Quick, what are you doing this Sunday?!

You are coming to the next Fixtion Dinner!!!

Alan will be hosting this time around - He lives in the Cleveland Park area of DC. Directions will be forthcoming on the listserv.

Sunday, April 6, 6:30 PM

Definitely let me know if you can come and hear all of Alan's new stories. Like last time, this will be a potluck dinner, so please let me know what you are bringing.

And make sure to check Becky and me (and Joe Hall) out at the next Candid Yak - 3rd Years Rolling...

Ninth Letter Likes Mike Scalise

Ninth Letter, one of the greatest things happening in the world of literary journals, recently accepted for publication an essay by current non-fiction student Mike Scalise. His piece should appear in the Fall 08 issue, so subscribe now.

If you haven't read an issue, you must do so. What's exciting about this particular journal is how the editors work to publish great design with great, innovative writing, all on the page. It feels different than a standard journal, like, say Ploughshares or StoryQuarterly or Gulf Coast (whose art sections I continue to admire), because Ninth Letter combines both visual and textual design together, while other journals, if they feature visual art, tend to print it on a few glossy pages throughout the book but separate from the text. Luna Park Review discusses this new editorial direction at length here.

Anyhow, good work.

Literature Live: 3-Day Book Festival

Two of our own writers, faculty member Helon Habila and third year fiction writer Rion Scott, will be a part of this weekend's Literature Live, a 3 day book festival sponsored by UDC and the Hurston-Wright Foundation. He'll be sitting on a panel called The Young Lions: The New Black Male Writers. Below is a description of the event.

Saturday, March 29th
Busboys and Poets
2021 - 14th Street NW
11:45am to 1:15pm
The Young Lions: The New Black Male Writers

A reading and discussion. Panelists: Helon Habila, author of “Waiting for an Angel” and Creative Writing Professor at George Mason University, James Ocita, pursuing MFA at the University of Maryland, Rion Amilcar Scott, pursuing MFA at George Mason University, and William Henry Lewis, author of “In The Arms of Our Elders” and “I Got Somebody In Staunton.”
Moderated by Patricia Elam

Rion has this to say: "I'd love if you guys could make it out to see me in action. It's a reading and discussion so I'll also be sharing some of my more crackpot opinions on literature and life. It should be a good reading. I can vouch for William Henry Lewis, who will be reading along with me. He's the author of the amazing collection "I Got Somebody in Staunton." (The first story "Shades" is a showstopper.) I've seen him read on more than one occasion and I was blown away, even while hearing the same story twice."

For more info about the festival, check out this pdf.

Jhumpa Lahiri in April

Her new collection of short stories is supposed to be darker and bleaker than anything we've seen from her before. Judging from the two stories published in the New Yorker: "Once in a Lifetime," and "Hell-Heaven," this book won't exactly be an upper (ha).

Unaccustomed Earth comes out April 1st, and Jhumpa Lahiri will be hitting up DC on April 23 at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. Tix are $6 at Politics and Prose (I called in and was able to buy my ticket over the phone with a credit card), or you get 2 free with the purchase of the book from P&P. Check out the website for more info.

Doors open at 7pm. Judging from the amount of people who were at the Kiran Desai reading last year (A LOT!), you probably want to get there early to sit close enough to catch an ever elusive Lahiri smile (does a documented one even exist...?).

Virginia Arts and Letters LIVE, featuring...

...work by fiction alum Ryan Effgen.

Here's the basic info:

On Saturday, March 29th, The James River Writers and Barksdale Theatre will present a series of short stories by Virginia writers. The stories will be performed by Virginia Actors to music performed by Virginia Musicians. It's all very Virginian, obviously, which is good.

Anyhow, Ryan's story, "The Pirate's Life for Me," which was published recently by Painted Bride Quarterly in one of their many Pirate-themed issues, is in the line-up.

The program begins at 8pm.

For more information, go to the site at James River Writers.

Candid Yak tonight

This from the keepers of the Candid Yak reading series:

Please join us for the Candid Yak, GMU's graduate student reading series brought to you by the writers in Mason's MFA program in creative writing.

When: FRIDAY, MARCH 21st
Where: ON CAMPUS - Johnson Center Room E (3rd Floor)
What time: 8pm

Featured readers:

Angie Mazakis (poetry)
Kirsten Clodfelter (fiction)
Kristin Hahn (non-fiction)

and, as always, you! Sign up for open mic by emailing candidyak@gmail.com or sign up at the reading!

Reading Tonight with Liam Callanan

Tonight at 7:30 in Research I, room 163 fiction alum Liam Callanan will read from his work as part of the Visiting Writers series.

At 6:30 before the reading there will be a "mixer" for everyone attending.

Here's some basic info about Liam -

His website.

An interview by fiction alumna Colleen Kearney Rich posted over at The Mason Gazette.

And for those of you who haven't read anything of his, here's something from the '03 archives at failbetter.com. A story called "Taken."