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Monday, April 4, 2011

Struck by lightning



artwork by Michael Capozzola

I'm reading tonight as part of Quiet Lightning, a literary reading series started by Evan Karp and Rajshree Chauhan in January 2010. This will be my fifth reading with them in the past year. See the April 2010 reading here , May 2010 here, September 2010 here, and special LitQuake edition (October 2010) here. Quiet Lightning publishes a magazine, sPARKLE n' bLINK, and has forged a real sense of literary community in the Bay Area. I know that it has pushed me to explore short works, and also challenged me to see what happens when I read aloud. I can't help it; I always get nervous. More than anything I am inspired by how generative the act of reading becomes. How by knowing there's a monthly deadline, and that somewhere out there people will show up to hear a few words spilled across a page, there's a reason to sit down and write.

Quiet Lightning, which has been linked to KQED's To Do List, FunCheapSF, San Francisco Magazine, SF Weekly, SFist, The Rumpus, and, the New York Times, is on its way to becoming a nonprofit organization. For more information on how to support QL, visit the website.

2 comments:

RachelVB said...

That's so great that you do that. I still haven't mustered enough courage to actually sit up/stand up somewhere and read. And I'm not sure why - well fear probably, but I'm sure I would find a very welcoming community.
Keep doing it!

miss J. said...

It was a lot of fun! I'm sure there are some cool local literary events where you are. Your poetry is so wonderful, it should be shared.

But I understand shyness too. I always have more fun when I don't know anyone there. ;)