POET. An open mic follows intermission. Visit the Austin Writers Roulette website for more information.

Join us in celebrating Women in Translation Month, with readings and discussion from award-winning poet and acclaimed Spanish translator Liliana Valenzuela, and Marian Schwartz, who translates Russian classic and contemporary fiction, history, biography, criticism, and fine art. Liliana will read from Puro Amor by Sandra Cisneros, and Marian will read from The Man Who Couldn’t Die: The Tale of an Authentic Human Being by Olga Slavnikova.

Also worth noting: On the day of this event, we’re offering 25% off all books in translation that are written or translated by women.

Liliana Valenzuela is the acclaimed Spanish language translator of works by Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, Denise Chávez, and many other writers. As a poet, she is the author of Codex of Journeys: Bendito Camino and is an inaugural fellow of CantoMundo. An adopted tejana, Valenzuela was born and raised in Mexico City and now lives and works in Austin, Texas. 

Marian Schwartz has translated many books of Russian contemporary and classic fiction, including Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, and is the principal translator of Nina Berberova. In 2018, Archipelago Books published her translation of Leonid Yuzefovich’s Horsemen of the Sands.

Get your cones ready for another round of Malvern Books’ FREE reading series, I SCREAM SOCIAL, hosted by Malvern’s own Annar Veröld and Schandra Madha. Featuring women-identified writers from the Austin community (and beyond!), this month’s I Screamers are Tsz Kam and Juliana Maldonado.

Tsz Kam is a local painter here in Austin. Their favorite flavor of ice cream is strawberry. You can follow them on instagram at @tszkam_art.

Juliana Maldonado is a newly minted poet who has only just discovered the explosive beauty writing. She is currently unpublished, but hopes that will change soon. Juliana’s favorite flavor of ice cream is cookies and cream!

~7pm – Ice cream & Open Mic for women-identified and non-binary writers. We want a chance to hear everyone’s wonderful work, so please try to keep readings under 3 minutes.

~The featured reading begins after the open mic and will be followed by even more ice cream.

Can’t make it this time around? No worries. I Scream Social is every month ’til the end of time.

Join us in celebrating the upcoming launch of visiting poet Sarah Herrin’s chapbook, The Oceanography of Her (Papeachu Press). Sarah will be joined by Christia Madacsi Hoffman.

Sarah Herrin is a poet based in Seattle, Washington. Raised in the Deep South, she escaped to the Pacific Northwest in 2012. She achieved a BFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she studied Sequential Art and Creative Writing. Her work is inspired by world travel, her bisexual identity, mental health, heartbreak and healing, the ocean, and above all—love. She is a gemologist, runner/triathlete, cat mom, wife, and Bowie lover. Sarah is the author of One Thousand Questions (And No Good Answers) and the chapbook The Oceanography of Her, to be released October 2019.

Christia Madacsi Hoffman grew up along the banks of the Mystic River in Mystic, Connecticut. Through her Austin-based company, CenterLight Media, Hoffman works as a marketing and editorial writer, graphic designer, and actor. Her early career adventures included antique furniture restoration and leading treks in the high Himalaya. With an accessible and insightful poetic voice, Hoffman’s poetry explores the universal themes of place, beauty, youth, and family. Her personal reflections reveal the depth in our everyday experiences and the significance of our intentions.

Join us for a reading from final year students in The Michener Center for Writers and the New Writers Project M.F.A. programs in creative writing at UT Austin. Readers include Shaina Frazier, Loan Tran, Darby Jardeleza, Max Seifert, and Desiree Evans (left to right, below).

Shaina Frazier was born in Sacramento, CA but was raised in H-Town. She earned her BFA from the University of Houston in 2015 and is currently a fiction MFA candidate in the New Writers Project at UT Austin. She is currently writing about race and talking nooses and magic and martyrdom.

Loan Tran lives in Austin, TX and likes to browse around bookstores and the produce section of supermarkets. She is in the New Writers Project and writes poems.

Darby Jardeleza is currently in her second year at the New Writers Project. She is from Bluffton, South Carolina, though she most recently moved to Austin from Atlanta, Georgia. She is at work on her first novel thanks to the help and support of the NWP and Michener community.

Max Seifert writes poetry. You can find it in The Adroit Journal, b[OINK] Zine, Gulf Coast, and Tupelo Quarterly. He lives over by Eastwoods Neighborhood Park.

Desiree Evans is a writer, activist, and scholar hailing from south Louisiana. She is currently an MFA Fiction Fellow at the Michener Center for Writers at The University of Texas at Austin. Her writing has received fellowships and support from the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA), the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, Kimbilio Fiction, and the Hurston/Wright Foundation.

In association with Art Spark Texas (formerly VSA Texas) and the Pen2Paper Creative Writing Contest (a project of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities), we’re delighted to present an inclusive open mic for writers, performers, and acoustic musicians. Everyone is welcome to join us for this fun and friendly free evening suitable for performers of all ages and abilities.

This month we also have two featured guests: Spirit Thom and The Old Hats.

Spirit Thom is a co-Founder of the Austin International Poetry Festival. He is an improvising bard who works with WORDJAZZ LOWSTARS, and used to tour with MOTHER GONG, KANGAROO MOON, etc. He had his own bands FUTURE NOW in England, and WE ARE ALIVE! in Australia—and Thom believes his best poem will be his next poem. He appreciates and respects THE LION & THE PIRATE, THE OLD HATS, and Malvern Books.

The Old Hats perform Original American Music and Authentic Frontier Jibberish.

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

Join us in celebrating the collection America, We Call Your Name: Poems of Resistance and Resilience. With co-editor Murray Silverstein, as well as Miriam Bird Greenberg, Jesús I. Valles, and Abe Louise Young.

Soon after the 2016 presidential election, Sixteen Rivers Press, a shared-work collective of Northern California poets, conducted a nationally advertised call for submissions, seeking unpublished poems that would “respond to the cultural, moral, and political rifts that now divide our country: poems of resistance and resilience, witness and vision, that embody what it means to be a citizen in a time when our democracy is threatened.” In a matter of weeks, the press received over two thousand poems. The work came from across the country, from red states and blue states, high schools and nursing homes, big cities and small towns. At the same time, the poet-members of the press were asked to nominate poems. These poems could be old or new, published or not, the poets living or dead—anything from anywhere that spoke to this moment in the voice of poetry. In this way, the editors gathered another three hundred poems, ranging from Virgil and Dante to Claudia Rankine and Mai Der Vang, from Milton to Merwin, from Bai Juyi to last Thursday’s just-posted Poem-a-Day. America, We Call Your Name is a blend of poems from these two sources, each of its nine sections a kind of town-hall meeting where citizen-poets gather to raise their voices, now raucous, now muted, now lyric, now plain: voices responding with dissent and consoling with praise, perspective, vision, and hope.

Murray Silverstein is Sr. Editor of America, We Call Your Name: Poems of Resistance and Resilience (2018), and The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems of the San Francisco Bay Watershed (2010), both from Sixteen Rivers Press. He is the author of two books of poetry, Master of Leaves (2014) and Any Old Wolf (2007). Any Old Wolf received the 2007 Independent Publisher medal for poetry. He is a retired architect and co-author of four books about architecture, including A Pattern Language (Oxford University Press) and Patterns of Home (The Taunton Press). His poems have appeared in RATTLE, Brooklyn Review, Spillway, California Quarterly, Poetry East, West Marin Review, RUNES, Nimrod, Connecticut Review, Zyzzyva, Fourteen Hills, Pembroke Magazine, Elysian Fields, and other journals. Silverstein lives in Oakland, California.

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 Britta Jensen, who will be reading from Eloia Born, a Young Adult science fiction novel.

Britta Jensen’s debut novel Eloia Born was long-listed for the 2016 Exeter Novel Prize. The sequel, Hirana’s War, releases in early summer 2020. Her stories have been shortlisted for the 2017 Henshaw Press and Fiction Factory prizes and she was published in the following anthologies: Stories for Homes, volume 2 and Sakura Dreams. Britta’s plays have been performed in New York City, Japan and South Korea. She holds a BA in Acting Performance from Fordham University and an MA in Teaching of English Literature from Columbia University and has taught in schools and therapeutic settings for fifteen years. Britta spent twenty-two years overseas in Japan, South Korea, and Germany before moving to Austin, Texas.

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 authors are David Odle and Dustin McKissen. David will read from his Urban Fantasy novel, Markus. Dustin will read from The Poor and The Haunted, his first horror novel.

Markus Blue is one of the most powerful men alive. Fire from his hands can destroy armies and his battles are legendary. He is one of a rare breed called the warlock, one of the last of his kind and he is dying. But he must face one more battle, one more challenge or it will mean the end of the world as we know it.

David Odle discovered his love for writing at the age of thirteen while growing up in Warren County, Indiana. After seven years in the military and over thirteen years as an IT consultant living in Austin, Texas, he now resides right back in Indiana with his wife and five children where he is currently finalizing his next novel.

As a child Jimmy Lansford and his sister Kelly suffered crushing poverty, their father’s unexplained and frightening suicide, and their mother’s constant abuse and cruelty. Having grown to be a successful adult, Jimmy must contend with the sudden re-emergence of memories from his childhood in Oklahoma and unexplainable events occurring inside his own home. Is it more than memories that haunt Jimmy? Did his parents suffer from mental illness and addiction, or were they possessed by something even worse—and has that presence arrived to take Jimmy?

Dustin McKissen is an award-winning writer for a variety of publications. In addition to his non-fiction writing, Dustin is the author of the novel The Civil War at Home and the award-winning short stories Wife Number Six and My Name is Theodore Robert Bundy, and I am a Nixon Man. He lives in St. Charles, Missouri with his wife Megan and their three children. Dustin is a graduate of Prescott College and Northern Arizona University.

In the interview series Borderless: Conversations on Art, Action, and Justice, emerging and established writers and artists talk with host Chaitali Sen about the power of words and the role of art in reflecting and changing our world. This month’s Borderless guest is Oscar Cásares.

Oscar Cásares is the author of Brownsville, a collection of stories that was an American Library Association Notable Book of 2004, and is now included in the curriculum at several American universities, and the novel Amigoland. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Copernicus Society of America, and the Texas Institute of Letters. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he teaches creative writing at the University of Texas in Austin, where he lives. (Author photo credit: Joel Salcido.)

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.

You’re invited to join us for another Austin edition of the Why There Are Words reading series! This month’s theme is “Silver Linings” and the guests are Kathryn Schwille, Kristen Staby Rembold, Mark Solomon, Marian Szczepanski, and musical duo Joanna Howerton and Michael Cross.

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.

Kathryn Schwille (top left) is the author of the novel What Luck, This Life, set in East Texas around the time of the Columbia shuttle disaster. It was selected by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as one of the best southern books of 2018. Her short stories have appeared in New Letters, Memorious, Crazyhorse, Literary Hub, and other journals, and have been cited twice for Special Mention in the Pushcart Prize. She lives in North Carolina and teaches at Charlotte Center for Literary Arts.

Kristen Staby Rembold’s (top center) most recent book is Music Lesson, poetry, published in 2019 by Future Cycle Press. She is also the author of two poetry chapbooks, Leaf and Tendril and Coming into This World, and a novel, Felicity, winner of Mid-List First Fiction Series Award. Her poems have appeared in many periodicals including Crab Orchard Review, Green Mountains Review, Literary Mama, Smartish Pace, and New Ohio Review. She has taught poetry and fiction writing at WriterHouse in Charlottesville, Virginia, and is former co-editor of IRIS: A Journal About Women. She holds degrees from Northwestern University and the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.

