12/13 5th Annual Bah Humbug! Writers Wrestle the Holiday Spirit @ Brillobox

8PM THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13…

Tastier than a fruitcake, easier to assemble than a Fisher-Price playhouse, for the FIFTH year in a row, we are bringing some of Pittsburgh’s finest writers together to entertain you with tales of their holiday work experiences. This year, our readers will also play Secret Santa with each other, because nothing says “I’m broke” more effectively than “I WROTE you this gift.”

$5 suggested donation, proceeds benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

Hosted by Jason Baldinger (who was once run over by a Black Friday crowd on a rampage for office supplies) and Stephanie Brea (who once lifted her skirt and flashed an entire roomful of folks during an especially spirited performance of “Jingle Bells”).

This year’s roster of writers includes

Bob Pajich
Vanessa Vesch
Deesha Philyaw
Bob Walicki
Bart Solarczyk
Adam Matcho
Lori Jakiela
Matt Ussia
Meghan Tutolo
Andrea Laurion
Melanie Dione
Nathan Kukulski
Aaliyah Thomas

and more (maybe) TBA.

11/11 Borczon, Jakiela, Matcho, Garrison, & Pajich @ Nine Stories

7PM TONIGHT, hosted by Scott Silsbe…

Another great reading at Nine Stories,
this one featuring
MATT BORCZON (in town from Erie, PA)
LORI JAKIELA
ADAM MATCHO
KURT GARRISON
& BOB PAJICH

Free, byob

10/25 The Bridge Series w/ Matcho, Brea, & Young @ Brillobox

8PM WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25…

The Bridge Series unites the Pittsburgh literary and activist communities to raise awareness and funds for local organizations fighting the good fight in these troubling times.

The series convenes the last Wednesday of each month at The Brillobox. Each installment will feature Pittsburgh’s finest writers and a special guest organization (with proceeds from the evening going directly to that organization).

$5 cover.

Tonight will feature readings from:

Adam Matcho was formerly employed as a gas station attendant, sandwich artist, novelty shop clerk, gold buyer, and obituary writer. Now, he tells people he is the poet laureate of Johnstown. His poems have been published in literary magazines and his books include: “The Novelty Essays” (WPA Press), “Six Dollars an Hour: Confessions of a Gemini Writer” (Liquid Paper Press) and “Love Songs From Flood City” (Low Ghost Press).

Stephanie Brea is a writer, teacher, and event organizer. She has 10+ years of experience facilitating creative writing workshops for local schools and non-profit organizations including Pittsburgh Public Schools, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Literary Arts Boom, The Warhol, Winchester Thurston, and Penn Trafford High School. Like most writers, she could list a bunch of places her work has been published, but who really reads those lists anyway? She is the co-founder of Pizza Poems PGH, which delivers hot, fresh poetry via pizza boxes for National Poetry Month in April.

Damon Young is the editor-in-chief of VSB. He is also a columnist for GQ.com And he’s working on a book of essays to be published by Ecco (HarperCollins). Damon is busy. He lives in Pittsburgh, and he really likes pancakes. Reach him at damon@verysmartbrothas.com. Or don’t. Whatever.

Our guest organization for the evening is Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania.

The mission of Planned Parenthood of Western PA (PPWP) is to provide comprehensive and complementary health care to those in need of services; disseminate information about human sexuality and the need for family planning and responsible parenthood; and advocate public policies which guarantee these rights and ensure access to such services. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-western-pennsylvania

& here’s a Littsburgh interview w/ Meghan Tutolo, who put this one together.

12/8 After Happy Hour Review Reading & Release Party @ Pints on Penn

THIS THURSDAY…

The event will be hosted at Pints on Penn (3523 Penn Avenue), with the reading beginning at 7pm and ending at 9pm on Thursday, December 8th.

This is the sixth issue of the After Happy Hour Review. We invite all to join us. Books may be available for purchase and guests can purchase food and drinks from Pints on Penn.

3/30-4/2 2016 AWP Conference & Book Fair @ Los Angeles Convention Center & JW Marriott Los Angeles

Provided we make it there intact, Six Gallery Press will be representing at #AWP16 this weekend. Sharing scenic table 558 will be 6GP scribblers Daniel McCloskey (A Film About Billy), Elwin Cotman (The Jack Daniels Sessions EP, Hard Times Blues), & Robert Isenberg (Wander), plus Jess Simms of nascent literary institution The Haven.

In addition to books by this sick crew, we’ll have recent selections from Ally Malinenko, Che Elias, Joseph Musso Jr., Chuck Kinder, Don Wentworth, & Jason Baldinger, plus a selection of hits from the back catalog.

We’ll also have books by a duo of fellow Pittsburgh small presses, Low Ghost & Coleridge Street, featuring the poetic stylings of Adam Matcho, Scott Silsbe, Bob Pajich, & John Grochalski, PLUS the Good Noise! anthology by Thrasher Press, featuring even more Pittsburgh poets writing on musical themes.

Feel free to visit us & buy all the books so we don’t have to lug them all home on the Greyhound!

11/7 How to Be an American & Love Songs from Flood City launch party @ ModernFormations

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7TH, 8PM…

Here are some nice things people said about How to Be an American:

The poems in How to Be an American strike the chords of conversations we should be having, should have already had and resolved, or conversations that should be irrelevant. In this generation’s remake of democracy, Malinenko’s book is an incendiary device.
—Jason Baldinger, author of The Lower Forty-Eight

Ally Malinenko is the embodiment of what E.L. Doctorow meant when he said we need writers because we need witnesses to this terrifying century. In How to Be an American, she dissects the American dream and breaks it down to its petri-dish truths. Malinenko’s America is a country that exports ignorance and consumerism, where the greatest embarrassment is to be poor, vulnerable, and in need. In a voice as direct and unstoppable as an ambulance, Malinenko paints a raw, visceral, and essential portrait of a country without pity, without compassion, and makes the need for change feel like the emergency it is.
—Lori Jakiela, author of Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe

Ally Malinenko has an exceptional ability to observe life and write honestly. She is an absolute treasure.
—Moriah LaChapell, editor of The Blue Hour

This is a devastating book that reads as the polar opposite of Walt Whitman—here, the speaker does not see herself of them, these demented Americans. Here, the speaker rises up and says to the Bible and all its believers, to the box stores and all their consumers, to the patriots and all their patriotism, “Absolutely not.” The country inside these pages is lit up like a Walmart commercial and packed with the same ugliness that makes minimum wage unlivable and bargain shoppers unbearable. The loudest voices are all dressed up in stars-and-stripes bikinis, shouting about how great it is to be red-white-and-blue, while the rest of us rape and kill and need a drink to stand the sights. Here are poems that say, “Enough,” that say, “Quit insulting the world.” Watch out, America. Ally Malinenko’s poems are dodgeballs and she’s throwing them at your head.
—Dave Newman, author of The Poem Factory

How to Be an American is a how-to guide without instructions. This book is brave, bold, and honest—a fucking atom bomb to the political and personal poetry scenes.
—Ben John Smith, editor of Horror Sleaze and Trash

It ain’t pretty and it ain’t poesy, at least the way most Americans think of poesy, thank you, Jesus. And it ain’t political, except in the larger sense of human-ness, of flaming outrage, and of deeply longed for compassion. Simply put, this is Ally Malinenko’s incisive deconstruction of many a fetid cranny and nook of the collective American psyche. Pilgrim, save yourself: read it now.
—Don Wentworth, editor of Lilliput Review

Matcho’s Love Songs from Flood City (Low Ghost) is pretty good too, BTW.

Eat, drink, listen to poems, yak w/ the authors, buy the books—one of the last chances you’ll have to do any of this at ModernFormations!

 

9/12 A Writer Rodeo @ ModernFormations; 9/13 I Don’t Know What I Would Do If I Couldn’t Speak My Mind @ City of Asylum Pittsburgh

THIS WEEKEND…

11:00 AM-11:10 AM Aubrey Baker

11:10 AM- 11:20 AM Joshua Bellin

11:20 AM-11:30 AM Wendy Scott

11:30 AM-11:40 AM Judith Dorian

11:40 AM-11:50 AM Julie Cecchini

11:50 AM-12:00 PM Sarah Williams-Devereux

12:00 PM- 12:10 PM Angele Ellis

12:10 PM-12:20 PM Bonita Lee Penn

12:20 PM-12:30 PM Malcolm Friend

12:30 PM-12:40 PM Sheila Kelly

12:40 PM-12:50 PM Jay Carson

12:50 PM-1:00 PM Arlene Weiner

1:00 PM-1:10 PM Barbara Dahlberg

1:10 PM- 1:20 PM Michael Albright

1:20 PM- 1:30 PM Kris Collins

1:30 PM- 1:40 PM Ann Curran

1:40 PM-1:50 PM E.B. Bortz

1:50- 2:00 PM Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

2:00 PM- 2:10 PM Kath Donnelly

2:10 PM-2:20 PM Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12 Literary Artists

2:20 PM- 2:30 PM Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12 Literary Artists

2:30 PM- 2:40 PM Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12 Literary Artists

2:40 PM-2:50 PM Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12 Literary Artists

2:50 PM-3:00 PM Jessica Server

3:00 PM-3:10 PM Joanne Samreny

3:10 PM- 3:20 PM Dakota Garilli

3:20 PM-3:30 PM R.J. Gibson

3:30 PM-3:40 PM Kelly Andrews

3:40 PM-3:50 PM Don Wentworth

3:50 PM-4:00 PM Stephen Pusateri

4:00 PM-4:10 PM Jean Croyle

4:10 PM-4:20 PM Jen Ashburn

4:20 PM-4:30 PM Jason Irwin

4:30 PM-4:40 PM City of Asylum

4:40 PM-4:50 PM City of Asylum

4:50 PM-5:00 PM City of Asylum

7/28 Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series Grand Finale

TOMORROW at 8…

The Grand Finale – Hosted by Kristofer Collins

Jason Baldinger, Stephanie Brea, Kristofer Collins, Angele Ellis, 

John Korn, Adam Matcho, Bob Pajich & Scott Silsbe.

Jason Baldinger has spent a life in odd jobs, if only poetry was the strangest of them he’d have far less to talk about. Somewhere in time, he has traveled the country, and wrote a few books, the latest of which “The Lower 48” (Six Gallery Press) and the chapbook “The Studs Terkel Blues” (Night Ballet Press) as well as the anthologies Lipsmack! (Night Ballet Press) and Good Noise (Thrasher Press).  A short litany of publishing credits include: The New Yinzer, Shatter Wig Press, Blast Furnace, B.E. Quarterly and Fuck Art, Let’sDance. You can also hear audio of some poems on the bandcamp website by just typing in his name.

Stephanie Brea has slung coffee, wrote about inventions and worked for a company that built museum exhibits. This means she likes her espresso doubled, is most likely responsible for some of the products pitched on late night infomercials and can spell archaeopteryx without the need for spell check. She is a part-time copy editor and facilitates creative writing workshops for local schools and organizations. Her work has been published in Pear Noir!, The Legendary, Nerve Cowboy and the PittsburghCity Paper.

Kristofer Collins is the Books Editor at Pittsburgh Magazine. He runs Low Ghost Press. He also owns Desolation Row Records and manages Caliban Bookshop in Oakland. His most recent chapbook is “Last Call” published by Speed & Briscoe in 2010.

Angele Ellis‘s poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in over forty publications and eight anthologies. She is author of Arab on Radar (Six Gallery), whose poems earned her a fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Spared (a Main Street Rag Editors’ Choice Chapbook). She lives in Friendship, both a neighborhood and a state of mind.

John Korn lives in Pittsburgh. He is the author of a book of poetry titled Television Farm which can be purchased on amazon.com. He has worked as a mental health social worker for many years now. He was nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, one for his poem “14 young women” and another for his poem “Yellow lamp shade head.”  He didn’t win either of these prizes and he is not even sure what those prizes are.

Adam Matcho is an obituary writer and contributor to The New Yinzer. He is a former technical writer, novelty shop clerk, basketball coach and gas station attendant. His chapbook, Six Dollars an Hour: Confessions of a Gemini Writer, was published by Liquid Paper Press and his essay collection, The Novelty Essays, was published by WPA Press. When not writing death notices, Adam tries to write about life. He lives in a former craft shop with his wife, two sons and too many animals. As Dave Newman has said, “Adam Matcho has more talent than most corporations have profits, and his vision of America is tragic and brilliant and hilarious.”

Bob Pajich is a writer and musician from the Burgh. His latest book, The Trolleyman, was published by Stanton Heights’ Low Ghost Press. He is a Taurus.

Scott Silsbe was born in Detroit. He now lives in Pittsburgh where he writes, sells books, and makes music with friends. His poems and prose have appeared in numerous print and web periodicals including Nerve Cowboy, The Chariton Review, Third Coast, The Volta, and the Cultural Weekly. He is the author of two poetry collections: Unattended Fire (Six Gallery Press, 2012) and The River Underneath the City (Low Ghost Press, 2013).

Over at the Trib, Rege Behe has more about Collins & his new book Local Conditions (h/t Joan Bauer).

4/23 Bukowski Night @ Brillobox

TOMORROW…

12/14 Bah Humbug! Writers Wrestle the Holiday Spirit @ Hambone’s

THIS SUNDAY at 8PM…

If you’ve ever worked retail, food service or a myriad of other jobs around the holidays then you know it can be a pretty dehumanizing experience. We wanted to give voice to that experience, so some fine Pittsburgh writers are going to attempt to wrap their heads around their own holdiay work experience. After the reading, Steve Pellegrino and his wife Mary Shea will sing some Christmas songs, and some other working class anomalies. If you wear a bad holiday sweater the event is free, if you don’t the event is still free, huzzah!

Featuring:
Jason Baldinger
Stephanie Brea
Rich Gegick
SJ Guzik
Ben Gwin
Lori Jakiela
TC Jones
Andrea Laurion
Adam Matcho
Scott Silsbe

Music by:
Steve Pellegrino and Mary Shea

8/30 Labor Saturday @ EEBX + Performance Art Festival @ Roboto

TOMORROW at 7PM…

Labor Day has come a long way from its roots in the aftermath of the Haymarket Riots, The Homestead Steel Strike, The Pullman Strike among many others. Today it’s more about a day off, a picnic, the dread of going back to school or the crime of ended summer but not necessarily about words. Join us Saturday August 30 for four awesome readers who still know that work is meaningless without words and celebrate what it means to work in both prose and poetry.

Lineup is Jason Baldinger, Stephanie Brea, Adam Matcho, & Dave Newman.

 

ALSO TOMORROW, Christine Stoddard will be doing something (no idea what) at this…