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PARK-LIT
2006
Sponsored by The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, Open
City, and Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, Park-Lit is a summer weekly series
that stages readings sponsored by local literary magazines in city parks.
This year's participating magazines are Mr. Beller's Neighborhood, Granta,
A Public Space, The Paris Review, Opium, Buzzer 30, and Open City. See below
for the schedule.
If it looks
like rain, call the Park-Lit hotline after 4pm the day of the reading: 212.696.6609
Wednesday, July 26, 6:30 pm
OPIUM
magazine presents the
"OPIUM Literary Death Match" in Tompkins Square Park
hosted by comedian Jack Kukoda and featuring Ben Greenman of the New Yorker,
Todd Zuniga,
Elizabeth Koch, Shya Scanlon and Heather Kelley
Tompkins Square Park, enter on E 7th Street btwn Aves. A & B
The Death Match features four readers in a gut-busting, tear-jerking read-off
(and every story will be under 10 minutes). The winner will be selected by
a panel of three guest-star judges and (literally) crowned. The winning story
will also be featured as a podcast on Opium Magazine's soon to launch OpiumLive.com.
Participants include:
Todd Zuniga is the founding editor of Opium Magazine (.com and print). He
is a Pushcart Prize nominee and his fiction has appeared in print in Small
Spiral Notebook and Sweet Fancy Moses, and online at McSweeney's and elimae.com.
Jack Kukoda is a writer and comedian living in New York City. He was born
in Buffalo, NY and attended Yale University. He loves the Buffalo Bills so
much it hurts. If you want to know anything else about him, he has a website.
www.kukoda.com
Elizabeth Koch lives here and there. Her stories have appeared in The New
York Observer, the Chicago Sun-Times, Elle Magazine, Reason Magazine, Mr.
Beller's Neighborhood, Yankee Potroast, and the Columbia Journalism Review.
Her short fiction will appear in the Fall issue of Orchid Lit. She is currently
executive editor of Opium Magazine. You can reach her at ellesbet@gmail.com.
Shya Scanlon's work in this issue of Opium is from a series of linked stories
called "In This Alone Impulse." Other pieces from this series can
be found in elimae, Juked, can we have our ball back?, and Guernica Magazine.
Shya lives in Providence, and is an MFA candidate at Brown University.
Ben Greenman is an editor at the New Yorker and the author of a number of
books of fiction, including Superbad, Superworse, and the forthcoming A Circle
is a Balloon and Compass Both. He lives in Brooklyn. bengreenman.com
Wednesday, August 2, 6:30pm (this event was rescheduled from June 7 due to rain)
Mr.
Beller's Neighborhood
celebrates its sixth anniversary with a reading at Riverside Park’s
Red Shade Plaza, on the Hudson River at 62nd Street
The following authors will be reading their vignettes and sketches that have
appeared on Mr.
Beller's Neighborhood,
Featuring:
Denise Campbell, Thomas R. Ziegler, Patrick Gallagher, Kate Angus, and Thomas
Beller
The authors will read vignettes and sketches that have appeared on Mr. Beller's
Neighborhood,
DENISE CAMPBELL writes of the gentrification of Bed Stuy and Harlem, and now
reports from what she calls New York's sixth borough, Philadelphia.
THOMAS ZIEGLER is a local discovery, a retired NYC firefighter who narrates
scenes from his former profession.
PATRICK GALLAGHER is managing editor of mrbellersneighborhood.com and a graduate
student at New York University.
KATE ANGUS is a writer and teacher.
THOMAS BELLER is an author and the site's founder.
Directions: Take the 1, 2, 3 to 72nd Street. Walk west to the park and enter
at 68th Street, then walk down to 62nd.
PAST readings:
Thursday,
June 15, 6:30 pm
GRANTA reading in Madison Square Park
featuring Nell Freudenberger, Alison Smith and Saïd Sayrafiezadeh
Madison
Square Park near the reflecting pool and the Admiral Farragut Monument.
(Directions: Take the N/R/W to 23rd Street. Enter the Park at the intersection
of 24th Street and 5th Avenue and walk north until you reach the Reflecting
Pool and the Admiral Farragut Monument)
Nell Freudenberger is the author of the acclaimed short-story collection Lucky
Girls. Her contribution to the latest issue of Granta is an essay called "God
and Me."
Alison Smith won a B&N Discover Award for Name all the Animals, her memoir
of family, death, and sexuality. Her contribution to the latest issue of Granta
is an essay called "Jesus Who?"
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh is a New York playwright and frequent contributorto
Mr. Beller's Neighborhood who is writing a memoir about growing upin the Socialist
Workers Party, based on his recent piece in Granta called "When Skateboards
Will Be Free."
***
Wednesday, June 21, 6:30 pm
A
PUBLIC SPACE reading in Ft. Greene Park
Readings by
Matthea Harvey
Michael Thomas
and musical
guests
Rebecca Gates
Rick Moody & Wesley Stace
Fort Greene Park (near the monument and visitors' center at the top of the
hill).
Directions: Take the B/M/Q/R to Dekalb, the G to Fulton, or the C to
Lafayette.
******
Wednesday,
June 28th, 6:30pm
BUZZER THIRTY presents Alicia Erian, Kenji Jasper,
and Anthony Lee
Astoria Park in Astoria, Queens
Just North of 23rd Ave at the bottom of the hill.