Mark Solomon (top right) has lived in NYC since 1941. Since 1973 his poems have appeared in Broadway Boogie, TriQuarterly, Hanging Loose, BOMB, The Marlboro Review, The Beloit Poetry Journal, and Southern Poetry Review. A chapbook, Her Whom I Summoned, and My True Body, his first full-length collection, are available through Havel.Havulim@gmail.com

Marian Szczepanski (bottom left) is the author of the historical novel Playing St. Barbara (High Hill Press, 2013), which Huffington Post called “a stunning debut novel that shimmers with unforgettable characters while casting necessary light on a dark chapter in American history.” She has won awards for short fiction and magazine writing and holds an MFA in fiction from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She is a faculty member at Houston’s Writespace creative writing center and has also taught for the Texas Writers League (Austin), Gemini Ink (San Antonio), Village Writing School (Eureka Springs and Rogers, AR), University of Pittsburgh’s Writers Café, and St. Francis University (Loretto, PA). She divides her time between Houston and Hood River, Oregon.

Joanna Howerton grew up in a musical family in the beautiful hills of Kentucky. In the Blues, she found her true voice and style and honed her vocal skills and played with various R&B and jazz ensembles in New Orleans and Austin. Her partnership and duo with Michael Cross has been transformative, inspiring the creation of a sound that bridges their past and current influences.

Michael Cross, a talented vocalist, lyricist, composer and seasoned recording artist, has toured nationally and internationally. Recording projects include TX Blues Voices, and his own album Blues Lovin’ Man. Michael’s latest collaboration with Joanna Howerton has inspired new material and their duo is steadily building an enthusiastic following.

Join us in celebrating the launch of Esteban Rodríguez’s debut poetry collection, Dusk & Dust, which explores the lives of the generations who have made their homes along the US-Mexico border, in a landscape too often neglected and forgotten. Rodríguez will be joined by Leanna Petronella, Saul Hernandez, and Gabino Iglesias.

Esteban Rodríguez is the author of Dusk & Dust (Hub City Press) and the micro-chapbook  Soledad (Ghost City Press, 2019). His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Arts & Letters, The Gettysburg Review, New England Review, Puerto del Sol, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. His reviews have appeared in PANK and American Book Review. He lives with his family and teaches in Austin, Texas.

Leanna Petronella’s debut collection, The Imaginary Age, won the 2018 Pleiades Press Editors Prize. Her poetry appears in Beloit Poetry Journal, Third Coast, Birmingham Poetry Review, Quarterly West, and other publications. She holds a PhD in English and Creative Writing from the University of Missouri and an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. She lives in Austin.

Saúl Hernández is a queer writer from San Antonio, TX. He was raised by undocumented parents and as a Jehovah Witness. He has a MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Texas at El Paso. He’s the former Director for Barrio Writers at Borderlands. He’s a semi-finalists for the 2018 Francine Ringold Award for New Writers, Nimrod Literary Journal. His work has appeared/is forthcoming in Cosmonauts Avenue, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, The Normal School, and Rio Grande Review.

Gabino Iglesias is a writer, journalist, professor, and book critic living in Austin. He is the author of Coyote Songs and Zero Saints. His words have appeared in venues like the New York Times, The Rumpus, The Los Angeles Times, and others. He is the book reviews editor for PANK Magazine and a columnist for LitReactor and CLASH Media.

Join us in celebrating the release of L.B. Deyo’s The God-Damned Fool. the second publication of Austin-based publishing company Persistence of Vision.

Join us for a reading with Texas State University faculty members. Featured readers include Steve Wilson, Kathleen Peirce, Roger Jones, John Blair, and Cecily Parks.

Steve Wilson’s poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies nationwide, as well as in four collections, the most recent titled Lose to Find. His new collection, The Reaches, is due out in November.

Kathleen Peirce is the author of Vault, The Ardors, The Oval Hour, Divided Touch/Divided Color, and Mercy. Among her awards are The Iowa Prize, a Whiting Award, The William Carlos Williams Award, and The AWP Prize. A fellow with The Guggenheim Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts, she’s been teaching at Texas State University since 1993.

John Blair has published six books, most recently Playful Song Called Beautiful (University of Iowa Press, 2016), and is the recipient of multiple literary awards, including The Drue Heinz Literature Prize and the Iowa Poetry Prize. He directs the undergraduate creative writing program at Texas State University.

Cecily Parks is the author of the poetry collections Field Folly Snow and O’Nights, and editor of the anthology The Echoing Green: Poems of Fields, Meadows, and Grasses. She teaches at Texas State University.

Get your cones ready for another round of Malvern Books’ FREE reading series, I SCREAM SOCIAL, hosted by Malvern’s own Annar Veröld and Schandra Madha. Featuring women and nonbinary writers from the Austin community (and beyond!), this month’s I Screamers are Heather Lefebvre, Amanda Scott, and Rachel Gray.

Heather Lefebvre is a writer/editor from New Hampshire and essentially an icy birch tree at heart. She is the founder of Broad! Magazine and Scorpion Baby Press, a fiction reader with fields, and a member of the Lenguas Locx writers collective. Her writing has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and published with Hobart, Sycamore Review, SunMoon Missive, the first I Scream Social anthology, and elsewhere. In her free time, you can find her at karaoke or in the kitchen baking bread. Her favorite flavor of ice cream is dark chocolate, olive oil and sea salt (from Lick). Follow Heather online: IG: @moonwithmonocle / Twitter: @lefavor / website: heatherlefebvre.com

Amanda Scott is a Senior Lecturer at Texas State University, where she also serves as Assistant Executive Editor for Porter House Review. Her work has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Gulf Coast, New South, phoebe, The Common, and elsewhere. Her favorite flavor of ice cream is dark chocolate raspberry. Follow Amanda on Twitter and IG here: @alizscott

Rachel Gray is a writer and educator living in Austin. She has been published in Two Serious Ladies and Hobart, and has won numerous awards for her work. Her favorite flavor of ice cream is pistachio.

~7pm – Ice cream & Open Mic for women-identified and non-binary writers. We want a chance to hear everyone’s wonderful work, so please try to keep readings under 3 minutes.

~The featured reading begins after the open mic and will be followed by even more ice cream.

Can’t make it this time around? No worries. I Scream Social is every month ’til the end of time.

Join us for a reading from John Poch and Jacob Shores-Argüello.

John Poch is the author six collections of poetry, two which were published this year: Texases  (WordFarm Press) and Between Two Rivers (TTU Press—with photographer Jerod Foster). His work has been published in Poetry, Paris Review, the Nation, Yale Review, and other journals. He teaches at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

Jacob Shores-Argüello is a Costa Rican American poet and prose writer. His second book Paraíso was selected for the inaugural CantoMundo Poetry Prize judged by Aracelis Girmay. He is a 2018/019 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University and a Lannan Literary Fellow for Poetry. His work appears in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, and The Academy of American Poets, among others.

Join author Amber Elby to celebrate the release of her third novel, Trouble Fires Burn, a fantasy adventure based on the plays of William Shakespeare. Amber and special guest author Carol Beth Anderson will read excerpts from their novels and answer audience questions. Signed books available for purchase. Family friendly. All ages welcome!

Amber Elby crafts a world that invokes the best of Terry Pratchett, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Neil Gaiman, all rooted in the mythology of Shakespeare. The Netherfeld series is a must read for lovers of magic, the inexplicable, and especially the timeless wonder conjured by the plays of William Shakespeare.
—Montgomery Sutton, Shakespearean Actor, Director, and Playwright 

Amber Elby is the author of three novels based on Shakespeare’s plays: Cauldron’s Bubble, Double Double Toil, and Trouble Fires Burn. In the last millennium, she was born in Grand Ledge, Michigan but spent much of her childhood in the United Kingdom. She began writing when she was three years old and created miniature books by asking her family how to spell every… single… word. Several years later, she saw her first Shakespearean comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, in London. Many years later, she studied Creative Writing at Michigan State University’s Honors College before earning her Master of Fine Arts degree in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. She enjoys watching Shakespearean performances with her husband and two daughters and divides her time between teaching at Austin Community College, traveling, and getting lost in imaginary worlds.

Carol Beth Anderson is a native of Arizona and now lives in Leander, TX. She has a husband, two kids, a miniature schnauzer, and more fish than anyone knows what to do with. Besides writing, she loves baking sourdough bread, knitting, and eating cookies-and-cream ice cream.

Join us in celebrating International Translation Day. Jennifer Rose Davis will discuss her new translation of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano De Bergerac (which she is currently directing for a limited Austin run as a co-production between The Archive Theater and The Austin Scottish Rite Theater). Also featuring the presentation of the award of the Harvie Jordan fedora to AATIA Member of the Year. Also worth noting: we’re offering 20% OFF all books in translation all day on Sunday, September 29th!

Jennifer Rose Davis is a writer, director, actress, singer, musician, costumer, mask maker, artist, graphic designer, and all-around Renaissance woman who serves as the Managing Director for The Archive Theater. Her theatrical credits include Music Director, Costumer, and Set Designer for Der Bestrafte Brudermord with The Hidden Room. She was also Associate Costumer The Hidden Room’s The History of King Lear by Nahum Tate, for which she won an Austin Critic’s Table award. Jennifer designed costumes and danced Butoh for Still Now with Shrewd Productions. She created Tudor era costumes for Austin Shakespeare’s staged readings of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII and Hillary Mantle’s Wolf Hall, and Elizabethan costumes for The Merry Wives of Windsor co-produced by Austin Scottish Rite Theater and Weird Sisters. Her latest consuming project was creating costumes for the Zilker Summer Musical, The Little Mermaid.

Join us for an evening with Austin-based poet Usha Akella, who will be in conversation with Chaitali Sen.

Usha Akella has authored four books of poetry and one chapbook, and has scripted and produced one musical drama. Her latest poetry book was published by Sahitya Akademi, India’s highest literary authority, in 2019. She recently earned an 2018 MSt. in Creative Writing from Cambridge University, UK. Her work has been included in the Harper Collins’ Anthology of Indian English Poets. She was selected as a Creative Ambassador for the City of Austin for 2019 and 2015, and has been published in numerous literary journals. She is the founder of ‘Matwaala,’ the first South Asian Diaspora Poets Festival in the US. She has won literary prizes (Nazim Hikmet award, Open Road Review Prize, and Egan Memorial Prize), and earned finalist status in a few US based contests. She has written a few quixotic nonfiction prose pieces published in The Statesman and India Currents. She is the founder of the Poetry Caravan in New York and Austin, which takes poetry readings to the disadvantaged in women’s shelters, senior homes, and hospitals. Several hundreds of readings have reached these venues via this medium.

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.

Join us in celebrating the launch of Stephanie Goehring’s chapbook, from The Water [Inaudible] (Host Publications)—and Malvern’s sixth birthday!

Host Publications is honored to award Stephanie Goehring’s chapbook from The Water [Inaudible] as the recipient of the Fall 2019 Host Publications Chapbook Prize. Our chapbook prize embodies our values as a small, community-oriented press by elevating the voices of women writers. The prize awards publication, $1000, 25 copies of the published chapbook, a book launch at Malvern Books, and national distribution with energetic publicity and promotion.

Stephanie Goehring is the author of several poetry chapbooks. She earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and works at Malvern Books in Austin, TX.

In association with Art Spark Texas (formerly VSA Texas) and the Pen2Paper Creative Writing Contest (a project of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities), we’re delighted to present an inclusive open mic for writers, performers, and acoustic 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 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. Also worth noting: we’re offering 20% OFF ALL FICTION TITLES during Novel Night (from 6pm till closing).

This month’s Novel Night authors are Mark Falkin, Amy Gentry, and Jeff Abbott.

Mark will read from his post-apocalyptic novel The Late Bloomer; Amy will read from a psychological thriller, Last Woman Standing; and Jeff will read from The Three Beths, a psychologically intense suspense novel about a daughter’s desperate search for her missing mother.

Depicting an unspeakable apocalypse unlike any seen in fiction―there are no zombies, viruses or virals, no doomsday asteroid, no aliens, no environmental cataclysm, no nuclear holocaust―with a Holden Caulfieldesque protagonist at his world’s end, The Late Bloomer is both a companion piece to Lord of the Flies and a Bradburyian Halloween tale.

Mark Falkin is the author of the novels The Late Bloomer, Contract City, and Days of Grace. Born and raised in Tulsa, Mark graduated from Southern Methodist University then the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Working on his next novel, a tragicomedy set in Austin and Great Britain, he lives with his wife and daughters in Austin where he is a literary agent and recovering music attorney, having represented platinum sellers and Grammy winners alike. He used to vocalize in a band that rocked and rolled.

Dana Diaz is an aspiring stand‑up comedian—a woman in a man’s world. When she meets a tough computer programmer named Amanda Dorn, the two bond over their struggles in boys’ club professions. Dana confides that she’s recently been harassed and assaulted while in L.A., and Amanda comes up with a plan: they should go after each other’s assailants, Strangers on a Train–style. But Dana finds that revenge, however sweet, draws her into a more complicated series of betrayals. Soon her distrust turns to paranoia, encompassing strangers, friends—and even herself. At what cost will she get her vengeance? Who will end up getting hurt? And when it’s all over, will there be anyone left to trust?

Amy Gentry is the author of two psychological suspense novels, Good As Gone and Last Woman Standing, as well as a book of music criticism for Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series, Tori Amos’ Boys for Pele. Amy holds a doctorate in English from the University of Chicago. Her essays and reviews have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Salon, Paris Review, LA Review of Books, Austin Chronicle, and Electric Literature. She lives in Austin, Texas.

Abbott uses his skills as a master storyteller to convey a complicated and ambitious tale that seems straightforward but is full of twists and red herrings. He also keeps the story moving without falling into clichés or over-the-top revelations. The mystery works because of the terrific characters and the beautiful road map he unveils while navigating the reader through a complex landscape. ―The Washington Post

Jeff Abbott is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty suspense novels. His books have been selected as Summer Reads by The Today Show, Good Morning America, and USA Today. He has been a bestseller in the UK, France, and many other countries. His latest is The Three Beths.

Join us in celebrating the recent launch of Paul D. Dickinson’s Junker Dreams: An Automotive Memoir. With readings from Paul and special guest W. Joe Hoppe.

Full of grit, humor and a mystical urban romanticism, this debut book of prose from a poet soars through a landscape of broken hearts, broken machines, and the strident desire to live a fiercely uncommon life. From New Orleans to New York City and the miles of lost highway in between, Dickinson illuminates a colorful universe as it unfolds behind the wheel of these banged up yet beloved hunks of steel.

Paul D. Dickinson is a poet and musician, born in 1966 in St. Paul, MN. His writing has appeared in Conduit, City Pages, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Dickinson has been in three films: The Last City in the East; Tired Moonlight; and The Lake Street Detective. He is currently the host of the Riot Act Reading Series.

W. Joe Hoppe’s poems have appeared in Analecta, Borderlands, Cider Press Review, Di*Verse*Cities, Nerve Cowboy, Utter, and The Blanton Museum of Art’s Poetry Project. His poems have been anthologized in Stand Up Poetry, How to be This Man, gumballpoetry.com, and Beatest State in the Union. He has hosted numerous poetry events at Austin’s Malvern Books, including interviews of local poets, a reading and discussion of Emily Dickinson, a communal performance of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl celebrating its 60th anniversary, and an annual memorial reading for the late, great Austin poet Albert Huffstickler. Hoppe is an Associate Professor in English and Creative Writing at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas.

Austin Writers Roulette is a bimonthly 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 “Wildest Dreams”—this is my larger-than-life fantasy/nightmare. Our featured artists include: STEPHANIE WEBB, RON SEYBOLD, PAUL WEBSTER, NICOLE CORTICHIATO, TERRY DAWSON, JONATHAN WOODS, ROBERT CARRANZA, ILENE HADDAD, GARRET ANDERSON, TERESA Y. ROBERSON and THOM THE WORLD POET. An open mic follows intermission. Visit the Austin Writers Roulette website for more information.

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. For more information, contact Samantha Wells at Samantha.wells@austincc.edu.

This month’s featured reader is Héctor Aguayo.

Héctor Aguayo has been published in literary magazines like Al Principio, El Cid, Reporte Austin, Rainbow Groove, and The Rio Review. He understood that by using his voice he would bring representation to the Chicano experience and the struggle of neither identifying as North American nor Mexican. He’s also a LGBTQIA advocate pursuing inclusivity.

Please join us in celebrating the launch of Alisar Eido’s new novel, Wake of War. With readings from Alisar, and special guests Brennan Utley and Kendall Smith.

Alisar Eido’s third novel, Wake of War, is the final book of The Soulfire Series. Her work spans multiple genres including science fiction, psychological thrillers, dark fantasy, and realistic fiction. The author’s inspiration stems from her many experiences with strange coincidences and unexplainable events, as well as battles with mental illness. She currently resides in Austin, Texas, with her pens and pencils.

Brennan Utley is an emerging author based in Austin who blends realist, fabulist, science fiction, and satirical traditions into his unique and often darkly funny stories and novels. He is currently working late into the night on a handful of projects and teaches English in Bastrop, Texas.

Kendall Smith is a budding author born and raised in Austin, Texas. In the past, she’s been a ballerina, self-proclaimed chef, an avid gamer and an amateur podcast host. As a writer, she focuses on immersing her audience in realms where diverse experience leads to profound conflicts, the weak are stronger than they seem, the scenery is opulently feral, and fantasies are limitless.

Join us in celebrating the launch of poet Logan Fry’s new collection, Harpo Before the Opus. Logan will be joined by poet Caroline Gormley.

The poems begin where language fails, where speech becomes disembodied, and syntax skids to a stop that dissolves into gesture. Where its form reaches an end, formlessness offers a space ripe with possibility. Here we find Harpo, reaching into the frustrated endpoint of language to find a method for its resurrection. Fry sees that language becomes a tool for alienation and uses the poems in Harpo Before the Opus to excavate paths back to tenderness. These are poems from the edge, pulling language out from its failure and into a fervent interrogation of its possibilities. What was once a tool of capitalistic alienation now serves as material for building connections.

In spiraling explorations of rhetoric, these poems allow language to break from its prescribed structures, and instead, it becomes a gestural embrace of feeling and being. Fry utilizes a Marxist lens to scrutinize and reinvent the use of language. In Fry’s hands, language is rendered a visceral and sensual material, forming poems that are both deeply felt philosophical inquiries and wildly playful exercises of wit.

Logan Fry is the author of Harpo Before the Opus—selected by Srikanth Reddy as winner of Omnidawn’s 2018 1st/2nd Book Prize. He is founding editor of Flag + Void, and his poetry has appeared in venues including Fence, Prelude, New American Writing, West Branch, Denver Quarterly, Boston Review, and the Best American Experimental Writing anthology. He lives in Austin and teaches at Texas State University.

Caroline Gormley is an editor of Flag + Void. She attended Pratt Institute and Brooklyn College and currently works for an in-house creative agency. She has come out of poetry retirement for this very special reading with her husband, Logan.

Join us in celebrating the recent release of Vincent Cooper’s poetry collection Zarzamora. Vincent will be joined by Claudia Delfina Cardona and Laura Villareal.

Vincent Cooper is Chicano poet from Los Angeles, Ca. He is the author of Where the Reckless Ones Come to Die and Zarzamora—Poetry of Survival. His poetry can be found in Big Bridge Magazine, Huizache #6 and 8, AMP, Voices De La Luna, The Acentos Review, Riversedge Journal and Abstract Magazine. He currently resides in the westside of San Antonio.

Claudia Delfina Cardona is a tejana poet proudly born and raised in San Antonio. She received her MFA in Poetry at Texas State University this past spring. She is also the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Chifladazine, an online and print publication that is dedicated to showcasing the creative work of Latinas and Latinxs. Her work can be found in Cosmonauts Avenue, Tinderbox Journal, and Apogee Journal.

Laura Villareal earned her MFA from Rutgers University-Newark. She is the author of The Cartography of Sleep. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Palette Poetry, Black Warrior Review, Waxwing, and elsewhere. She has received scholarships from Key West Literary Seminar and The Highlights Foundation.

Get your cones ready for another round of Malvern Books’ FREE reading series, I SCREAM SOCIAL, hosted by Malvern’s own Annar Veröld and Schandra Madha. Featuring women-identified writers from the Austin community (and beyond!), this month’s I Screamers are Gabriella C. Cruz and Marilyse V. Figueroa.

Gabriella C. Cruz is a proud mama. Chicana. Poeta. “I use writing and poetry to explore the depths of my humanity and to connect to others and the natural world. Themes I gravitate toward include the lost and unspoken aspects of motherhood, fierce femininity, love, the cycles and wonder of nature and the human body, to birth and human rebirth manifested through personal growth. Sometimes I write about pancakes and spaghetti, too.” Her favorite flavor of ice cream is Death Metal by Chocolate from Sweet Ritual!

*** Our Halloween edition features spooky tunes, costume contests & prizes, plus, of course, candy and ice cream! ***

~7pm – Ice cream & Open Mic for women-identified and non-binary writers. We want a chance to hear everyone’s wonderful work, so please try to keep readings under 3 minutes.

~The featured reading begins after the open mic and will be followed by even more ice cream.

Can’t make it this time around? No worries. I Scream Social is every month ’til the end of time.

Join us in celebrating the launch of Christopher Carmona’s new novel El Rinche: The Ghost Ranger of the Rio Grande. With readings from Christopher and his brother, author Juan P. Carmona.

El Rinche is a reimagining and flip of the script of an American popular culture icon. This novel tells the story a light-skinned Mexican American named Ascencion “Chonnie” Ruiz de Plata. He disguises himself as the ghost of a Texas Ranger on the South Texas border of Mexico now known as The Rio Grande Valley between 1905-1921. Together with his partner, the Native American Tal’dos, a Japanese ninja master, and the most successful U.S. Marshall of all time, Bass Reeves (the real lone ranger), Chonnie takes on the superhero persona of “El Rinche” to fight the villainous Texas Rangers and save the local peoples of the area.

Christopher Carmona is the author of The Road to Llorona Park, which won the 2016 NACCS Tejas Best Fiction Award and was listed as one of the top 8 Latinx books in 2016 by NBCNews. He was the inaugural writer-in-residence for the Langdon Review Writers Residency Program in 2015. He has three books of poetry: 140 Twitter Poems, I Have Always Been Here and beat. He co-edited The Beatest State In The Union: An Anthology of Beat Texas Writings with Chuck Taylor and Rob Johnson and Outrage: A Protest Anthology about Injustice in a Post 9/11 World with Rossy Evelin Lima. He has also co-written Nuev@s Voces Poeticas: A Dialogue about New Chican@ Poetics. Currently, he is working on 280: Poems from the Twitterverse and a series of YA novellas entitled El Rinche: The Ghost Ranger of the Rio Grande. The first book in this series is out now and is a 2019 Texas Institute of Letters Best Young Adult Book Finalist. He teaches at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Brownsville in Mexican American Studies and Creative Writing.

A September morning in 1989 changed the city of Alton’s history forever. At 7:34 a.m., a Dr. Pepper truck collided with Mission School Bus no. 6. After the bus and its occupants plunged into a water-filled caliche pit, 21 students lost their lives. Thirty years later, a new book reveals the impact of the Alton Bus Crash. The resulting aftermath was a small South Texas community flooded with reporters and lawyers. The heavily scrutinized legal battle divided the city, but it did ultimately produce changes in school bus safety that continue to save lives today. Juan P. Carmona navigates the complicated legacy of the tragic accident and its aftermath.

Juan P. Carmona is a Social Studies teacher at Donna High School and a Dual-Enrollment History Instructor through South Texas College. He graduated with honors from the American Military University with a Master’s degree in American History and was the recipient of the 2018 James F. Veninga Outstanding Teaching Humanities Award by Humanities Texas. His primary field of research is the history of South Texas borderlands.

Join us for a conversation between visiting translator Rosalind Harvey and host Sean Manning as they discuss topics such as translating voices, particularly in regards to her latest work Juan Pablo Villalobos’ The Other Side, a collection of stories from Central American teen refugees crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Their conversation will also be recorded for Adriana Pacheco’s Hablemos Escritoras podcast.

Rosalind Harvey (above left) is an award-winning literary translator, and has taught translation at undergraduate and postgraduate level at the universities of Roehampton, Bristol, and Warwick. Her translation of Juan Pablo Villalobos’ debut novel Down the Rabbit Hole was shortlisted for the 2011 Guardian First Book Award and the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize, and her translation of his work I’ll Sell You A Dog was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award and commended for the 2018 Valle-Inclán prize. She has worked on books by Guadalupe Nettel, Elvira Navarro, Enrique Vila-Matas, Héctor Abad Faciolince, and Alberto Barrera Tyszka, amongst others. She is a founding member and chair of the Emerging Translators Network, an online community for early-career literary translators, and speaks regularly on the topic of getting into the profession and surviving. She is a 2016 Arts Foundation Fellow, and in 2018 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She is currently working on a collection of Peruvian short stories and an Argentine play, and her latest publication is a YA title by Villalobos about the journeys made by teenage Central American immigrants when they cross over illegally to the United States. She lives in Coventry in the West Midlands.

Sean Manning (above center) is a Lecturer who teaches courses on language, literature, and writing in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Texas at Austin, where he received his PhD in Spanish and Latin American Literature. He is also a literary translator and has translated numerous works including Eduardo Lalo’s The Elements, Azahara Palomeque’s American Poems, Carlos Pereda’s Lessons in Exile, and a collection of short stories from Lorenzo García Vega titled Falconry With Puppets. He is currently working on translations of Carlos Pereda’s latest book Destructions and Nomadic Thought and a novel by Argentine writer Diego Vecchio. He also co-edited No dicen nada, cantan, an anthology of poetry from the late Uruguayan poet and U.T. professor Enrique Fierro set to be published this year by Mexico’s Fondo de Cultura Económica.

Dr. Adriana Pacheco (above right) was born in Puebla, Mexico and is a naturalized American Citizen. She sits on and is former Chair at the International Board of Advisors at University of Texas-Austin. She is Affiliate Research Fellow at Llilas Benson, and co-founder of the Nineteenth-Century scholar section of LASA. Her research in the construction of feminine subjectivity from the nineteenth century onwards from the perspective of critical and postcolonial theories and cultural and historiographic studies has earned her multiple scholarships and grants. A Texas Book Festival Feature Author (2012), Dr. Pacheco has several publications in collective books and magazines like Revista de Estudios Hispánicos and Letras Libres, among others. Currently she is working on the book “Virile Angels,” Much More Than “Angels of the Home.” Female Education in Mexican Nineteenth-Century Catholic Newspapers and a collective Para seguir rompiendo con la palabra. Dramaturgas, cineastas, periodistas y ensayistas mexicanas contemporáneas. She is founder and producer of Hablemos Escritoras podcast and Proyecto Escritoras Mexicanas Contemporáneas.

Hablemos Escritoras podcast is a weekly podcast that focuses on the work, influences, publications, awards, and trajectory of contemporary female writers and translators of Spanish, and explores topics related to literature, culture, and society. In its more than 70 episodes it has interviewed authors from around the world. It can be heard on Soundcloud, Applepodcast, Stitcher, and Spotify.

In association with Art Spark Texas (formerly VSA Texas) and the Pen2Paper Creative Writing Contest (a project of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities), we’re delighted to present an inclusive open mic for writers, performers, and acoustic musicians. Everyone is welcome to join us for this fun and friendly free 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 Jessica Reisman’s first short story collection, The Arcana of Maps.

The Arcana of Maps should be at the top of everyone’s must-read lists. Jessica Reisman’s unique lyrical voice powers some of the finest short fiction of this (and really any) century.”—Richard Klaw, editor of Rayguns Over Texas and The Apes of Wrath

This first collection of Jessica Reisman’s stories roves the liminal spaces between now and not-quite-now, dream and waking, futures far flung and fantastic. Here are tales of adventure and transformation, clockwork detectives and polar bears, a wild sea on a space station, alien salvage and revenants. Featuring 16 previously published works and one unique to the collection, these stories open obscure doors into fantastic otherwheres and whens, conjuring worlds with deft and evocative lyricism.

Jessica Reisman‘s stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. Her far future science fiction adventure novel Substrate Phantoms came out from Resurrection House Books in 2017. She grew up on the east coast of the U.S., was a teenager on the west coast, and now lives in Austin, Texas. She’s been a writer, animal lover, reader, and movie aficionado since she was a wee child.

In the interview series Borderless: Conversations on Art, Action, and Justice, emerging and established writers and artists talk with host Chaitali Sen about the power of words and the role of art in reflecting and changing our world. This month’s Borderless guest is Varian Johnson.

Varian Johnson is the author of nine novels, including The Parker Inheritance, which was named a Coretta Scott King Honor Book, an Odyssey Honor Audiobook and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book; and The Great Greene Heist, which was named to over twenty-five state reading and best-of lists. He received an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he now serves as a member of the faculty. Varian lives outside of Austin, TX with his family.

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.

Join us for an evening with Dobby Gibson and Fernando Flores.

Dobby Gibson’s new book of poetry is Little Glass Planet (Graywolf Press), which received a starred review from Shelf Awareness, and which The Washington Post calls “smart and crisp.” He is the author of three previous collections, including It Becomes You (Graywolf Press), which was shortlisted for The Believer Poetry Award. A recent visiting poet at UT-Austin, he lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Fernando A. Flores was born in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and raised in the U.S. In 2018 his short story collection Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas was released by Host Publications. His debut novel, Tears of the Trufflepig, was released in 2019 and was one of Lit Hub and The Millions’s Most Anticipated Books of 2019 and one of Buzzfeed and Tor.com‘s Books to Read This Spring!

Join us in celebrating the recent launch of John Domini’s fourth novel, The Color Inside a Melon. With readings from John and special guest Lowell Mick White.

The Color Inside a Melon appeared this summer. Blurbs came from Salman Rushdie and Marlon James, and the Washington Post praised the book as “sage” and spry,” The Millions as “stunning” and “poetic.” Set in Naples, Italy, the novel completes a loose trilogy. Domini also has three books of stories, the latest MOVIEOLA!, which The Millions called “a new shriek for a new century.” His criticism has appeared in the New York Times and elsewhere, and is collected in The Sea-God’s Herb. His awards include an NEA Fellowship and an Iowa Major Artist Grant.

Lowell Mick White is the author of six books: novels Normal School and Professed and Burnt House and That Demon Life, and story collections Long Time Ago Good and The Messes We Make of Our Lives. A winner of the Dobie-Paisano Fellowship and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, White teaches at Texas A&M University.

Everyone is welcome to attend the Austin Community College Creative Writing Department’s Literary Coffeehouse, hosted by Charlotte Gullick. 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 Ehigbor Shultz.

Ehigbor Shultz (B.A. Plan II Honors, Neurolinguistics, English, Cert. Chemistry, Pre-Medical studies, UT Austin ’16) is a multi-ethnic writer. Although she is now based in Austin, she has travelled and lived in many different places around the world and is multilingual as a result. She writes African mythology based YA epic fantasy, YA and adult contemporary fiction, thriller mysteries, and heartfelt poetry. She writes for all the unseen, marginalized girls and women who grew up seeing too much of the world’s pain and receiving its burdens. You may not know her name in publishing, but she hopes one day you will. She hopes that those who read and hear her work can take a piece of it with them and allow it to color their worlds and perspectives. She’s always up for a nice cup of tea and a biscuit, and is happy to provide you one as well, should you so need it.

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 authors are H. Claire Taylor and Jonathan Woods.

A reluctant messiah. A power-hungry preacher. The hilarious battle for hearts and minds is only beginning… Jessica McCloud knows firsthand that it’s impossible to fit in when you’re God’s only begotten daughter. While the girl possesses the power to smite and a direct line to the Almighty, she’d give it all up for a few more friends … or a reliable set of God-proof earplugs…

H. Claire Taylor is the author of the Jessica Christ series, a comedy about the life of God’s only begotten daughter, and has published over two dozen novels under various pen names. When she’s not writing, you can find her buried in a book, thinking deeply about ghosts, or soaking up the Texas sun.

Like Hunter S. Thompson crossbred with Gil Brewer, Woods revels in paranoia, hallucinations, hapless saps, and language both playful and profane. Exuberantly shotgunning pulp-fiction clichés (from Mexican sojourns to Nazi scientists), he slathers on film noir homage and shakes until it explodes like the radioactive suitcase at the end of Kiss Me Deadly. Pulpy, pervy fun for those who like the wild stuff. —Keir Graff, Booklist

Jonathan Woods lives a pulp fiction existence in the Texas hill country. He is the author of the
Spinetingler Award winner Bad Juju & Other Tales of Madness and Mayhem; A Death in Mexico; Phone Call from Hell and Other Tales of the Damned; and Kiss the Devil Good Night. His new novel Hog Wild is forthcoming.

Join us in celebrating the launch of Esteban Rodríguez‘s new poetry collection, Crash Course. With readings from Esteban and special guest ire’ne lara silva.

Esteban Rodríguez is the author of the collections Dusk & Dust (Hub City Press 2019), Crash Course (Saddle Road Press 2019), In Bloom (SFASU Press 2020), and (Dis)placement (Skull + Wind Press 2020). His poetry has appeared in Boulevard, The Rumpus, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. He is the Interviews Editor for the EcoTheo Review, an Assistant Poetry Editor for AGNI, and a regular reviews contributor for PANK and Heavy Feather Review. He lives with his family in Austin, Texas.

ire’ne lara silva is the author of three poetry collections, furia (Mouthfeel Press, 2010) Blood Sugar Canto (Saddle Road Press, 2016), and CUICACALLI/House of Song (Saddle Road Press, 2019), an e-chapbook, Enduring Azucares, (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2015), as well as a short story collection, flesh to bone (Aunt Lute Books, 2013) which won the Premio Aztlán. She and poet Dan Vera are also the co-editors of Imaniman: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúan Borderlands, (Aunt Lute Books, 2017), a collection of poetry and essays. ire’ne is the recipient of a 2017 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant, the final recipient of the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, the Fiction Finalist for AROHO’s 2013 Gift of Freedom Award, and the 2008 recipient of the Gloria Anzaldúa Milagro Award. ire’ne is currently working on her first novel, Naci.

Join us for an afternoon with poet T.D. Walker, who will read from her recent collection, Small Waiting Objects. With special guests August Huerta and Holly Lyn Walrath.

In the near future, kitchen appliances question, console, and bewilder their owners. Extraterrestrials leave behind sub-dermal implants and complicated daughters. A second moon settles into orbit around Earth, a moon which challenges those beneath it to see it, to name it, to explore it. And crew members aboard starships turn to fine and pulp art as consolation. The lyric poems in Small Waiting Objects reach back to feminist utopias and onward toward possible futures in which we find ourselves resisting the technologies-and their human implications-that we most desire.

“Are we really just one generation away from seismograph implants, or does it just feel that way? Like a second moon, T.D. Walker’s eerie, speculative poems may cause readers to recalibrate themselves. Let this book be your bus to Oz.”
— Jessy Randall

T.D. Walker is the author of Small Waiting Objects (CW Books 2019), a collection of near-future science fiction poems. Her poems and stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, The Future Fire, Web Conjunctions, The Cascadia Subduction Zone, Recompose, Abyss & Apex, Kaleidotrope, The Stonecoast Review, and elsewhere. After completing graduate work in English Literature, Walker began her career as a software developer. She draws on both her grounding in literary studies and her experience as a computer programmer in writing poetry and fiction.

August Huerta is a poet based in Austin, Texas. They are a graduate from The New Writers Project and have been featured in Raspa Magazine and Strange Horizons, where you can find their poem “Concerning Jimmy Carter and the UFO Sighting.”

Holly Lyn Walrath’s poetry and short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, Daily Science Fiction, Luna Station Quarterly, Liminality, and elsewhere. She is the author of the Elgin Award winning chapbook Glimmerglass Girl (Finishing Line Press, 2018). She holds a B.A. in English from The University of Texas and a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Denver.

Join us for a night with spoken word artists Joaquín Zihuatanejo and Taria Person.

Joaquín Zihuatanejo is a brilliant poet. His testimonials and songs and explorations are multilingual, structurally adventurous. The wide range of forms and dictions makes visible his ravenous curiosity and intellect. His language, rippling with the loss of a father and racial and cultural tensions, resists one-dimensional answers. His nouns and verbs wonder, croon, weep, question, and roar. The deep attention to language and to the shaping of language infuses the work with a riveting self-awareness of the self—in this case, a Mexican American man unafraid to remember, to love. Beautifully crafted and richly imagined, Arsonist is a remarkable debut. —Eduardo C. Corral, author of Slow Lightning

Joaquín Zihuatanejo received his MFA in creative writing with a concentration in Poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His work has been featured in Prairie Schooner, Sonora Review, and Huizache, among other journals and anthologies. His poetry has been featured on HBO, NBC, and on NPR in Historias and The National Teacher’s Initiative. He was the winner of the Anhinga-Robert Dana Prize for Poetry. His book, Arsonist, was published by Anhinga Press in September of 2018, and was short-listed as a Finalist for both the Writers’ League of Texas Best Book Poetry Prize and the International Latino Book Award Best Book Poetry Prize. Joaquín has two passions in his life, his wife Aída and poetry, always in that order.

Taria Person is an alumna of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she received a dual B.A. in English Creative Writing: Poetry, and Interdisciplinary Studies: Africana Studies. She is the author of Rainbow Elephant and At the Summit, and her work has appeared in numerous anthologies, including: O’ Woman a Tapestry of Loving You, and Voices of Warriors: Poems of Hope & Healing. Taria Person won first place at the regional Big Ears: Spoken Word Expo/The 5th Woman Poetry Slam (2017), the Regional Southern Fried Hip-Hop Slam (2013), and Knoxville Poetry Slam (2012). Also, she has been an actress and Production Stage Manager for The Carpetbag Theatre Inc., during its original series of stage productions that have been funded by The Roy Cockrum Foundation, in celebration of (CBT’s) 50th Anniversary. Recently, Person has been commissioned to write a book of poetry by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation; won an Artistic Professional Development grant from Alternate Roots for her original stage play, Hangers; and became a member of the 5th Woman Touring Collective.

Join us in celebrating the launch of Roberto Ontiveros’ debut story collection, The Fight for Space.

In his debut collection, The Fight for Space, Roberto Ontiveros explores the modes of art and obsession with eleven stories that run from fabulist comedy to surrealist noir. The tales—focusing on the inner lives of adult caregivers, delivery drivers, and painters—trace how the ubiquity of media (the world of sitcoms, talk radio, and superhero comics) comes to flood the working class with a dream-like dread. In this book, a budding con artist tries to sell a house that does not belong to her, an anti-social memoirist pens the fates of his friends, and a comic book-obsessed warehouse employee follows a man who wears a gas mask. Atmospheric and erotic, the stories in The Fight for Space recall the literary mysteries of James M. Cain by way of Twin Peaks.

Roberto Ontiveros is a fiction writer, artist, literary critic and journalist. Some of his work has appeared the Threepenny Review, the Santa Monica Review, the Believer Magazine, and Huizache. He is working on a novel and a collection of interlinking stories. He is the proud father of Maximo Spinoza Ontiveros.

The Rio Review Release party is a fun-filled gathering where students, writers, and creative minds alike come together to celebrate the publication of the newest anthology of ACC’s Student Literary and Arts Journal, The Rio Review!

The Rio Review is a student-run journal that showcases a collection of poetry, prose, and artwork submitted and published by talented ACC students every Fall and Spring semester.

This soirée is not only a party to celebrate the newest edition of The Rio Review, but it is also a perfect opportunity to meet and network with other writers and artists in the area while enjoying refreshments, artwork, and student readings!

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!

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

This month we have two featured guests: Skip Bellon and David Romero.

Skip Bellon writes, “I am lucky enough to have had 3 distinctly different families. My biological family, the dairy farm next door with 5 sons (my home away from home), and a nursery/summer camp where I lived from 8am to 5pm every summer weekday from the age of 2 until I turned 13, and was too old to attend anymore. Shout out to Mr John and Mrs Lee, the owner/operators. My mother and father worked hard, and a lot, which left me plenty of time to read and fall in love with words. My camp time gave me lots of experience observing people and families. Farm life taught me what was really true in the world and that’s where I developed a strong love for animals, which was fostered to a large extent by my father. A strong love of animals was the single thing my father and I had in common. I struggled through my teens and then discovered my potential (in life) during my 5 years in the US Navy. I have been observing and writing poems ever since. I added short stories to my repertoire around my mid-forties, and now I enjoy writing stories more than poetry, but still write both. Writing, my life long hobby, is currently trying to work its way into the main arena. Its only obstruction now is me.”

David Romero is a local singer/songwriter influenced by English, Irish, Scottish, and American folk music. He sings in Spanish as well and plays acoustic guitar, dulcimer, and other stringed instruments often accompanied by his wife Ann Marie on flute. His song “Absence Inside” was featured in VSA Texas’ 2017 Veteran music compilation The Re-Integration Project {Sounds}.

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

Austin Writers Roulette is a bimonthly 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!

THE AUSTIN WRITERS ROULETTE presents its GRAND FINALE event, “Creative Contemplations”—these are the things I’ll be dreaming and scheming for 2020. This special lineup includes artists from across the 8 years of Rouletter spoken word, music and storytelling: ALLYSON WHIPPLE, LARRY MAYFIELD, BIRDMAN 313, DONNA DECHEN BIRDWELL, JIM TENNY, DANIEL DAVILA, HOPE RUIZ, RG HOOK, NICOLE CORTICHIATO, PAUL NORMANDIN, BRENNAN UTLEY, STEPHANIE WEBB, URSULA PIKE, TERESA Y. ROBERSON & THOM THE WORLD POET. Visit the Austin Writers Roulette website for more information.

Everyone is welcome to attend the Austin Community College Creative Writing Department’s Literary Coffeehouse, hosted by Charlotte Gullick. 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 we’re proud to present Professor Joe Hoppe’s Poetry & Prose Class reading their work as the final literary event of 2019.

Join us for an evening with writers Carmen Gray and William Jensen. They’ll be sharing excerpts from short stories that appear in Road Kill Volume IV: Texas Horror by Texas Writers.

Carmen Gray is a teacher, Master Reiki practitioner, and writer who lives in Austin, Texas. You can find her published work in the Naga Review online, on her blog walkersonthejourney.com, in Poet’s Choice and in Road Kill, Volume I. Her latest short fiction piece, “The Smoke’s Gotta Go Somewhere,” is in the fall 2019 edition of Road Kill Volume IV: Texas Horror by Texas Writers.

William Jensen is the author of the novel Cities of Men. His short fiction has appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, The Texas Review, Tinge Magazine, and elsewhere. He has received multiple Pushcart nominations. His story, “You Can Outrun The Devil if You Try,” is in the fall 2019 edition of Road Kill Volume IV: Texas Horror by Texas Writers. He lives in Austin, Texas.

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. Also worth noting: we’re offering 20% OFF ALL FICTION TITLES during Novel Night (from 6pm till closing).

This month’s Novel Night authors are Samantha Inman and Bennett Donovan.

A thirty-five year cold case lands on her desk after a violent encounter left Alena Martin scarred. Not knowing where to start, she chooses a different perspective altogether, but the case follows her to the ancient city of Alexandria, Egypt when two women go missing. With no time on her side Detective Martin must ask the right questions and save herself in the process or she loses everything in the sound of a gunshot.

Samantha Inman has a bachelors degree in Theatre, and an extensive background and love for the arts. She published her debut novel in the summer of 2019 and is already working on future projects.

Two aspiring artists meet at a backyard party in Austin. They form a bond and agree to an adventure that will change their lives forever. What follows is a white-knuckle odyssey deep into the Texas Hill Country. Faced with a series of unforeseen obstacles, Conor and Emma must not only survive the harsh landscape but also confront the very nature of the relationship that they are forging.

Bennett Donovan came to Austin in 1991 and became the cliche of the UT student who never leaves. He’s gone through a few versions of himself from Dean of Students at Kirby Hall School to teaching history at UT, ACC, and St. Ed’s to working for the successful local tech startup Convio. He’s currently a Director in the non-profit division of the San Francisco tech giant Salesforce. Devil’s Sinkhole is Bennett’s first novel. Reviewers have called it an “intelligent, entertaining short novel,” a “philosophical thriller… in which the action is just as important as the stream of ideas,” and “sharp, deep, and… darkly funny.”

Get your cones ready for another round of Malvern Books’ FREE reading series, I SCREAM SOCIAL, hosted by Malvern’s own Annar Veröld and Schandra Madha. Featuring women and nonbinary writers from the Austin community (and beyond!), this month we’re welcoming Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review and our I Screamers are KB, Faylita Hicks, and Alana Torrez.

This month is our special annual holiday edition! Ugly sweaters strongly encouraged!

KB [they/them] is a Black queer nonbinary poet, editor, and educator currently based in Austin, TX. They’ve received fellowship invitations from the Vermont Studio Center, Lambda Literary, The Hurston/Wright Foundation, and others. Their poetry appears in The Cincinnati Review, The Matador Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, The Shade Journal, and elsewhere. When they’re not on stage or in the page, they serve as Program Coordinator for the Gender and Sexuality Center at the University of Texas at Austin, Curator/Host of ATX Interfaces, Assistant Editor for Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, and proud member of Lenguas Locxs Writers Collective. They’re currently the Spring 2020 guest editor for Foglifter Press. Their favorite flavor of ice cream is pecan pralines & cream.

Faylita Hicks (she/her/they) is the author of HoodWitch (Acre Books, 2019), Managing Editor of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, an organizer with Mano Amiga, and a finalist for the 2018 PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship. Hicks was a 2019 Lambda Literary Emerging Fellow for Nonfiction, a 2019 Jack Jones Literary Arts “Culture, Too” Conference Gender/Sexuality Fellow, a 2019 Palette Poetry Spotlight Award Finalist, a winner of Catapult’s 2019 Black History Month Scholarship, and has received a residency from the Vermont Studio Center, and is a 2020 Tin House Winter Workshop Creative Nonfiction Fellow. Their work is published or forthcoming in POETRY Magazine, Adroit, Linden Avenue, Foglifter, The Rumpus, Sundog Lit, The Cincinnati Review, Tahoma Literary Review, Prairie Schooner, SLATE Magazine, Huffington Post, Texas Observer, Color Bloq, and others. Their favorite flavor of ice cream is banana brownie!

~7pm – Ice cream & Open Mic for women-identified and non-binary writers. We want a chance to hear everyone’s wonderful work, so please try to keep readings under 3 minutes.

~The featured reading begins after the open mic and will be followed by even more ice cream.

Can’t make it this time around? No worries. I Scream Social is every month ’til the end of time.

Join us for a poetry reading to celebrate the late, great poet laureate of Hyde Park, Albert Huffstickler. With M.C. Sylvia Manning.

Albert Huffstickler (December 17, 1927 – February 25, 2002) was born in Laredo, Texas, but he lived in Austin in his later years, and became a local literary legend. You could usually find him in a café in Hyde Park, decked out in suspenders, smoking, drinking coffee, and working on a poem. (Rumor has it he wrote a poem a day, and his impressive publication record—four full-length collections, plus hundreds of poems published in chapbooks and journals—lends veracity to the story.) He was a two-time winner of the Austin Book Awards, and in 1989 the state legislature formally honored him for his contribution to Texas poetry. In May 2013 a new Hyde Park green space at the corner of 38th and Duval Streets was named Huffstickler Green in his honor. Huff was a friend and inspiration to many, and everyone who knew him talks of his kindness, his honesty, and his passionate support for local literature. Austin Community College English professor W. Joe Hoppe describes his friend and mentor as “a great encourager of poetry.”

You’re invited to join us for another Austin edition of the Why There Are Words reading series! This month’s theme is Reconciliation and our guests are Sandra Sidi, Carrie Fountain, Josh Denslow, and The Flyin’ A’s (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.

Sandra Sidi writes fiction and nonfiction. She was a military analyst in Baghdad in 2007 and 2008. She is an MFA Candidate at Texas State University San Marcos, and holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Yale University. Her first piece, “Get A Weapon,” was published in The Atlantic and is forthcoming in Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: An Anthology by Kendall Hunt Publishing. She is working on a novel about Israeli soldiers.

Carrie Fountain is a poet and novelist, and serves as the 2019 Texas Poet Laureate. She is the author of two poetry collections, Instant Winner and Burn Lake, winner of the 2009 National Poetry Series Award, and the YA novel I’m Not Missing. Her first children’s book, The Poem Forest (Candlewick Press, 2020) tells the story of American poet W.S. Merwin and the palm forest he grew from scratch on the island of Maui. Her poems have appeared in Tin House, Poetry, and The New Yorker, among many others. She is the host of KUT’s This Is Just to Say, a radio show and podcast where she has intimate conversations on the writing life with other poets and writers. Fountain is writer-in-residence at St. Edward’s University, and lives in Austin, TX.

Josh Denslow’s short stories have appeared in print and online in such fine places as Barrelhouse, Third Coast, Cutbank, Wigleaf, and Black Clock, among many others. NOT EVERYONE IS SPECIAL, his debut short story collection, will be published in 2019 by 7.13 Books. Along with his wife and his brother-in-law, he plays drums in the band Borrisokane. KUTX called us “synth-punk gloom-wonders” and the band was hailed by the Austin Chronicle as one of the Best New Local Acts of 2013. They are currently recording thier first full-length album.

The Flyin’ A’s perform Americana with a Texas Kick. This husband and wife duo hails from Austin, Texas. You can hear their Texas roots in all they do. The high energy duo is famous for their top-notch songwriting, breathtaking harmonies, and exceptional live performance. Their latest album You Drive Me Crazy was selected to be on the 2017 first round Grammy Ballot and has taken them on tour around the US, UK, and the EU, and now they are headed to NZ for the first time. From Stuart Adamson’s outstanding lead guitar work and gritty vocals to Hilary Claire Adamson’s powerhouse vocal gymnastics and lilting harmonies, it is no wonder this duo is quickly gaining momentum both at home and abroad. They combine the best of Texas country, southern blues, folk and gospel to create an original sound that is all their own.

In association with Art Spark Texas (formerly VSA Texas) and the Pen2Paper Creative Writing Contest (a project of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities), we’re delighted to present an inclusive open mic for writers, performers, and acoustic musicians. Everyone is welcome to join us for this fun and friendly free 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 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. Also worth noting: we’re offering 20% OFF ALL FICTION TITLES during Novel Night (from 6pm till closing).

This month’s Novel Night authors are Marc Grossberg and Glen Larum. Marc will be reading from legal thriller The Best People. Glen will introduce his modern western, Waltz Against the Sky.

A legal drama and social satire set after Enron and before the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, The Best People portrays a Houston as it is: a glitzy meritocracy populated with larger-than-life characters. It is the landscape where the country-club and café-society sets clash amidst clever legal maneuvering, big law firm politics, a Ponzi scheme, and judicial corruption.

Marc Grossberg is an observer and a listener. He has a passion for his family, friends and clients, and for books that entertain and provoke him. He has practiced law in his native Houston for over fifty years. Somehow he overcame being a Board Certified tax lawyer and one of the Best Lawyers in America© to write The Best People. Marc is a proud product of the Houston public schools, the University of Houston, and the University of Texas School of Law. He lives in the NOW and goes wherever his “green light” tells him the intersection might be interesting.

Larum’s West Texas–based debut novel offers interconnected tales of murder and mayhem . . . Larum had a career as a newspaper editor in the West, and it shows; it’s clear that he knows what the particular emptiness of the region feels like—and he makes readers feel it, too . . . An excellent book about desperate people carefully depicted in minute detail. —starred Kirkus review

Glen Larum was born on an eastern Montana ranch just before the midway mark of the last century. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Montana Western and went on to become an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor in Montana, Colorado, and Texas before becoming a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Transportation’s Odessa District until his retirement in 2010, when he was commended for his contributions to state and community in an official Resolution (H.R. 128) of the Texas House of Representatives. His debut novel, Waltz Against the Sky, is set in West Texas in the 1970s, somewhere between Odessa-Midland and the Rio Grande. He feels most at home in places like that, where you can see both where you’ve been and where you are going, the legacy of a childhood spent on the Montana prairie. He and his wife, Pat, a retired psychotherapist, have ceased wandering and now live in a secluded corner of far southeast Austin, a few short steps away from the open spaces of a state park.

Join us for a night of chaps and broads reading chap(book)s and broad(side)s! Featuring Julie Poole, Stephanie Goehring, Leticia Urieta, Katy Chrisler, Alfredo Aguilar, and C. Prudence Arceneaux.

Julie Poole (top row, left) received a MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, CutBank, The Texas Observer, and Denver Quarterly. Her first book Bright Specimen was inspired by the Billie L. Turner Plant Resources center at UT and will be published by Deep Vellum in Spring 2021.

Stephanie Goehring (top row, middle) is the author of several poetry chapbooks. She earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and works at Malvern Books in Austin, TX.

Leticia Urieta (top row, right) is proud Tejana writer from Austin, TX. She works as a teaching artist in the Austin community. She is a graduate of Agnes Scott College and holds an MFA in Fiction writing from Texas State University. Her chapbook, The Monster, is out now from LibroMobile Press.

Katy Chrisler (bottom row, left) received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has held residencies with Land Arts of the American West and 100 West Corsicana. Recent work of hers has appeared in Tin House, Conflict of Interest, The Volta, and Black Warrior Review. She currently lives and works in Austin, Texas.

Alfredo Aguilar (bottom row, middle) is the son of Mexican immigrants. He is the author of the chapbook What Happens On Earth (BOAAT Press 2018). He is a winner of 92Y’s Discovery Poetry Contest and has been awarded fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and the Frost Place. His work has appeared in The Shallow Ends, Best New Poets 2017, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. Originally from North County San Diego, he now resides in Texas.

C. Prudence Arceneaux (bottom row, right), a native Texan, teaches English and Creative Writing at Austin Community College, in Austin, TX. Her poetry has appeared in various journals, including Limestone, New Texas, Whiskey Island Magazine, Hazmat Review and Inkwell. A chapbook of her work, DIRT (2017), was awarded the Jean Pedrick Prize.

Join us in celebrating the release of Wendy Barker’s seventh full-length collection of poems, GLOSS. With readings from Wendy, as well as special guests Van G. Garrett and Michael Anania.

Posing haunting questions about the background of Barker’s British mother, GLOSS  includes poems in a variety of forms that meditate on a Chinese scroll and on inherited pieces of silver. Other poems “gloss” family memories to reveal underlying meanings of inherited stories, as the book builds to reveal disturbing facts long hidden.

Wendy Barker’s sixth collection of poetry, One Blackbird at a Time, received the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry (BkMk Press, 2015). Her fifth chapbook is Shimmer (Glass Lyre Press, 2019). An anthology of poems about the 1960s, Far Out: Poems of the ’60s, co-edited with Dave Parsons, was released by Wings Press in 2016. Other books include a selection of poems with accompanying essays, Poems’ Progress (Absey & Co., 2002), and a selection of translations, Rabindranath Tagore: Final Poems, co-translated with Saranindranath Tagore, Braziller, 2001. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Southern Review, Nimrod, New Letters, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, and Plume,as well as The Best American Poetry 2013. She is the author of Lunacy of Light: Emily Dickinson and the Experience of Metaphor (Southern Illinois University Press, 1987), as well as co-editor (with Sandra M. Gilbert) of The House is Made of Poetry: The Art of Ruth Stone (Southern Illinois University Press, 1996). Recipient of NEA and Rockefeller fellowships among other awards, she is the Pearl LeWinn Endowed Chair and Poet-in-Residence at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she has taught since 1982. Wendy is married to the critic, biographer, essayist, and poet Steven G. Kellman.

