Category Archives: Malvern Events

Past & Future Fun

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Before we take a journey back in time to a brilliant weekend reading at Malvern Books, let’s leap boldly into the future: tomorrow night we’re hosting our second annual birthday party in honor of the late, great poet laureate of Hyde Park, Albert Huffstickler, and you should most certainly join us for poetry, merriment, and festive snacks! Last year’s party was a wonderful celebration of all things Huff, and we’re looking forward to continuing the tradition tomorrow.

And now, back to our Saturday night… we were thrilled to be hosting a reading with Joanne Fox Phillips and Peter J. Story (below), two debut novelists and first-time readers!

Peter J Story and Joanne Fox Phillips

Joanne came all the way from Tulsa to share excerpts from Revenge of the Cube Dweller, an engrossing caper starring amateur sleuth Tanzie Lewis, who uncovers all manner of corporate fraud and finagling at a powerful oil and gas corporation. Joanne herself is the chief audit executive for an oil and gas company… but luckily her fictional imaginings have not got her into any trouble at the day job.

And Peter was reading from Things Grak Hates, a satirical allegory featuring a rather self-absorbed pre-historic nomad. It’s an entertaining and thought-provoking read (and perhaps not for the faint of heart; one reader apparently reported that it made her physically ill—but she still loved the book). Spoiler alert: one of the things Grak really hates is olives, and his attempt to banish them from his world leads to all sorts of chaos.

Thanks to Joanne and Peter for a thoroughly enjoyable evening… and we look forward to hearing a lot more from you both in the future!

Mind Maze: Postcard Habitats & More

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Ready for something Raw and a-maze-ing? Tuesday night at Malvern Books saw the return of the fantastic Raw Paw crew, who were debuting their fourth Mind Maze title: Postcard Habitats by Jonathan Lowell.

Mind Maze 4

Each monthly Mind Maze showcases twenty poems from one of Austin’s best poets… and is launched in fine style at Malvern Books (under the gaze of a somewhat suspicious pirate). This month’s poet, Jonathan (above, center), was joined on our stage by (from left to right) new hosts A.R. Rogers and Wade Martin, and fellow readers Jesse Bertron and Paula Starche.

Jonathan is a graduate student in Geography at UT Austin, who, fortunately for us, still finds time to write brilliant poetry. Here’s what he had to say about his new book:

Postcard Habitats grew out of pondering the relationships between movement and place: the pains and pleasures of each, the way our bodies and identities shift and change as we constantly remake our habitats in this world. For a while these poems were journeys, constantly in motion and swirling around me. Now that they are fixed and bound to a page, they are, for me at least, a place. I feel both pain and relief for that.

If you’d like to hear more from Jonathan, and enjoy poetry and prose from Jesse and Paula, check out the videos below (and for previous Raw Paw readings, have a browse of our Mind Maze playlist).

A Merry Winter Weekend at Malvern Books

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It’s been a terrifically eventful few days here at the bookstore, so without further ado—let’s put on our recapping hat and get to work!

On Friday evening we played host to a multi-talented duo: Nathan Brown and Jena Kirkpatrick. For anyone who thinks literary readings are po-faced, pretentious affairs, well, Friday night at Malvern Books would’ve proved you utterly wrong, as Nathan and Jena were down to earth and hilarious, and their poetry and music had the crowd laughing and cheering and tapping their feet. If you missed out on this very fun night of brilliant words and music (and a fairly tasty assortment of complimentary cookies and cheese), do yourself a favor and check out the footage below, which features, among other things, Nathan’s memorable post break-up song, “I’m Functioning So Well,” and Jena’s ode to Austin hippies. (These videos are just a sample… be sure to watch the rest on Malvern’s YouTube channel.)

On Saturday afternoon we were delighted to be the chosen venue for the annual Texas Poetry Calendar reading. For the past seventeen years, the Austin reading for the Texas Poetry Calendar has been the culmination of the fall events calendar for Dos Gatos Press, an Austin publishing house founded by Scott Wiggerman (the afternoon’s MC) and David Meischen in 2004. This year’s calendar reading was chock-full of fantastic verse, with close to thirty poets sharing their Texas-related work (about a quarter of the poets featured in the calendar). Enjoy hearing from a few of the poets below—and take a look at photos from the event on Facebook.

No rest for bookstores! On Sunday afternoon we celebrated the recent Vision + Voice collaboration between Austin Community College and the Austin Independent School District. Vision + Voice is a program that encourages literacy and creative expression by combining artwork from ACC students with poetry from AISD students—and we were thrilled to host an art opening and poetry reading that promotes this wonderful joint venture. When you next stop by the store to avail yourself of our Holiday Gift Card Offer, check out the fabulous Vision + Voice artwork that adorns our walls!

Mike & Malachi at Malvern Books

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

Malvern Books

Mike and Malachi

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

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

Eventful Evenings at Malvern Books

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It’s been a delightfully hectic few days here at Malvern, and we’ve been thoroughly spoiled vis-à-vis awesome events. First up: on Saturday night we hosted a reading with writers Tatiana Ryckman and E. Kristin Anderson (below, left and right).

Tatiana and Kristin

Tatiana’s brilliant collection of tiny fictions, Twenty-Something, is one of Malvern Books’ bestsellers, so we were obviously keen to hear her read. She entertained us with a food-themed performance (to show her mom that she can write about something other than sex) and made us blush by praising our “phenomenally curated” shelves (thanks, Tatiana!). And Kristin very kindly brought Found Poetry kits for attendees (thanks, Kristin!) and proved herself to be an exceptionally multi-talented writer, reading both verse (her found poetry collection, A Jab of Deep Urgency, is sourced from Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad) and science fiction.

And last night we hosted a wonderful event with a distinctly Spanish theme: guitarist David Córdoba (below left) treated us to Flamenco music, and editor Valerie Miles (below right) read from and discussed her anthology A Thousand Forests in One Acorn, which features twenty-eight of the greatest Spanish-language writers.

David and Valerie

It was fascinating to learn more about Valerie’s anthology, which she describes as a “best of the best” collection with a twist: we know which stories the critics praise most, but which of their own works do the writers truly admire? Check out the footage below to find out (and visit our YouTube channel for more videos from this event).

A Rather Winning Lion & Pirate Open Mic

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On Friday night we teamed up with VSA Texas and Pen2Paper to host a very special edition of our monthly Lion and Pirate open mic—we were honoring the winners of the fifth annual Pen2Paper Creative Writing Contest (a project of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities). The competition seeks out fantastic works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and comics that discuss the topic of disability (and it’s an international contest—one of this year’s winners comes from the UK). You can see the full list of finalists and read their entries here.

CTD’s Laura Perna and Susie Angel kicked off our celebration, with Laura reading an excerpt from Sandy Hiortdahl’s “Riding, Falling,” the 2014 Grand Prize winner, and Susie reading Cathy Bryant’s “I Want One,” which won the Poetry category. Hearty congrats to Sandy, Cathy, and all the winners… y’all have provided us with a ton of thoughtful, thought-provoking, funny, and just plain terrific reading material.

But wait, there’s more! We also welcomed first-timer Glenn Towery to the stage; he read a wonderful parable called “Unsad You.” And the audience warmly welcomed a few familiar faces: Shaniqua Esparza, Christopher “Bear” Beam, Milton Sullivan, and the awesome dudes from Dude Choir. Have a look-see at them all in action below (and check out our Lion & Pirate YouTube playlist to watch videos from past events). Do be sure to join us on December 20th for a festive round of the Lion & Pirate… you might just be lucky enough to encounter our swashbuckler under a sprig of mistletoe!