Random Notes

• Sunday 6/21 7pm, writing group mate J. Ryan Stradal reads at Book Party–a reading series I’m unfamiliar with, at the Mandrake Bar (2692 La Cienega in Culver City).

• Sunday 6/28, the New Short Fiction Series (LA’s ‘live literary magazine’) and Other Voices (formerly a top-notch literary journal, and now, as part of the Dzanc family, publisher of fine books) co-sponsor an evening of readings from Billy Lombardo’s How To Hold a Woman and Gina Frangello’s Slut Lullabies–wine & hors d’oeuvres at 7pm, readings at 7:30–at LIME Studios, 1528 20th Street, Santa Monica.

• Theatre 68 in Hollywood rolls on with their 13 By Shanley series, an ambitious rotation of 13 plays by Pulitzer- and Oscar-winning writer John Patrick Shanley (don’t be put off if you were, as I was, disappointed with the film version of Doubt), now extended through Aug. 16: I can personally vouch for the Deborah Geffner-directed Beggars in the House of Plenty, Shanley’s most autobiographical play. Check out this don’t vote-style promo on YouTube.

• The PEN Center Emerging Voices fellowship program is accepting applications through Aug. 14–the program provides supportive but rigorous mentoring for emerging voices from a culturally diverse background.

• Friend and Pushcart Prize-winner Sage Marsters (a writer to watch out for) has a new story online at Open Letters (a new journal to me) called Yellow–aspiring writers would do well to observe how Sage adeptly packs her stories with telling details.

• Long-time mentor and popular UCLA Writer’s Program instructor Lou Mathews has a new story, “At the DMV,” in the most recent issue of Short Story, one of my favorite literary journals.