Van G. Garrett is the winner of the 2017 Best Book of African American Poetry for his book, 49: Wings and Prayers, as announced by the Texas Association of Authors. Garrett is the author of Songs in Blue Negritude (poetry), The Iron Legs in the Trees (fiction), 49: Wings and Prayers (poetry), LENNOX IN TWELVE (poetry), HOG (poetry), ZURI: Love Songs (poetry), and Water Bodies (fall 2019).

Michael Anania is a poet, essayist, and fiction writer. His published work includes twelve collections of poetry, among them Selected Poems (1994), In Natural Light (1999), Heat Lines (2006), and Nightsongs and Clamors (2018). His work is widely anthologized and has been translated into Italian, German, French, Spanish and Czech. He has also published a novel, The Red Menace, and a collection of essays, In Plain Sight. He has received a number of awards and fellowships, including the Charles Angoff Award and the Aniello Lauri Award for poems in this collection. Anania was poetry editor of Audit, a quarterly, founder and co-editor of Audit/Poetry, poetry and literary editor of The Swallow Press, poetry editor of Partisan Review and a contributing editor to Tri-Quarterly, and has served as an advisory editor to a number of other magazines and presses. He is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a member of the faculty in writing at Northwestern University. He also taught at SUNY at Buffalo and the University of Chicago. He lives in Austin, Texas, and on Lake Michigan.

Get your cones ready for another round of Malvern Books’ FREE reading series, I SCREAM SOCIAL, hosted by Malvern’s own Annar Veröld and Schandra Madha. Featuring women and nonbinary writers from the Austin community (and beyond!), this month’s I Screamers are Maritza De La Peña, Alisha Jilly Roff, and Dorienne Elston.

Maritza De La Peña is a poet native to Texas. She has recently returned after three years of living in a small mountain village in Ukraine, where she worked with educators and co-founded an annual writing and leadership camp for children and teens. She probably writes too many poems about snow and hanging out at the river and watching the village cows now. Her favorite flavor of ice cream is pistachio!

Alisha Jilly Roff: For Alisha, writing is an avocation. Her vocation, her craft, is walking into the darkness of someone else’s trauma and holding a hand, perhaps leading a soul back to the light. That is her hope for her legacy. She is a survivor, not a recognized writer. She has a rage, a passion that churns beneath her skin. It’s a passion that makes her want to scream so loud that buildings shake, trees bend, and stars tremble at the sound. Since that is not a possibility, she writes. Her favorite flavor of ice cream is pistachio, pure and simple!

Dorienne Elston: Like most writers, Dorienne has adored words for as long as she can remember. She first published a poem of hers at age 13, wrote scripts for a youth television series, composed short stories, wrote lyrics … and penned several long, dry, academic research papers in Grad School! The common thread, of course, is her love for words and how they are both the common and miraculous carriers of meaning from one mind to another, from one heart to another and, best of all, from one soul to another. In this new season of her life, Dorienne is returning to this first love and feels very privileged to share her recent work with you tonight. It is her hope that her words resonate with you and, of course, if she’s very lucky, touches your souls. Her favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla Swiss almond!

~7pm – Ice cream & Open Mic for women-identified and non-binary writers. We want a chance to hear everyone’s wonderful work, so please try to keep readings under 3 minutes.

~The featured reading begins after the open mic and will be followed by even more ice cream.

Can’t make it this time around? No worries. I Scream Social is every month ’til the end of time.

Join us in celebrating the Austin launch of Sarah Rose Etter’s debut novel, The Book of X, which has received praise from Roxane Gay (“utterly unique and remarkable”), Carmen Maria Machado (“gorgeous…heartbreaking”), and the Minneapolis Star Tribune (“powerful”).

Sarah Rose Etter is the author of Tongue Party, selected by Deb Olin Unferth as the winner of the Caketrain Press award, and The Book of X, her first novel, which is available from Two Dollar Radio. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Cut, Electric Literature, Guernica, VICE, New York Tyrant, Juked, Night Block, The Black Warrior Review, Salt Hill Journal, The Collagist, and more.

Join us for a reading to celebrate the launch of the latest issue of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review. Bring friends—join the celebration! The event is free of charge and open to everyone. Copies will be available for purchase on-site.

Borderlands is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.

Join us in celebrating the launch of Kiran Bhat’s new novel, we of the forsaken world…

In a distant corner of the globe, a man journeys to the birthplace of his mother, a tourist town destroyed by an industrial spill. In a nameless remote tribe, the chief’s second son is born, creating a scramble for succession as their jungles are being destroyed by loggers. In one of the world’s sprawling metropolises, a homeless one-armed woman sets out to take revenge upon the men who trafficked her. And, in a small village of shanty shacks connected only by a mud-and- concrete road, a milkmaid watches the girls she calls friends destroy her reputation.

In we of the forsaken world… Kiran Bhat tells the stories of four worlds falling apart, through the structure of four linguistic chains, comprised of the accounts of four people witnessing the decline of these worlds, in four acts. Like modern communication networks, these 16 stories connect along subtle lines, dispersing at the moments where another story is about to take place. Each story is a parable of its own, into the mind of a distinct human being. These are the tales of not just sixteen strangers, but many different lives, who live on this planet, at every second, everywhere.

Kiran Bhat is a global citizen formed in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, to parents from Southern Karnataka, in India. An avid world traveler, polyglot, and digital nomad, he has currently traveled to over 130 countries, lived in 18 different places, and speaks 12 languages. His list of homes is vast, but he considers Mumbai the only place of the moment worth settling down in. He currently lives in Melbourne.

Join us in celebrating the launch of Chad Bennett’s debut poetry collection, Your New Feeling Is the Artifact of a Bygone Era, selected by Ocean Vuong for Sarabande Books’ Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry. With readings from local poets, including Lisa Moore, Cindy St. John, Desiree Morales, Austin Rodenbiker, and Sequoia Maner.

Shirley Temple tap dancing at the Kiwanis Club, Stevie Nicks glaring at Lindsey Buckingham during a live version of “Silver Springs,” Frank Ocean lyrics staking new territory on the page: this is a taste of the cultural landscape sampled in Your New Feeling is the Artifact of a Bygone Era. Chad Bennett casually combines icons of the way we live now—GIFs, smartphones, YouTube—with a classical lover’s lament. The result is certainly a deeply personal account of loss, but more critically, a dismantling of an American history of queerness. “This is our sorrow. Once it seemed theirs, but now it’s ours. They still inhabit it, yet we say it’s ours.” All at once cerebral, physical, personal, and communal, Your New Feeling Is the Artifact of a Bygone Era constructs a future worth celebrating.

Chad Bennett’s poems have appeared in Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Fence, Gulf Coast, jubilat, The Offing, Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, The Volta, and elsewhere. He is the author of Word of Mouth: Gossip and American Poetry, a study of twentieth century poetry and the queer art of gossip. Your New Feeling Is the Artifact of a Bygone Era, his first book of poems, was selected by Ocean Vuong for Sarabande Books’ Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry. He lives in Austin, Texas, where he is an associate professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin.

Lisa L. Moore is the author of Sister Arts: The Erotics of Lesbian Landscapes, which won the Lambda Literary Award, and has published four other books of feminist and queer writing and criticism. In addition to her chapbook 24 Hours of Men, Lisa Moore’s poems have appeared in Nimrod International Journal, The Fourth River, Borderlands Texas Poetry Review, Sinister Wisdom, Lavender Review, and other periodicals. She is Archibald A. Hill Professor of English, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, and Director of the Program in LGBTQ Studies at The University of Texas at Austin.

Cindy St. John is the author of Dream Vacation, a collection of daybook entries and poems; I Wrote This Poem, a poetry chapbook illustrated by Michael Burkard; as well as three other chapbooks. She lives in Austin, TX.

Desiree Morales is a poet and educator in Austin, Texas. Her work has appeared in What Rough Beast, Conflict of Interest, and the forthcoming I Scream Social Anthology. She grew up in Southern California and plans to never stop talking about it.

Austin Rodenbiker’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Tin House Online, Prelude, Narrative, and PRISM international. He received his MFA from the New Writers Project and he holds an MA in gender studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

Sequoia Maner is a poet and Mellon Teaching Fellow of Feminist Studies at Southwestern University. She is coeditor of the book Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era (Routledge, January 2020). Her poems, essays, and reviews have been published in venues such as The Feminist Wire, Meridians, Obsidian, The Langston Hughes Review, and elsewhere. Her poem “upon reading the autopsy of Sandra Bland” was a finalist for the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize and she is at work on a critical manuscript about the history of African American Elegy.

In association with Art Spark Texas (formerly VSA Texas) and the Pen2Paper Creative Writing Contest (a project of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities), we’re delighted to present an inclusive open mic for writers, performers, and acoustic 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.

Everyone is welcome to attend the Austin Community College Creative Writing Department’s Literary Coffeehouse, hosted by Charlotte Gullick. 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 Jeremy Garrett.

Jeremy Garrett is the writer-in-residence at the Katherine Anne Porter House in Kyle, TX. His fiction and essays have appeared in Gargoyle, The Susquehanna Review, and phati’tude, among others, and his story “The Exhausted Pose” won an Esoteric Award in LGBT fiction from Carve Magazine. He is currently at work on a novel.

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. Also worth noting: we’re offering 20% OFF ALL FICTION TITLES during Novel Night (from 6pm till closing).

This month’s Novel Night authors are Tracey S. Phillips and Josephine Blacke.

Tracey S. Phillips will read from her debut thriller, Best Kept Secrets, and Josephine Blacke will read from her suspenseful second novel Tia.

When Fay Ramsey is found dead, Morgan Jewell’s entire world crumbles. Years later, Morgan, now a homicide detective, is still haunted by the abrupt end to her best friend’s life, but she has failed to put the crooked puzzle pieces together. Nothing makes sense. The leads have run dry. She requests access to the scene of a murder: a woman whose body is left mangled. It’s too similar to Fay’s to ignore. Now the old memories begin to surface. Fay held a secret in those final days. What got her killed? What was her secret?

Tracey S. Phillips is a serial artist. For the daughter of an artist and granddaughter of a pianist, playing music and creating art are a way of life. She entered college as a fashion model and musician. She married her best friend and became the mother of two grown children. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her husband and two dogs. Psychological thrillers are her love and female characters drive her stories. Best Kept Secrets is her debut novel released by Crooked Lane Books. The manuscript won a Hugh Holton award in 2018.

Josephine Blacke is an indie author and freelance writer living in Austin, Texas. Tia is her second novel. Her debut novel Mama’s Boy is available in paperback and e-book. Previous publications include Eat & Drink Austin, a local foodie magazine. Josephine is the proud mother of three adults, a cat named Princess Buttercup, and an old Rottweiler named Fat Hank.

Join us for something rather special: Austin Community College’s Creative Writing Department will be introducing us to the two winners of their 2018 Balcones Prize. Shena McAuliffe will read from The Good Echo (2018 Balcones Fiction Prize) and Margaree Little will read from her collection Rest (2018 Balcones Poetry Prize).

Shena McAuliffe’s debut novel, The Good Echo (Black Lawrence Press, 2018), won the Big Moose Prize and the Balcones Fiction Prize. Her essay collection, Glass, Light, Electricity, winner of the Permafrost Prize in nonfiction, is forthcoming from the University of Alaska Press in February 2020. She holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and a Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Utah. She grew up in Wisconsin and Colorado, and now lives in Schenectady, New York, where she is an assistant professor of fiction at Union College.