(Directions: Take the N or W to Ditmars Blvd. Exit from the station heading
South. Turn right at 23rd Ave and walk 10 blocks to Astoria Park, which is
at 21st Street. The reading will be just right (north) of 23rd Ave at the
bottom of the hill.)
Alicia Erian is the author of The Brutal Language of Love, and Towelhead,
a 2005 New Times Notable Book. She developed the title short story from Brutal
into a screenplay, which was purchased by Eva Kolodner, producer of Boys Don't
Cry. Her short fiction has appeared most recently in Playboy, Zoetrope, The
Iowa Review, Nerve, Open City and The Sun. Alicia is the first holder of the
Newhouse Visiting Professorship of Creative Writing at Wellesley College,
a three-year position.
Kenji Jasper is the author of the novels Dark, Dakota Grand, and Seeking Salamanca
Mitchell, and has served as a commentator for NPR. His writings have appeared
in Essence, The Source , XXL, Vibe, and many other publications. He lives
in Brooklyn, New York.
Anthony Lee is the author of The Fix. He was born and raised in New York City,
and educated there and in upstate New York, Dublin, Ireland and Salamanca,
Spain. He is the recipient of the Thayer Fellowship in the arts and is on
the faculty of College of Mount Saint Vincent, in the Bronx. He lives in Manhattan.
***
Wednesday,
July 5, 6:30 pm
THE
BELIEVER at the Backyard Garden in Red Hook
Music by Gretta Cohn, Readings by Brandon Stosuy,
Elisabeth Vincentelli, Devin McKinney, Sarah Manguso, and Deb
Olin Unferth.
The Backyard
Garden
Red Hook, Brooklyn
Van Brunt St. and Hamilton Ave.
(F train to Carroll
Street, cross pedestrian bridge to Red Hook, follow Summit Street to Hamilton
Ave.)
Brooklyn-based musician Gretta Cohn has performed, recorded and toured with
a diverse array of bands including Cursive, Bright Eyes and The Faint. She
is currently at work on new solo material. Recent collaborators include Airport
War and Charles Atlas.
Brandon Stosuy, a staff writer and columnist at Pitchfork, contributes to
the Village Voice, Spin, and the Fanzine, among other publications. Up Is
Up, But So Is Down, his anthology of Downtown New York literature, is forthcoming
from NYU Press in October 2006.
Elisabeth Vincentelli is the arts and entertainment editor at Time Out New
York and the author of Abba Gold (Continuum, 2004).
Devin McKinney, author of Magic Circles: The Beatles in Dream and History
(Harvard) and a music column for the American Prospect Online.
Sarah Manguso is the author of two poetry collections, Siste Viator and The
Captain Lands in Paradise, which was named one of the Village Voice's 25 Favorite
Books of 2002. She lives in New York.
Deb Olin Unferth's work has appeared in Harper's, Conjunctions, NOON, StoryQuarterly,
the Pushcart Prize anthologies, and other publications. Her book, Sickos,
is forthcoming with McSweeney's.
***
DUE TO RAIN, THIS READING HAS BEEN MOVED FROM WASHINGTON SQ PARK TO KGB BAR.
NOTE ALSO THE NEW TIME.
Wednesday,
July 12, 7 pm
OPEN CITY reading at KGB BAR. Readings by contributors to
the magazine:
Jerry
Stahl
Vince Passaro
Leni Zumas
KGB Bar, 85 E. 4th Street (btw 2nd & 3rd)
Jerry Stahl's
short story, "Gordito," appears in the fall issue of Open City.
He is the author of the memoir Permanent Midnight and the novels
Perv: A Love Story, Plainclothes Naked, and I, Fatty.
He lives in Los Angeles.
Vince Passaro is the an
essayist, critic, and the author of the novel, Violence, Nudity, Adult
Content. His essay "Voluntary Tyranny," appears in the fall
issue of Open City.
Leni Zumas's
story "Dragons May Be the Way Forward" appears in the fall issue
of Open City. Her fiction has appeared in Quarterly West, Stand, Carve, So
to Speak, and other magazines. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts/Amherst
MFA program, she teaches writing at Hunter and Eugene Lang Colleges.
*****
Wednesday,
July 19, 6:30 pm
THE PARIS REVIEW
reading at Coenties Slip
The Paris Review presents
Karl Taro Greenfeld, Lisa Halliday, Jesse
Ball, and Saïd Sayrafiezadeh
Coenties Slip
Water & Pearl Street
(Coenties Slip connects Pearl and Water Streets in Lower Manhattan. Take the
2/3 to Wall St., 4/5 to Bowling Green, or N/R to Whitehall Street)
Karl Taro Greenfeld is the author of three books about Asia, including China
Syndrome: The True Story of the 21st Century's First Great Epidemic, which
was just published this spring. He is currently the editor at large at
Sports Illustrated.
Lisa Halliday's
first published story was "Stump Louie," which appeared in Issue
#174 of The Paris Review. She lives in Manhattan and is working on a novel.
Jesse Ball wrote "Vera & Linus"(Nyhil, 2006), and
"March Book" (GrovePress, 2004). His novel, "Samedi the
Deafness" (Vintage) will appear in 2007, and a book of his drawings,
Og svo kom nottin (Nyhil, 2006) was published in Iceland. His work can
be found in many national and international journals and was selected for
the anthology "Best American Poetry 2006."
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh is writing a memoir about growing up in the Socialist
Workers Party in New York City and Pittsburgh. He has published stories and
essays in Granta and Open City. Last year, his play about the Civil War draft
riots was developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab.