3/8 Well-RED w/ Elwin Cotman & Doren Robbins @ Works/San José

THIS TUESDAY…

Well-RED
Reading Series
Tuesday, March 8, 7pm
Elwin Cotman and Doren Robbins

at Works/San José
365 South Market Street
in downtown San José
doors open 6:30pm
$2 suggested donation, no one turned away
Works is on the Market Street edge of the San Jose Convention Center,
just to the right of the parking garage entrance

Elwin Cotman is the author of two short story collections, The Jack Daniels Sessions EP and Hard Times Blues. His work has been published in Black Gate, The Southwestern Review, and Grist, among others. As a performance artist, he has performed at hundreds of venues across North America.

Originally from Los Angeles, Doren Robbins’ is a poet and mixed media artist from Santa Cruz, California. After twenty-something years traveling, living in Colorado and Oregon, raising a family, and working as a cook and as a carpenter, he started teaching a variety of creative writing and literature courses through an extended personal and moral interpretation of Kenneth Burke’s idea of “literature as equipment for living.” His work has appeared in over one hundred publications, including The American Poetry Review, Cimarron Review, 5 AM, Hotel Amerika, The Indiana Review, and The Iowa Review. Past collections of his poetry, Driving Face Down and My Piece of the Puzzle were awarded the Blue Lynx Poetry Award 2001 and the 2008 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Poetry Award. Robbins is also the author of a collection of monologues, short fiction and prose poetry, Parking Lot Mood Swing. His recent collections are the chapbook Title to Pussy Riot and two full collections of poetry Amnesty Muse from Lost Horse Press and Twin Extra: A Poem In Three Parts from Wild Ocean Press. As a poet and an artist Robbins organized readings and produced posters to benefit The Romero Relief Fund and The Salvadoran Medical Relief Fund during the Salvadoran Civil War; and for poetsagainst-thewar.com during the ongoing American-Iraq War. His writing has been awarded fellowships and grants from Oregon Literary Arts, The Loft Foundation, The Chester H. Jones Foundation, The Judah Magnes Museum, The Indiana Review, and a few other inoffensive organizations and readable periodicals. Since 2001, he has taught literature and creative writing at Foothill College.

Admission: $2 Suggested Donation; No one turned away.

Open reading follows the featured reading.

For more information about Poetry Center San José, visit www.pcsj.org

You can also catch Elwin w/ Six Gallery, Cyberpunk Apocalypse, Backpack Media, Low Ghost, & The Haven at AWP table 558 in L.A. later this month.

Robert Isenberg Returns: 2/18 The Green Season @ EEBX & 2/19 Elizabeth Crowne & the Vaudeville Conspiracy @ Arcade Comedy Theater

THIS THURSDAY…

Expat writer Robert Isenberg will read from his new book, The Green Season at East End Book Exchange.

Thursday, February 18th, 7-9pm. Free and open to everyone.

In 2013, Robert Isenberg sold all his belongings, bought a plane ticket, and moved to Costa Rica. There he worked as a staff reporter for The Tico Times, zigzagging across the country in search of stories.

The Green Season is a collection of essays, profiles, and travelogues written during his first year in Central America. The first book from The Tico Times Publishing Group, The Green Season is a love letter to the world’s happiest country: Readers meet national heroes, surf instructors, indigenous crafters, and survivors of the sex trade. Throughout, Isenberg uses his trademark humor and observation to illustrate the country’s complex cultural landscape.

About Robert Isenberg:
Born and raised in Vermont, Isenberg is author of The Green Season (The Tico Times Publications Group) The Archipelago (Autumn House Press), and Wander, a poetry collection (Six Gallery Press). An award-winning writer and stage actor, Isenberg has contributed to such diverse publications as Lonely Planet, McSweeney’s, Mental_Floss, The Christian Science Monitor, and Pittsburgh Magazine. His many stage-plays have received enthusiastic reviews, as has his Pittsburgh Monologue Project, a stand-up performance series based on overheard conversations (co-authored with Brad Keller). He earned his MFA in Nonfiction Writing from Chatham University, where he served as Whitford Fellow, the program’s highest honor. He has taught for Duquesne University and currently teaches for Arizona State University. A proud New Englander, he has traveled to 35 countries on five continents. He currently lives in Arizona and contributes to The Phoenix New Times.

& THIS FRIDAY…

An original radio play written by Robert Isenberg
and produced by No Name Players

Why would three ordinary men risk their lives to rob a bank? Who put them up to it? And what does all this have to do with an old vaudeville theater? Only one woman can solve this riddle—Elizabeth Crowne, Uncannologist.

In the beloved tradition of vintage serials, Arcade Comedy Theater presents Elizabeth Crowne and the Vaudeville Conspiracy, a live radio drama “broadcasting” on Feb. 19, 2016, at 8 p.m. The show is packed with suspense, paranormal mystery, and witty one-liners.

Elizabeth Crowne is produced by the acclaimed No Name Players and directed by artistic director Don DiGiulio. The cast includes such local stars as Karen Baum, Tressa Glover, and John Feightner, with live music by Jesse Landis-Eigsti.

Written by longtime Pittsburgh writer Robert Isenberg, the script is an extension of his pulp fiction stories, The Adventures of Elizabeth Crowne. The first volume of this series, The Mysterious Tongue of Dr. Vermilion, was released by Backpack Media at the end of 2015.

$10/$5 student rush. BYOB

Stay tuned as the tour continues in March, w/ a TBD reading for AWP & two more in Arizona!