Margaree Little is the author of REST (Four Way Books, 2018), winner of the 2018 Balcones Poetry Prize and the 2019 Audre Lorde Award. She holds a BA in English Literature from Brown University and an MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College. Her poems and criticism have appeared in American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review Online, New England Review, and The Southern Review, among other journals; her translations from the Russian have appeared in Asymptote and The Brooklyn Rail and are forthcoming in APR. Little is the recipient of fellowships and awards including a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award, a Bread Loaf Bakeless Camargo/ France Fellowship, a Kenyon Review Fellowship, and an Ohio Individual Excellence Award. She lives in Tucson and teaches at Pima Community College.

Sponsored by the ACC Creative Writing  Department. This event is free and open to the public.

Join us in celebrating the launch of the 2020 winter 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.

This event will also be celebrating the winner of the 2019 Julia Darling Memorial Poetry Prize.  John Blair is the 2019 winner for his poem, “The Shape of things To Come.” John and judge Natalia Treviño will be in attendance. Other featured readers include Wendy Goodman (Kingston, MD), Shelli Cornelison, Diana Conces, Ed O’Casey, Devin Guthrie, John Milkereit, Benjamin Nash, Margie McCreles Roe, Steve Wilson, and Sean Winn. Members of the Kallisto Gaia Press editorial staff and board of directors will be available for a Q&A after the event. Light fare will be served.

The South Austin Writers Workshop is a creative writing group of dedicated writers. Along with their current instructor, Shannon Perri, they meet monthly to read, write, and share their work amongst each other. Now, they’re excited to share some of their work with family, friends, and the local literary community. Join us for a reading of their wonderful writing!

Get your cones ready for another special edition of I Scream Social! Featuring women and non-binary writers from the Austin community (and beyond!), this month we have so much to celebrate, namely the launch of I Scream Social Anthology Vol. 2, a book showcasing writers from the past two years of the series! We’ll have copies to sell and tons of festivities planned for the evening.

Every single person that contributed to this anthology has graced our stage: edited by dream team Claire Bowman, Schandra Madha, and Annar Veröld, and with an introduction by mónica teresa ortiz and cover art by Tsz Kam!

Our 34 incredible contributors include: Kimberly Alidio, Sarah Renee Beach, Celia Bell, Maryan Nagy Captan, Claudia Delfina Cardona, Bev Chukwu, Elizabeth Clausen, Nicole Cortichiato, Maris Finn, Kendra Fortmeyer, Annelyse Gelman, Rachel Gray, Vivé Griffith, Meg E. Griffitts, Janalyn Guo, Jessica Hincapie, Vanessa Couto Johnson, Keona, KB, Taisia Kitaiskaia, Katherine Lamb, Kat Lewis, Meaghan Loraas, Aimée Mackovic, Lisa L. Moore, Desiree Morales, Aneesa Needel, Jourden V. Sander, Amanda Scott, Lily Someson, Citlalli Soto-Ferate, Itzel Soto-Ferate, Alana Torrez, and Kelsey Williams.

Stay tuned for our schedule for the evening!

Can’t make it this time around? No worries. I Scream Social is every month ’til the end of time.

Join us in celebrating the launch of Julie Howd’s chapbook, Threshold (Host Publications).

Host Publications is honored to award Julie Howd’s chapbook Threshold as the recipient of the Spring 2020 Host Publications Chapbook Prize. Our chapbook prize embodies our values as a small, community-oriented press by elevating the voices of women writers. The prize awards publication, $1000, 25 copies of the published chapbook, a book launch at Malvern Books, and national distribution with energetic publicity and promotion.

Julie Howd is a poet from Massachusetts. Her first chapbook, Talking from the Knees Up, was published by dancing girl press in 2018. She holds an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, where she received the 2015 Roy Crane Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Creative Arts. Her work can be found in Deluge, The Spectacle, Sixth Finch, and elsewhere. She lives in Amherst, MA.

Join us in celebrating the launch of Sarah Harris Wallman’s story collection Senseless Women, winner of the 2019 Juniper Prize for Fiction. With readings from Sarah and guests Ashleigh Pedersen and Jaime DeBlanc-Knowles.

Exploring the darker side of optimism, Sarah Harris Wallman’s debut collection shows women attempting to build durable havens from reality, struggling to keep relationships intact, and reinventing themselves. A lonely music teacher at a Nashville Christian academy awaits the miracle of love; a Jane Doe recalls the affair that sustained—and ended—her; a new mother brings life into the world during a bleak election party; young girls are exploited by a nightclub owner in death, as in life. Alone or in weird sisterhood, some of these women are senseless because they refuse to feel, others because they’ve been deprived of stimuli and attention. As these twelve stories prove, there’s no sensible way to fall in love, raise children, or escape (even dead girls have to go on stage and sing for their supper). This is Senseless Women.

Sarah Harris Wallman grew up in Nashville, TN, though she has also lived in Arkansas, New York City, and Glastonbury, UK (that’s where King Arthur was buried). She has an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh and currently teaches in the MFA program at Albertus Magnus college in New Haven, CT. Her stories have received awards from the Tucson Festival of Books and Prada.

Ashleigh Pedersen’s fiction has been featured in New Stories from the South, The Kenyon Review, The Iowa Review, Design Observer, The Silent History, A Strange Object, and the New York Public Library’s Library Simplified app. Her story “Small and Heavy World” was a finalist for both Best American Short Stories and a Pushcart Prize. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was the recipient of a full scholarship and teaching fellowship as well as the Turow-Kinder Award. She just completed her first novel and can occasionally be spotted in Austin theater and film projects.

Jaime deBlanc-Knowles holds an M.A. in creative writing from the University of Texas at Austin. Her work has been published in Post Road and Meridian, and she has been the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship and a Lighthouse Works Fellowship. She currently teaches creative writing workshops through UT Informal Classes, the Writing Barn, and Fresh Ink.

Jojn us for a reading with Lisa Rosenberg and Adrienne Drobnies. Lisa and Adrienne will be on a panel of scientist-poets at the upcoming AWP Conference in San Antonio.

Lisa Rosenberg’s debut title, A Different Physics, draws on her years as an engineer in the space program. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University, she served as the 2017/2018 Poet Laureate of San Mateo County, California, and has been awarded a 2020 Djerassi Residency for Scientist-Artists.

Adrienne Drobnies’ first book of poetry is Salt and Ashes (Signature Editions). She is an Austin native, who now lives in Vancouver, Canada, and she has been in residence at the Banff Centre. Her poetry won the 2017 Gwendolyn MacEwen Award and was a finalist for the CBC literary award. She has a PhD in chemistry.

Join us for an evening with Bonnar Spring, who will be reading from her debut novel, Toward the Light.

Bonnar Spring writes eclectic and stylish thrillers with an international flavor. A nomad at heart, she hitchhiked across Europe at sixteen and joined the Peace Corps after college. She lives in a tiny house on a New Hampshire salt marsh.

Join us for a reading with Arielle Greenberg, E.C. Belli, Julia Guez, LiAundra Grace, and Julie Kantor. We’ll be celebrating the recent release of Arielle Greenberg’s I Live in the Country & other dirty poems.

Arielle Greenberg’s I Live in the Country & other dirty poems exploits and undoes the stereotype of the “wholesome country life.” Here, the speaker moves to the country (“where the animals are”) in order to live a whole life, one in which she can live honestly and openly in a non-monogamous marriage. Her book is a visceral, erotic celebration of the cornucopia of sexual pleasures to be had in that rural life—in the muck of a pasture in spring or behind the bins of whole-wheat pastry flour at the local Co-op. Greenberg hauls out what has previously been stored under dark counters and labeled deviant—kink, fetish, and bondage—and moves it into the sunshine of sex-positivity and mutual consent. In doing so, she forges new literary territory—a feminist re-visioning of the Romantic pastoral poems of seduction. “I am trying to turn my eye toward joy,” she writes. “My heart toward bliss.”

Arielle Greenberg’s previous poetry collections are Come Along with Me to the Pasture Now, Slice, My Kafka Century and Given. She’s also the writer of the creative nonfiction book Locally Made Panties, the transgenre chapbooks Shake Her and Fa(r)ther Down, and co-author, with Rachel Zucker, of Home/Birth: A Poemic. She has co-edited three anthologies, including Gurlesque, forthcoming in an expanded digital edition co-edited with Becca Klaver. Arielle’s poems and essays have been featured in Best American Poetry, Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today’s Best Women Writers and The Racial Imaginary, among other anthologies. She wrote a column on contemporary poetics for the American Poetry Review, and edited a series of essays called (K)ink: Writing While Deviant for The Rumpus. A former tenured professor in poetry at Columbia College Chicago, she lives with her family in Maine, where she writes, edits, teaches and works for a creative services agency.

E.C. Belli is the author of Objects of Hunger (SIU Press, 2019). Her work has appeared in Verse, AGNI, and FIELD, among others. She is the translator of I, Little Asylum by Emmanuelle Guattari (Semiotext(e), 2014) and The Nothing Bird : Selected Poems by Pierre Peuchmaurd (Oberlin College Press, 2013).

Julia Guez is a poet, writer and translator. Her first collection of poetry, In an Invisible Glass Case Which Is Also a Frame, came out this fall from Four Way Books. For the last decade, Guez has been working with Teach For America. She also teaches creative writing at Rutgers. Guez lives in Brooklyn. (Photo credit: Wesley Mann.)

LiAundra Grace believes poetry is the gateway for those who have yet to find a connection to written words. Her work has been published in the 2014 Cave Canem Anthology, in Toe Good Poetry’s online journal, and in the 2008 Inprint Houston Poetry Compilation. Currently, Grace is working on her first collection of poems as well as her first children’s book, while teaching at Lone Star College. Grace received her MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University and is a Cave Canem Fellow. She currently resides in Katy, Texas with her husband and two children.

Julie Kantor is an artist/scholar living in Austin, TX. Her chapbook, LAND, was published by Dikembe Press in 2015. Her poetry has appeared in the I Scream Social Anthology, Boston Review, Public Space, Los Angeles Quarterly Review of Books, elsewhere, and has been translated into Ukrainian. She is on the board of directors for Cuneiform Press. She is a PhD candidate in American Studies at University of Texas Austin, finishing her dissertation on reality television and political experience.

Join us for an afternoon with poets David Cavanagh, Sharon Webster, and Steven Ray Smith. We’ll be celebrating the launch of David’s new poetry collection, The Somnambulist and The Good Life.

David Cavanagh’s fifth book of poems, The Somnambulist and The Good Life, has just come out from Salmon Poetry of Ireland. His previous collections include Straddle, Falling Body, and The Middleman, all three from Salmon Poetry; and Cycling in Plato’s Cave from Fomite Press. He lives in Burlington, Vermont.

Sharon Webster is an interdisciplinary artist who works in any material she can get her hands on—including language—to create fresh renditions of vision and voice. Drawn to the intimate and the sensual, she is a frequent art exhibitor and was one of eight to recently represent Vermont in the Boston group show, Threaded: Contemporary Fiber Art in New England.
Sharon is also ensconced in the colorfully diverse work of helping developmentally challenged adults live normal lives, and has done so since the ’80s. Her book, Everyone Lives Here, is on sale today.

Steven Ray Smith’s poetry has been published in The Yale Review, Southwest Review, The Kenyon Review, Slice, Barrow Street, THINK, Tar River Poetry, Poet Lore and others. New work is forthcoming in The Hollins Critic. He lives in Austin.